by the vile work of Bailly. The Collectio Judiciorum de Novis Erroribus, by Duplessis D’Argentré, published about 1728, is an important contribution to the history of Theology.
In Germany, Eusebius Amort (Canon Regular) was the most universal theologian of his time; his principal work, Theologia Eclectica, possessed abundant positive matter, and aimed at preserving the results of the past, while at the same time meeting the claims of the present. We may also mention the Theatine, Veranus, the Benedictines Cartier, Scholliner and Oberndoffer, the Abbé Gerbert de Saint-Blaise, and, lastly, Joseph Widmann, Instit. Dogm. polem. specul. (1766; 6 vols. 8vo).
The chief theological works were polemico-historical treatises against Jansenism, Gallicanism, and Febronianism: Viva, S.J., Damnatæ Quesnelli Theses; Fontana, S.J., Bulla Unigenitus propugnata; Faure, S.J., Commentary on the Enchiridion of St. Augustine; Benaglio, Scipio Maffei, the Dominicans De Rubeis, Orsi, Mamachi, Becchetti, the Jesuits Zaccharia, Bolgeni and Muzzarelli; also Soardi, Mansi, Roncaglia, and the Barnabite Cardinal Gerdil. The learned Pope Benedict XIV., although more celebrated as a Canonist, wrote on many questions of dogma. Above all these, however, stands St. Alphonsus Liguori (d. 1787), who was raised to the dignity of Doctor of the Church by Pius IX., more on account of the sanctity of his life and the correctness of his opinions, especially in Moral Theology, than for his knowledge of dogma.
IV. The destructive and anti-Christian principles of Jansenism, Gallicanism, and Regalism, which had been gradually gaining ground during the preceding period, led to the downfall of Catholic theology. These principles, in combination with the superficial philosophy of the day, and with the deplorable reverence, disguised under the name of tolerance, for rationalistic science and Protestant learning, did much mischief, especially in Germany. Theology became a sort of systematic collection of positive notions drawn from the writers of a better age, or more commonly from Protestant and Jansenistic sources. Any attempt at speculative treatment only meant the introduction of non-Catholic
