Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/657

 LIGUORI 635 therefore to the period of Jesuit predominance in moral theology, and of the prevalence of those maxims which Pascal lashed in the Provindales, many of which were soon after condemned by Pope Innocent XI. in 1679. But, as Liguori embodies also in his materials the casuistical authors of the succeeding century, who were taught some caution by those mishaps of their predecessors, his works represent the final stage of casuistry in what is accounted a purified and moderate form, and have a yet greater importance, in that they have been accorded an official approval and authorization from the highest authorities of the Roman Catholic Church, such as those of no previous casuist of the post-Reformation era can allege. They are fully sanctioned, encouraged, and recommended for general use amongst the Roman Catholic clergy, and in fact only just fall short of being actually enjoined. Consequently they themselves, and the works based on them by Scavini and Gaume, as also the kindred manual of Gury, are all but universally found in use, and it is thus easy to learn from them what is now the accredited moral theology pre valent throughout the Latin obedience. So much being premised, we may now turn to the life of Liguori himself, and thence to the analysis of the system which he expounds. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, son of Giuseppe de Liguori, a Neapolitan noble, and of Anna Cavalieri de Brindes, his wife, was born at Marianella, near Naples, on September 27, 1696. He was educated chiefly at home, though he attended an Oratorian school at Naples for a time ; and, as his father desired that he should rise to office in the magistracy, he was especially directed to the study of jurisprudence, both civil and canonical. He took the degree of doctor in this faculty in January 1713, being then little more than six teen years old. He was called to the bar in due course, and obtained considerable practice, while his biographers dwell much on the high moral tone of the rules he laid down for his guidance in the conduct of professional business. The loss of an important suit in which he was engaged as counsel for a Neapolitan noble against the grand-duke of Tuscany, and in which he had entirely mistaken the force of a leading document, so mortified him that, acting on a temper already disposed towards the monastic life, it induced his withdrawal from the legal profession, which he never resumed after this defeat. He soon adopted the ecclesiastical dress as a candidate for orders, which he received in December 1724, when he entered as a novice into the Congregation of Missions, being ordained priest in December 1726. He soon became popular as a preacher and as a confessor, obtaining much influence in Naples and its vicinity. In 1732 he founded the &quot;Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,&quot; usually known as Redemptoriets, or, as they are often named, Liguorians, whose special object is the religious instruction of the rural poor and other uneducated classes, establishing the first house of the society, in the force of much opposition, at the little town of Scala, about 8 miles from Salerno. The headquarters were transferred somewhat later to Ciorani, and in 1743 to Nocera dei Pagani, which is still the chief house. The confirmation of the rule and institute was obtained from Benedict XIV. in February 1749, and in the following year Liguori, who had previously made some minor literary ventures, published one of his most famous and popular books, Le Glorie di Maria, a book intended to promote the cultus of the Blessed Virgin ; and in 1753 he issued his yet more celebrated Moral Theology, dedicating it to Pope Benedict XIV., expressly as a &quot;via media&quot; treatise. An Italian version of this book, somewhat abridged, recast, and adapted for the use of the clergy, was his next task ; and, on this shorter treatise becoming popular, and a demand for it arising outside of Italy, he translated it into Latin, and issued it in 1755 as the Homo A postal icus. In 1762, being then sixty-six years of age, he accepted the bishopric of Sant Agata dei Goti, a small town in the province of Benevento, at the express desire of the pope (though he had several years before refused the arch bishopric of Palermo, offered him by the king of Naples), and by a very unusual concession was permitted to retain his superiorship of the Redemptorists, governing them by means of a vicar-general. He worked diligently in this sphere of labour for thirteen years, busying himself with practical reforms of various kinds in his diocese, notably in trying to raise the standard of clerical life and work, while not intermitting either his literary pursuits or his efforts to promote the growth of his Redernptorist institute. In 1775, being then seventy-nine years of age, he obtained permission from Pius VI. to resign his bishopric, on the plea of enfeebled health, and retired to the Redernptorist house at Nocera dei Pagani, where he died August 1, 1787, aged nearly ninety-ona He was decreed the rank of &quot; Venerable &quot; very speedily, being so named by Pius VI. in 1796, was beatified by Pius VII. in 1816, canonized by Gregory XVI. in 1839, and finally declared a &quot;Doctor of the Church &quot; by Pius IX., March 11, 1871. He is one of the most copious of the later Roman theologians, and his productiveness extended over a period of thirty years, from the issue of his Visits to the Blessed Sacrament in 1747 till the appearance of no fewer than eleven treatises in 1777 ; but his only writings necessary to be added here to those already named are his treatises De Usu Moderalo Opinionis Probabilis, 1754, recast and reissued in 1 756 ; Praxis Confessarii, 1756 ; six apologies in defence of his views on probabilism and of his Moral Theology, in the same year, followed by three more in 1768 ; Veritfl della Fide, against Helvetius and the deists, 1767 ; Storia delle Eresie, directed chiefly against the Jansenists and Molinists, 1772; Dissertazioniteologiche morale, 1772 ; and Vindicise pro suprema Pontificia potestate, adversus Justimim Febronium, in the same year. He was a man of naturally amiable and gentle disposition, ascetic and self-denying in his personal habits, indefatig- ably diligent in many forms of activity, and of more than respectable abilities, though with the emotional side of his character in greater relief than its intellectual side. He was learned, as learning was understood amongst the Italian clergy of the 18th century, though altogether lacking in critical faculty, whence he is quite untrustworthy as a controversialist, not only as habitually quoting spurious or interpolated authorities, but by adding matter of his own to amplify genuine quotations which fall short of proving his case. In estimating the nature of his moral teaching, not only have these personal characteristics to be steadily kept in mind, but also the fact that his life exactly synchronizes with that epoch of European history which was the seed-time of the Revolution, and when, owing to reaction from the fervid theological controversies of the 16th and 17th centuries, a general languor, coldness, and indifference towards religious questions reigned in all parts of Western Christendom. It was Liguori s firm belief that only the most lenient and gentle treatment could win back the alienated laity ; and consequently, though he professed to steer a middle course between errors of laxity and severity in moral teaching, and fully believed himself to have done so, yet in fact such a treat ment was impossible to one who viewed the question as he did. For, while he regarded errors on the side of laxity as pardonable mistakes committed through excess of zeal in winning over penitents, contrariwise he looked on the stricter method of the rigorists, who upheld a loftier