Summis Desiderantes Affectibus is the title of the bull issued by pope Innocent VIII wherein he informed the Germans that their country was overrun by witches, and appointing two inquisitors, Henry Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, for their destruction. See Kurtz, Church Hist, i, § 115,2.
Summists, or Summistae, a name given to those scholastic divines of the Middle Ages who pro- pounded their dogmas in works called Sumime Theo- logicB. This name was first adopted from the Summa Universce TheologicB of Alexander Hales, whose renown was eclipsed by that of Albertus Magnus. He was, in turn, surpassed by his disciple Thomas Aquinas, who published his famous work on divinity under the title of Summa Totius Theologies, and thereb}' greatly low- ered the estimation in which the Book of Sentences, written by Peter Lombard, was held. See Van Ooster- zee, Christ. Dogmat. i, 82.
Summus Sacerdos (Lat. for chief priest), a name given to bishops when it had become the fashion, in the 3d century, to deduce the institution of the ecclesiasti- cal hierarchy from the priests and services of the Tem- ple of Jerusalem. Romish writers apply the title ex- clusively to the pope of Rome.
Sumner, John Bird, an English prelate, was the eldest son of the Rev. R. Sumner, A.IM., many years vicar of Kenilworth and Stoneley, in the County of Warwick, and was born at his father's parsonage house at Kenilworth in 1780. He was sent at an early age to Eton, where he was nominated to a king's scholarship, and, having spent several years on that royal founda- tion, he passed in the usual course to King's College, Cambridge, of which he became successively scholar and fellow. Not long after having completed his aca- demical course, Mr. Sumner was invited to return as assistant master to Eton, where he remained for sever- al years. During this time he was ordained deacon and priest. He was preferred, about 1820, to the rec- tory of Maple-Durham, a pleasant and retired village on the banks of the Thames, a few miles above Reading. In 1820 Jlr. Sumner was promoted by the ministry of the earl of Liverpool to a canonry in the Cathedral of Durham, which he held for many years, together with his rectory of Maple-Durham. In 1828 the see of Ches- ter became vacant, and canon Sumner, having just re- ceived his D.D. from Cambridge, was consecrated bish- op in due form. The bishopric being then but poorly endowed, he was allowed to retain the canonry of Dur-
ham, but his views would not allow him to retain the rectory of Mai)le-Durham. Wiiile Dr. Sumner held the bishopric of Chester, the Oxford movement commenced and came to a head. From the time that the war cry of Anglo-Catholicism was first sounded in 1833 down to his death, bishop Sumner has ever been among the first and the foremost to denounce the dishonesty of the Tractarian school of theology. In his charges, in ad- dresses, in sermons, he ever and again denounced the Tractarian doctrines and ritual. In the early part of 1848 lord John Russell, who held the post of jiremier at the time, offered the archbishopric of Canterbury to Dr. Sumner. The offer was accepted, and, much to the satisfaction of the evangelical portion of the Establish- ed Church, he was translated from Chester to Canter- bury. In 1850, occurred the memorable event called the "Papal Aggression." To that measure of the pope, by which England was portioned out into Roman Cath- olic dioceses with prelates set over each, archbishop Sumner offered that opposition which was to have been expected, and he denounced the measure in terms of more than usual energy. His grace, as we learn from the " Peerage," was " primate of all England and met- ropolitan, one of the lords of her majesty's privy coun- cil, a governor of the Charterhouse, and visitor of Mer- ton and All -Souls' colleges at Oxford, as well as of King's College, London, of Dulwich College, and of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury," and he enjoyed the patronage of no less than one hundred and sixtj'-nine livings. He was also most discreet and blameless in the distribution of his clerical patronage, bestowing his best livings on the most exemplary and painstaking of his clergy. He died Sept. 6, 1862. His works are. Essay on the Prophecies, etc. (Lond. 1802, 8vo) : — Apostolical Preaching (1815, 8vo; 9th ed. Lond. 1850, 8vo) :— ^ec- orcls of Creation, etc. (1816, 1817, 1818, 1825, 1833. 1838, 2 vols. 8vo; 7th ed. 1850, 8vo) : — Evidences of Chris- tianity Derived from its Nature, etc. (Lond. 1824, 8vo; N. Y. 1825, r2mo) : — Sermons and Lectures (1827-59).
Sumner, Joseph, D.D., a Congregational divine, was born at Pomfret, Conn., Jan. 19, 1740. He gradu- ated at Yale College in 1759, was ordained pastor of the Church at Shrewsbury, Mass., June 23, 1762, and died Dec. 9, 1824. During a period of sixtj'-two years, he was never absent from the stated communion of his Church. He published, ^4 Sermon at the Ordination of Samuel Sumner (1791) : — A Thanksgiving Sei'mon (1799) : — A Half-century Sermon (1812). See Allibone, Did. of Brit, and A me?: Authors, s. v.; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iv, 630, note; Cong. Quarterly, 1859, p. 42.
Sumption, Thomas, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Cecil County, Md., Dec. 5, 1802. He was converted in 1819, licensed as a local preacher in 1828, and in 1838 was received on trial into the Philadelphia Conference. He received a superan- nuated relation, in 1874, and died in Halifax, Dauphin Co., Pa., May 9, 1874. See Minutes of Annual Confer- ences, 1875, p. 40.