SASSERATH, RAINER. - Conventual Franciscan and moral theologian, b. at Holtzheim near Reuss on 20 Aug. 1696, d. at Cologne between 1771 and 1775. He entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual at Cologne in 1712 and, after obtaining a degree in theology at its University on 22 Jan. 1744, taught moral theology there for many years. He was provincial minister of Germany and general definitor.
Among other works, he left a Directorium confessariorum; but his fame is linked to the principal work of his life: Cursus theologiae moralis tripartitus, which went through repeated editions during his lifetime (2nd ed., 3 vols., Cologne 1760; 4th ed., 4 vols., Augsburg 1771). The work is divided into three parts: 1) De actibus humanis, legibus, conscientia, peccatis, censuris et virtutibus theologicis; 2) De virtute religionis, de iustitia et iure, de contractibus; 3) De Sacramentis in genere et in specie et de indulgentiis. The division of treatises which he adopted, apparently for the first time, is still used, more or less, in almost all manuals of moral theology. The clarity and solidity of the work, as well as the balance of its author, ranked among the most representative probabilists, are unanimously recognized and praised.