SOURCE: Malloy, Michael P. “The Problem of Civil Authority in Lombard's Sentences.” In Civil Authority in Medieval Philosophy: Lombard, Aquinas, and Bonaventure, pp. 24-45. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1985.

In the following essay, Malloy offers textual analysis of Distinction 44 of the Sentences, which concerns the problem of obedience to civil authority.

Peter Lombard consolidates his remarks on the problem of civil authority in one small section out of three in Distinction 44 of Book Two of his Sentences.¹ At first glance, it would appear that the first two sections of the distinction have little, if anything, to do with that problem. However, there is a significant connection between the first two sections of Distinction 44, dealing with the human potential for sin, and the final section, dealing with the problem of civil authority.

The material compiled by Lombard in this distinction did not uniformly engage the attention of sentential...