Peter (1140/1150 – 2 September 1216) was anItalianCistercian monk and prelate. He was the abbot ofRivalta [it] from 1180 until 1185, abbot ofLucedio (as Peter II) from 1185 until 1205, abbot ofLa Ferté (as Peter II) from 1205 until 1206,bishop of Ivrea from 1206 until 1208 andpatriarch of Antioch (as Peter II) from 1209 until his death. He is known asPeter of Magnano,Peter of Lucedio orPeter of Ivrea.
Peter had a reputation as an administrator and mediator. He consolidated the properties of his abbeys and served several popes as apapal judge-delegate. He was on especially good terms with PopeInnocent III, in whose general reform of the clergy inLombardy he played a major role. He participated in theFourth Crusade and the establishment of theLatin Empire of Constantinople (1201–1205) and in the preaching ofthe next crusade in Lombardy (1208–1209).
Peter was born probably in the 1140s into a family offeudatories of thebishop of Vercelli associated with the town ofMagnano. He had a brother named Obertus who was living in 1185. Peter was probably educated in thecathedral of Vercelli before entering theCistercian monastery ofSanta Maria di Lucedio. In January 1180 he became the first abbot ofSan Giovanni di Rivalta Scrivia, a church that became with Peter's appointment a daughter house of Lucedio and a subject also of thebishop of Tortona. During his abbacy in Rivalta, he established the monastic granges ofBassignana,Goide and Isello.[1]
In 1185, Peter returned to Lucedio as abbot. He adopted a program of consolidating the abbey's properties. He obtained privileges of protection and confirmation from PopesUrban III (11 January 1186),Clement III (May 1188) andCelestine III (1192). He obtained a diploma of confirmation from the EmperorFrederick Barbarossa (14 February 1186). In April 1186, he obtained fromMilo,bishop of Turin, an exemption from the tolls ofRivoli for the abbey's subjects. In February 1192, he obtained a confirmation of this exemption from Milo's successor,Arduin. He built up the manors of Montarolo,Leri, Ramazzana,Pobietto,Cornale and Gazzo in the region of Vercelli and won a dispute over property with the monastery ofSan Genuario.[1]
Peter was close to the MarquisBoniface I of Montferrat, whose family, theAleramici, had founded Lucedio in 1124. In 1193, when Boniface needed money, Peter gave him a loan with the forest surrounding the monastery serving as a pledge. For this, Peter was sanctioned by the Cistercian general chapter. In 1194, Bonifce drew up his will atMoncalvo in the abbot's presence. He left two farms and the mills atTrino to Lucedio.[1]
Owing to his skills as an administrator, Peter served several times as apapal judge-delegate alongside BishopAlbert of Vercelli in the 1190s. On 20 July 1191, Albert and Peter handed down a judgement in favour of thecathedral of Genoa against the church ofSanta Maria di Castello. In 1196, they were charged with settling a dispute betweenBoniface,archbishop of Genoa, and his cathedral chapter. The case dragged on until 1201. Sometime between 1195 and 1198, Albert and Peter settled a dispute between the canonry ofOulx and themonastery of San Giusto di Susa in favour of the former. In 1196, they were present at an imperial court inMortara.[1]
Pope Innocent III made extensive use of Peter in Lombardy between September 1198 and 1201, often without Albert of Vercelli by his side. Peter resolved disputes between the dioceses ofPavia andPiacenza in April 1199 and between Piacenza andParma in May. With the abbot ofSan Salvatore di Pavia, he performed acanonical visitation ofmonastery of Bobbio in November–December 1199. In 1200, alongside Boiamondo, abbot ofChiaravalle della Colomba, he settled a property dispute between the bishop of Tortona and the Humiliati on the one side and theKnights Templar on the other. In late 1200 or early 1201, Innocent sent the representatives of theHumiliati to present their proposed rule of life (propositum vitae) to Peter and Albert. Their rule was approved in 1201. In that year he arbitrated a dispute between themonastery of Fruttuaria and its dependency,San Gemolo di Ganna.[1]
In the spring of 1201, Peter joined the Marquis Boniface in the preparing for theFourth Crusade. He was with Boniface atSoissons in the summer, where the marquis formally made hiscrusading vow before the assembling French army.[1] He probably accompanied Boniface toParis to meet KingPhilip Augustus as well.[2] In September 1201, he was atCîteaux to obtain the permission of the general chapter to go on the crusade with Boniface.[1] There he presumably took a formal crusader's vow, although the record of the general chapter meeting does not list him among the abbots permitted to go on the crusade.[3] In May 1202 he was back in Lucedio. He went with Boniface toVenice, where the army was gathering, and thence toRome.[1]
During their absence, the crusaders agreed to join the Venetians inan attack on Zadar. In September 1202, Peter was entrusted to carry back a letter from Innocent forbidding the attack on Zadar. It is not certain if Peter arrived in Venice before the army embarked, at Zadar before or during the siege or after the surrender of the city. It has been alleged that he deliberately withheld the letter from the army, but this is unlikely, since Peter retained the confidence of Innocent III until the pope's death. It is more likely that he gave the letter to AbbotGuy of Vaux-de-Cernay in Venice and that Guy read the letter before the leadership at Zadar.[4][5][6]
Peter was with the army thatarrived before Constantinople in June 1203. From then until March 1205 he was rarely far from Boniface. With CardinalSoffredo of Santa Prassede, he convinced Boniface's new Greek wife,Maria, widow of EmperorIsaac II, to convert to the Catholic faith. In a letter addressed to the pope on 25 August 1203, the EmperorAlexius IV credited Peter, whose zeal he praises, as one of several who persuaded him to restorecommunion between the Eastern and Western churches.[1]
After the assassination of Alexius and theSack of Constantinople by the crusaders in April 1204, Peter was chosen to be one of the twelve electors[a] for a new emperor from among the crusaders.[7] Under Venetian influence, they chose CountBaldwin IX of Flanders. When Boniface went to conquer hisKingdom of Thessalonica, Peter followed him.[1] Boniface rewarded Peter by granting him monastery ofChortaiton as a dependency of Lucedio,[8][9] but Peter was called away by Innocent III in March 1205 to mediate between KingLeo I of Armenia and CountBohemond of Tripoli, who weredisputing the succession to thePrincipality of Antioch.[1]
Peter returned to western Europe in 1205, after receiving news of his election as abbot ofLa Ferté, the mother house of Lucedio. He did not hold the abbacy for long, because he was elected to thebishopric of Ivrea in February or March 1206. He left La Ferté and took up his post in Ivrea, but as soon as he realized its poor financial situation he abandoned the diocese without informing the cathedral chapter, intending to take up life in ahermitage. A letter from Innocent III, dated 21 October 1206, caught up with him and persuaded him to return. He was consecrated as bishop sometime between 30 December 1206 and 11 March 1207. At the same time he was re-nominated as a papal judge-delegate.[1]
As bishop, Peter mediated between thecounts of Biandrate and the commune ofIvrea concerning some tolls, while at the same time protecting the rights of the diocese and of his old monastery, Lucedio, which had been granted toll exemptions by the counts. In the spring of 1207, Innocent III appointed him one of the "visitators andprovisors of Lombardy" charged with a general reform of the clergy within that region. In this capacity, Peter worked with Albert's successor at Vercelli,Lotario Rosario, andGerardo da Sesso,abbot of Tiglieto (a sister house of Lucedio). Together they imposed sanctions on the consuls of the city ofPiacenza for having exiled their bishop,Crimerio, for unpaid debts. Sometime before March 1208, the three were inAlbenga to verify accusations against BishopOberto. In November 1208, he was back in Piacenza with Gerardo and ArchbishopUmberto IV of Milan to depose Crimerio for having given in to the consuls' demands.[1] In December 1208, Innocent charged him and Gerardo with the task of formally deposing the bishop of Albenga. He also charged Peter, Gerardo and BishopSicard of Cremona with preaching a new crusade in Lombardy, which ultimately became theFifth Crusade.[10]
On 28 June 1208, Innocent III offered Peter themetropolitanate of Thessaloniki,[1][11][12] but he refused it.[1][11] In early 1209,Peter I,patriarch of Antioch, died, having been imprisoned by Bohemond during the succession dispute that Peter had been unable to resolve back in 1205. Innocent left the choice of a successor to thepatriarch of Jerusalem, who happened to be Peter's predecessor, Albert of Vercelli. Albert selected Peter and Innocent informed him on 5 March 1209 that Peter had been transferred from Ivrea to Antioch. Before leaving Ivrea, Peter made a few donations to the cathedral chapter. He left in May or June 1209 and stopped in Rome on his way. There Innocent entrusted him with letters addressed to the cathedral chapter of Antioch, the clergy of the patriarchate and the garrison ofCursat Castle.[1]
Innocent III praised Peter for accepting the patriarchate of Antioch out of "love and the virtue of obedience" rather than for worldly advancement, ambition or prestige. In Antioch, Peter found the disputed succession unresolved with Bohemond in actual control of the principality. A planned arbitration in August 1210 never came to fruition because Sicard of Cremona, one of the arbitrators, failed to come east.[1]
In order to navigate the disputed succession, Peter opened up communications with theemir of Aleppo,al-Zahir Ghazi. On 7 June 1211, in order to further this effort, the pope wrote to al-Zahir Ghazi commending Peter. The emir of Aleppo was not, however, a neutral but rather an enemy of the king of Armenia. The king had arranged for the election of a rival patriarch, who was deposed by Albert of Jerusalem on the pope's orders. In this situation, the pope wrote to Peter to encourage him to steadfastness. On 26 September 1212, the pope wrote again to express his full confidence in Peter.[1]
From 1213 on, there is no more indication of Peter's activities. He was represented at theFourth Lateran Council by a suffragan, thebishop of Tortosa. Perhaps he felt too old to undertake the long journey; possibly he was ill. The date of his death is given as 2 September in thenecrology of Lucedio and it is known that an election for his successor had taken place by 31 August 1217, when PopeHonorius III annulled the choice ofPelagius of Albano and ordered a new election. Peter's death must have taken place on 2 September 1216.[1]
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