RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Morality Moran
ment. It is obvious that in the absence of independence man ceases to be a moral being. So the surrender of one's moral freedom from pious motives is evil. The same criticism must be based on the absolute dependence of Protestants on the actual letter of the Bible. In the scientific sense this is immoral, it violates the freedom of the Christian man. The English word morality is connected with the Latin mos, " custom." The German Sitte contains the same idea, since it means " man- 5. Con- ner of life," " usage " in a general exclusion, ternal sense, or refers to an internal characteristic. Thus it appears that in wide circles the customary is regarded as the good and the proper, morality therefore meaning what is accepted through the force of custom, hardly to be differentiated from habit. Naturally these traditional customs can be good or bad, but in their origin they are natural; without the force of custom social institutions, such as the family and the State, are incomprehensible. In these forms, of course, morality is at work, but custom does not make morality. Through processes of change the old and the new custom contend for the mastery. Forms of morality or immorality come into question in these processes only from the fact that the persons who take part in them are by nature moral beings. It is through morality that the individual man emancipates himself from custom, establishes his freedom, and creates a place where he can legislate by himself for himself so far as his conduct is concerned. In the ethics of the New Testament the word " old " is almost always used interchangeably with bad and new is equivalent to good; in dogma, with its acknowledgment of original sin, bad is anterior to good. Both Jesus and Paul, in their contests with old traditions and old customs, were contending for the sphere of freedom. Yet a revolutionary attitude against custom such as is found in Rousseau and in the whole romantic school up to Nietzsche has no absolute moral worth in itself. The question is complicated, old customs give way, but custom itself does not disappear, novel teachings and novel practises become themselves customs, as is seen in the case of the Social Democratic party in Germany with its claim not only to erect a political program but to control the details of the life of its individual members. Advocates of the new may, besides, easily confuse ethical with esthetic interests. It must be remembered, too, that traditions which at one time possess a moral value may lose that character if they are not sincerely appropriated by those who maintain them. Custom is not the source of morality, but it is the ground on which morality can work. The Church above all is an institution which creates custom; but in its reformed Evangelical type it is bound to adhere to its original claim and purpose of giving the freest play in custom to morality. In popular usage, the word morality has come to have a restricted sense. Associations for improving morality have brought up practical problems and numerous proposals for solving them. There is only one morality, the self-legislation of a personality under the control of the categorical imperative. Practical questions, no matter how
novel they may be, can be answered only under the influence of the old ethics. For each person moral freedom is decisive; and similarly for the entire social whole and its conduct as a whole, which is nothing but the working together of moral individual decisions. See Ethics; and Moralists, British. (Martin Rade.)
Bibliography: The principal works of Schleiermacher bearing upon the subject are: Grundlinien einer Kritik der bisherigen Sittenlehre, Berlin, 1803; Entwurf eines Systems der Sittenlehre, ed. A. Schweizer, Gotha, 1835; Grundriss der philosophischen Bthik, ed. D. A. Twesten, Berlin, 1841; Philosophische Sittenlehre, ed. J. H. von Kirchmann, ib. 1870; Christliche Sittenlehre, ed. L. Jonas, Gotha, 1891. Discussions of the ethics of Kant and Schleiermacher are named under the articles on these philosophers. A considerable list of works germane to the subject will be found under Ethics. Consult further: R. Rothe, Theologische Ethik, 4 vols., Wittenberg, 1868-71; G. Riimelin, Ueber den Begriff eines sozialen Gesetzes, Freiburg, 1875; idem, Ueber das Wesen der Gewohnheit, ib., 1881; L. Wiese, Ueber den sittlichen Wert gegebener Formen, Berlin, 1878; T. Hoppe, Christliche Sitte, Hanover, 1883; D. Frick, Ueber das Wesen der Sitte, Heilbronn, 1884; R. von Ihering, Der Zweck im Recht, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1898; C. Stange, Einleitung der Ethik, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1900-01; M. Wentscher, Ethik, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1902-05; B.Bauch, Luther und Kant, Berlin, 1904; H. Cohen, Ethik des reinen Willens, Berlin, 1904; W. Heremann, Ethik, Tubingen, 1904; W. Koppelman, Kritik des sittlichen Bewusstseins, Berlin, 1904; F. Troeltsch, Politische Ethik und Christentum, Gottingen, 1904.
MORAN, mo-ran', PATRICK FRANCIS: Roman Catholic archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna; b. at Leighlinbridge (7£ m. s.w. of Carlow), County Carlo w, Ireland, Sept. 16, 1830. He was educated at the Irish College of St. Agatha at Rome from 1842 to 1856, and in 1856 was appointed professor of Hebrew in the College of the Propaganda, as well as vice-president of the Irish College. From 1866 to 1872 he was private secretary to Cardinal Cullen, besides being a professor in the seminary at Dublin. In 1871 he was consecrated titular bishop of Olba to be coadjutor to the bishop of Ossory, whom he succeeded in the full administration of the diocese in the following year. In 1884 he was elevated to the archdiocese of Sydney, and within a year was created cardinal. He is a member of the Congregations of the Consistory, Bishops and Regulars, the Propaganda, and Indulgences. He has written, among other works, Memoirs of the Most Reverend O. Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh (Dublin, 1861); Historical Sketch of the Persecutions suffered by the Catholics of Ireland under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puritans (1862); Essays on the Origin, Doctrines, and Discipline of the Early Irish Church (1864) ; History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin since the Reformation, i (1864) ; Spicilegium Ossoriense: being a Collection of original Letters and Papers illustrative of the History of the Irish Church from the Reformation to 1800 (3 series, 1874-84); Irish Saints in Great Britain (1879); Catholic Prayer Book and Manual of Meditations (1883); Occasional Papers (1890); History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (Sydney, 1897); The Catholics of Ireland under the Penal Laws in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1899); The Three Patrons of Ireland (1905); and The Priests and People of Ireland (1905). He has also edited M. Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum: or, A History of the Ab-
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