Chapter I: On Contrition

1665. DEFINITION. Contrition is defined: "Sorrow of soul and detestation concerning sin committed, with the purpose of not sinning thereafter." Thus Trent, sess. 14, cap. 4.

It is an act of the virtue of penance, by which man assumes hatred toward sin committed by himself, and detests it so that by no pact whatever would he ever have wished himself to have sinned. But sadness of will necessarily accompanies such an act of detestation. But because contrition is defined as sorrow of soul and detestation concerning sin committed, Theologians dispute whether its essence consists in sorrow, or rather in detestation. The latter opinion seems truer to St. Alphonsus, because sorrow indeed is not the cause of detestation, but detestation is the cause of sorrow. - For the rest, as both are required, so one is contained in the other; for he who detests his sin necessarily sorrows for it, and conversely. Besides, detestation perseveres in the Blessed, but sorrow no longer does.¹² (Recall what was said at n. 1644.)

These things having been premised, we shall treat, according to the Tridentine definition, 1. of the sorrow of the penitent; 2. of his purpose.