Summa - Dominican Works

Dominican Works

Manuals of theology and more especially manuals, or summae, on penance for the use of confessors were composed in great numbers. The oldest Dominican commentaries on the "Sentences" are those of Roland of Cremona, Hugh of Saint Cher, Richard Fitzacre, Robert of Kilwardby and Albertus Magnus. The series begins with the year 1230 if not earlier and the last are prior to the middle of the thirteenth century.

The "Summa" of St. Thomas (1265–75) is still the masterpiece of theology. The monumental work of Albertus Magnus is unfinished. The "Summa de bono" of Ulrich of Strasburg (d. 1277), a disciple of Albert is still unedited, but is of interest to the historian of the thought of the thirteenth century. The theological summa of St. Antoninus is highly esteemed by moralists and economists. The "Compendium theologicæ veritatis" of Hugh Ripelin of Strasburg (d. 1268) is the most widespread and famous manual of the Middle Ages.

The chief manual of confessors is that of Paul of Hungary composed for the Brothers of St. Nicholas of Bologna (1220–21) and edited without mention of the author in the "Bibliotheca Casinensis" and with false assignment of authorship by Raymund Duellius. The "Summa de Poenitentia" of Raymond of Pennafort, composed in 1235, was a classic during the Middle Ages and was one of the works of which the manuscripts were most multiplied. The "Summa Confessorum" of John of Freiburg (d. 1314) is, according to F. von Schulte, the most perfect product of this class of literature.

The Pisan Bartolommeo of San Concordio has left us a "Summa Casuum" composed in 1338, in which the matter is arranged in alphabetical order. It was very successful in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The manuals for confessors of John Nieder (d. 1438), St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence (d. 1459), and Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) were much esteemed in their time