Question Three: On the Species of Luxury

S. Th. II-II, q. 154, a. 1.

1005. Seven species of luxury are numbered, namely, simple fornication, adultery, incest, defloration, rape, sacrilege, and the vice against nature.

It is proved: Species in sins is taken from the moral deformity of the object and its diverse repugnance to reason. But in the sin of luxury there is found a diverse repugnance to reason:

a) in one way, as to the end of the venereal act, and this in two ways:

1. Either because the generation of offspring is impeded, and thus there is the vice against nature;

2. Or because the due education and promotion of offspring born is impeded, and thus there is fornication;

b) in another way by comparison to other men, and this in five ways:

3. Either because the woman is too near by kinship, and therefore due honor is not preserved toward her, and there is incest;

4. Or because she is joined to another, and thus there is adultery;

5. Or because she is a virgin under the power of parents, and there is defloration, even if violence is not inflicted;

6. Or because violence is inflicted upon her, and there is rape;

7. Or because due honor is not preserved on account of a vow or the law of the Church guarding sacred things, and there is sacrilege.

As to touches, kisses, and similar immodesties, they are reduced to the species to which they dispose; for example, if they are done with an unmarried woman, to fornication; if with a married woman, to adultery, and so with the others.