§ I: It Is Explained Which of the Various Moral Works of St. A. Is Chiefly To Be Adhered To, For Knowing His Genuine Sense

I. - Among all it is confessed that the true and genuine sentence of some Author must not only be sought where he treats professedly of some matter, but it must also be diligently inspected what he teaches in his latest writings; so that generally the true sentence of any Author whatever must be called that alone which he enunciated last. - Now, no one is ignorant that St. Alphonsus published several moral Works and Compendia at various times. Besides the nine editions of the Moral Theology, and several other Opuscules, Dissertations, and Apologies treating of the System or of other matters, the principal moral Works of St. A. are: 1° Pratica del Confessore per ben esercitare il suo ministerio (1748); in Latin: Praxis Confessarii ad bene excipiendas confessiones (1760); - 2° Istruzione e pratica per li Confessori (1756); in Latin: Homo Apostolicus, with four Appendices (1759); - 3° Il Confessore diretto per le confessioni della gente di campagna (1764); - 4° Istruzione al popolo ... in Latin: Institutio catechistica ad populum, in praecepta Decalogi et Sacramenta (1768). Therefore it is useful to inquire which is the last, and hence the preferable, sentence of the Holy Doctor, in the case in which he seems to follow diverse sentences in his various Works. - Concerning this matter, let it be permitted briefly to set forth the following things.

II. The true sentence of St. Alphonsus is generally to be taken from the larger Work, inscribed Theologia moralis, and, as to the order of the matters, arranged according to the text of Busembaum. But since nine editions of this Work came forth while the Holy Author was still alive, it is clearly evident that, before the others, one must stand by the ninth, published in the year 1785; both because it is the last, and because it was revised by the Holy See and approved as containing nothing worthy of censure. - The reason is that it is established that the Holy Doctor amended the Moral Theology in several questions even to the end of his life; which cannot be said with the same right of the other Works. - This rule, however, commonly admitted by the interpreters of St. Alphonsus, suffers some exceptions. For:

1. In the aforesaid Moral Theology the Holy Doctor did not add Notes or Questions elaborated by himself to all and singular parts of the text

of Busembaum. Therefore, in order to know whether he departs from the sentences of that Author, which are neither explicitly rejected nor approved by him, or at least whether he differs in the manner of enunciating them, besides the larger Work the texts of the other Works must be inspected, especially Homo Apostolicus, in which he treats the same matter. For those lesser Works, as having been written wholly by St. Alphonsus, in that case exhibit his sense not only more accurately, but also positively; while the text of Busembaum, not amended by the Holy Doctor, refers it only negatively.

2. It is established, moreover, from the various Works inspected, that St. Alphonsus, in the course of time, reformed several opinions, or at least partly changed them, by attributing greater or lesser weight to the same, or by adducing distinctions not previously made, without however explicitly commemorating all and singular emendations of this kind, inserted into one or another Work, in their proper places, in the subsequent editions of the Moral Theology. And therefore the diverse editions of that larger Work are to be compared, especially the second, of the year 1753-1755, with the ninth approved by the Holy See, so that from their collation what was changed and when may appear evidently. - Hence another rule is to be established, namely: Whenever the text of the NINTH edition of the Moral Theology agrees perfectly with the SECOND, without any emendation occurring made in the List of reformed questions added to the same Work, regularly the text of the lesser Works posterior to the aforesaid second edition is to be preferred, in the case in which those lesser Works disagree from this edition. The reason is that in this case the last edition of the Moral Theology is nothing but a mere reimpression of the second, and therefore, although published last, it cannot really be called the last sense of St. Alphonsus. This holds at least for those questions concerning which the Holy Doctor, in the aforesaid Compendia, testifies in express words that, the matter having been more maturely weighed, he either came down into another sentence, or at least partly changed the prior opinion.

3. Besides, those moral Compendia of St. Alphonsus can serve especially for this: that it may be better known to which sentence he adheres in practice. For it not rarely happens that the Holy Doctor, after in the larger Work he has said concerning a controverted question, I remit the matter to those wiser than I, without explicitly enunciating his own sentence, in the aforesaid Compendia ascribes to the same controverted opinion a determinate note of greater or lesser probability.