PREPOSTINO of CREMONA. – Theologian and liturgist, b. c. 1150, d. at Paris c. 1210. He studied law perhaps at Bologna and theology at Paris under Maurice of Sully; having become a master he taught for several years.
In 1195 he was appointed *scholasticus* of the cathedral of Mainz, and in the following years received from the Holy See important confidential assignments. During the crisis occasioned in the Church of Mainz by the election of Bishop Liutpold of Worms, P. was reproved by Innocent III (1203) for his opposition to the decisions of the papal legate; it is believed that after the Pope’s letter P. submitted fully, since in 1206 he was named chancellor of the University of Paris and delegate judge of the Apostolic See.
A particularly prolific theologian, he wrote important works, all unpublished: *Quaestiones* (Paris, Bibl. Mazzarino, no. 1708); they treat many topics without logical order and in a very rudimentary form; *Summa de paenitentia iungendae* (Vienna Library, no. 1413): notable for the history of penitential discipline and for the author’s psychological sensitivity; *Summa contra haereticos* (Vat. lat. 4304), of doubtful authenticity, valuable for the information it provides on the passages (v.); *Summa de officiis*, transcribed verbatim by William Durandus in his *Rationale divinorum officiorum*, and thus becoming the most popular liturgical book of the Middle Ages: Metz (v.); *Summa super Psalterium* (various manuscripts): contains a prologue and commentary on the first fifty-nine psalms; *Summa theologica* (numerous manuscripts, especially English): follows the order of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (v.), enriching them with new questions and data. Although this work represents the state of theology before the introduction of Aristotle and lacks originality, it nevertheless exercised a wide influence on all the theologians of the 13th century, especially the Franciscan masters, and was cited by St Thomas himself.