Chapter II. On the Gravity of Sin, Especially on Mortal and Venial Sin

146. • DEFINITIONS. The gravity of sin is the quantity or measure of malice by which sin is more or less offensive to God, and consequently worthy of greater or lesser penalty.

Mortal sin is the transgression of a law gravely obliging, or a grave offense of God, depriving one of divine friendship and sanctifying grace, and rendering the sinner worthy of eternal punishment.

Venial sin is the transgression of a law lightly obliging ¹, or a light offense of God, which neither deprives one of divine friendship, nor of sanctifying grace, nor consequently excludes one from eternal beatitude.

¹ Here the definition of venial sin is handed down from its object; for otherwise from the imperfection of the act a fault can be light, although in itself the law obliges gravely.

Certain sins are mortal from their whole genus, when their object or matter, whatever it finally may be, always contains a grave disorder, as happens in luxury, blasphemy, perjury, heresy, etc. They are called mortal from their genus (not whole), when their matter, remaining in the same species, can be grave, although it can also be light, of which sort are sins against justice. - But venial from their genus are called sins which, with the matter or nature of the object considered, do not admit grave guilt, and therefore, so long as they remain within their own species, that is, another species mortal from its own genus does not accede, cannot be mortal. - St. Lig., no. 41 ².

² ** See below, note to no. 153.

With these things posited, let the following propositions stand:

147. • It is proved 1. from Sacred Scripture. Jeremiah, ch. 7, says of the Israelites: They have acted worse than their fathers. - Thus Christ to Pilate, John 19: He who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.

It is proved 2. from reason. With proportion given, that must be said about the injuries of men against God which is said about the injuries of children against parents, or of subjects against Princes; but these indeed differ among themselves by reason of gravity: therefore those also. - Moreover sins are opposition to virtues and precepts; but some virtues are more excellent than others, and some precepts are graver than others: therefore opposition to these will be graver, or less grave. From another source also, the depraved intention of the delinquent can admit various degrees of malice, as is clear. Therefore....

QUESTION. Whence is the greater or lesser gravity of sins to be sought?

I answer: It is generally to be sought 1. from the object, end, and circumstances, according as they are more or less opposed to rational nature or to law; 2. from the duration of the evil act, or from its intensity; 3. from greater or lesser advertence to the malice of the act, or from the different degree of consent furnished to the depraved act; 4. from the excellence of the virtues or precepts to which the sins are opposed; 5. from the various modes by which virtues or laws are violated.

148. • It is proved 1. from Sacred Scripture. 1 Cor. 6 and following says: Do not err: neither fornicators, nor those serving idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor drunkards, nor evil-speakers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God. - And Rom. 1.32: Those who do such things are worthy of death. - And 1 John 3.14: He who does not love remains in death. - Add innumerable other testimonies of Sacred Scripture, from which it is most clearly established that many men on account of their sins will be rejected by God and tormented with eternal penalties.

It is proved 2. from the authority of the Church. For the Church teaches that mortal sins are given. Thus Trent, sess. 6, can. 27: If anyone shall have said that there is no mortal sin except that of infidelity, or that by no other sin, however grave and enormous, except the sin of infidelity, is grace once received lost, let him be anathema. - Likewise, sess. 14, ch. 5, it says: It is necessary that all mortal sins be recounted by penitents in confession. Therefore mortal sins are given.

149. • It is proved 1. from Sacred Scripture. Prov. 24.16 says: The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again. Therefore he who falls or sins while he is just does not sin mortally, since he is not deprived of justice; therefore only venially. Therefore, etc. - Likewise, James 3.2: In many things we all offend; but we do not all sin mortally, since many are just before God, as is established from many places of the Old and New Testament, for example, as is said of Zachariah and Elizabeth, Luke 1.6, of St. Joseph, Matth. 1.19, etc. Therefore there are just persons not immune from sin; therefore venial sins are given.

It is proved 2. from the definition of the Church. In Trent, in the place cited above, it is said: Venial sins, by which we are not excluded from the grace of God, and into which we fall more frequently, can be expiated by many other remedies (besides the sacrament of Penance). It is also established from proposition 20 of Baius, condemned by Pius V and other Supreme Pontiffs, which sounds thus: There is no sin venial by its nature, but every sin merits eternal punishment.

It is proved 3. from reason. For among friends light offenses are given, which do not dissolve friendship; therefore similarly they ought to be given toward God. Therefore....

150. Questions. - QUESTION 1. In what does the formal difference between mortal sin and venial sin consist?

I answer: The difference between mortal and venial sin is situated in this, that he who sins mortally withdraws from God his ultimate end, so that he turns himself to a creature and rests in it as in his end; but, on the contrary, he who sins venially does not withdraw from God, but places acts so disordered that they can in no way tend to God. - Thus commonly with St. Thomas, 1.2, qu. 72, art. 5.

QUESTION 2. What things are required for mortal sin?

I answer: Three things are necessarily required, namely 1. grave matter either in the object or in the circumstances; - 2. full advertence to the grave malice of the act; - 3. full consent of the will in the prevarication.

Therefore 1. grave matter is required; otherwise mortal sin would not be distinguished from venial by reason of the matter, since light matter of itself cannot dissolve man from divine friendship ³.

³ For light matter of itself does not induce grave obligation; but where there is not grave obligation, neither can the transgression be grave.

2. Full advertence and full consent are also required, because since through mortal sin man totally withdraws from God so that he adheres to creatures, this cannot happen unless the sinner deliberately prefers the object of sin to God, and thus constitutes his ultimate end in the creature. Moreover it is wholly foreign to divine goodness to consign a man to eternal damnation either because of a light transgression or because of an act not perfectly free and voluntary. - Thus all. - St. Lig., nos. 5, 6, 53.

Now advertence is judged full and sufficient if an express thought, or at least grave doubt about mortal malice, precedes the consent or sinful act. And this indeed can happen even in a single instant through a simple judgment about the malice, without the mind by discourse reflecting several times upon itself by a special act; nevertheless true and full deliberation of mind and full adhesion to the depraved object are always required.

QUESTION 3. What things are required for venial sin?

I answer: For venial sin there are required and suffice some advertence, however slight, to the malice of the act, and some consent of the will, however imperfect: these indeed are required, because when these are removed there can be no cognition and volition of evil, and consequently no sin; but they suffice, because when they are posited, the cognition and volition of evil which are necessary for constituting sin are had in some way.

151. • QUESTION 4. How can sins be known as mortal by reason of matter?

I answer: A threefold rule is assigned.

Rule I. Recourse must be had to Sacred Scripture. For what things are grave, or what are light, must be weighed not by human but by divine judgment, says St. Aug., Enchiridion, ch. 77. Now those things are to be judged mortal which in Sacred Scripture are declared worthy of death, or to exclude from the kingdom of heaven; or which are pronounced with the particle woe, which indeed denotes truly grave deformity. Thus the Apostle concerning the works of the flesh, Galat. 5.19, says: Which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury... I foretell to you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God. - Recall also the long series of mortal sins which the Apostle enumerates, 1 Cor. 6 and following, as above in Proposition II.

Rule II. Recourse must be had to the Church, or to the definitions of the Supreme Pontiffs, to the Decrees of general Councils, etc., in which many things are declared mortal, or only venial. For the Church is the pillar of truth, and therefore the rule and measure of morals must be sought from its doctrine.

Rule III. Recourse must be had to the Holy Fathers, to the Doctors of the Church, and also to the common doctrine of Theologians. For the Holy Fathers and Doctors were placed by God in the midst of the Church as burning lamps for driving away the darkness of error and for enlightening the faithful in the way of truth. But Theologians know better than the rest how to interpret the testimonies of Scripture and of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Church, and to compare cases not defined with defined ones, those not declared with declared ones, and from parity or likeness to deduce suitable conclusions. Therefore those things which are unanimously held by them as mortal are to be judged as such; for the consensus of the Doctors is an indication of truth.

152. • When the preceding rules are lacking, it is very difficult to determine when a sin is grave or light. But generally the following are judged grave:

1. All sins which are directly against God, or some perfection of His. Likewise all sins which turn to grave prejudice of the human race, as are the various species of luxury.

2. All sins which are gravely opposed to the end of great moment intended by the law, such as the omission of fasting, of Mass, of annual confession, of Paschal Communion, etc.

3. All sins by which the neighbor is gravely harmed in the goods of life, fortune, reputation, etc., such as homicide, detraction very harmful to the neighbor, notable theft, etc.

Moreover the limits between mortal and venial sin very often can in no way be determined, as is established from innumerable controversies of the Doctors concerning this matter. But mortal sin is not to be asserted unless it is certainly established concerning it, as St. Lig. rightly notes, Moral System, at the end, and book 6, nos. 604, 605 ⁴.

⁴ It is useful here to append those things which St. Alphonsus has in the former place. It is a thing worthy of admiration, he says, to see some persons think there is no safer mode of saving souls than to lead them through harsher paths; but they err no less than others who lead consciences along the more lax way. For we are held to render an account to God not only for excessive indulgence, but also for excessive rigidity, by which consciences are ensnared, which properly, according to St. Antoninus, is to build for Gehenna. Cabassutius explains this very aptly from the doctrine of St. Bonaventure; for after he detests immoderate benignity, he reproves immoderate rigor, which, as he says, while it compels men to things too arduous, closes off the way of eternal salvation; it condemns those to be saved, as Blessed Bonaventure says, and drives those conscious of their own infirmity to desperation. For it happens that wretched men, having heard this more rigid doctrine, believe or doubt that mortal fault is present where there is none; but nevertheless, overcome by the difficulty of the thing, from an erroneous conscience they sin mortally and are damned. - Thus St. Alphonsus, who then appends several opinions of the Doctors. We select these for our matter.

Theological Doctors ought not be easy in asserting that some things are mortal sins where they are not most certain of the matter; for through assertions of this kind, rigid and too strict, men are by no means raised from the mire of sins, but are plunged into it more deeply, because more desperately. Gerson.

Do not be prone to judge sins mortal, where it is not established to you by certain Scripture. St. Raymond.

Nothing ought to be condemned as mortal sin concerning which evident reason or manifest authority of Scripture is not had. Gabriel Biel.

A question in which it is treated whether something is mortal sin is determined most dangerously, unless for this express authority of Scripture or of a canon of the Church, or evident reason, is had. St. Antoninus.

But if the Confessor cannot clearly perceive whether it is mortal, then the sentence does not seem to be hastened, as William says, so that on account of this he denies absolution, or makes for him a conscience concerning mortal sin. And since laws are readier for loosing than for binding..., he seems rather to be absolved. St. Antoninus.

153. • QUESTION 5. How does sin mortal from its genus become venial, and vice versa?

I answer: 1. Sin mortal from its genus can become venial in four ways, namely by reason 1. of smallness of matter; - 2. of imperfect advertence; - 3. of imperfect consent; - 4. of erroneous conscience. - Thus St. Thomas, 1.2, qu. 88, art. 1 and 2. - St. Lig., no. 54.

I answer: 2. But sin venial from its genus can become mortal 1. by reason of erroneous conscience; - 2. by reason of scandal; - 3. by reason of a depraved end gravely evil; - 4. by reason of formal contempt of the law, or of the authority commanding; - 5. by reason of a depraved affection for a thing otherwise lightly evil, so that one is prepared even to transgress a precept gravely obliging; - 6. by reason of danger or proximate occasion of falling into mortal sin. - Thus all ⁵.

⁵ Here the doctrine of St. Thomas must not be passed over, that sin venial from its genus cannot become mortal unless a circumstance accedes changing the species, and therefore this never happens because of a merely aggravating circumstance. Thus the Holy Doctor (1.2, q. 88, art. 5): It is manifest that a circumstance cannot make mortal sin from venial sin, while the circumstance remains; but only then, when it transfers into another species, and becomes in some way a specific difference of the moral act. Confer also De malo, q. 2, art. 8.

154. • QUESTION 6. Whether he would sin gravely who wished to avoid only mortal sins, and cared not at all about omitting venial ones?

I answer: No, more probably, speaking of itself and speculatively. The reason is that an intention so constituted does not induce a proximate danger of sinning gravely ⁶. - But in practice the matter is difficult and very arduous, since facility in sinning venially is the cause why the soul is gradually weakened, and finally is more easily conquered by grave temptations, according to that saying of Eccli. 19.1: He who despises small things shall fall little by little.

⁶ This response is taken from St. Alphonsus (book 4, no. 12); but St. Alphonsus makes the question not about mere negligence in avoiding venial sins, but about the proposal of committing all venial sins, nor does he merely say that opinion is speculatively more probable, as though in practice a grave obligation were present of avoiding a remote danger of this kind.

Card. De Lugo well says (On Penance, disp. 15, no. 49): No one will say that from this head there is an obligation under mortal sin to avoid venial sins.

And Suarez (On Religion, treat. 8, book 1, ch. 4, no. 18): It is necessary to advert that rarely or never is there mortal sin because of danger of this kind...; because otherwise it is not a proximate occasion, but a remote one.

QUESTION 7. Whether it is a grave sin, without cause to expose oneself probably to the danger of falling into mortal sin?

I answer: Yes, if it is a matter of a proximate occasion of sin, as the matter is clear of itself; but not in other cases. - Sanchez, On the Decalogue, book 4, ch. 8, no. 1.

155. • QUESTION 8. Whether he sins gravely who without sufficient cause places an action from which he is going to suffer base movements?

I answer: He does not sin gravely if the action is not of itself gravely influencing toward depraved effects, provided he does not intend them, and the proximate danger of consenting to depraved delight is absent. Otherwise, if the action of itself gravely influences the movements, as are grave faults in the genus of luxury. - St. Lig., book 3, nos. 482 to 484 ⁷.

⁷ The more common and more probable opinion teaches that pollution is not mortal unless it proceeds from a cause of itself mortal in the genus of luxury... The reason why the cause must be of itself mortal is that since pollution (by hypothesis) is not willed in itself, but only in the cause, and therefore outside the intention, it will be evil in that degree in which the cause itself is evil. But the reason why it must also be mortal in the same genus of luxury is that, if the cause concurs lightly toward pollution, there is not a grave obligation to avoid that cause on account of pollution, which happens outside the intention. Hence it is inferred that pollution is only venial which arises... from a light look or a curious reading venially base. St. Lig. (book 4, no. 484). And hence you have the corollary that no guilt is contracted from effects of this kind where some just reason is present for placing the cause, for example by studying, healing, hearing confessions, etc.

QUESTION 9. Whether he sins gravely who deliberates about giving consent to a gravely illicit thing, if finally he does not consent?

I answer: The solution of the question depends on the quality of the deliberation. For if this is imperfect, namely if it is nothing but a certain hesitation, or omission of resistance from torpor, laziness, or negligence, the sin will not exceed venial. - Lacroix, no. 226. - But if the deliberation is full, it will be mortal sin, because the will shows itself prepared to postpone God to sin. - Lacroix, book 5, no. 229. - Sanchez, Decalogue, book 1, ch. 8, no. 16.

QUESTION 10. Whether venial sins multiplied can effect mortal sin?

I answer: Venial sins, however much multiplied, speaking of themselves and by reason of multiplication, can never coalesce into mortal sin, because the individual sins remain in an inferior species. Yet sometimes by reason of coalescing matter they come to mortal sin, as, for example, happens in the matter of justice.

156. Resolves. - 1. In practice, for distinguishing venial sin from mortal, one must diligently attend 1. to the nature of the act; 2. to its gravity on the part of the object, end, and circumstances; 3. to the degree of deliberation, malice, infirmity, and ignorance.

2. Where it is not clear that some sin is mortal, the Confessor ought not be hasty in judging that it is in reality grave both objectively and subjectively; because in doubt one must stand for the lesser part, or at least the matter must be left to divine judgment. - St. Lig., no. 52. - St. Thomas. - St. Antoninus, etc.

3. In doubt concerning perfect consent, you will judge in favor of the penitent, 1. if he is of a God-fearing conscience and is habitually prepared to die rather than offend God; 2. if, adverting more fully to the temptation, he was frightened and immediately repelled it; 3. if he does not know whether, waking or sleeping, whether entirely in possession of himself, he did or willed something evil. - Elbel, no. 578. - St. Lig., book 6, no. 476.

4. A Confessor does not satisfy his office if he applies no care by which he removes the penitent from the frequency of venial sins, especially those which are committed with full advertence. For he who makes no effort at all to avoid venial sins is usually little by little finally to slip into some mortal sin. - See Cases, no. 144 and following. - Roncaglia, ch. 1.