Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Dominic M. Prümmer
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
O.P. · Thomist (Dominican) · 1866–1931
On this site: Manuale Theologiae Moralis
His Moral System
The "system of Christian prudence"; probabiliorism for one's own life
- “Probabiliorism excels both Equiprobabilism and pure Probabilism, and each one should strive to practice Probabiliorism in his own life.” — Prümmer, n. 351
- “In practice it is to be counseled that the confessor act according to the system of Christian prudence” — Prümmer, n. 352
As others report it
- “also favors it” — Vermeersch, n. 357
Life
Born 3 September 1866, Kalterherberg, near Aachen; died 9 June 1931, Fribourg, Switzerland. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Entered the Dominicans in 1884; studied philosophy and theology at Louvain; ordained 1890. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Taught theology at Venlo and Düsseldorf (prior at Düsseldorf), and from 1906 moral theology at Hawkesyard, England. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
- Doctor of canon law of the Angelicum, 1908; from 1908 professor of moral theology at the University of Fribourg until his death. [New Catholic Encyclopedia; University of Fribourg, Chair of Moral Theology, predecessors]
- Manuale theologiae moralis (3 vols., 1914); Vademecum theologiae moralis (1921); Manuale iuris ecclesiastici (1907–09); editor of the Fontes vitae S. Thomae Aquinatis. [New Catholic Encyclopedia]
Sources: New Catholic Encyclopedia (2nd ed., 2003), as published on Encyclopedia.com; University of Fribourg, Chair of Moral Theology: predecessors. Each fact names where it was read; the links go to the page or entry itself.
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. Compensationist: Vermeersch, Wouters, Merkelbach. Probabiliorist: Prümmer.
| Compensationist | |
|---|---|
| Counted among them by 2 of our authors | Wouters, Manuale I, n. 225; Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
| “IV. The system of compensation or of sufficient reason, whose origin is ascribed by C. d'Annibale to Father Potton , O. Pr., does not permit the use of the principle, A doubtful law does not oblige, simply, but only then when a cause excusing from the obligation of the law is proportioned to the gravity and probability of the law: the more probable and the graver the law is, the greater cause is required in order that you may permit the danger of material transgression; that danger is an evil which can be permitted on account of a proportionate good effect, but not otherwise. Or otherwise: to a certain law corresponds a perfect obligation, but to an uncertain law an imperfect obligation, which is ended or terminated by the gravity of the motive for acting. Many in France adhere to this more recent system; R. P. Prummer, O. Pr., Manuale Theologiae moralis, I, nn. 351. 352, also favors it.”Vermeersch reads him as favoring the system of compensation | Vermeersch, Theologia moralis I, n. 357 |
| Probabiliorist | |
| “Probabiliorism excels both Equiprobabilism and pure Probabilism, and each one should strive to practice Probabiliorism in his own life.”In his own words (The "system of Christian prudence"; probabiliorism for one's own life) | Prümmer, n. 351 |
| “In practice it is to be counseled that the confessor act according to the system of Christian prudence, because a) thus he avoids the rocks of Probabilism, Equiprobabilism, and Probabiliorism; b) thus he proceeds according to Christian prudence, which is the mover and charioteer of all moral virtues and which is most necessary for living well.”In his own words (The "system of Christian prudence"; probabiliorism for one's own life) | Prümmer, n. 352 |
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.
| “To the safer practice in the thirteenth century a certain corrective was added from the principle of probabiliorism. William of Auxerre seems to have explained this first rather clearly, says Prummer, Th. M. I, n. 345, when he wrote in the treatise on pollution: "That magisterial rule, that one doubting about something, whether it is illicit, and doing that thing while the doubt stands, sins, because he commits himself to danger, is to be understood of such doubt which is vehement, and more, or at least equally, induces the mind to believe that it is mortally illicit, as that it is licit.”Merkelbach follows Prümmer in making William of Auxerre the first to explain the principle of probabiliorism | Merkelbach, Summa II, excursus on the moral systems |
No article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).