- chapter 61: Annius of Viterbo –
Figure 61.2 View of Viterbo. Photograph: author.Figure 61.3 Etruscan tombs along a street in Viterbo. Photograph: author.been carefully prescribed, and closely attuned to medieval scholastic learning; typical
topics for master’s theses at Dominican colleges of the time were “Everything Thomas
Aquinas says in the Summa Theologiae is correct” or “Everything Peter Lombard says in
the Sentences (the standard theological textbook, written in the twelfth century) is correct”
- needless to say, both Aquinas and Peter Lombard had been Dominicans themselves.^2
The Dominican order did more than provide a fi rst-rate education in theology and
careful argumentation. As the order’s offi cial designation, Ordo Praedicatorum (Order of
Preachers), made clear, its priests were trained to sway crowds by public preaching, and
they bore the letters O. P. after their names to indicate their dedication to that mission.
In addition, from the outset the order’s founder, Domingo de Guzmán, had offered its
services to combat heresy, setting up the boards of inquiry called Inquisitions, and the
Dominicans continued to play the dominant part in such investigations.