from Sassoferrato (ca. 1313-57), professor of law in Pisa and Perugia and one of the most influential jurists of his time. He wrote commentaries on almost the entire Corpus iuris civilis.
Basil the Great (ca. 330-79), saint, bishop, and Doctor of the Church. He was the author of many exegetical, moral, and homiletic works.
Bernard of Clairvaux (ca. 1090-ca. 1153), saint and author of, among other writings, numerous sermons and a small treatise titled De consideratione, on the duty of the pope, which contained many passages that Bellarmine and other theologians used as key references in works on papal authority.
Bernold of Constance (d. ca. 1100), historian and continuator of Hermann Contractus’s chronicle.
Beza, Théodore (1519-1605), French reformer, collaborator, and successor of Calvin in Geneva. In his De hereticis a magistratu puniendis, a defense of Calvin’s execution of Servetus, and in De iure magistratum, Beza offers an important exposition of the Calvinist theory of resistance.
Bibliander, Theodorus (Theodor Buchmann) (1506-64), a Swiss reformer and famous linguist, who published a Hebrew grammar, a Latin translation of the Koran, and works of biblical exegesis.
Biel, Gabriel (ca. 1420-95), professor of theology and author of an influential commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae. Biel was well known as a representative of Nominalist thought.
Biondo, Flavio (1392-1463), Italian humanist and historian who authored a number of important works, including a trilogy on Roman history and architecture and Historiarum decades, a history of the world since the end of the Roman Empire.
Bonaventure (1221-74), saint and theologian of Augustinian inclinations. He wrote an extensive commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae, together with many other mystical, theological, and ecclesiological works. His writings, especially the mystical ones, have been translated repeatedly, but some appear to be lost.
Boniface (ca. 675-754), saint and archbishop of Mainz. He was a Christian missionary in the Frankish empire and became known as the “Apostle of Germany.”
Boniface VIII (ca. 1235-1303), pope (1294-1303) and key figure in the question of papal authority. During his controversy with King Philip the Fair of France, the pope issued a series of bulls, such as the Unam sanctam, which became crucial for the following debate over the pope’s plenitude of power. Boniface’s concern with canon law resulted in a collection of Decretales, the Liber sextus, to be added to the five books of Gregory IX (Decretales Gregorii IX, 1234).
Bozio, Francesco (d. 1635), Oratorian Father under whose name the treatise De temporali ecclesiae monarchia appeared in 1602, although much of the work must be attributed to Tommaso Bozio, his brother and fellow Oratorian. This treatise was one of the most vigorous assertions of the absolute authority of the pope in both temporal and spiritual matters.
Brenz, Johannes (1499-1570), one of the leaders of the Reformation in Germany.
Burchard of Ursperg (d. ca. 1230), monk and author of a well-known chronicle, which was for a long time attributed to Konrad of Lichtenau, his successor as abbot of Ursperg.
Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio) (1469-1534), cardinal and general of the Dominicans. Cajetan was a well-known theologian whose works included a commentary on Aquinas’s Summa, which became a classic reference for Scholastic theologians.
Cassander, George (1513-66), Flemish humanist and promoter of religious peace between Protestants and Catholics. His anonymous treatise, De officio pii viri, which advocated religious toleration, pleased neither Catholics nor Protestants.
Castaldi, Ristoro (Restaurus Castaldus) (d. 1564), a professor of law in Perugia and Bologna.
Castro, Alfonso de (ca. 1495-1558), Franciscan friar, jurist, theologian, and author of many works, including De iusta haereticorum punitione.
Cedrenus, George (eleventh century), Byzantine historian and author of a chronicle covering the period from the creation to his own times.
Charlemagne (ca. 742-814), king of the Franks. He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas day in the year 800. The role of the pope in the transfer of the empire, the translatio imperii, from Rome to the Franks, was a key polemical weapon in the medieval and early modern discussion of papal authority in temporal matters.
Chrysostom, John (ca. 347-407), one of the most influential doctors and preachers in the Greek Church, becoming bishop of Constantinople in 398. He was a prolific writer, and Bellarmine quotes often from his numerous homilies or commentaries on the New Testament (more than fifty of those homilies were dedicated to the Acts of the Apostles).
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.), philosopher and orator. Cicero’s eclectic moral and political philosophy was much quoted by Christian authors in Bellarmine’s time, and humanist scholars regarded his style as achieving one of the highest peaks of Latin prose.
Clarus, Julius (Giulio Claro) (ca. 1525-75), Italian humanist and jurist, an expert in civil and penal law.
Cochlaeus, Johann (1479-1552), prolific Catholic controversialist.
Conradus Brunus (Konrad Braun) (ca. 1491-1563), Catholic theologian and canonist, who wrote a number of anti-Protestant works. His De legationibus was a treatise on the legal obligations and rights of ambassadors.
Constantine the Great (ca. 280-337), Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and whose Edict of Milan, or Edict of Constantine, promulgated in 313, allowed Christians freedom of worship. The “Donation of Constantine” was supposed to be a document by which the emperor gave to Pope Sylvester I temporal authority over Italy, and as such it was widely quoted in the medieval debate over the pope’s plenitude of power and his rights in temporal matters. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian humanist (ca. 1405-57), proved the document to be a forgery. Today scholarship is able to date the forged document to a period between the second half of the eighth century and the first half of the ninth.
Covarrubias y Leiva, Diego de (1512-77), Spanish jurist and theologian, pupil of Vitoria and professor at Salamanca. He was the author of many ecclesiological and theological treatises.
Cujas, Jacques (also known as “Jurisconsultus”) (1522-90), an important French jurist and author of a commentary on Roman law.
Cyprian (d. 258), saint and bishop of Carthage, whose works include numerous epistles and a treatise against Novatian titled De Catholicae Ecclesiae unitate.
Cyprianus Benetus Aragonensis (d. 1522), a Dominican professor of theology and author of several theological and ecclesiological treatises.
Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), Doctor of the Church and author of many works, including numerous commentaries on the Old and New Testaments and various theological and apologetic treatises and sermons.
Diocletian, Aurelius Valerius (ca. 245-312), Roman emperor who in 303 ordered the destruction of the Christian churches and thus started a bitter persecution.
Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian whom Paul converted to Christianity (Acts 17:34) and to whom was attributed a series of theological treatises. This attribution has been discarded: the works have been dated to between the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the author is now known as “pseudo-Dionysius.” Most often quoted by medieval and early modern theologicians are his works De coelesti hierarchia and De ecclesiastica hierarchia.
Dionysius
