ALFONSO MARIA DE' LIGUORI, Saint - Profession of faith
with autograph signature (1762) - Vatican Secret Archives. Fondo
Processi Concettoriali.
Tommaso Falcoia, bishop of Castellammare di Stabia,
led him, on 9 Nov. 1732, to the founding of the
Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour, later called
that of the Most Holy Redeemer (v. REDENTORISTI). His
first attempts to give the institute a stable form clashed
against the outright opposition of the major chaplain Celestino Galiani, of the minister Tanucci and of
other men of the government, who did not want to hear
talk of new religious Orders, when they were thinking
of suppressing those already existing. On 25 Feb. 1749 he obtained
from the pope, Benedict XIV, ecclesiastical approval.
After very hard efforts he succeeded in 1752 in wresting a royal
decree, which granted the Congregation an existence precarious indeed, but sufficient, for the time, to guarantee
it against further attacks. The founder took advantage of this
to organize the work with an unmistakable character
and to extend the apostolate of the disciples and his own
by opening colleges in the Papal State and in Sicily. And
the results of his missionary method were splendid,
God contributing to them with singular prodigies.
In 1762 he was elected bishop of Sant'Agata dei Goti.
Around this period his holiness, already eminent,
shone more vividly, with echoes even outside Italy.
The popular and energetic apostle, who for thirty years
had evangelized the multitudes, without affectation, indeed
combating the flowery style of Fathers Giacchi and Bandiera, brought to his diocese the same ardour in extirpating
inveterate abuses, in restoring crumbling churches
and in attending to the liturgical decorum of the functions.
He had the greatest solicitude for the seminary, raising
its moral and scholarly tone, and he made himself famous in the period
of the famine of 1763-64 with norms against hoarding
and sagacious provisions to relieve the hardships.
In 1775, having left the episcopate, he retired to Pagani, where,
although very ill, he continued to write and to encourage
the apostolate against the Enlightenment, faithful to the
vow never to waste time.
He was canonized by Gregory XVI in 1839, and proclaimed Doctor of the universal Church by Pius IX
in 1871.
2. HIS WORK
All his activity as
missionary, bishop, writer, artist, has always a single
purpose: to continue the work of the Redeemer, which is
to save souls. The sovereign means of this redemption
is for him the « internal mission », which he organizes in such a way
that it first shakes souls from spiritual torpor with a clear preaching of the great truths about the destiny
of man, and then launches them on the way of salvation, rooting
in them the love for Jesus crucified, which alone
guarantees a life of true virtue. He directs this mission
to the souls most spiritually abandoned; and to
make it continuous he founds the missionary Congregation
of the Redemptorists.
3. LITERARY ACTIVITY
His literary activity
is born from his apostolate, which it integrates and amplifies,
and assumes a constantly pastoral character.
This pastoral sensitivity sharpens in him the search
for immediacy, which makes him omit every argument
not directly assimilable by the conscience, and leads him
to a psychological conceptualizing. Science is
deepened into pastoral wisdom and concepts and
words become spirit and truth. Such pastoral literary
activity extends as far as his whole priestly life.
A.'s first writings are works of asceticism: the Eternal
Maxims (1728), the Spiritual Songs (1732), and the little book
of the Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament (1745), whose success
astounded the author himself (Lettere di sant'A., III, Desclée,
Rome 1890, pp. 34, 65-68, 101). In 1746 there appears
the first work of moral theology: Dissertation on the abuse of
cursing the dead, followed, two years later, by the first edition
of the Theologia moralis, a volume in 4to, transformed
through the 9 editions made of it during the author's lifetime
(the last is of 1785), into three large folio volumes. The first
edition contained the text of the Medulla theol. moralis
of the Jesuit H. Busembaum, enriched with notes and six appendices. Among these one on pontifical infallibility and another
on the Immaculate Conception, which followed upon the bitter
polemic aroused around the De ingeniorum moderatione
of Muratori. In the 2nd ed. (1753-55) there appeared at the foot of the
two volumes an Elenchus quaestionum reformatarum (91) which
steered the probabilism then professed by the author toward
that reform to which he had been tending since that time. The text and the
name of Busembaum disappeared from the 6th ed. onward
(1767). Of the work, recommended by an ever-growing success,
the A. made two compendia: Practice of the confessor
(1755), Instruction and practice for a novice confessor (1755),
both translated into Latin and printed respectively, with
the title of Praxis confessarii and Homo apostolicus, in the years
1757 and 1759.
In 1749 he published, anonymously, a Dissetatio scholastico-moralis pro usu moderato opinionis probabilis, followed in 1755 by another with the same title, also
anonymous. They were soon abandoned by him and
suppressed from the Theologia moralis (the Remondini, through an
error reproved by the Saint, reprinted them in the 5th ed.,
1763) because they did not correspond to the new moral conception
to which he gave definitive expression in 1762.
In 1750 he published the Glories of Mary, with which he
came to enter into polemic with the Regolata divozione of
Muratori. Then follow, at a short distance one from the other, the Advices pertaining to the religious vocation (1750), the Love of
souls (1751), Manner of conversing continuously and familiarly with God (1754), Uniformity with the will of God
(1755), Warnings to novice confessors (1756), Preparation
for death (1758), Discourses to be given in time
of plagues (1758), Novena of the Holy Nativity (1758), Novena of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1758), On the great means of
prayer (1759), destined to give a new direction to
the discussions on grace, The true spouse of Jesus Christ (1760),
and Forest of preachable matters (1760). A little work of apologetics against deism appeared in 1756 with the title: Brief
dissertation against the errors of the modern unbelievers. Almost
contemporaneously with the printing of the Jansenistic catechism of Mésenguy, ordered by Tanucci, A. published,
under the eyes of the minister, the brief Diss. de iusta prohibitione et abolitione librorum nocuae lectionis (1759), to reclaim for the Church the exclusive right to censure and
prohibit books that treat of religious matters. The very rapid success
of the pamphlet earned exile for the royal censor,
the Dominican P. Sacco, and an enormous popularity for the author
of the audacious little book.
There date from 1762 a Breve dottrina cristiana, Verità della Fede, fatta evidente dai contrassegni della sua credibilità, and the Breve dissertazione dell'uso moderato dell'opinione probabile, in which he fixes his thought on the choice of opinions in matters that are probable. With it A. entered into polemic with the Dominicans Daniello Concina and Gianvincenzo Patuzzi, representatives of that semi-rigid tuziorism then greatly in vogue. But while of Concina the author cites the name and the works, on Patuzzi he always passes over tette nomine. The expedient aroused the wrath of the fierce Dominican, who replied, in 1764, with a kind of libel: La causa del probabilismo richiamata dall'esame da mons. d. d. De' Liguori e mesellamente convinta di falsità, in an acrid and scornful tone. The Apology, published by A. in the same year, soon convinced Patuzzi that he had found in his path one who knew how to stand up to him. He replied, this time in a lower key, with some Osservazioni teologiche (1765), attempting to bend his adversary with the weapons of persuasion and even of supplication. A. found nothing new in the rejoinder, wherefore as a final reply he decided to merge the Breve dissertazione and the Apologia and publish them in one volume: Dell'uso moderato della opinione probabile (1765). Some new clarification and many letters of adherence closed the polemic. A Monitum that appeared in the 6th ed. of the Theologia moralis (1767) and a Dichiarazione del sistema published in 1774 reaffirm in concise terms his thought, now free of that anxiety for progress that is in his moral writings prior to 1762.
From 1767 to 1776 he published, besides ascetical writings, the volumes of controversy: Verità della fede contro i materialisti e deisti (1767), Istruzione al popolo sopra i precetti del Decalogo (1767), in opposition to the catechism of Mésenguy; Pratica di amar Gesù Cristo (1768), Vindiciae pro suprema Rom. Pontificis potestate (1768), an energetic defense of pontifical infallibility against the De Statu Ecclesiae of Nikolaus von Hontheim (Febronius); Opere dommatica contro gli eretici pretesi riformati (1769), confining among the common heretics Baius, Jansenius, Arnauld, Quesnel and their followers; Trionfo della Chiesa (1772), Riflessioni sulla Passione di Gesù Cristo (1773), Riflessioni sulla verità della divina Rivoluzione (1773), Traduzione dei Salmi e Cantici (1774), Vittorie dei Martiri (1775), Condotta ammirabile della divina Provvidenza (1775), and Dissertazioni teologico-morali appartenenti alla vita eterna (1776).
We are very far from a complete list of his works, which comprises fully 111 numbers, without counting the reworkings, the additions and the unpublished writings.
4. THE MORALIST
His thought moves on the terrain of casuistic morality (v. CASISTICA); that is, the morality that guides in the immediate application of general principles and positive laws to individual cases. The historical background is the great struggle between the two interpretations of evangelical morality in contact with modern life: the interpretation that takes a negative attitude and consequently is characterized by rigor; the interpretation that tends toward a sound understanding of modern life. Exasperations of the one and the other tendency are laxism and rigorism, condemned by the Church.
In this struggle A., basing himself on St. Thomas and on the classic moralists of the 16th and 17th centuries, chooses the equilibrium that lies in the middle.
As a student of theology, he adhered to a moral doctrine that tends toward rigor. As a young missionary, he began a work of experimental verification of this morality, and having recognized it as harmful to souls, he courageously undertook the defense of probabilistic morality which, at least in the lecture halls, had lost much ground. He nevertheless subjected this morality to a severe critique, guided by his pastoral prudence, which on the one hand is founded on the loyal search for and adherence to objective truth and on the other is sensitive to the subjective data of conscience. He thus breaks decisively with the current probabilism which, in its decline, appeared as a technical calculation of extrinsic probability.
His method is described by himself as follows: «Reading the authors, I found some too indulgent, who without concerning themselves with the truth, write to please the world. Always ready to place cushions under the heads of sinners, they lull them to sleep in vice. There is no doubting that these theologians cause immense harm to the Church, because whoever loves the easy way hastens to follow their maxims. I found others who in their excessive rigidity confuse counsels with precepts and burden consciences with new weights, taking no account of human frailty. The one lead souls to perdition by laxity and the others by discouragement.
In composing the present book I set out to keep to the just mean between laxism and rigorism. To enlighten myself in doubtful questions I shrank from no labor. I consulted the classic authors both ancient and modern, those of the mild opinion and those of the rigid. I was particularly engaged in examining at their sources all the texts of canon law relating to the matters treated: I carefully noted the passages of the holy Fathers, adding reflections to them: I transcribed and reported the sentences of St. Thomas, drawn from their source. In intricate controversies, when it was impossible for me to resolve doubts by reading the authors, I discussed with learned persons to derive advantage from it. In evaluating opinions I always took more account of reason than of authority: before pronouncing a judgment I sought to preserve the most complete indifference so as not to let myself be moved either by prejudice or by passion. Having thus determined, as far as was granted me to do, the precise respective value of the opinions, I gave them the characteristic note of "less probable", "equally probable", "more probable". Finally, so as not to leave readers perplexed, I took pains to indicate in most cases the opinion I adopted, contrary to so many authors, who content themselves with reporting the opinions of others, without making their own known, to the great disappointment of whoever peruses their books» (Adnotationes in «Medullam Theologiae moralis» Busembaum, 1753).
With such a method and in this spirit he elaborated the whole Theologia moralis, especially the treatise De Poenitentia.
In the field of theoretical morality, there presented itself to him as an obligatory theme the question of the "moral system", as regards the formation of the conscience that must act and yet does not possess certainty about the objective truth that must guide it. He assumes without further ado the probabilistic principle: «Lex dubia non obligat», and his apologies, little known, document his dialectical vigor in the controversy with Father Patuzzi, a probabiliorist. Such a principle is limited, however, to the case of true doubt. For A., when in the conscience a firmly decided opinion is formed, it is not honest to reject it. And in order that this decided opinion be formed A. insists on the sincere search for every light that can emanate from objective truth. Coherently with this spirit the cases resolved by him with the system are very few; in this his Theologia moralis differs from many others of his time. This spirit of interiority and pastoral sensitivity determined the adherence of almost the whole nineteenth century to the thought of the Saint.
5. THE DOGMATIC THEOLOGIAN
His positive character oriented him toward the problems most immediate to the life of the believer, threatened by Voltairean Enlightenment and by Jansenism in its latest practical developments. Therefore his dogmatic work has a more controversialist than systematic character. With his full adherence to Revelation, he has an unfailing sense of the intimate life of the Church, which together with his understanding of the needs of souls makes his theology a "theologia salutis."
The Church as the sole means of salvation is the end of the path to truth and is the sole depositary of all the means of salvation. His apologetics, with a logical procedure uncommon in the eighteenth century, leads the unbeliever to the Church by passing through a threefold stage: to the atheist he demonstrates the existence of God; to the deist the existence of positive religion; to the non-Catholic the divinity of the Catholic Church. In this ascent he calls the whole man to the truth, appealing not only to the intellect but also to moral and psychological factors. Proceeding further, once the divinity of the Catholic Church has been accepted, A. underscores the absolute guarantee of the message that the Church guards, defending the infallibility of the ecclesiastical magisterium. The Vatican Council would acknowledge A.'s activity in this field. The message guarded by the Church is a message of redemption. Jansenism, by limiting its scope, froze souls: A. reacts and makes his own the motto: Copiosa apud eum redemptio. In his work Condotta ammirabile della divina Provvidenza he affirms, through history, the universality of redemption and the unchanging unity of the divine plan of salvation with regard to men. Creation and Redemption merge in his thought into a single divine plan to make man blessed. God's original program, he writes, remains intact even after sin. The changes introduced by the fall of the first man concern rather the means through which God will arrive at the realization of his design of love. The starting point is the prayer of the Church: "gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam." How does one thank God for his glory if not on condition of discerning that glory reflected in men through the Incarnation and the Redemption? Rather than a law belonging to the human constitution, he writes, sin is an exterior episode of our history, whose offensive power is subject to the economy of the Redemption.
The conclusion developed in the book Gran mezzo della preghiera concerns our attitude before grace: which is always an attitude of free and therefore responsible collaboration. But concerning our weakness in regard to salvation A. could not delude himself. A law of mendicancy, he says, governs our relations with God. Yet what is weakness is also strength: one might say that we are rich in our indigence. God has made prayer a law; but more than prayer, the humble awareness of our misery and of God's sovereign, paternal dominion is a law. It is incredible, he writes against Jansenius, that a law impossible to observe should have been imposed on us. Rather the economy of Providence is different: God commands nature to do what it could not do by itself, because it is deprived of means, precisely in order to make us experience the necessity of asking for them, and thus to live in the essential dependence existing between us and him.
Is it not he himself who with paternal insistence exhorts us to this "great means" which psychologically is experienced as easy, and is easy for all?
Granted then on the one hand that without God's help we can do nothing, and granted on the other that God answers those who pray to him, who does not see that prayer is absolutely necessary for salvation?
The efficacy of grace for A. is conditioned by the efficacy of prayer. But this, although initially a divine work, is in our hands as an interior responsibility. Which resolves itself in this new and most beautiful truth, that prayer is not only a universal law, but is in us a possibility, "the great means" of equally universal salvation: prayer is grace!
Sufficient grace, which in common teaching is given to all, thus coincides with prayer, which is grace and law, a most high gift of God and our supreme duty. Prayer is ours as the beginning of salvation given to us by sufficient grace, which thus reveals itself as efficacious and operative, and is not only the possibility of acting but action in fact, a setting out toward the observance of the most arduous precepts, which we reach by means of efficacious grace, which God does not refuse to those who pray to him. But all this is also God's because it is grace, a help divinely grafted into the fibers of our soul.
A complete knowledge of A.'s dogmatic thought must take into account what he wrote and defended, in the Glorie di Maria, on the Immaculate Conception, a doctrine much disputed in the eighteenth century, but which A. declared "proxime definibilis," and on the patronage of the Virgin. The doctrine that increasingly dominates Catholic theology of Mary's universal mediation in the distribution of graces goes back to him, or at least the theological formula discussed in the schools is his. For this he was accused of innovation, whereas he did nothing but defend a truth that had lived in the Church since the most remote antiquity.
6. THE MASTER OF ASCETICS
A.'s ascetics is Christocentric. The Pratica di amar G. C., a fundamental work, begins with this affirmation: "All the holiness and perfection of a soul consists in loving Jesus Christ, our God, our supreme good, and our Savior." And the reason is evident, because if holiness comes from the Father, "the Eternal Father declares that he loves us insofar as we love Jesus Christ. Moreover he grants us graces insofar as we ask them of him in the name of the Son; and he admits us to eternal beatitude insofar as he finds us conformed to the life of Jesus Christ" (Novena del Cuore di G.).
To love Jesus Christ is to follow him. For A. the program enunciated by Jesus is fundamental: "Qui vult venire post me abnegat semetipsum, tollat crucem suam et sequatur me" (Breve pratica per la perfezione...). It is a volitional love, made of great desires and of works: "One must love him (God) with all one's heart, resolutely desiring to reach the greatest perfection in order to please God. But then one must unite works to desires with fortitude in the occasions" (ibid.).
This strong love works an interior change which for A. is fundamental and without which every ascetics would be vain: detachment ("abnegat semetipsum, tollat crucem suam"). "In a heart that is full of earth, the love of God finds no place; and the more earth there is, the less divine love reigns there. Therefore whoever desires to have the heart full of divine love must attend to removing all the earth from it" (Opuscoli sull'amore divino, n. 8). It is love that works this detachment, and it is detachment that makes love more perfect: "Whoever truly loves Jesus Christ loses affection for all the goods of earth, and seeks to strip himself of everything in order to remain united to Jesus Christ alone. Toward Jesus are all his desires, of Jesus he always thinks, for Jesus he always sighs, and only to Jesus in every place, at every time, on every occasion does he seek to be pleasing. But to reach this one must continually attend to emptying the heart of every affection that is not for God" (Pratica di amar G. C., chap. 2, n. 24).
In a soul where the love of Jesus and detachment from creatures triumph, union with God is determined. "God wants the soul to be stripped of everything so that he may unite it to himself and fill it with his divine love" (ibid., n. 23). This union for A. is perfect uniformity with the will of God, and here he places the summit of perfection. "All our perfection consists in loving our most lovable God. But then the perfection of God consists in uniting our will to his most holy will; and not only in conforming ourselves but in unifying ourselves to whatever God disposes. Conformity means that we join our will to the will of God; but uniformity means more, that of the divine will and our own we make one single will, so that we want nothing other than what God wants, and the will of God alone is ours. This is the summit of perfection" (Opuscoli sull'amore divino: Uniformità alla volontà di Dio).
The means for sanctification arise from its nature. Love of Jesus demands knowledge of Jesus, hence the assiduous contemplation of the Crucifix. "Whoever considers the immense love that Jesus Christ has shown us in his life and especially in his death, in suffering so many pains for our salvation, it is impossible that he should not remain wounded and set aflame to love a God so enamored of our souls" (Saette di fuoco...).
Detachment is brought about by means of mortification, more interior than exterior. The personal austerity of A. is well known. Yet he wrote thus to a religious Community: "What hair shirts! I am sending you a good supply of books that may better help you to make yourselves saints... Love, laugh: whoever loves a God so good must never admit thoughts of sadness into his heart." Finally, union with God is brought about especially by means of mental prayer, of Holy Communion, and of the continual remembrance of the presence of God (Breve pratica della perfezione; Pratica di amar G. C., ch. 8; Opuscoli sull'amore divino, n. 2).
But the "great means" for A. is prayer, because it alone obtains grace for us: "Whoever prays is saved, whoever does not pray is damned." Here the devotion to Mary Most Holy is essentially grafted, which pervades the whole of Alphonsian ascetics: Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces; it is therefore vain to hope for sanctification without Mary.
The ascetics of A. opens onto mysticism: "The whole aim of a soul must be union with God; but it is not necessary for the soul, in order to become holy, to reach passive union; it is enough to reach active union: active union is perfect uniformity to the will of God" (Pratica del Confessore, ch. 9, n. 129).
7. THE FORTUNE OF THE WORKS
The writings of St. A. enjoyed a fortune such as is rarely found in the literary history of the Church. The Visite al S.mo Sacramento, the Glorie di Maria, the Apparecchio alla morte, the Pratica di amar Gesù Cristo, are by now universal books, the patrimony of the devotion of the people and also profitable reading for erudite theology. While the author was alive, they invaded Europe. We find them in all the regions of Italy, in Germany, in France, in Poland, in Spain. After his death they may be said to have become worldwide.
It is difficult to give a complete statistic of the various editions of his works. An attempt was made in the Acta doctoratus, today superseded by a more imposing bibliographical study in which the editions of his works in the various languages must be counted in the thousands. But what matters is the influence they exercised in the history of the Church from the eighteenth century to our own day, especially in the defeat of Jansenism in the various countries of Europe.
Bibliography10 works
Theological studies: a) MORAL: B. Lanteri, Réflexions sur la sainteté et la doctrine du b. L., Lyon 1823, Italian trans., Reggio 1825; T. Gousset, Justification de la théologie morale du b. A. d. L., Besançon 1832; Vindicine alphonse, Brussels 1874; L. Gaudé, De morali systemate s. A., Rome 1894; L. Jansen, L'équiprobabilisme, in Revue thomiste 6 (1898), pp. 354, 420; id., La question hyacétique, Galoppe 1899; I. De Caigny, De genuins systemate s. A., Bruges 1901; L. Wouters, De minusprobabilisme, Freiburg 1905; S. Mondino, Studio storico-critico sul sistema morale di s. A., Monza 1911; E. Thamiry, La théol. morale de st. A., in Les questions ecclésiastiques, 2 (1912), p. 55-57; F. Delarue, Le système moral de st. A., St-Etienne 1920. - Father L. Gaudé edited the critical ed. of the Theologia moralis, in 4 vols., Rome 1905. - b) DOGMATIC: A. de Calonne, Système de st. A. sur la grâce, Paris 1868; H. Nimal, St. A. et la dogmatique, in Echo religieux de Belgique, 3 (1901), p. 176; C. Ryder, St. A. system of Grace According to his Teaching in his Treatise on Prayer, London 1903; L. De Ridder, St. A. et la théologie dogmatique, in Nouv. Revue Théol., 56 (1904), p. 233-235; G. Van Rossum, S. A. et Immaculata Concepto B. M. V., Rome 1904; L. Jansen, S. A. doctrine de inflavus Dei in deliberatum voluntatis creatae activitutea, Aachen 1920; E. Theyskens, St. A. et la médiation universelle de Marie, Brussels 1922; Cl. Dillenschneider, La Mariologie de st. A., 2 vols., Freiburg 1931-37; G. Cacciatore, S. A. et la guarnitisme, Florence 1944. - Father L. Walter gathered and translated into Latin the theological treatises of St. A.: S. A. opera dogmatica, Rome 1903. - c) ASCETICAL: V. A. Dechamp, St. A. considère dans sa vie, ses vertus et sa doctrine spirituelle, Malines 1840; H. Manning, The mission of st. A., Dublin 1864; L. Gauthier, La miséricorde et la joie: Études littéraires pour la défense de l'Église, Paris 1865; M. De Meulemeester, Influences acctiques de st. A. en Belgique, Esschen 1923; C. Keusch, Die Aszetik des hl. A. M. v. L., Paderborn 1926; Italian trans., G. Di Fabio, La doctrine spirituale di s. A., Milan 1931; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, La testimonianza di s. A. paragonato a quelle di s. Tommaso e di s. Giovanni della Croce, in L'amore di Dio e la croce di Gesù, II, Turin 1936, pp. 101-223; G. Cacciatore, La spiritualità di s. A., in Le scuole cattoliche di spiritualità, Milan 1944; H. Manders, Liefde in de spiritualiteit van sint Alfonse, Brussels 1947. - In 1933 the Redemptorists began a critical collection of the ascetical writings of St. A.: Opere ascetiche, Rome 1933 ff.; 7 vols. have appeared so far.
Various studies: C. Romano, Delle opere di s. A. d. L., Rome 1866; J. Bogaerts, S. A. M. d. L., musicien et la réforme du chant sacré, Paris 1899; B. Bracchman, Étude sur l'éloquence apostolique de st. A. M. d. L., Houlers 1912; M. Palladino, S. A. poeta, Caserta 1917; A. Van Bervliet, La liturgie dans la piété alphonse, Esschen 1925; C. Keusch, Le vrai visage de st. A. M. d. L., Paris 1930; G. Gregorio, Canzoniere alfonse: Studio critico estetico col testo, Angri 1933; id., S. A. grammatico, Materdomini 1938; A. Santonicola, S. A. et l'azione cattolica, Pompei 1939; G. de Luca, S. A. uomo grande, in Scritti su richiesto, Brescia 1944.
Anti-Alphonsian publications: St. Alphonsus's Moral Theology in particular was vigorously attacked by Protestants, Old Catholics, and Orthodox: G. Maxwell, S. A. L. and the Redemptorists, Dublin 1859; G. Döllinger-G. Reusch, Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten... Nördlingen 1889; R. Grassmann, Auszüge aus der Moralthologie des h. A., Stettin 1901; id., Moralthologie des Liguori und die furchtbare Gefahr dieser für die Sittlichkeit der Völker, ibid. 1903 and 1909; A. Eisenhölz, Liguori oder Luther, Vienna 1901; G. Hoepel, S. Liguori und Christliche Moralt, in Christliche Welt, 16 (1902), cols. 670-84, 793-798; C. Dembion, Annales parlamentaires belges, Brussels 1903, p. 319; A. Anspach, A propos de st. A., Tournai 1903; M. Ludendorff, Ein Blick in die Moraltlehre der römischen Kirche, Munich 1930; A. Bruckner, Die Gebote im Lichte der Moralthologie des h. A. v. L., Schkeuditz 1930. The bitter invectives against St. Alphonsus led 20 years ago in Norway to a real trial, with the establishment of a substantial prize for anyone who could prove the charges well-founded, and it ended with a complete rehabilitation of the Saint, something that made a great impression in Protestant circles (Steinsvik-Riesterer trial at Kristiansand, 1928; cf. Les Nouvelles Religieuses, 11 (1928), pp. 73-75).
For a more complete bibliography, v. M. De Meulemeester, Bibliographie générale des écrivains Rédemptoristes, Louvain 1933; vol. I is devoted entirely to St. Alphonsus.
Giuseppe Cacciatore