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 in Padua and Bologna around the beginning of the 13th century.
Recent criticism (from Singer onwards) generally identifies him with the bishop of Assisi present at the Third Lateran Council (1179) and certainly alive until 1192. His preference for citing examples, persons, sees, and localities in Italy leads to the supposition that he was Italian, even if of Lombard origin. Glossator and commentator on Gratian’s Decretum at the Bolognese Studium, between 1155 and 1159 he wrote the famous Summa decretorum (cf. H. Singer, Paderborn 1902), which was widely cited, plagiarized, reworked, and disseminated by his disciples, especially Stephen of Tournai in France and Germany and Johannes Faventinus. His expository method excels in clarity, precision, and juridical form and demonstrates competence in both canon and civil law.