CASUISTRY

In Theology, a casuist is a doctor charged with the decision of cases of conscience. The Jesuits were distinguished for the cultivation of this mixed subject of theology and ethics; which was admirably calculated to promote the crafty policy of that order. The science of casuistry, however, has been cultivated in the Protestant as well as the Papal church; and until very recently there was a profe or of casuistry at Cambridge. (See Mayer's Bibliotheca of Casuists.) [s. 215]