BUSEMBAUM, HERMANN. — Jesuit, moralist, born at Nottuln (Westphalia) in 1600, died at Münster on 31 January 1669. A professor for several years of philosophy, dogmatic theology, and moral theology, then rector at Hildesheim and Münster, and a highly esteemed spiritual director, he owes his universal fame to the work Medulla theologiae moralis (Münster 1650).
As professor of moral theology at Cologne, he had composed for his students a brief, clear, well-organized compendium, making use of the notes and memoranda of two of his predecessors, Frs. H. Nünning and F. von Spee; the compendium was so well received that it had to be printed, and it met with such favor that, in addition to its numerous editions (more than 200 up to 1766), it also served as the basic text on which celebrated theologians such as C. La Croix, A. Ballerini, and especially s. Alfonso de' Liguori based their extensive commentaries. Indeed, before his work Theologia moralis, the Saint published the same Medulla in four successive editions (Naples 1748; there, 2 vols., 1753–55; Rome, 3 vols., 1757; there, 3 vols., 1760), adding increasingly extensive notes and appendices. Nevertheless, vehement criticisms of B. were not lacking; in fact, some opinions accepted by B. as probable were later condemned by Alexander VII (1665–66) and Innocent XI (1679), and were therefore rectified in later editions. More arduous was the controversy over the proposition concerning the lawfulness of personal defense even to the point of killing the unjust aggressor, even if he were a sovereign (l. III, tr. iv, cap. 1, doubt 3, no. 8), for which the Medulla was condemned to the flames by the Parlements of Paris and Toulouse (1757); and over the proposition that the end justifies the means (l. IV, cap. 3, doubt 7, art. 2, no. 3). But the first proposition, even if judged inopportune, is in itself true and just, according to eminent theologians, among them s. Antonino, from whom it is taken almost literally, and it is also substantially admitted by s. Tommaso. The second concerns only those means which are in themselves indifferent and therefore remain justified by a legitimate end.