ABSTRACT

In Peter's cult the Dominicans had a rising star. He was already popular and his fame was spreading. The papacy was fully on their side and committed to the protection and extension of the cult. Miracle stories poured in as fast as donations. The Dominican liturgy, standardized and adopted soon after Peter's canonization (1256), gave further impetus to the image of Peter as Dominic's perfect follower. Peter's mass and office closely parallel those of Dominic. Both of them emphasize the piety typical for mid-thirteenth-century Dominicans. As it would with Dominic, the battle against heresy came to dominate Peter's cultic presentation, but only after a long development. While preachers noted that Peter was an inquisitor, it was his anti-heretical activity in general that made his reputation. The second strategy employed by Peter's cultic promoters was to fit him into the established contemporary image of sainthood. This primarily meant drawing analogies between Christ and the saint in question.