The New International Encyclopædia/Busenbaum, Hermann

BUSENBAUM, bōō'zen-boum, Hermann (1600-68). A German Jesuit, known as a casuist. He was born at Notteln, in Westphalia, and entered the Jesuit order in 1619, taught scholastic and moral theology in Cologne, and was rector successively of Jesuit colleges in Hildesheim and Münster. In 1645 he published his Medulla Theologicæ Moralis, Facili ac Perspicua Methodo Resolvens Casus Conscientiæ, in seven books. This work passed through forty-five editions between 1645 and 1670, and has since been frequently reprinted. It met no considerable opposition until it appeared in 1729 in Lyons and in 1716-33 in Cologne, edited by Lacroix, with a commentary and supplementary material from other casuists. The long controversy over its teachings on regicide was altogether unwarranted by the text, for when sifted down, it simply meant the right of self-defense. It was publicly condemned by the Parliament of Paris, and burned by that of Toulouse. Although less bold in its declarations than some other Jesuit books, such as, for example, the Defensio Fidei (1613) of Francisco Suarez, it was the most complete and systematized in its exposition, and served as a type for succeeding treatises of the sort.