Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
Ludovicus Wouters
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
C.SS.R. · Alphonsian (Redemptorist) · 1864–1933
On this site: Manual of Moral Theology (Manuale Theologiae Moralis)
His Moral System
Equiprobabilism
- “One who strictly doubts about the making of a law, in other words, one who holds it as equally or almost equally probable that the law has not been made and that it has been made, is not held to observe it.” — Wouters, n. 226
Life
Born 19 November 1864, Vessem, diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch; died 15 May 1933, Nijmegen. [Redemptorist sources]
- Professed as a Redemptorist at 's-Hertogenbosch, 15 October 1882; ordained at Wittem, 6 June 1888. [Redemptorist sources]
- Taught moral theology in the studentate of the Dutch province and at the Schola Major in Rome. [Redemptorist sources]
- Provincial of the Dutch province from 1924. [Redemptorist sources]
- Manuale theologiae moralis (Bruges, 1932–1933), finished the year of his death. [Redemptorist sources; the Manuale as hosted here]
Sources: Sant'Alfonso e dintorni (santalfonsoedintorni.it): Redemptorist biographies after the Dictionary CSSR (Boland) and Analecta CSSR; the title page or front matter of the work as hosted on this site. 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.
| Equiprobabilist | |
|---|---|
| Counted among them by 2 of our authors | Tanquerey, Fundamental Moral Theology, n. 405; Prümmer, Manuale I, n. 341 |
| “But since this difference is of little moment, almost all the arguments which are brought from reason for Probabiliorism are valid also for Equiprobabilism. In addition, the following argument is added: If there is question of equally or almost equally probable opinions, a doubt strictly so called is present, in which the mind remains uncertain and properly assents to neither contradictory part. But the law in that case is so doubtful that it merits no assent and produces no obligation. The same argument is proposed in this way by Wouters: "Since an opinion which favors liberty is equally probable as the opinion which favors law, directly there is given no reason on account of which one rather than the other ought to be assumed as the norm of acting, nor can an indirect reason be assigned on account of which the preceptive ordering, or duty, should be favored rather than the permissive ordering, or right.”Prümmer gives his argument for equiprobabilism | Prümmer, Manuale I, n. 347 |
| “That equiprobabilism is the genuine system of St. Alphonsus, which he definitively embraced at least from the year 1762, the Vindiciae Alphonsianae (I, p. 1-150), Gaude (de mor. syst. S. Alph.), Wouters (de Minusprobab., ed. 2, p. 49), and many others clearly prove”Marc: he proves that equiprobabilism is the genuine system of St. Alphonsus, at least from 1762 | Marc, Institutiones I, n. 87 |
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.
| “The recent author alluded to confounds two very different things” | Slater, Cases of Conscience I, Conscience, case 2 |
| “The Rev. Father Wouters replies, in De Minusprobabilismo”Bucceroni answers his De minusprobabilismo, which he says others have already abundantly refuted | Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 56 |
| “If Wouters' retortion has force, it has force against St. Alphonsus”Bucceroni: his retort on Innocent III’s decree tells against St. Alphonsus, whose argument it is | Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 61 |
| “But Rev. Father Wouters objects, p. 67”Bucceroni rejects his reading of “certainly more probable” as more probable to the one opining | Bucceroni, Commentarii, n. 124 |
No article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).