Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/117

 BUSIRIS

87

BUSKINS

of the students of his congregation the book that would help them most to master in a limited time and with order the difficult science of moral theology. During several years he had read very many authors, but his choice finally fell on Busembaum.

The foregoing statements give full assurance of Busembaum's orthodoxy and authority. For it is incredible that the Church would have tolerated in the schools in which her future priests were being trained lor the sacred ministry a book that taught a morality which was not her own. The attacks made on Busembaum have been singularly futile. He was accused of teaching doctrine that is subversive of authority and of the security of kings. This charge was founded on the following proposition: "Ad defensionem vita? et integritatis membrorum licet filio et religioso et subdito se tueri, si opus sit, cum occisione, contra ipsum parentem, abbatem, princi- pem, nisi forte propter mortem hujus secutura essent nimis magna incommoda, ut bella " (Lib. Ill, Pt. I. tr. iv, dub. 3, " De homicidio"). Busembaum lays down this principle: According to the natural law it is permitted to repel by force an unjust aggressor, and, if it be necessary for the saving of one's life, to kill him. In such cases, however, the person at- tacked should have the intention of defending him- self, and should not inflict greater harm or use more force than is necessary for self-defence. Then accord- ing to his method Busembaum applies the principle to various cases; and among them is the one to which the adversaries object. So that the proposition which caused the trouble is merely an application of a principle of the natural law to an individual case. This proposition is taken almost verbatim from St. Antoninus. It is essentially the same as the doctrine of St. Thomas, who says: "And therefore as it is per- mitted tu resist robbers so also is it permitted to resist evil rulers in similar circumstances, unless per- chance to avoid scandal, should it be feared that any serious disturbance might result" (II— II, Q. lxix, St. Alphonsus refers to this proposition of Busembaum in a letter to his editor, Redmondini, 10 March, 1758, and remarks "the proposition is not at all condemnable". The truth of the matter is that our author is here following in the footsteps "f very eminent theologians and the doctrine is not singular. Another objection is that Busembaum defends the principle, the end sanctions tin- means: use of the objection being that when the end is lawful, means in themselves unlawful are justified; that is, if the end is good, one may do something that is against the natural law to attain that end. Now the truth is, that Busembaum teaches the oppo- site: "Prareptum naturalc ncgativum, prohibens rem intrinsece malam non licet violare ne quidem ob metum mortis". (A negative precept of the natural law which prohibits a thing intrinsically evil can never be lawfully transgressed not even under the influence of the fear of death. Lib. I. tr. ii, c. iv. dub. 2, n. 1.) So that it is not lawful to do a thing which is wrong in itself, even to escape death. The incrimi- nated passage occurs under the question which Busembaum puts: "Quid lieeat reo circa fugam poena?" (lib. IV. c. iii, d. 7, a. 2). He answers: "It is lawful for the accused even when really guilty ■i. before and after the sentence of death or of some punishment equal to death, v. g. life imprison- ment, has been passed. The reason is because man's right to the preservation of his life is so great that no human power can oblige him not to preserve it. if there be well-grounded hope of his doing BO; unless indeed the public weal demand otherwise. Hence tin? accused may escape . . . unless indeed charity urge him not to do so. when the harm to the guards is greater than that which would come to himself. nay he flee so as not to be cap- tured . . . but he must use no violence by wounding

or striking the ministers of justice. (2) He may also, at least before the tribunal of conscience, dei the guards — excluding violence and injury — by giving them, for instance, food or drink to induce sleep, or by bringing it about that they will be absent; he may snap his chains, or break open the prison; because when the end is lawful, the means are also lawful." Here therefore we have the explicit exclusion of un- lawful means, and the sense of the phrase is only this: when the end is lawful then is the use of means in themselves indifferent, i. e. not unlawful, permitted. We must here remark thai then- is in the "Medulla" a very small number of .solutions taken from and de- fended by other authors, which were afterwards rejected by Alexander Yll and Innocent XI. But these solutions are not peculiar to Busembaum. Nor should we be surprised that an author who solves almost numberless practical eases should err at times in his application of laws and principles to particular, intricate instances. The real wonder is that the mistaken applications in Busembaum's great work are so very few.

Hcrter, Xnmcnclator, II, 259: THOEI.EN, Mrnologium

(Roermond, 1901 i. 73, Sommuiv i„ Bibl. de In e. de J.

i Pans. 1891), II. 44.5; Frit/ in Kirchenlex., s. v. Busembaum; DOHR, JesuitcnfaMn (Freibure im Br., 1 MW 1:? ",24; livmi- maxx. Der Zieeek heiligl die Mittel I Freiburg im Hi-.. 1903), 13, 22. 121: Letters of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori iNpvv Y.,rk, 1S96), Pt. II, Special Correspondence, I. let. xxxvi.

Timothy B. Bakrett.

Busiris, a titular see taking ils title from one of the many Egyptian cities of the same name. This particular Busiris was situated in the middle of the Delta, on the Pathmitish, or Damietta J '.ranch of the Nile. The ancient Egyptian name, Pa-osiri, means "House of Osiris ". the god being supposed to be buried there; hence the Coptic Pousiri, (deck llovcnpis and Bowreipis, Arabic Abuslr. It now exists as a village under the last of these names and is to be distinguished from another similarly named town on the coast of Lydia. Busiris was the chief town of the Busirite n&mos (Hierocles, Synecd 72.">. 7) and became a see of .Egypt us Secunda. Its bishop, Herirucon, is mentioned at Nicsea (325) by Melctius. as one of his partisans. About this time there was united to the title of Busiris that of Kynos, from t he important city of Lower Kynos (Athanas., " \|iol. c. Arianos", lxxviii. in P. (';.. XXV, 376) Its bishop, Athanasius, defended Dioscorus at the Latrocinium of Ephesus in 149, but apologized pub- licly at Chalccdon (Liberatus, Breviarium, xivi. from the seventh century on. tin- ee i mentioned in the lists of the Greek patriarchate (Georgius

Cyprius, 7.'i(i). though its titulars belong really to

the Jacobite patriarchate. Thus, in 712. its bisnop,

James, takes a part in the election of the I'at natch

Michael I (Hcnaudot, "Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. ",

2H7); a little later, under the same patriarch, its bishop, Peter, is mentioned (ibid.. 227); we hear also of Severus, under Philothi i 979 1003) and of Chail, or Michael, and Molina in the thirteenth cen- tury (ibid., 158, 569).

I.i.Qi-iKx, Or. Christ.. II. 569, 570; Gams, Series episcop., 461. For the ruins at Abuslr, see Navilli Mem. of the Egyptian Exploration fund (London, 1S90). 27.

L. Petit.

Buskins (caliejre), ceremonial stockings of silk, sometimes interwoven with gold threads, and even heavily embroidered, worn by the celebrant of a pontifical Ma-- i trieinally worn by priests, they were reserved about the eighth century for the ex- clusive use of bishops, a privilege recently extended

to lesser prelates. In colour they correspond to the chasuble, but are never worn with black.

('mm, am. Cerem. Episcop Comm I ! sr.n), I,

197-199; Berxahd. U Pont I

Macalibter, Ecclesiastical Vestments (London, 1896), 104-105. John B. Peterson.