In 1594, he was made
provost of the cathedral at
Cambrai. When he went to Rome, a few years later,
Clement VIII thought so highly of his learning and
piety that he appointed him, in 1601,
Archbishop of
Armagh. He also appointed him his domestic
prelate, and thus secured him an income, which in the condition of Ireland at the time, there was no hope of getting from Armagh. Henceforth till his death, Lombard lived in Rome. He was for a time president of the
Congregatio de Auxiliis, charged with the duty of settling the controversy raised by
Luis de Molina's theses on
efficacious grace,
predestination and
free will. Lombard was active and zealous in providing for the wants of the exiled
Earl of Tyrone and
Earl of Tyrconnel, and was among those who publicly welcomed them to Rome. He was not however able to go to Ireland, for the
penal laws were in force, and to set foot in Ireland would be to invite the fate of
Conor O'Devanny and others.
James I of England personally disliked him, and publicly attacked him in the English Parliament. Armagh was thus left without a Roman Catholic archbishop for nearly a quarter of a century. There was however an administrator,
David Rothe. He had for a time acted at Borne as Lombard's secretary and the primate appointed him Vicar-General of Armagh. Nor did Rothe cease to act in this capacity even after 1618, when he was made
Bishop of Ossory. Roman Catholics in the North complained of being left so long without an archbishop. In any case, they disliked being ruled by a Munsterman, yet more so than being ruled by one unwilling to face the dangers of his position. In Rome Lombard wrote
De Regno Hiberniae sanctorum insula commentarius. This work gave such offence to
Charles I of England that he gave special directions to his Irish viceroy, Strafford, to have it suppressed. In 1622 Peter Lombard was asked by Pope Gregory XV to be a part of a Pontifical Commission into the affairs of Roberto De Nobili and his missionary activities incorporating local customary traditions in India. The commission included Cardinal Bellarmine and other notable theologians of the 17th century. Lombard, as President of the commission, was pivotal in the exoneration of De Nobili and subsequently, the Church took a whole new view on the inculturation of Christianity and its missions to the unchurched. Lombard also wrote a little work on the administration of the
Sacrament of Penance, and in 1604 a yet unedited work, addressed to James I, in favour of religious liberty for the Irish. Towards the end of his life Lombard petitioned to become
apostolic administrator of
Waterford and Lismore. ==In literature==