Title Pages and Approval

According to the mind of St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus, adapted to the morals of the present day.

Vol. 1. - On Penance, Matrimony, and Order.

The author reserves the right of ownership.

To Incarnate Wisdom,

which reaches from end to end mightily,

and disposes all things sweetly,

and to the Immaculate Virgin,

the Seat of Wisdom,

I have dedicated this work.

"God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things by thy word, and by thy wisdom hast appointed man, that he should have dominion over the creature which was made by thee; that he should order the world in equity and justice, and judge judgment in uprightness of heart: give me wisdom, the attendant of thy throne, and reject me not from among thy servants, for I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid; a weak man, and of short time, and too small for the understanding of judgment and laws." (Wis. IX, 1-6.)

"Seat of Wisdom, pray for us."

According to the mind of St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus, adapted to the morals of the present day.

By Ad. Tanquerey

Ninth edition, carefully revised according to the Code.

Printed by the Society of St. John the Evangelist
Desclee and Associates

Rome - Tournai (Belg.) - Paris
1922

Printed in Belgium.

New edition (1922-1923) of the Synopsis of Dogmatic and Moral Theology, and also of the Shorter Synopsis of Dogmatic and Moral Theology, by Ad. Tanquerey.

Nihil obstat.

Issy, April 20, 1922.
A. Berrue,
Deputy censor.

Imprimatur:
Paris, May 2, 1922.

• Benjamin Octavius,
  Bishop of Mosynopolis.

Imprimatur.
Tournai, July 14, 1922.
V. Cantineau, Vicar General.

How much it profits toward the right formation of clerics in the theological sciences that doctrine be drawn from the purest sources, set forth in a clear and scientific method, and at the same time adapted to the needs and morals of our time, can be hidden from no one. Now with these qualities there is endowed, as has been reported to Us and thoroughly ascertained, the work whose title is Synopsis of Dogmatic and Moral Theology, distributed in five volumes, to which a sixth and last will soon be added, which D. Tanquerey, from the priests of the Society of St. Sulpice and professor of theology in Our Seminary, has written. For in this work the passages of Sacred Scripture have been examined rather diligently, according to the desire of Leo XIII, who greatly wishes that "the use of divine Scripture should flow into the whole discipline of theology and be, as it were, its soul";¹ nor have the testimonies of the Fathers or Councils been neglected, since they themselves also contain revealed truths. And because, according to the precept of the Apostle, the minister of Christ must be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict, the author introduces opponents - opponents, I say, especially of our own time, whom it is chiefly important today to refute - and he makes clear how worn out their arguments are, although perhaps wrapped in new concepts and words, and demonstrates how weak they are, arguments for the most part drawn from their own books.

¹ Encyclical Providentissimus, On Sacred Scripture, November 19, 1893, § Illud autem maximi.

As to the moral matter, however, the author takes special pains that, according to the Lord's own words, he may bring forth from his treasure new things and old: old things, namely the very principles which are from eternity and which, while other shifting things are moved, remain unmoved; new things, namely new explanations and new conclusions, by which he explains and judges the new forms of acts, contracts, rights, or duties, which are multiplying day by day in modern times, and solves the questions arising thence. Thus, concerning the right of property, against its modern haters, concerning the condition of workers and the ways of bringing it to a better state, concerning the newest contracts regarding the labor of workers, the author treats many things clearly and opportunely.

Therefore it is not only pleasing to Us that this work, already disseminated in many parts of the Catholic Church, is also held in the hands of students in Our Seminary for the use of the schools, but We also earnestly commend it to the whole clergy of our diocese.

Given at Paris, February 18, 1905.

• Francis Card. Richard,
  Archbishop of Paris.

In this new edition, with the cooperation of C. Belmon and A. Cance, most learned professors of moral theology in the Seminary of Rodez, we have especially changed those things which had to be corrected from the Code of Canon Law and from the more recent decrees of the Congregations. If, in the course of the work, kind readers notice certain things still to be reformed, let them not hesitate to make them known to us, so that we may be able diligently to correct them.

Issy, near Paris, on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1922.

Ad. Tanquerey.