PETER OF BLOIS°

PETER OF BLOIS° (c. 1135–after 1204), Christian theologian. Born in France, Peter lived in England from 1169, writing there his treatise Contra perfidiam Judaeorum (c. 1200). The work was composed at the request of a friend who complained that he was surrounded by heretics and Jews with whom he was often compelled to engage in argument without always being able to refute them. The treatise is divided into 34 chapters and quotes as authorities not only the Bible but also the Church Fathers, and the sibyl . The final passages quote both Jewish and pagan authors, and include the apocryphal text on Jesus attributed to josephus . The prestige enjoyed by Peter, whom several of his contemporaries designated as a "new Church Father," while his works came to be regarded as models of style, helped to gain his treatise a wide circulation. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: PL, 207 (1855), 825–70; J. de Ghellinck, L'essorde la littérature latine, 1 (1946), 132–5. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)