Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
George Gobat
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
Jesuit · 1600–1679
In the Index: Gobat, Georg
In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index
- “Gobat, Georg., S.J., Swiss (1600-1679), wrote several moral little works, in which even some condemned propositions are found. All the moral works of this author were published at Munich, 1681, 3 tomes in 2 folio volumes, and often afterward. Gobat is a pure Casuist and his works today are of little practical utility. Cf. Theol. Zeitschr., Innsbruck 1915.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
- “Gobat Georgius, German, S.J., taught theology at Fribourg in Switzerland and at Constance. An author very much erudite and abounding in experience, but fairly benign (Sacramental Experiences. A Quinary of Treatises), born 1600, died 1679.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XVIII, 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 | |
| “Chapter II — Lax propositions of certain Authors … III. Fr. Georges Gobat, treatise 5, number 821: "It is far more probable that the essence of prayer consists with perpetual distractions, or wanderings of mind. So Cardinal de Lugo from principle.”Concina's censuses of lax opinions list 6 of his opinions and names him in 4 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. VI, ch. II, n. III |
| Cleared of laxity | |
| “Others have excellently vindicated Gobat from the note of laxity”Haringer’s index: others have vindicated Gobat from the note of laxity | Haringer, Index of writers, note 3 |
| Too benign in his opinions | |
| “An author very much erudite and abounding in experience, but fairly benign”Haringer: very learned and experienced, but fairly benign | Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XVIII |
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.
| “Gobat, S.J. (1679)”Vermeersch names him among the distinguished theologians of the age before St. Alphonsus, an age he calls morbid | Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 20 |
| “For those heretics, deceitfully simulating great piety and a singular fervor for protecting moral science, brought it about that in France, Italy, and other provinces they drew many learned men to their side: among whom were also Peter Collet (the celebrated continuator of Honore Tournely), Louis Habert, and Natalis Alexander, who, although they rejected other errors of the Jansenists, nevertheless accommodated themselves in many things to their immoderate rigor. Indeed there were not lacking those who defended more benign opinions, such as Louis Abelly, Eusebius Amort, Castropalaus, Gobat, Roncaglia, Cardenas, Viva, Lacroix, Sporer, Reiffenstuel, Reuter, Voit, Holzmann, Elbel, Mazzotta, etc., without however being able wholly to repress the swelling rigor of doctrine.”Marc names him among those who defended more benign opinions against the rigor of the Jansenist age | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 6 |
| “Chapter II — Lax propositions of certain Authors … VII. Gobat, treatise 5, disputation 11, number 842: "It is more probable that one is bound to no restitution who has recited all the Hours with voluntary and perpetual distractions."”Concina lists among the lax opinions of the casuists (on prayer and the divine office) | Concina, Compendium I, bk. III, diss. VI, ch. II, n. VII |
| “Chapter I — The condemned and lax propositions are recounted … II. "Can a married person, impeded from asking the debt on account of a vow, or incest, or spiritual kinship, ask for it, whenever he is agitated by vehement stimuli of the flesh, lest he be exposed to the danger of falling into grave sins of lust? ...”Concina names him in the same number as teaching or approving the lax opinion (on vows) | Concina, Compendium I, bk. III, diss. IX, ch. I, n. II |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … I. Fr. Claude La Croix, Book 3, part 2, no. 1000: “Gobat, no. 10, thinks that in Germany it is lawful in monasteries to sell wine and bread through servants: for this is not properly to keep a tavern or to trade, but to sell one's own to passers-by.””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. I |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXIV. Fr. George Gobat, tract 10, no. 641: “It is certain among all Doctors that kisses, touches, and embraces not immodest are lawfully done between the betrothed, when they are done according to the custom of the country as a sign of benevolence, for conciliating and fostering mutual love in order to matrimony.”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. XXIV |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXVI. Fr. Gobat, tract 10, no. 672: “Sánchez in the place cited, no. 49, uses the name of sensitive delight, but by this he certainly understands venereal delight, as is plain.”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. XXVI |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXVIII. Fr. Claude La Croix with Gobat goes further, Book 6, part 3, no. 541: “Although it be foreseen that the admonition will profit, yet if it be conjoined with a most grave inconvenience of the other party — for example of the proximate one — the confessor is not bound to admonish, but can permit them in good faith.”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. XXVIII |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXIX. Fr. George Gobat, tract 7, no. 315: “What is a confessor to do if he sees a penitent from invincible ignorance obnoxious, for example, to softness, whose gravity being taught he will scarcely abstain from on account of a depraved habit?”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. XXIX |
| “Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … XXX. The same Gobat in the same place, no. 317: “And indeed more than once I have learned that certain men who are inculpably ignorant of the malice of this outrage sin mortally.”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. XXX |
| “Chapter II — A review of condemned opinions, and of the laxer views of certain recent authors … II. "Can a married person, hindered by a vow, by an oath, or by spiritual kinship, from requesting the marital debt, request it whenever he is troubled by vehement stirrings of the flesh, lest he be exposed to the danger of falling into grave sins of lust?...”Concina names him in the same number as teaching or approving the lax opinion (on vows) | Concina, Theologia IV, diss. I, ch. II, n. II |
| “the propositions as they are reported in the censure are not tenable, nor even excusable for the most part”The Doctor’s letter printed before the Apology: the propositions censured from Gobat’s book by the Bishop of Arras are not tenable | Daniel, Apology, ¶ 4 |
In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
“George Gobat”, vol. 6, by Joseph Salsmans. Public domain; transcription at New Advent (which expands some of the print's abbreviations).
Moral theologian; born at Charmoilles, in the Diocese of Basil, now in the Department of the Doubs, France, 1 July, 1600; died 23 March, 1679. He entered the Society of Jesus, 1 June, 1618. After teaching the humanities he was professor of sacred sciences at Fribourg, Switzerland (1631-41), and of moral theology at Halle (1641-44), at Munich (1644-47), rector at Halle (1647-51), professor of moral theology at Ratisbon (1651-54), rector at Fribourg (1654-56), professor of moral theology at Constance (1656-60), where he was also penitentiary of the cathedral, which post he retained until his death. Besides his "Disputationes in Aristotelem" (Fribourg, 1633-34), and the Latin translation, "Narratio historica eorum quæ Societatis Jesu in Nova Francia fortiter egit et passa est anno 1648-49", from the French of Father Raguenau, S.J., there are mentioned smaller works on the Jubilee and on Indulgences, and a collection of practical cases on the Sacraments entitled "Alphabetum". Later these cases were republished under the title "Experentiæ Theologicæ sive experimentalis theologia" (Constance, 1670). The "Alphabetum quadraplex de voto, juramento, blasphemia, superstitione" appeared at Constance in 1672. These works were several times republished in three volumes under the heading "Opera Moralia", for instance, at Douai, 1701, the last edition being published at Venice, 1749.
Gobat follows the casuistic method, treating the different questions in a clear and simple style with solidity and erudition, applying them especially to existing conditions in Germany, conditions well known to him from the confessional and the numerous cases referred to him for settlement. He is, however, inclined to be too lenient. Several of his doctrines were later condemned by the Holy See, notably by Innocent XI in 1679, the year of Gobat's death. The Douai edition (1701) of the "Opera Moralia" drew from Mgr. Gui de Séves de Rochechouart, Bishop of Arras, the censure of thirty-two propositions. The adversaries of the Jesuits in France, Germany, and Holland, eagerly seized the occasion for an attack on the "Jesuit moral", but several apologies were published to refute the malignant exaggerations contained in their attacks; among these defenders of P. Gobat were Father Daniel, S.J., who wrote "Apologie pour la doctrine des Jésuites" (Liège, 1703) and Chr. Rassler, S.J., author of "Vindiciæ Gobatianæ" (Ingolstadt, 1706).
Sources: De Backer and Sommervogel, Bibl. des éscrivains de la comp. de Jésus; Döllinger and Reusch. Gesch. der moralstreitigkeiten in der röm.-kath. Kirche (Nördlingen, 18890, I, 292 sqq.; Hurter, Nomenclator, s.v.; Kirchenlexicon, s.v.; Kirchliches handlexicon, s.v.