Sentences
theology work by Peter Lombard
The Sentences (Latin: Sententiae in quatuor libris distinctae; English: Sentences Divided into Four Books) is a compendium of Christian theology written by Peter Lombard around 1150. It was the most important religious textbook of the Middle Ages.
Background
The sentence genre emerged from works like Prosper of Aquitaine's Sententia, a collection of maxims by Augustine of Hippo. It was well-established by the time of Isidore of Seville's Sententiae, one of the first systematic treatments of Christian theology. In the Sentences, Lombard collects glosses from the Church Fathers. Glosses were marginalia in religious and legal texts used to correct, explain, or interpret a text. Gradually, these annotations were compiled into separate works. The most notable precedent for Lombard's Sentences were the Glossa Ordinaria, a 12th-century collection of glosses.
Lombard went a step further by compiling them into one coherent whole. There had been much earlier efforts in this vein, most notably in John of Damascus' The Source of Knowledge.
“Sentences” enters the record as theology work by Peter Lombard. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sentences, theology and work can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sentences” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sentences, theology and work provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2703316. VIAF identifies the subject as 315537045. The Library of Congress control number is n84142222. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1150.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sentences” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.