Doubt VIII: On sins against nature

A SIN of this kind is thus defined: It is a sin of Luxury by which the order prescribed by nature for generation is perverted. It is gathered from St. Thomas art. 11. St. Bonaventure p. p. Centil. sect. 24. where he says thus: The sin against nature is a luxury by which the natural use of copulation between male and female is dissipated. He speaks in a similar way in the Compend. Theol. lib. 3. cap. 21.

THE SIN against nature has five species. The first is Sodomy: the second, Softness: the third, Bestiality: the fourth, congress with a Demon: the fifth, an unnatural manner with a woman, from which generation cannot follow.

THESE are however specially against the orders in generation, for nature demands five things for this. First, that there be a conjunction of different sex, male and female, in a fitting vessel, from whose defect arises sodomy. Second, that there be a conjunction of two, from whose defect arises softness. Third, that there be a conjunction of two of the same human species, for if it is done with a brute animal, it will be Bestiality. If with a demon, it will be a diabolic congress. Fourth, that the vessels and organs be fitting, and from the defect of this there will be an imperfect sodomy. Fifth, that the due manner be kept, from which generation can follow, from whose defect arises Unnaturality. So Fagundez lib. 6. cap. 9. with St. Bonaventure de corruptela peccati, in Compend. Theol. lib. 3. cap. 21.

OTHERWISE, and more briefly, Cajetan here gathers these five species, Lessius tom. 1. lib. 4. cap. 3. dub. 13. from St. Bonaventure in the speculo animae, cap. 3.: there are many motives against the order instituted for generation for satisfying lust, and therefore many sins; for moral acts vary according to their motives.

THE FIRST is, when pleasure is intended in emission, and behold, softness. The second, if it is sought with a thing of another nature, as with a beast, and it is called bestiality; or with a demon, and it is called a diabolic congress. The third, if it is sought with a person of the wrong sex in the wrong vessel, and it is properly sodomy. The fourth, if it is sought with a woman in an undue manner, and it is unnaturality. The fifth, if it is without the instruments instituted by nature, and it will be a congress of a woman with a woman, which manner is reduced to imperfect sodomy, or complete pollution, according to the manner of lying together and of satisfying lust.

ALL these are most grave sins.

CONCERNING sodomy it is established in Levit. 18. et 20. where the punishment of death is fixed for it, Rom. 1. where the Apostle execrates it, and Genes. 19. it is called a most wicked crime, as St. Bonaventure notes.

CONCERNING the others, however, it is established from the grave disorder, which is why they are called by St. Paul uncleanness Galat. 5.

THEY ARE also of diverse species, as the Saintly Doctor teaches in the places cited, and elsewhere, Lessius tom. 1. de iustitia, lib. 4. cap. 3. de speciebus luxuriae dub. 13. num. 90. Filliucius tom. 2. tract. 30. in 6. praecepto, Decal. cap. 8. num. 141. Fagundez lib. 6. cap. 9. num. 6. Tannerus disp. 3. quaest. 3. dub. 6. num. 149. wherefore without doubt these faults are held to be specifically distinct, and to say the opposite is erroneous, already condemned by the most holy Alexander VII. in the sacred Congregation, in the year 1665, as also we have proven more fully in tom. 4. tract. de actibus humanis, disp. 17. quaest. 10.

THE REASON is, because they have diverse motives to which lust tends, and therefore they are of diverse moral species; as was said in the place already cited.