Section — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
§ II. On Circumstances
- Circumstances are accidental determinations of an act, without which it could exist as to substance, and which nevertheless in some way touch upon its morality. Hence circumstances are not the object of the act, because they are touched upon by the will only secondarily.
Seven classes of circumstances are numbered, expressed in this little verse:
Who, what, where, by what aids, why, how, when?
Namely: Who, or what sort is the agent, married, cleric, etc.? - what, or what is the accidental quality or quantity of the object? - where, or in what place, whether sacred or profane? etc. - by what aids, that is, what means, instruments, etc., did the agent use? - why, or from what end, namely extrinsic? - how, namely whether maliciously, or in good faith, whether in an intense or remiss manner, whether advertently or not? - when, that is, at what or how much time?
I say: A human act takes true morality from circumstances. The reason is that circumstances determine the act as moral, namely as having a relation of agreement or disagreement with reason and right order; indeed sometimes circumstances alone introduce agreement or disagreement of this kind into an act, as happens in acts indifferent from the object.
Hence 1. some circumstances are those which pertain to the morality of the act; - 2. others are those which contribute nothing to it, and therefore must be held wholly indifferent; - 3. others are those which leave the object in the same moral species, and others which change the species itself, or add a new species. Of the former, some aggravate the malice, but others lessen it, and do this gravely or lightly 1.
1 If circumstances so lessen or aggravate sin that from mortal it becomes venial, or vice versa, then they are said to transfer the act into another theological species.
YOU WILL ASK: Whether a lightly evil circumstance always corrupts the whole good act?
I answer. No. For the substance of the good act can remain unharmed notwithstanding a circumstance of this kind; whence that act is infected only in part. Thus, for example, the agent does not lose the whole merit of a good work, nor its principal part, although he may have given consent to some incident temptation of vainglory. - Billuart, diss. 4, art. 4. - See what is to be said below concerning the end, no. 30.