PETER
760
PETER
missions to the popes. After the death of Henry II
(USD), he fell into disgrace, and he speaks in" liis
leltei-s of Richard the Lion Hearted as the "new
Pharaoh". He entered the service of Queen Eleanor
of .\(iuitaine, to whom he was secretary (1190-95),
and was made .\rchdeaeon of London. But his rev-
enue from this benefice scarcely sufliccd for his living
and he wrote to Innocent III to this effect in one of
the liist letters (119S) he has left us. His material
status was hardly in keeping with the great authority
he exercised in England towards the end of the reign
of Henry II, in affairs of the State, or of the Church.
Not only was he the king's chief counsellor, but many
bishops consulted him and obtained his advice on im-
portant matters regarding their dioceses.
He wrote numerous letters, models of his epoch, but full of the bad taste of the twelfth century. He wrote also numerous treatises. He continued the "History of the Monastery of Croyland of Ingulf" (901 to 1135). Unfortunately, the "History of Henry II" has been lost (De rebus gestis Henrici II). His other writings are sermons, commentaries on the Scripture, moral and ascetic treatises, in which he attacks with blunt frankness the morals of the English and Aqui- tainian bishops (treatise entitled, "Quales sunt"). In 1189, after the taking of .lerusalem by Saladin, he composed his "De hierosolymitana peregrinatione acceleranda" (P. L. CCVII, 1057), wherein he cen- sures the indifferent faith of the princes who deferred the undertaking of the crusade, and threatens them with seeing the mission which they have deserted ac- complished by the people. He also composed an "Instruction on the Faith" which Alexander III sent to the Sultan of Iconium. In several of his letters he returns to the question of the crusade. His works were edited bv Giles in "Patres Ecclesiae Anglicana;", 4 vols. (Cxford, 1846-47), and in P. L., CCVII (4 vols., Paris) .
Ceillier. Hist, des Aideiirs eccUs., XXIII (Paris, 1763), 206- 24; Hist. Lilt, de la France, XV (Paris, 1820), 341-^13: Michaud, Biblialheque des Croisades. Ill (Paris, 1829), 250; Norgate, Eng- land under the Angerin Kino-i, II (London, 1887); Chalandon, Hist, de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile, II (Paris, 1907); MOLIMEH, Les Sources de I'hist. de France, pt. II (Paris, 1902), 203, dealing with Peter's Ars diclaminis.
Louis Br^hier.
Peter de Honestis, b. at Ravenna about 1049; d., 29 March, 1119. .\mong his ancestors was the great St . Homuald, founder of the Caraaldolese monks. All his life Peter fasted every Saturday in honour of Our Lady, and strongly recommended this practice to his religious. He styled himself Peirus peccator. He lived for some years in the Holy Land. When returning a great storm arose in the Adriatic and the ship was in imminent danger. Peter made a vow to build a church in honour of Our Lady should he safely reach the harbour. In fulfilment of his promise he built a church and mon;istery on the family property. Near by there wiis a small community of clerics, and Peter having joined them, was soon after made their supe- rior, and with them removed to the church and monas- tery he had built, in 1099. His name is associated with the sodality called "The Children of Mary", es- tablished in honour of a miraculous picture of Our Lady, now called "Madonna Greca", which tradition says came from Constantinople. The number of his religious increiising, Peter gave them some statutes grounded on the rule of St. Augustine. These were approved by Paschal II, and having afterwards been adopted by many other communities of Canons Regu- lar, the Portuensis Congregation wjis formed. By common consent Peter has always been called Blessed. In former times his office and feast used to be cele- brated at Ravenna; the process of his beatification is now before the Holy See.
Pennotto. Genernlis Sarri Ordinis Canonicorum-Clerieorum Hinloria Tripartita (Uome, 1642); Bullarium Laleranense (Rome, 1727); .Storia della Madonna Creca, da D. P. .S'. (Ravenna, 1887); Vita dd Beato Pittro degli Onesli (Ravenna, 1893) ; Pia aseocia-
zione mondiale, fondata net 1100 dal B. Pietro degh Onesii: Brere
storia della Madonna Greca (Ravenna, 1891).
A. Allaria.
Peter de Regalado (Regalatus), Saint, Friar Minor and reformer, b. at Valladolid, 1390; d. at Aguilera, 30 March, 1456. His parents were of noble birth and conspicuous for their wealth and virtue. Having lost his father in his early youth, he was piously educated by his mother. .\t the age of ten years Peter begged to be admitted into the Seraphic Order, which favour was granled him three years afterwards in the convent of his native town. In 1404 he became one of the first ilisciples of Peter de Villacreces, who in 1397 had introduced into Spain the reform of the Observance of which he became one of the most zealous prop.agators. In the newly- founded convent at Aguilera Peter found the life of solitude, prayer, and eminent poverty, which had always been the greatest object of his desire. In 1415 he became superior of the convent at Aguilera and, on the death of Peter de Villacreces (1422), also of that at Tribulos or del .■\broyo. He observed nine Lents, fasting on bread and water, and was endowed with the gift of miracles and prophecy and of every virtue. When his body was exhumed thirty-six years after his death, at the instance of Isabella the Catholic, it was found incorrupt and placed in a more precious tomb. He was beatified by Innocent XI, 11 March, 1684, and canonized by Benedict XIV, 29 June, 1746. His feast is celebrated 13 May, the day of the translation of his body. In art he is repre- sented with flames bursting from his heart.
Clary. Lives of the Saints and Blessed o/ the Three Orders of St. Francis, II (Taunton, 1886), 150-9; Daza, Excelencias de la ciudad de Valladolid, con la vida y milagros de s. fray Pedro Regalado etc. (Valladolid, 1627), Lat. tr. in 4d. .SS., Ill, March, 850-64; Relatio pro canonizatione, ibid., 864-70; Wadding, Ann. Min., XII, 2-9, 445-74; Bebguin, St. Pierre Rigalat, pritre de I'ordre des Freres Mineurs de VObservance, restaurateur de la discipline reguli^re en Bspagne (P^rigueux, 1898). FERDINAND HeCKMANN.
Peter de Vinea (de Vineis, della Vigna), b. at Capua about 1190; d. 1249. Peter's legal learning and the elegance of his Latin style in course of time made him the most prominent statesman of public affairs at the court of Frederick II. Frederick's po- litical views, which aimed at absolutism in Church and State, he succeeded in strengthening in every direction. In his capacity as chief judge of the court he took a prominent part in the administration of justice and legislation in Sicily. Perhaps he was also associated with Archbishop James of Capua in dr:iwing up the new code of laws for the Kingdom of Sicily, <'ulle(l the " Constitutions of Melfi" andissuedin 1231 b\' order of Frederick. Probably Peter was the emperor's ambassador at the Council of Lyons in 1 245. Certain it is that in the same year, as the envoy of the emperor, he sought the mediation of St. Louis in the conflict that wasdeveloping between Church and State.
About this date he was already, along with Thad- deus of Suessa, the real director of the imperial chan- cellery. In 1247 he was made imperial prothonotary and logothete of the Kingdom of Sicily and thus the sole head of the imperial chancellery. This important position in the State was his ruin. He sought to enrich himself and his family. His embezzlements went so far that, as the emperor himself said, they led to a financial disaster which might have become dangerous to the empire. Just at the time that Frederick made this discovery at Cremona in February, 1249, a physi- cian attempted to give the emperor a poisoned drink. Peter was suspected of being privy to the plot. This report, based on a statement of Matthew of Paris, has been even recently credited by Gerdes, while Hampe rejects it. Dante, however, goes too far when, in the "Inferno" (xiii, .55 sqq.), he allows Peter to say that he has never broken faith with the emperor. Fred- erick, on his return to Sicily, ordered his one-time con-
