Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Antonino Diana
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
Theatine · 1585–1663
In the Index: Diana, A.
In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index
- “Diana, Antonin., Cleric Regular Theatine, Sicilian (1585-1663), according to St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. book 6, no. 257, "in choosing opinions for the most part inclines to the benign side and not rarely inclines more than is fitting"; he published Resolutiones morales, 12 folio volumes. This work, composed without clear order, was arranged in better order by Martinus de Alcolea, O.Cart., 10 folio volumes, Venice 1698. We have used only this edition.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
- “Diana Antoninus, cleric regular (Theatine), consultor of the sacred office in Sicily, an author too benign , born 1585, died 1663.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XVI, sign read on the page)
His Moral System, as Our Authors Report It
Every report quoted in the author's own words and linked to its place; point at a name to see his words. Haringer's signs give St. Alphonsus's judgment as Haringer found it in St. Alphonsus's works (his notice, Gury-Ballerini, 1884, p. XI); a sign on a writer the 1884 editor added to the list is the editor's own, and is said to be his.
Our authors disagree on his laxity.
| Probabilist | |
|---|---|
| “This probabilistic doctrine being admitted, Christians can straightway abolish the greatest part of the natural, divine, and civil laws. Let them take up the books of Diana, of Zanardi, of Candidus, of Tamburini, of Escobar, of Gobat, of La-Croix, of Viva. Let them gather a most numerous catalogue of the opinions which are probably disputed on both sides concerning natural, divine, and human law.”Concina names his books as storehouses of opinions controverted on both sides, which probabilism would make laws no longer binding | Concina, Compendium II, diss. II, ch. VII, n. XII |
| Charged with laxity | |
| Counted among them by 6 of our authors | Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, the moral systems; Noldin, Summa I, n. 232s; Prümmer, Manuale I, n. 350; Marc, Institutiones I, n. 86; Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 398; Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
| “another Probabilist indulging somewhat in Laxism, namely Antonius Diana”Prümmer: a probabilist indulging somewhat in laxism, though on sins of lust sometimes rather rigid | Prümmer, Manuale I, n. 343 |
| “Chapter I — First, the condemned propositions are recounted; then those which seem lax … IV. Fr. Antonino Diana, Tome 7, coordinated edition, resolution 9, number 6, frees from the sin of scandal women using superfluous and excessive adornment. "But I" (he says) "think that there is no sin, even if the adornment were superfluous and excessive, provided it be according to the custom of the country."”Concina's censuses of lax opinions list 11 of his opinions and names him in 2 more as teaching or approving one (the first is quoted; every one is under 'Where Our Authors Discuss Him') | Concina, Compendium I, bk. III, diss. IV, ch. I, n. IV |
| Cleared of laxity | |
| “Franciscus Antonius Zacharia excellently vindicated Diana, a man otherwise most distinguished in knowledge and erudition, from the note of laxity.”Haringer’s index: Zaccaria vindicated Diana from the note of laxity | Haringer, Index of writers, note 2 |
| Too benign in his opinions | |
| “in choosing opinions for the most part inclines to the benign side and not rarely inclines more than is fitting”Prümmer, after St. Alphonsus: inclines to the benign side more than is fitting | Prümmer, Catalogue of authors |
| “an author too benign”Haringer names him specially, as his notice does the milder authors: an author too benign | Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XVI |
Where Our Authors Discuss Him
Each read in its full passage; the words quoted are the author's own. Where several authors say the same thing, one is quoted and the others follow “in nearly the same words”; point at a name to see his words.
| “Chapter I — First, the condemned propositions are recounted; then those which seem lax … III. "Of the sculpture or painting of an idol there is a doubt: and indeed it is licit, when idolatry is neither sought nor feared; but when it is feared, I say that he sins against Religion who furnishes it without a most urgent loss.”Concina names him in the same number as teaching or approving the lax opinion (on scandal and cooperation in sin) | Concina, Compendium I, bk. III, diss. IV, ch. I, n. III |
| “Chapter I — First, the condemned propositions are recounted; then those which seem lax … VIII. Fr. Antonino Diana, Tome 7, coordinated edition, treatise 5, resolution 48: "Is it licit, for some just cause, to lend a bedchamber to someone asking it for fornication; or to let a house to a prostitute, even if, on account of the circumstance of the place, someone should commit a sin; or if the prostitute, hiring that house, should do great harm to honest women neighbors?”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on scandal and cooperation in sin) | Concina, Compendium I, bk. III, diss. IV, ch. I, n. VIII |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … IX. Fr. Antonino Diana, Vol. VI, tract 3, resolution 149: “He who ought to have a legacy under a testament less than solemn, since it is a probable opinion that those legacies are owed in the forum of conscience — although the contrary be common enough and probable — may nevertheless retain the legacy, or receive it anew, or make occult compensation, as Granado and Molina admit.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. IX |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … X. Fr. Diana, in the place cited: “Whether in occult compensation the debt to be made good must be liquid and certain? Upon this the most eminent Cardinal de Lugo treats this question at large, Vol. I, On Justice, disputation 16, section 5, from no. 94 to no. 107, and endeavours to establish the negative opinion, with the distinctions adduced by him, forcibly and learnedly, as he always does.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. X |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … XI. Fr. Diana, in the place cited: “Nor is it an objection that it seems iniquitous to compensate a certain debt with an uncertain one: for he who has only probability that Peter owes him something, to whom he himself owes with certainty just so much, if he uses compensation, seems already to compensate a certain debt with an uncertain one, and thus to extinguish an uncertain debt by a certain payment.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. XI |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … XIV. Whether one who has bound himself under oath to the payment of a debt may use compensation, and not pay the debt. Fr. Diana, Vol. VI, tract 3, resolution 151, says: “The case is an everyday one, and I find three opinions concerning it.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. XIV |
| “Fr. Diana, Vol. VI, tract 3, resolution 150, no. 5, confirms the opinion recounted above, which he had earlier taught, and in these words: This I formerly” | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. XVII |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … XXIV. Whether in debts of justice there can be given compensation by a gift or by gratuitous service? Fr. Diana, Vol. VI, tract 3, resolution 152, answers in the affirmative.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. XXIV |
| “Chapter II — The lax opinions of several Casuists … XXV. Whether compensation is valid in the forum of conscience, even though there be prior creditors? Fr. Diana answers in the place cited, resolution 153: “This case is much in practice, and it happened in these past days upon the death of a certain banker: then many learned men answered in the negative, because the debtor in such a case receives a thing obligated to another; and so the Doctors commonly teach.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on justice, restitution, occult compensation and usury) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. XXV |
| “Fr. Antonino Diana, Vol. VI, tract 5, resolution 47, no. 5: I shall show to confessors two modes by which penitents in lending may bargain that the gain be at” | Concina, Compendium II, bk. IX, diss. I, ch. II, n. LV |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXXVI. Fr. Antoninus Diana, part 3, resolution 57: “A certain man began copulation with his wife, and afterwards on account of the danger of disease withdrew with her consent; but from this a pollution sometimes followed.”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on simony, benefices, marriage, chastity and temperance) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. XII, diss. I, ch. I, n. XXXVI |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XLI. The same Salmanticenses in the same place, no. 54: “We know moreover that Diana and Filliucci, tract 29, chapter 5, no. 133, assert that if flight were in any way ignominious to a cleric or a religious, he could defend himself, nor would he incur irregularity if he killed the invader.”Concina names him in the same number as teaching or approving the lax opinion (on simony, benefices, marriage, chastity and temperance) | Concina, Compendium II, bk. XII, diss. I, ch. I, n. XLI |
In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
“Antonino Diana”, vol. 4, by Thomas Slater. Public domain; transcription from Wikisource.
Moral theologian, born of a noble family at Palermo, Sicily, in 1586; died at Rome, 20 July, 1663. He took his vows as a regular clerk of the Theatine Order in 1630. He became celebrated as a casuists while he was yet a young man, and cases of conscience were sent to him for solution from all parts. His "Resolutiones Morales" met with universal esteem and approbation. The brothers Prost, who brought out the eighth edition of the first three parts of his work at Lyons, in 1635, sent it forth, with a play on the author's name, as the Diana of him who might be hunting for truth in the woods of moral theology, and as the Diana of the crossways who would show the right path to anyone in doubt or perplexity. Popes Urban VIII, Innocent X, and Alexander VII, esteemed him for his learning, and he was made a consultor of the Holy Office of the Kingdom of Sicily and an examiner of bishops. Diana himself claimed that as a rule his solutions followed the milder opinion. On the frontspiece of the volume just mentioned round a figure of the Cross runs the legend Non ferro sed ligno. According to St. Alphonsus and the common opinion of modern theologians, Diana not infrequently went too far in the direction of laxity. Besides several editions of the unabridged works, epitomes and compendiums of them that began to appear even in the author's lifetime, in spite of his vigorous protests that his real meaning was being distorted by his too ardent admirers.
T. Slater.