RUFINUS, MAGISTER. - Decretist, who lived in the second half of the 12th century. His nationality and the events of his life are uncertain, also because other namesakes are recorded at Padova and Bologna around the beginning of the 13th century.
More recent scholarship (from Singer onward) generally identifies him with the bishop of Assisi who was present at the Third Lateran Council (1179) and who certainly lived until 1192. His preference for citing examples, persons, customs, and localities of Italy suggests that he was Italian, although of Lombard origin. A glossator and commentator on Graziano’s Decreto at the Bolognese Studium, he left in writing, between 1155 and 1159, the celebrated Summa decretorum (critical ed. by H. Singer, Paderborn 1902), much cited, plagiarized, reworked, and disseminated by his disciples, especially by Stefano di Tournai in France and Germany and by Giovanni Faentino. His expository method excels in clarity, precision, and juridical form, and demonstrates competence in canon and civil law.