Peter of Candia

Abstract

The Greek Franciscan Peter of Candia (c. 1340–1410) was a towering figure in intellectual and ecclesiastical affairs during the Great Schism. His education and early teaching took him all over Europe until he began lecturing on the Sentences at Paris just after the Schism began. Afterward he was active in northern Italy in the service of the future duke of Milan and as a prelate, rising to archbishop of Milan and cardinal. He also associated with leading humanists and the Palaiologan dynasty. Joining the conciliar movement, he was elected Pope Alexander V at the Council of Pisa in 1409, but he died the following year. His election no doubt helped make his main writing, his Sentences commentary, the most popular of his day. In it Peter provides a history of many of the main philosophical and theological developments of the fourteenth century, presenting with exceptional clarity and in unbiased fashion the views of many leading thinkers from earlier in the 1300s, especially John Duns Scotus, John of Ripa, William of Ockham, Peter Auriol, and Gregory of Rimini. He also offered the main criticisms of these views from a variety of perspectives. He did not attempt an original synthesis, but his perceptive observations constitute a useful tool for understanding scholasticism in the fourteenth century.