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 PROBATIC

446

PROCESSIONS

investigation into the various degrees of probability, 80 as to enable a person definitely to say that one opinion is more probable than another. In view of the great diversity of opinion, which exists on many moral subjects, this" definite judgment is practically impos- sible, especially in the case of the vast majority of men who are not experts in moral science.

C. Compensationism. — Tliis maintains that a doubt- ful law is not devoid of all binding force, and that there must be a compensating reason, proportionate to the probability and gravity of the law, to justify the performance of the action which is probably forbidden. This teaching is based on an analogy with an act which has two effects, one good and the other bad. It is not lawful to perform such an act unless there is a justifying cause proportionate to the evil. In the case of a doubtful law the bad effect is the danger of material sin, and the good effect is the benefit, which arises from the performance of the action which is probably forbidden. Hence in this as in the former case, a compensating cause, proportionate to the probable evil, is required to justify the performance of the action.

Probabilists reply that this moral system leads to Tutiorism, because it implies that if no compensating benefit exists, it is not lawful to perform an action so long as it certainly is not forbidden. Again, Probabil- ists say that the preservation of liberty is of itself a sufficient compensating reason when there is question of a law which is not certain. Finally, Probabilists are prepared to admit that, as a point of expediency though not of obligation, it is advisable to look for a compensating cause over and above the preservation of liberty when a confessor is directing penitents in the use of probable opinions. If no such compensating reason exists, the penitent can be ad\nsed, though not under pain of sin, to abstain from the performance of the action which is probably forbidden.

McDonald, The Principles of Moral Science (Dublin, 1910); BERTHE-C.\aTLE, Life of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Dublin, 1905); Slateb, a Short History of Moral Theology (New York, 1909) ; RicKABY, Moral Philosophy (London, 1892); Lea, A History of Auricular Confession (Philadelphia, 1896); de Caignt, Apolo- geticade jEquiprobabilisrno Alphonsiano (Tournai, 1894); Arendt, Apologelicw de ^quiprobabilismo Alphonsiano historico-pbiloso- phicce Dissertalionis a R. P. J. de Caigny. C. SS. R. ezaratm Crisis juzta Principia Angetici Doctoris (Freiburg, 1897); BaI/- LEBiNi, Vindicia: Alphonsiano: (Rome, 1873) ; Gaud^, De Morali Systemate S. Alphonsi Marice De Ligorio (Rome, 1894); Ter Haar, De Systemate Morali Antiquorum Probabilistarum (Pader- born, 1894); Idem, Ven. Innocenlii P. P. XI de Probabilismo Decreti Historia et Vindicia: (Rome. 1904); Wouters, De Minus- probabilismo (Amsterdam, 190S); Lehmkohl, Probabilismus Vin- dicatus (Freiburg, 1906); Idem, Theologia Moralis (Freiburg, 1910); DiNNEEN, De Probabilismo Dissertatio (Dublin, 1898); Tanqderet, Theologia Moralis Fundamentalis (Tournai, 1905); St. Alphonsus Liguori, Theologia Moralis (Rome, 1905) ; Potton, De Theoria Probabililalis (Paris, 1874); LalOUX, De Actibus Humanis (Paris, 1862); Morris, Probability and Faith in The Dublin Review, CXI (London, 1892), 365-94; Tarleton, Prob- abilism in The Month (London, May, 1883), 43; Jones, What is Probabilismf in The Month (London, January, 1868), 75; see also the ordinary treatises on moral theology and moral philosophy.

J. M. Harty. Probatic Pool. See Bethsaida.

Probus, Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 276- 82, raised to the throne by the army in Syria to suc- ceed Tacitus. Of humble origin, he was born at Sirmium in Illyria; by courage and ability he won the confidence of the soldiers, and during the reign of Marcus Aurelius he subdued Palmyra and Egypt. As emperor, he ordained that the imperial edicts must be ratified by the senate, and he returned to the senate the right of appointing the governors of the former senatorial provinces. His reign was passed in wars with the (Jcrmans. He personally drove the Ala- manni across the Rhine and forced them as far as the fortifications, extending from Ratisbon to Mainz. He made nine (Jerman kings tributary to Rome, and distributed sixteen thousand German warriors among the Roman lcgif)ns. In 278 the emperor re-estab- lished peace in Hhietia, Illyria, and Mtt'sia by cam-

paigns against the Burgundians and Vandals. In the meantime his generals had overcome the Franks on the lower Rhine. The next year the emperor went to Asia Minor where he punished the Isaurians and gained their fortified castle Cremna in Pisidia. His legions advanced as far as Syria and Egypt. Probus settled foreign colonists in all the boundary provinces. In this way, he brought about that the outlying prov- inces were peacefully settled by German tribes. During his long absence in Asia Minor rival emperors were proclaimed in various provinces; e. g. Saturni- nus at Alexandria, Proclus at Lyons, who controlled Gaul and Spain, and had a successor at Cologne named Bonosus. All these rivals were vanquished by the imperial troops. Probus celebrated triumphs at Rome over his enemies and even hoped to attain to an era of peace and plenty. In times of peace he employed the soldiers in constructing public works, building temples and bridges, regulation of rivers, dig- ging canals to drain marshes, and i)lanting vineyards, especially in Gaul, Pannonia, and Ma'sia. By forcing the soldiers, who no longer had any interest in the prosperity of the citizens, to do this work, Probus roused them to revolt; in Rha?tia the prefect of the guard, Marcus Aurelius Cams, was proclaimed em- peror. The troops sent against him by Probus joined the rebels, and the emperor himself was killed near his birthplace.

Mommsen, Rom. Gesch., V (Berlin, 1885); Schiller. Gesch. der rom. Kaiserzeit, II (Gotha. 1887) ; VON DoMASZEWSKi, Gesch. der rom. Kaiser (2 vols., Leipzig, 1909).

Karl Hceber.

Procedure, Canonical. See Courts, Ecclesi- astical.

Processional, Roman. — Strictly speaking it might be said that the Processional has no recognized place in the Roman series of liturgical books. As the full title of the work so designated shows, the book con- sists of a .single section of the Roman Ritual (titulus ix) with sundry supplementary materials taken from the Misstxl and the Pontifical. What we read on the title-page of the authentic edition runs as follows: " Processionale Romanum sive Ordo Sacrarum Pro- cessionum ex Rituali Romano depromptus additis quae similia in Missali et Pontificali habentur". Seeing, however, that the Ritual docs not always print in full the text of the hj'mns, litany, and other prayers which it indicates, it is convenient to have these set out at length with the music belonging to them. Processionals appropriated to the special uses of various local churches, e. g. "Processionale ad usum Sarum", are of fairly common occurrence among the later medieval manuscripts. At the close of the fifteenth century and in the beginning of the .sixteenth we have a good many printed processionals belonging to different churches of France, England, and Germany.

Zaccaria, Bibliolheca ritualis, 1 (Home, 1776). 159.

Herbert Thurston.

Procession of the Holy Ghost. See Holy

Ghost.

Processions, an element in all ceremonial, are to be found, as we should expect, in almost every form of religious worship. The example of the processions with the Ark in the Old Testament (cf. espec, II Kings, vi, and III Kings, viii) and the triumphant entry of our Saviour into Jerusalem in the New were probably not without influence upon the ritual of later ages. Even before the age of Constantine, the funeral processions of the Christians seem to have been carried out with a certain amount of solemnity, and the use of the word by TertuUian (De Praescriptio, xliii) may possibly have reference to some formal progress or movement of the faithful churchwards, which led afterwards to the assembly itself or the service being called proces^io as well as syna.ris and collecta (Probst, "Sakramentarien und Ord.", 205),