Moral Theology: Its Method and Masters
The Positions in Charts
Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.
The virtues: Faith · Hope · Charity · Prudence · Justice · Fortitude · Temperance · In charts
These charts count the points set out on the pages of the positions compared: 404 points on which our authors part ways about the seven virtues. They measure how the authors divide where they dispute, not how often they agree in all their teaching, which is far more often. An author counts on a point when he is placed on one side of it; St. Alphonsus counts as our authors report him, and not where two of them report him on different sides. Pairs placed together on fewer than 8 points are left uncounted.
How Often Two Authors Answer Alike
For every two of the authors placed on at least 50 points: of the points both answer, the share they answer the same way. Blue, mostly alike; red, mostly not; gray, about half and half. Hover over a square for the count. The order is the order of the positions pages: St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus, then the Thomists (Billuart, Concina, Prümmer, Merkelbach, McHugh-Callan), the Franciscan (Bontempi), the Redemptorists (Marc, Wouters) and the Jesuits (Noldin, Sabetti-Barrett, Vermeersch).
- 25% or less
- 26–37%
- 38–46%
- 47–53%
- 54–62%
- 63–75%
- over 75%
- too few shared points
Slide the chart sideways to see all of it.
Authors of the same school answer alike on 53% of the points they share, on average over 14 pairs; authors of different schools on 37%, over 41 pairs.
The figures as a table
| Authors | Points both answer | The same way | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Alphonsus and Marc | 40 | 35 | 88% |
| Billuart and Concina | 30 | 25 | 83% |
| St. Alphonsus and Wouters | 28 | 22 | 79% |
| St. Thomas and Merkelbach | 101 | 74 | 73% |
| St. Thomas and Billuart | 17 | 12 | 71% |
| St. Alphonsus and Sabetti-Barrett | 24 | 16 | 67% |
| St. Thomas and Concina | 23 | 15 | 65% |
| Marc and Wouters | 89 | 56 | 63% |
| St. Thomas and McHugh-Callan | 60 | 37 | 62% |
| Prümmer and McHugh-Callan | 86 | 51 | 59% |
| Wouters and Sabetti-Barrett | 41 | 24 | 59% |
| St. Thomas and Prümmer | 69 | 39 | 57% |
| Wouters and Noldin | 116 | 65 | 56% |
| Billuart and McHugh-Callan | 18 | 10 | 56% |
| Merkelbach and McHugh-Callan | 131 | 72 | 55% |
| McHugh-Callan and Sabetti-Barrett | 34 | 18 | 53% |
| Billuart and Prümmer | 23 | 12 | 52% |
| Marc and Sabetti-Barrett | 56 | 29 | 52% |
| McHugh-Callan and Noldin | 98 | 50 | 51% |
| Noldin and Vermeersch | 98 | 50 | 51% |
| Concina and Prümmer | 55 | 28 | 51% |
| St. Alphonsus and Bontempi | 14 | 7 | 50% |
| Prümmer and Merkelbach | 160 | 79 | 49% |
| McHugh-Callan and Vermeersch | 66 | 32 | 48% |
| Marc and Noldin | 122 | 59 | 48% |
| Billuart and Wouters | 25 | 12 | 48% |
| Sabetti-Barrett and Vermeersch | 44 | 21 | 48% |
| Noldin and Sabetti-Barrett | 59 | 28 | 47% |
| Merkelbach and Wouters | 125 | 59 | 47% |
| Billuart and Merkelbach | 34 | 16 | 47% |
| Billuart and Marc | 17 | 8 | 47% |
| Prümmer and Noldin | 136 | 62 | 46% |
| Marc and Vermeersch | 88 | 40 | 45% |
| Wouters and Vermeersch | 78 | 35 | 45% |
| Billuart and Bontempi | 18 | 8 | 44% |
| Merkelbach and Vermeersch | 116 | 51 | 44% |
| Prümmer and Marc | 109 | 46 | 42% |
| McHugh-Callan and Wouters | 69 | 29 | 42% |
| Merkelbach and Noldin | 158 | 66 | 42% |
| Merkelbach and Marc | 130 | 54 | 42% |
| Concina and McHugh-Callan | 32 | 13 | 41% |
| Concina and Bontempi | 25 | 10 | 40% |
| Prümmer and Wouters | 99 | 39 | 39% |
| McHugh-Callan and Marc | 80 | 31 | 39% |
| Bontempi and Marc | 46 | 17 | 37% |
| Billuart and Noldin | 30 | 11 | 37% |
| Concina and Marc | 53 | 19 | 36% |
| St. Alphonsus and Noldin | 37 | 13 | 35% |
| Concina and Merkelbach | 58 | 20 | 34% |
| Prümmer and Bontempi | 68 | 23 | 34% |
| St. Alphonsus and Concina | 18 | 6 | 33% |
| Concina and Wouters | 33 | 11 | 33% |
| St. Alphonsus and Vermeersch | 31 | 10 | 32% |
| Bontempi and Sabetti-Barrett | 25 | 8 | 32% |
| St. Alphonsus and Merkelbach | 44 | 14 | 32% |
| Billuart and Vermeersch | 22 | 7 | 32% |
| St. Thomas and Marc | 40 | 12 | 30% |
| Prümmer and Vermeersch | 90 | 27 | 30% |
| St. Thomas and Sabetti-Barrett | 17 | 5 | 29% |
| Merkelbach and Sabetti-Barrett | 59 | 17 | 29% |
| St. Thomas and Bontempi | 64 | 18 | 28% |
| Prümmer and Sabetti-Barrett | 57 | 16 | 28% |
| Bontempi and Noldin | 61 | 17 | 28% |
| St. Thomas and Wouters | 47 | 13 | 28% |
| St. Alphonsus and Prümmer | 40 | 11 | 28% |
| St. Thomas and Noldin | 62 | 17 | 27% |
| Bontempi and Vermeersch | 41 | 11 | 27% |
| St. Thomas and Vermeersch | 31 | 8 | 26% |
| McHugh-Callan and Bontempi | 66 | 17 | 26% |
| Bontempi and Wouters | 43 | 11 | 26% |
| Concina and Noldin | 60 | 15 | 25% |
| St. Alphonsus and McHugh-Callan | 25 | 6 | 24% |
| Merkelbach and Bontempi | 97 | 23 | 24% |
| Concina and Vermeersch | 40 | 8 | 20% |
| St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus | 8 | 1 | 13% |
| Concina and Sabetti-Barrett | 31 | 3 | 10% |
| Billuart and Sabetti-Barrett | 18 | 1 | 6% |
With St. Thomas
Of the points where St. Thomas is placed, how often each author takes his side. The dashed line marks half.
With St. Alphonsus
Of the points where our authors report St. Alphonsus's opinion, how often each author takes his side. His Theologia moralis is not yet in this library, so these are reports, chiefly Marc's, Wouters's, Prümmer's, Noldin's and Sabetti-Barrett's.
St. Alphonsus and the majority
The 22 points where most of our authors take the other side
- Questioned by authority: must one answer (Faith)
- The motive of hope (Hope)
- Sinning before the hardened or the holy (Charity)
- Counselling the lesser evil (Charity)
- Going to law against an enemy (Charity)
- A proximate danger of sin to help a neighbor (Charity)
- Warning one who breaks a law in ignorance (Charity)
- Which virtue indirect scandal offends (Charity)
- How often an act of charity is due (Charity)
- Worn vestments put to common use: unlawful or lawful once changed (Justice)
- Damaging the wrong owner by mistake (Justice)
- Repairing personal harm with money (Justice)
- A judge privately certain of innocence (Justice)
- Whether asking pardon always suffices (Justice)
- Stealing a purse in a church: sacrilege, or only if the church held it (Justice)
- Breaking a private vow of chastity: sacrilege or not (Justice)
- The superior's wish without a command: matter of obedience or not (Justice)
- Restitution lost in the confessor's hands (Justice)
- How often the precept of prayer binds (Justice)
- Making another drunk to prevent a greater sin (Temperance)
- Delight in a pictured sin: whether it takes the circumstances (Temperance)
- Incest in the first degree: a species of its own, or one with the rest (Temperance)
How Settled Each Virtue's Questions Are
Each virtue's disputed points, sorted by how our authors divide on them (St. Thomas and St. Alphonsus apart). A point where all our authors who answer it agree is a dispute still: St. Thomas or St. Alphonsus stands apart, or the fuller entry records a dissent outside this library or a difference of reason.
- All who answer it agree
- Two-thirds or more on one side
- A smaller majority
- Evenly divided
- Only one author answers it
Our Authors Through Time
Each author's life, and a dot for the year of each of his works in this library, the year of the edition we hold: a filled dot for one published in his lifetime, a ring for one published after his death. Two dates mark the changes our authors most often reckon with.
Slide the chart sideways to see all of it.