Busembaum (Busenbaum), Hermann

BUSEMBAUM (BUSENBAUM), HERMANN: German Jesuit, casuist; b. at Nottelen (a village of Westphalia) 1600; d. at Münster Jan. 31, 1668. He was a teacher at Cologne, and afterward rector at Hildesheim and Münster. His text-book of casuistry, entitled Medulla theologiæ moralis (Münster, 1645), in seven books, ran through 200 editions before 1776, although it caused offense when it was published with a commentary in 1710. The book contained the Jesuitic teachings on regicide, and in France, when an attempt was made to assassinate Louis XIV., the matter was brought before the courts. The Paris parliament was satisfied with simply condemning the book, while that of Toulouse had it publicly burned and held the principals of institutions who used it responsible. Meanwhile the moral theology of the Medulla was incorporated in the classical text-book of the order of Redemptorists, edited by Liguori. Busembaum's Lilium inter spinas (Cologne, 1660) is ascetic in character.

K. Benrath.

Bibliography: J. J. I. Döllinger and F. H. Reusch, Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten, vol. i., Stuttgart, 1890; F. H. Reuseh, Index der verbotenen Bücher, ii. 826, 896, 898, 920.