Casuistry is that branch of Christian morals which treats of casus conscientia (cases of conscience) ; that is to say, of questions of conduct in which apparently conflicting duties seem at first to perplex and disturb the moral faculty, and make it necessary to trace, with a careful exclusion of everything but moral considera- tions, the consequences of the rules of morality (Whew- ell. History of Moral Philosophy, xxiv). Kant calls casuistry * * the dialectics of conscience. " In this sense the word might have a good meaning ; but its ordinary use is to designate sophistical pervenion or evasion of the moral law. Pope supplies examples of both shades of signification, as, first, in the good sense :
*^ Who shall decide when doctors disa^rroe. And Boondeit casuists doubt, like yon and me f *
Again, in the unfavorable sense :
^^ Mcnrality by her false guardians drawn. Chicane in furs, and oasidslry in lawn.^
But the theory of " collision of duties,*' on which this so-called science of casuistry rests, is unsound. Duty is one, though there may be various ways of perform- ing it, and with regard to these, instruction and guid- ance of course may be needed. What appears to be collision of duties is generally only a collision between duty and inclination. In true Christiaii ethics, prin- ciples of life are set forth, not rules for individual cases. There is nothing like casuistiy in the moral teaching of Christ and his apostles. If the '*' eye be single, the whole body will be ftill of light;'* and if the ultimate aim of man be to do the wQl of God, this aim, by the aid of the divine Spirit, will clear up all special perplexities as they arise. * * When truth must be dealt out in drams or scruples, the health of the soul must be in a very feeble and crazy condition." Bish- op Heber tells us that when Owen was dean of Christ Church, a regular office for the satisfaction of doubtftd consciences was held in Oxford, to which the students at last gave the name of "Scruple shop*' (Heber's Works of Jeremy Taylor, i, 270). "The cure for dis- eased consciences is not to be found in a *■ scruple shop,' but in the love and care of the great Physician. The law of love, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is a solvent of all subordinate moral questions in the practice of life. For the application of this law our
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retson must be constantly and eaaetohj uaed" (Wes- 1 ley, Workt, ii, 129). |
2. Catmttry m fAe Cfburch ofRtme, •— Ab the Roman doctrines of penanoe and absolotion grew op in the Mid- I die Age, eantuiry grew np also, in the form of decisions on special cases of moral difficulty. ** The schoolmen delighted in this species of intellectual labor. They transferred tiieir zeal for the most fancifnl and fHvo- , loos distinctions in what respected the doctrines of re- 1 ligion to its precepts ; they anatomized the diflferent , virtues ; nicely examined all the circumstances by ' which our estimate of them should be influenced ; and ' they thus rendered the study of morality inextricable, | coiionnded the natural noUons of right and wrong, | and 80 accustomed themselves and others to weigh their actions, that they could easfly find some excuse for wliat was most culpable, while they continued un- der the imiHression that th^y were not deviating horn what, as moral beings, was incumbent upon them" (Watson, TheoL Dicdonary, s. v.). The works which contained collections of cases of conscience, and of which the title commonly was Summa Castmm Oorud' eM&B, or something resembling this, were compiled at iint for the use of Roman confessors. It was requisite for tliem to Imow, for instance, in what cases penance of a lieavier or lighter kind was to be imposed ; and what ofi^noes must, for the time, exclude the offender from the communion. The first systematic work on casuistry was that of Raymond of Penaqforti, who pub- lished a ^mwiia de Ccuibus PoBnUeniiaWmi, which came into very general use in the 18th century, largely fol- |' lowed by succeeding casuists. In the 14th and 15th centuries the number of such books increased very greatly. "These Swnmm were in common speech known by certain abbreviated names, borrowed from the name of the anthor or Iiis birthplace. Thus there was the Attescma, which derived its name firom its au- thor, Astesanus, a Minorite of Asti, in Piedmont (Nn- remburg, 1482) ; the Angelica, compiled by Angelus de CUvasio, a Genoese Minorite (Nuremb. 1492) ; the Pi- tana or PuaneUa, which was also termed BarihoUna or Moffutruccia (Par. 1470) ; the Pacifica (Venice, 1574), the Bo^eUoj the Stfbetirma." In these works the sub- jects were usnally arranged alphabetically, and the de- cisions were given in the form of responses to questions proposed, the opinions being oflen quoted fivm or sup- ported by the authority of the Scriptures, or the &^ thers, or schoolmen. There was no attempt to lay down general principles which might enable tlie in- quirer to determine for himself the matter by which his conscience was disturbed. The lay disciple was sappoeed to be in entire dependence upon his spiritual teachers for the guidance of his conscience, or, rather, for the determination of the penance and mortification by which his sins were to be obliterated. Moreover, a very large proportion of the offences which were pointed out in snch worlcs were transgressions of the observances required by the Church of those days, and referred to matters of whlAi conscience could not take cognizance without a very considerable amount of ar- tificial tHdning. Questions of rites and ceremonies were put upon an equal footing witii the gravest ques- tions of morals. The Church had given her decision respecting both ; and the neglect or violation of her precepts, and of the interpretations of her doctors, could never, it was held, be other than sinful. Thus this body of casuistry was intimately connected with the authority and practices of the Church of Rome, ind fell into disuse along with them (Whewell, 1. c). After the Reformation, the vices of the casuistical iystem developed themselves in the Church of Rome more fully than ever before. The so-called Moral T^sob^y really poisoned the very fountains of morality. See Jesutts ; Pascal. The abb€ Maynard published in 1851 a delianoe of the Jesuits and of their casuistry, under Uie titie Les Promndah et Untr refutation (2 vols. 8to), which is ably reviewed in the Christian Bemem-