Article I. On The Division Of Sins In General

360. Sins have obtained multiple divisions, of which the following seem to be the principal ones:

1. Original and personal sin. The former is the privation of original justice transmitted to us from Adam. In what exactly the essence of original sin consists, theologians are not agreed.²⁵ The latter is sin committed personally by us. Hence it can be said briefly: original sin is the sin of human nature; but personal sin is the sin of some determinate human person. This personal sin is subdivided into:

2. Actual and habitual sin.²⁶ Actual sin is a passing act or omission discordant from the rules of morals. Habitual sin is the stain left in the soul on account of actual sin. This stain indeed brings in a twofold guilt, namely guilt of fault and of punishment, and lasts until mortal sin has been destroyed by sanctifying grace. Discussion will return below in n. 391 sqq. concerning this twofold guilt. Actual sin is subdivided into:

3. Mortal and venial sin. Mortal sin, which is also called grave, is that which by destroying sanctifying grace brings death upon the soul. Venial, or light, sin is that which does not deprive one of sanctifying grace itself and therefore admits pardon from the human works themselves done with actual grace. Venial sin diminishes the fervor of charity and brings in temporal punishments. A fuller discussion will return below in n. 361 sqq. concerning the intimate nature of mortal and venial sin. - Other subdivisions of actual sin are:

4. Sin of commission and omission. The former is an act against some negative precept; for example, theft is a sin of commission, which is against the negative precept: Do not commit theft. The latter is the omission of a commanded act, or the transgression of an affirmative precept; for example, a sin of omission is culpably to omit Sunday Mass, since this is against the affirmative precept: Sanctify the Sabbath.²⁷

5. Carnal and spiritual sin.²⁸ The former is completed in disordered carnal delight; such sins are gluttony, lust. The latter is disordered spiritual delight, for example, pride, vainglory. Sometimes, however, in Sacred Scripture any sins whatever are called carnal in a broader sense, namely because they are produced by a carnal man given over to disordered passions. In this sense envy, murders, etc., are called by St. Paul works of the flesh.²⁹

6. Sin against God, against oneself, and against neighbor. The first directly violates divine rights, such as the sin of blasphemy, heresy, hatred of God. The second is directly and proximately against the proper good of the sinner himself, such as suicide, drunkenness. The third directly harms one's neighbor, for example, theft, calumny. - Certainly all sins are against God, namely insofar as they are an offense against God; likewise all sins are against the good of the sinner himself, since he who commits sin hates his own soul;³⁰ nevertheless certain sins more directly wound the honor of God, or the proper good of the sinner, or the good of the neighbor, and therefore are specially called by theologians sins against God, against the sinner himself,³¹ and against neighbor.

7. Sin of heart, mouth, and deed,³² according as sin remains in the mind alone, for example, lustful thoughts, or proceeds to speech, for example, blasphemies, or is completed by an external deed, for example, theft.³³

8. Sin of ignorance, weakness, and malice, according as the sinful act proceeds from culpable ignorance, or from passion diminishing the voluntary act, or from the perverse and evil will alone without ignorance and passion.³⁴

9. One's own and another's sin. The former is that which is committed by the sinner himself alone, for example, solitary pollution; but the latter is that which indeed is committed by another, but under the influence of another sinner. Commonly nine modes of committing another's sins are customarily assigned, according to the verses:

Command, counsel, consent, flattery, recourse, Participant, mute, not obstructing, not manifesting.

10. Sins against the Holy Spirit, sins crying to heaven, capital sins. This division indeed is not complete, so that every sin is either against the Holy Spirit, or crying to heaven, or capital; but nevertheless it is adduced because the notion of these sins must not be omitted in Moral Theology. A sin against the Holy Spirit is a sin committed from formal contempt of some supernatural gift directly³⁵ withdrawing us from sinning. But they are called sins against the Holy Spirit because they are, as it were, blasphemies against this divine person, to whom our sanctification is appropriated. Since the times of Peter Lombard, six sins against the Holy Spirit are customarily enumerated, namely: 1. presumption, 2. despair, 3. attack against acknowledged Christian truth, 4. envy of a brother's supernatural grace, 5. obstinacy in the state of sin, 6. impenitence.³⁶ Those sins are called irremissible, or "sin unto death,"³⁷ not indeed because they are altogether never remitted, but because true penance is most difficult concerning them, since by despising the supernatural gifts necessary for the remission of sin they directly attack every conversion to God.^37a - Four sins crying to heaven are enumerated: 1. homicide,³⁸ 2. sodomy,³⁹ 3. oppression of orphans and widows,⁴⁰ 4. retention of wages owed to poor workers.⁴¹ But they are called sins crying to heaven because their malice, and especially the disturbance of the social order made through them, are so great that they cry to heaven for just vengeance to be sought, and indeed already on this earth. They are customarily enumerated in these verses:

The voice of blood and of Sodom cries aloud to heaven, The voice of the oppressed, the wages detained from labors.

Capital sins are called those from which, as from roots, other sins sprout forth. Seven are enumerated:⁴² 1. vainglory, 2. envy, 3. avarice, 4. anger, 5. lust, 6. gluttony, 7. sloth. - Discussion will return below in n. 406 sqq. concerning each of these sins.

11. Formal and material sin. The former is a free and imputable transgression of divine law; the latter is a transgression of divine law from invincible ignorance or from violence destroying internal consent.

Note. These two must be well distinguished from two other expressions used among the Scholastics, namely from that which is called the formal element of sin and the material element of sin. The formal element of sin is the essential constitutive element itself of sin, which according to what was said above is either something positive or something privative. The material element of sin is the physical act which is present in sin. Thus, for example, the approach of Jacob to Leah was for Jacob a material sin, because he acted from invincible ignorance; but in voluntary fornication the material element of sin is the physical act of fornication; the formal sin, however, is the whole voluntary fornication; finally, the formal element of sin is the very disorder existing in this act.

²⁵ Dogmaticians treat of this matter more broadly. Cf. the special work on original sin written by Bernardus de Rubeis. St. Thomas treats of this question in S. theol. 1, 2, q. 82.

²⁶ Sinful deed and sinful state.

²⁷ The Angelic Doctor (S. theol. 1, 2, q. 72, a. 6) notes that sins of commission and omission differ not formally but materially.

²⁸ Cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 2.

²⁹ Gal. 5, 19 sq.

³⁰ Cf. Ps. 10, 6.

³¹ Cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 4.

³² Sins through thoughts, words, and works.

³³ Cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 7.

³⁴ The Angelic Doctor treats broadly of these three sins in S. theol. 1, 2, q. 76-78.

³⁵ St. Thomas shrewdly observes (S. theol. 2, 2, q. 105, a. 2 ad 2): "For contempt of just anything which impedes sin does not constitute a sin against the Holy Spirit; otherwise contempt of any good would be a sin against the Holy Spirit, because through any good a man can be impeded from sin. But contempt of those goods makes a sin against the Holy Spirit which directly lead to penance and the remission of sins."

³⁶ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 14, a. 1 and 2.

³⁷ 1 Io. 5, 16. - Concerning the essence and number of sins against the Holy Spirit the ancient doctors were not agreed. Some, such as St. Athanasius and St. Hilary, taught that there is only one sin against the Holy Spirit, namely blasphemy against God. Others, such as St. Augustine, thought that this one sin against the Holy Spirit was final impenitence (cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 1). In present times theologians commonly teach, with the Angelic Doctor going before them, that this sin is a sin from a certain fixed malice, that is, committed from formal contempt of those things which directly withdraw man from sin. Hugh of St. Victor enumerates four sins from fixed malice, or against the Holy Spirit; but now, and already from the times of Peter Lombard, the six such sins indicated above are customarily enumerated (cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 2, in the first objection).

^37a S. theol. 2, 2, q. 14, a. 3.

³⁸ Gen. 4, 10.

³⁹ Gen. 18, 20.

⁴⁰ Ex. 22, 22 sqq.

⁴¹ Deut. 24, 15; Iac. 5, 4.

⁴² Cf. S. theol. 1, 2, q. 84, a. 4.