Casuistry

( Ethics.) That branch of ethical science which profe es to deal with cases of conscience. It lays down rules or canons directing us how to act in all matters of moral doubt; whether and how far an obligation is binding upon us, or may be relaxed or di olved, on account of concomitant circumstances. Its rules are drawn from revelation, reason, the Canon Law, authority of the Fathers, . This science was much studied in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially by the Jesuits. It has, however, been cultivated in the Protestant as well as the Roman Catholic Church, and there was, until recently, a profe or of casuistry in the English Cambridge University.