Search results for "Demonic Possession"

Viva voce: Voice and Voicelessness among Twelfth-Century Clerics

2015

Writing in his Summa on Gratian’s Decretum1 toward 1164, canonist Rufinus of Bologna2 evokes criminal prelates, saying, “vocem accusandi, reprehendi, docendi non habent” (they do not have a voice to accuse, punish, teach).3 Should this enumeration be understood as a commonplace statement about three possible functions of the voice, or should we suspect a set of deeper associations? Is Rufinus’s use of the word “voice” simply an alternative to other rhetorical or stylistic possibilities—such as the word “word” in particular—or is it truly a deliberate choice on the part of the canonist?