Sylvester Mazzolini

Passing brilliantly through a course of studies, he taught theology at Bologna, Pavia (by invitation of the senate of Venice), and in Rome, whither he was called by Julius II in 1511.

His writings cover a vast range, including treatises on the planets, the power of the demons, history, homiletics, the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the primacy of the popes.

Johann Tetzel's productions against the arch-reformer are called by Jacques Échard scattered pages (folia volitantia), and Mazzolini stands forth as the first champion of Roman Pontiffs against Luther.

Morgan Cowie is blunter on his performance in the controversy with Luther: "he succeeded so ill that the Pope forbade him to write any more on the matters in discussion".

He further notes that the eighteenth-century Jesuit literary critic Girolamo Tiraboschi "is rather annoyed that Erasmus speaks ill of our author as a controversialist, but is compelled to allow it to be true.