Mazzotta, Nicol.

Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.

Jesuit · 1669–1746

Dates differ: Prümmer 1669–1746; Haringer ?–1748.

Life

Born Naples; died 1746. [Hurter, vol. IV]

Neapolitan Jesuit. Hurter: a weighty probabilist, notable for sound and clear doctrine. [Hurter, vol. IV]
His Theologia moralis in four parts appeared at Naples in 1748 (5 vols.), then at Bologna 1750, Venice 1754 and 1760, Augsburg 1756 and 1766. [Hurter, vol. IV]

Sources: H. Hurter, S.J., Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 3rd ed. (Innsbruck, 1903-1913), read on archive.org. Each fact names where it was read; the links go to the page or entry itself.

In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index

“Mazzotta, Nicol., S.J., Italian (1669-1746). His Theologia moralis, often praised by St. Alphonsus, was published after the author's death at Naples, 1748, and afterward several times.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors
[**: weighty, probabilist] “Mazzotta Nicolaus, Neapolitan, S.J. (Moral Theology), died 1748.” — Haringer's index of writers (Gury-Ballerini) (p. XXIV, 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.

Probabilist
Counted among them by one of our authors	Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 397
“Mazzotta Nicolaus, Neapolitan, S.J. (Moral Theology), died 1748.”Haringer marks him **, giving St. Alphonsus's judgment of him (weighty and probabilist)	Haringer's index, Index of writers, p. XXIV
Charged with laxity
“was burnt by order of Parliament at Paris (1763) because of its "laxism."”Koch-Preuss: his work was burnt by the Paris Parliament (1763) for "laxism"	Koch-Preuss, Handbook I, history of moral theology
“Chapter I — Condemned and lax propositions are recounted which regard the remaining three sacraments of extreme unction, order, and matrimony … IX. Fr. Nicholas Mazzotta, tract 3, disputation 5, chapter 3, page 253: “But if you give something to an intercessor, whether mediate or immediate, not indeed for the intercession, but for the labour, for ceasing gain, for emerging loss, for the expenditure of time, and so forth, in going and returning, it is not simony, because these are something temporal altogether extrinsic.””Concina's censuses of lax opinions list 1 of his opinion (the first is quoted; every one is under 'Where Our Authors Discuss Him')	Concina, Compendium II, bk. XII, diss. I, ch. I, n. IX

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.

“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

Works Our Authors Used

Nicolaus Mazzotta, S.J., Theologia moralis; 4 tomes. (Naples, 1748). — Marc's list

No article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).