§ II. On the Vices Opposed to Consent

The principal ones are error, fraud, force, and fear, which are reduced to error and fear ¹.

¹ It is wholly due to the study of brevity in the Compendium that the Author said all these things are to be reduced to error and fear, and therefore touches them in such a way that he passes over several things, and those of grave moment. And indeed, that he reduces force to fear in such a way that he is wholly silent concerning it, no one will disapprove. For now, as St. Thomas teaches (4 Dist. 29, q. 1, art. 1), the question is about internal consent, into which coercion or force does not fall, which is distinguished from fear; and therefore, as regards the proposal, coercion is the same as fear. But the same judgment cannot hold when fraud is so reduced to error that the things which pertain more specially to the former can be omitted. For, as Lugo observes (disp. 22, n. 68), it matters very much whether the contracting party is deceived by the other contracting party, or by some third party without fault of the other contracting party, or even by himself, who erroneously thought the thing to be better or more useful, and therefore buys it, or buys it for more, when otherwise he would not have bought it, or certainly would not have bought it for so much; and again, whether, when he is deceived by another, this happens with the other's fault or without fault. This is to be noted because, although each deception diminishes the voluntary in the other contracting party, nevertheless each does not beget the same obligation in the deceiver.