Preface to the First Edition

As soon as St. Alphonsus was declared Doctor of the Church, at the exhortation of the superiors of our Congregation, I formed the plan of writing these Institutions, both that I might consult the usefulness of our students and missionaries, and that I might labor, according to my strength, for the propagation of the moral doctrine of the Blessed Father. Nor did the consideration of long labor deter me; for I had deeply imbibed in my mind that very opinion which His Eminence Cardinal William Sanfelice quite recently expressed in his Synodal Statutes thus: "Experience bearing witness, that confessor will gather richer fruits who, in the confessional, shall have come nearer to the opinions and practice of Liguori" (Synod. dioec. Neapol., June 1882, c. V, § IX).

Indeed from that time several compendia of moral theology have appeared, which, already widely diffused, have greatly enlarged the celebrity of the name of Alphonsus. Yet I did not for that reason judge that I should cease from pursuing my labor. For although the aforesaid compendia are most worthy of commendation, nevertheless it seemed that this work of mine would not be devoid of all usefulness, on account of the particular end which I set before myself to attain in composing it. For, as appears from the title of the work, I had set before my labor a threefold aim: the first was that I might faithfully set forth the whole doctrine of the Blessed Father concerning moral matters; the second, that I might reduce it into a truly methodical form; the third, finally, that I might complete the same with all those additions which seemed to respond more to the necessities of present times.

And in the first place, what is expected before all else from a son of St. Alphonsus treating of moral matters is this: that he propose to readers the doctrine of his Father with the greatest fidelity. And this was my principal end. But that I might attain this, I found myself furnished with several and very opportune aids. There were entrusted to me all the editions of the various moral works which the Holy Doctor revised with his own hand; and from these, compared among themselves, I detected what explanations and modifications he himself, with the passage of time, judged should be inserted into his doctrine: a thing which is often of much help for attaining the true mind of any writer whatever. I had at hand also very many annotations written by him, and many letters treating of moral matters, which, after they had lain in oblivion for almost an entire century, have happily been found again at last in these most recent times.....

I was much occupied in investigating all those things which regard Probabilism. And since, for interpreting the genuine sense of authors, the rules of criticism prescribe this, that their earlier works be judged from their later works, I judged that I had especially to attend to that dissertation which was inserted in the sixth edition, as also to the other works which from the year 1762 were published by the Holy Doctor. And I conformed myself to this norm the more securely, because he himself, before this time, always in his Moral Theology, and in the compendium of this (Homo Apost.), expressly declared "that he prescinded from that question: whether it is lawful to follow the less probable opinion, the more probable being left aside".....

My second aim was an ordered and methodical exposition of moral doctrine. As regards order, it pleased me generally to retain that which St. Alphonsus held in his compendia. But while I was choosing this order, I thought that I would be doing a useful thing if I distinctly showed by what logical connection the various treatises thus arranged cohered among themselves. To demonstrate this, it helped me especially to bring forward the words of St. Thomas and of the Roman Catechism, whose authority no one is ignorant of.....

My third aim, finally, was to enrich the present Institutions with all those additions which present necessities more demand for themselves. Hence I placed all the care I could in resolving, according to the mind of St. Alphonsus, very many cases which are accustomed to arise from the condition of present affairs. Hence I not only carefully went to most of the modern authors who have written on moral matters, but also frequently cited them, especially those who follow the Alphonsian doctrine more faithfully. Hence I was most diligent in seeking out and verifying the various Decisions which are continually published by the Roman Congregations, holding it as certain that in this matter also I was walking in the footsteps of our Blessed Father, who received with veneration all the decrees of the sacred Congregations as oracles.....

In citing the older authors (apart from St. Thomas and some others, who were especially dear to St. Alphonsus), I wished to be very sparing, for these two reasons: first, that it might be distinctly known that I am chiefly engaged in setting forth the doctrine of St. Alphonsus; then, that readers, in any difficulty that occurs, might be referred more certainly to the Blessed Doctor, with whom they will find indicated various authors who, in his judgment, treated the matter better.

Behold, therefore, with what mind I have written these Institutions.....

But may our most loving Redeemer grant that this labor of mine, whatever it may be, may redound to His glory, and that through it many souls, with St. Alphonsus as leader and patron, may be led into the bosom and embrace of God.

Rome, on the 19th day of March, the feast of St. Joseph, in the year 1885.