MUZZARELLI, ALFONSO. - Jesuit, theologian, and writer, born at Ferrara on 22 Aug. 1749, died at Paris on 25 May 1813.
Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1768 and having been overtaken, in 1773, by the suppression of the Order, he completed his ecclesiastical studies at Reggio Emilia, where he was ordained priest. Immediately afterward he obtained a canonry at Ferrara; then the directorship of the Collegio dei Nobili at Parma. Called to Rome by Pio VII, he received from him the office of theologian of the S. Penitenzieria and censor of the Accademia cattolica. When Pio VII was exiled from Rome (1809), M. had to share his fate, for he was first imprisoned at Civitavecchia and then deported to Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life in the convent of the Dames de St Michel.
His works on theology, philosophy, and asceticism were numerous; the principal one was: Il buon uso della logica in materia di religione (6 vols., Foligno 1787-89; enlarged ed. in 10 vols., Roma 1807; 11 vols., Firenze 1821-23, and various translations), in which he addressed the theological questions most hotly debated in his day: abuses of the Church, temporal power, religious tolerance, ecclesiastical immunities, infallibility, auricular confession, indulgences, etc. Also: L'Emilio disingannato (4 vols., Siena 1782-83) and Confutazione del « Contratto sociale » di G. G. Rousseau (2 vols., Foligno 1794). His most popular work was: Il Mese di Maria ossia di Maggio (Ferrara 1783), which to the present day has had more than 150 eds., with variations and adaptations for the different states of life, and numerous translations.