CASTJARINA. 310 CASUISTRY. used for clubs and other imiilements of war. It has been introduced into India, where it grows rapidly upon even poor, sandy soil, and where it is much valued, as its wood bears a great s^train and is not readily injured by submersion in water. The hanlncss and dural)ility of this wood led the earlier voyagers to the South Sea Islands to designate it ironwood. Casuarma slricta is the "coast she-oak' of New South Wales. In Australia, where the Casuannas abound, they are considered among the most valuable trees. For the most part, the wood is hard, compact, vet easily worked, and is used in munv kinds df building, for implements, cab- inetwork. etc. 'I'he foliage of most, if not all, siiecies is of an acid nature, and is often chewed to allay thirst. In periods of drought stock eat considerable quantities of the foliage. The first-mentioned species has been quite success- fully introduced into parts of Florida and Cali- fornia. 'Cassowarv-tree' is a popular generic name of the Casuarinas. Some of the species are scrubby bushes. All of them have a very peculiar appearance, their brandies being long, slender, wirv, drooping, green, and jointed, w^ith very small, scale-like sheaths instead of leaves. They resemble arborescent equisetums, or horse-tail rushes. The fruit consists of hardened bracts, collected in a cone and inclosing small -winged nuts. The flowers have neither calyx nor corol- la; the stamens and pistils are on separate flowers. More than twenty species are known. CASXIISTRY, kuzh'u-is-tri (from casuist. Ft. casuistc. from Lat. casus, instance). The science which cniidcs the human conscience m the txUtill- meut of its duties. As doubts occur, either as to the realitv or extent or urgency of the laws by which it is governed, 'cases' come up which have to be judged. That part of theology which deals ■with such matters is called moral theology. Casuistry developed as cireumsUinces called for new and clearer interpretations of divme and ■ human enactments. In the first centuries it was extremely simple, and the treatises on it con- sisted mainly of eoneiliar decrees, or collections of penitential canons such as those attributed to Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, Saint Peter of Alexandria, Saint Basil, and Saint Gregory of Nvssa. From the Seventh to the Eleventh Cen- tury the work known as The Penitential Book, which was a digest of canons, sentences, >in- in its organic connection with dogma. Its strictly scientific character, however, makes it somewhat unnvn li- able as a manual for common use. Making tins science practical was the achievement of the Six- teenth Century. The extraordinary development of this particular brancli of theohigical knowledge was largely due to the doctrine of i'robabilism. This was not a new doctrine, but it "as inau- gurated as a system by a Spanish Dominican named Medina. The theory may be thus stated:
man in doubt about the lawfulness of an act
has solid reasons for thinking it is lawful. These reasons may be intrinsic to the matter itself, or extrinsic, namely, the authority of some respect- able theologian.' But there may be contrary rea- sons of equal or greater weight than those in faor of it. Which course is he to elect? Prob- abilisni teaches that he is free to do as he chooses provided his reasons for acting be genuine and solid. He proceeds on the iiriuciplc that as the law is not certain, either as to its existence or its bindiii" force, he is free ; for no one is bound by a doul)tful obligation. This liberty, however, is restricted if for some major obligation he is bound to take every reasonable means to achieve a certain object. A hunter cannot discharge his rifle where it is merely probable no one will be hit ; he must take every reasonable precaution; a Catho- lic priest cannot act on the doctrine of probabil- ity where there is question of the validity of a sacrament. But apart from these antecedent ob- ligations of justice, charity, and religion. Proh- abilism leaves a man free when he has good rea- sons for judging that he is doing right. Against this doctrine four schools were ar- rayed: the Titiorists or Kigorists, who were either absolute or mitigated, the former requiring absolute certainty, the latter the greatest prob- ability the Probabiliorists, wlio taught that in eases 'of doubt a man should always follow the safer course: the .Kquiprobahihsts. who al- lowed liberty of action only when the reasons pro and con were evenly balanced, but modified that concession by saying that when the exist- ence of the law was certain or even more prob- able, there could be no liberty against it. for the law bein" certainly or more probably m posses- sion exacted fulfillment: the Laxists. who con- tended that one is fice to act if he has even a slight reason to conclude that he is in the right. The Laxists were condemned by Innocent XI., and the Absolute Tutiorists by Alexander VII. On these lines a fierce and protracted theo- logical battle began, which finally narrowed down to'a contest between the Probabiliorists and the Probabilists. From 1.^>S0 to 1050 Probabilism held possession. After that a reaction set in and Piobabiliorism was the favorite doetrine. At present the conditions have reverted to what they were in the beginning, and Probabilism almost everywhere prevails in the Roman Catholic Church. The chief exponents are Saint Alphon- sus biguori, Scavini. Gury. and Ballerini. The acrimony of these debates gave rise to the odious significations which have been alhxed to the word Casuistry. After th^ accusations of the Jansenists (see Pascal; .Taxsf.nismI ceased about the middle of the Eighteenth Century many Protestant writers took them up and denounced the casuistry of Probabilism as lax, equivocating, permitting the most detestable crimes, and outraging the most sacred oliliga- tions. These charges, no longer seriously made by intellif'cnt students, have given rise to the see.mdarv meaning of the word Oasuistrv- as, according to some, a method of over-subtle, so-
