Doubt VII: On the other things that are reduced to lying

To lying are reduced simulation, Hypocrisy, Boasting, and Irony. Simulation is defined by St. Bonaventure, lib. 3 of the Pharetra, cap. 25, from the holy Fathers: It is a showing, in deed alien from the things that truly are.

Hypocrisy, however, is defined by the holy Doctor there, and in the Centil., sect. 18: It is the will simulating itself fallaciously under the species of sanctity in the open, and acting vilely in secret. Therefore hypocrisy is simulation in a certain matter, namely virtue. See St. Bonaventure, in the cited place of the Pharetra, discoursing most excellently with the Fathers.

Irony is defined by St. Bonaventure in the Mirror of the Soul, cap. 1: It is a detestation of another by way of the contrary; but this is reduced to pride.

Boasting, however, is said of that by which one enumerates his own goods, that he may appear praiseworthy, as St. Bonaventure says, in the cited place of the Centil. and lib. 3 of the Compend. of Theological Truth, cap. 15. Wherefore it is reduced rather to pride, although when it exalts itself above what is, it has a certain injustice.

These vices are opposed to truth, and have the character of a lie, and accordingly can be both mortal and venial.

From the end, however, as St. Bonaventure says (question above on man), and with him Tannerus (disp. 6, quaest. 2, dub. 1, num. 18), it is gathered when they are grave; for if the end be gravely contrary to Charity, or justice, etc., they will be mortal; if, for example, someone feign sanctity in order to deceive in faith, or chastity, or to steal. But if the end is not opposed to Charity, etc., they will be venial, for instance the mere pleasure in the fiction, of which Aristotle speaks, 4 Ethics, cap. 7.

For to deceive someone precisely is not grave, unless either a bad end, or a grave harm, follows.

So also Boasting from the root of pride is mortal, if it be born of mortal pride, for instance gravely exalting oneself, as is said of the King of Tyre, Ezech. 28: Thy heart was lifted up, and thou saidst: I am God. Or if, in boasting himself, he bursts into the insults of others, like that Pharisee, Luke 18: I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, etc., even as this one.

Irony, by which one preaches lesser things of himself against the truth, is a lie, yet lighter than Boasting, as St. Thomas teaches, quaest. 113, art. 1 and 2, after Aristotle, lib. 4 of the Ethics, cap. 7.

The reason is, because Boasting arises, for the most part, from a baser motive, namely from the appetite of gain, or honor; but Irony from the fact that one shuns, though inordinately, being burdensome to others by self-exaltation; yet if one humbles himself in order to deceive deceitfully, it can be grave, of which Eccl. 19: There is one that humbleth himself wickedly, and his interior is full of deceit.

Boasting and irony can also concur in the same act, if one casts himself down with false humility, that he may be esteemed, as Christ says, Matth. 6: For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast, as the holy Doctor observes in the Diaeta, tit. 2, cap. 6, where he assails them, saying that these feed a double adversary.

It is also usually doubted concerning figurative words. It is answered that these are free of lying, as St. Augustine teaches, On Lying, cap. 2, and lib. against Lying, cap. 10. For they have truth in their own genus, according to the institutions of the Rhetoricians.

Likewise amphibological enunciations are without the note of a lie, if the speaker does not intend to deceive, as Tannerus notes, disput. 6, quaest. 2, number 25.

It is also doubted concerning mixed speeches, namely those which have their sense partly in the voice, partly in the mind, as when to one asking 100 florins you say: I will give them to you; but understanding, if I owe them.

The first opinion is that these are lies. So Sotus, lib. 8 de Iust., quaest. 1, art. 7; Cajetan, quaest. 89, art. 7; Azor, tract. 1, lib. 11, cap. 4, question 5; Aragon there, and others. The reason is, because that speech, taken as a whole as uttered, is false.

The OPPOSITE others teach; whom Valencia follows, disput. 5, quaest. 15, point 2, and disput. 6, quaest. 7, point 4; Toletus, lib. 4, cap. 21, and lib. 5, cap. 58.

The TRUE opinion, therefore, admits equivocations in this sense, when we are illicitly asked to say something, as Tanner notes, num. 31. For thus Christ, Mark 13, according to the truer sense of the Fathers, says: But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the Angels in heaven, neither the Son, namely that he reveals it to others, or knows not, that is, makes not to know; or knows not so as to reveal, as St. Bonaventure teaches, in 4, dist. 48, quaest. 4, and with him Tanner, num. 31. So the holy Doctor expounds it with Chrysostom, homil. 47, on John 7: Go you up to this festival day, but I go not up, understanding, not now with you; for afterwards he went up. Similar is that of John 11: Lazarus sleepeth, when he was dead, and that of Luke 8: The girl is not dead, but sleepeth, as the holy Doctor observes in his commentaries, and with him Tannerus in the place cited.

We HAVE also the example of the holy Father Francis, at Navarrus, cap. Humanae aures, Tanner, num. 32; for being asked whether a certain man had passed that way, the holy Father, holding his hand in his sleeve, said: He did not pass this way. And although Sotus, on concealing a secret, memb. 3, quaest. 3, says that St. Francis was deceived in that opinion, yet he is to be esteemed of more worth than Sotus, as Tanner warns, num. 32.

So also Samuel, 1 Kings 16, said: I am come to sacrifice to the Lord, when he had come to anoint David king. Which equivocations St. Gregory praises there, for warding off the violence of the tyrant.

EXCLUDING, however, a grave cause, it is not lawful to use equivocations; for by the remaining truth we are bound, otherwise all human society would be done away, as St. Thomas argues, quaest. 114, art. 2, ad 1, and St. Bonaventure, lib. 3 of the Pharetra, cap. 3, § De mendacio. Therefore the holy Fathers there alleged assail it gravely. So St. Isidore in the Synonyma, cap. 11: Beware of a lie in all things, for by a lie faith is taken away; and St. Augustine in the Enchiridion, cap. 22: Assuredly words were instituted not that men might deceive one another by them; but that each one might by them convey his thoughts into another's knowledge; and lib. 1 of Christian Doctrine, cap. 36: No one lying keeps faith in that wherein he lies. For this he assuredly wishes, that he to whom he lies should believe him, which faith he nevertheless does not keep by lying to him. Tanner, in the Mirror of the Soul, cap. 2. St. Bonaventure condemns suspect and equivocal locutions in contracts. On these, with an oath added, I treated in disp. on Oaths, quaest. 10.