§ 4. On the External Sins of Lust Consummated According to Nature

698. Those sins of consummated lust are called according to nature from which generation can follow, as was already said above. Six such sins are customarily enumerated: simple fornication, stuprum, abduction, incest, adultery, and sacrilege.¹³⁴⁶

1. Simple fornication, taken in the strict sense, is intercourse performed by mutual consent between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman already corrupted.

It is said: intercourse, that is, an act apt for generation. But if intercourse is had in an onanistic manner, the sin is of itself graver, because the malice of a sin against nature is added; nevertheless, many penitents erroneously think that this is a diminishing circumstance, because in this way provision is made for the honor of the woman.

It is said: by mutual consent, so that fornication may be distinguished from violent stuprum, concerning which below, n. 699.

Finally, it is said: of an unmarried man with an unmarried woman already corrupted, that is, between persons who are free not only from the bond of marriage, but also from mutual blood relationship, affinity, and a vow of continence, since otherwise the malice either of adultery, incest, or sacrilege is added. Moreover, it is required that the woman not be a virgin; for otherwise there is stuprum.

The malice of fornication was denied by the Nicolaitans, certain Gnostics, Anabaptists, Mormons, and several modern Liberalists. Durandus, Caramuel, Martinus de Magistris, and a few others taught that by the law of nature fornication is not evil or is only venially evil.¹³⁴⁷ Against all these the thesis is stated:

Fornication is not only gravely prohibited by divine law, but is also intrinsically evil, and therefore contrary to the natural law.

The divine law is clearly manifested in several places of Sacred Scripture: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication."¹³⁴⁸ "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, lust ... since they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."¹³⁴⁹

St. Thomas proves that fornication is contrary to the natural law: 1. because it implies a disorder which tends to the harm of the offspring to be born; 2. because it deprives the offspring of the care of a father; 3. because it removes certainty concerning the offspring.¹³⁵⁰ Hence Innocent XI deservedly condemned proposition 48: "It seems so clear that fornication according to itself involves no malice, and is evil only because it is forbidden, that the contrary seems altogether discordant with reason."¹³⁵¹

It is asked: Is a man inducing a woman to fornication bound to express in confession this circumstance of inducement or scandal? If he did not employ force or fraud, he is bound to express nothing except the fornication committed, because from what commonly happens it is presumed (and the confessor easily understands) that the man first solicited it.

Concubinage and prostitution are reduced to fornication as aggravating circumstances. Concubinage¹³⁵² is illicit carnal commerce which is habitually carried on between two persons from a certain agreement. Therefore, intercourse frequently repeated between two persons does not suffice for concubinage properly so called; for otherwise betrothed persons frequently having intercourse would already be concubinaries. In addition, at least some agreement concerning intercourse habitually to be performed is required. Hence a concubine is nothing other than an illegitimate wife who lives with the male concubinary either in the same house or in a different house. Not rarely the sin of adultery is added to the malice of concubinage. Notorious concubinage induces the matrimonial impediment of public propriety and other ecclesiastical penalties.

Prostitution is habitual carnal commerce carried on indiscriminately with diverse men, principally for the sake of gain. Prostitution is very rarely practiced principally for the sake of lust, as is related of the Empress Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius. After St. Augustine and St. Thomas,¹³⁵³ all theologians commonly teach that prostitution can be tolerated by the magistrate in order to avoid greater evils. But whether and when greater evils are truly avoided through prostitution is a very difficult question of fact. For prostitution in the places where it is permitted not only does not avoid greater evils, but rather causes greater evils of scandal, seduction, syphilitic diseases, etc.

¹³⁴⁶ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 154, aa. 1 and 10.

¹³⁴⁷ Cf. Concina, Diss. de luxuria c. 6.

¹³⁴⁸ 1 Thess. 4:3.

¹³⁴⁹ Gal. 5:19-21.

¹³⁵⁰ S. theol. l.c. a. 2. Cf. Cajetan on this article.

¹³⁵¹ Denzinger, n. 1198.

¹³⁵² Cf. Code of Canon Law, canons 1078 and 2357, § 2.

¹³⁵³ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 10, a. 11.

699. 2. Stuprum is taken in a threefold sense: 1. for the illicit defloration of a virgin (with her consenting);¹³⁵⁴ this is the common acceptation among the older authors; 2. for the defloration of a virgin against her will; thus several older and modern authors, for example, Dominic Soto, Sanchez, Lessius, Noldin, etc.; 3. for intercourse with any woman whatsoever against her will; in this sense civil laws are wont to take stuprum.¹³⁵⁵

Stuprum taken in the first sense, when, namely, a virgin voluntarily consents to her own violation, is indeed an aggravating circumstance of fornication, to which, however, it does not add a mortal malice necessarily to be declared in confession. Thus holds the common opinion of modern authors.¹³⁵⁶ The reason is that the physical integrity of virginity is indeed a great good, but nevertheless no special injury is committed against a virgin freely consenting. Stuprum taken in the second and third senses includes, besides the sin of fornication, a grave sin of injustice, because it implies unjust violence. By violence, however, is understood not only physical but also moral violence, such as fraud or fear; likewise altogether importunate entreaties and blandishments which are equivalent to moral violence, such as, for example, those which are accompanied by great gifts or lustful kisses or touches. In one word: This moral violence is everything which a respectable woman can scarcely resist.¹³⁵⁷ He also commits stuprum who violates a woman altogether drunk, sleeping, or hypnotized. - Special ecclesiastical penalties are inflicted upon laity and clerics perpetrating stuprum taken in the second and third senses.¹³⁵⁸

In order that a woman oppressed by force may be immune from every sin, she is bound not only inwardly to resist venereal pleasure, but also outwardly to repel the violator with all her strength; but she is not bound to cry out if grave inconvenience thereby threatens her.

¹³⁵⁴ Entjungferung [defloration].

¹³⁵⁵ Notsucht, viol [rape].

¹³⁵⁶ Cf. Billuart, De temperantia diss. 6, a. 3, dico 3; St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 443. St. Thomas (S. theol. 2, 2, q. 154, a. 6) teaches: "It is manifest that stuprum, which implies the illicit defloration of virgins existing under the care of their parents, is a determinate [Leonine edition: determinately] species of lust." But it is not so certain whether the Angelic Doctor taught that this determinate species of stuprum contains a mortal malice added to simple fornication, so that it must necessarily be declared in confession. And in truth the sin of lust committed, for example, by a virgin fifty years of age now altogether free and incapable of bearing children, or that committed by a virgin eighteen years of age still existing under paternal care, does not seem to be diverse in species. The older authors thought that in the defloration of a virgin there was always a bodily violation, namely, destruction of the hymen, and that such bodily violation was always evil outside legitimate marriage, just as any other bodily mutilation made without a sufficient cause was also illicit. Modern physiologists, however, rightly deny that such violation is always present, since in some virgins the hymen is absent or is not ruptured even by carnal intercourse; but if it is present, they assert that the violation is minimal.

¹³⁵⁷ Cf. Billuart, l.c.

¹³⁵⁸ Code of Canon Law, canon 2357 ff.

700. 3. Abduction is taken in a twofold sense: 1. for an impediment of marriage, and then it is the abduction of a woman from a safe place to an unsafe place for the sake of entering marriage; discussion of this abduction will return in the tract on marriage; 2. insofar as it is a species of lust, and then it is force inflicted upon a woman (or her parents) for the sake of satisfying lust. Therefore, the distinction between the two acceptations is taken from the end on account of which the woman was violently carried away. Abduction insofar as it is a species of lust is judged also to be present if a consenting minor woman is abducted for the sake of lust, but without the knowledge or against the will of her parents or guardians. There are authors who take abduction in a broader sense, so that even the violent abduction and corruption of a person of the male sex is contained under abduction.¹³⁵⁹

Abduction, insofar as it is a species of lust, is a special sin, because besides the malice of fornication it includes a grave injury inflicted either upon the woman or upon her parents.¹³⁶⁰ Abductors of women are punished with special ecclesiastical penalties.¹³⁶¹

¹³⁵⁹ Cf. Billuart, De luxuria diss. 6, a. 4.

¹³⁶⁰ Cf. S. theol. l.c. a. 7.

¹³⁶¹ Code of Canon Law, canon 2353.

701. 4. Incest is carnal intercourse between blood relatives or relatives by affinity who according to natural or ecclesiastical law cannot enter marriage. Under the name of relationship comes also spiritual and legal relationship. Grave external acts of immodesty committed between these persons, or even venereal desires, are referred to incest.

Incest contains a twofold grave malice: one against chastity, the other against the virtue of piety. If, however, the relationship is only remote, that is, in the third collateral degree, the violation of piety does not seem so great that it constitutes a grave sin, and consequently it is not absolutely necessary that the circumstance of incest be declared in confession. But in the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, not only the incest but also the degree seems to have to be declared.¹³⁶² Incest committed between blood relatives or relatives by affinity does not differ in species,¹³⁶³ but it differs in species from incest committed between legal or spiritual relatives. Moreover, this latter incest is rare today on account of the great limitation of these impediments of marriage. - Incest is prohibited by the natural law itself, not only because it is repugnant to the virtue of piety, but also because otherwise a) the greatest dangers to chastity would exist, b) the good of human society would be injured, and c) the offspring to be born would often be impaired as to body and soul.

The Code of Canon Law, canon 2357 ff., treats the ecclesiastical penalties against the incestuous.

¹³⁶² Cf. St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 6, n. 469.

¹³⁶³ S. theol. l.c. a. 9, ad 2.

702. 5. Carnal sacrilege is sacrilegious lust and is committed by the violation of a sacred person, place, or thing through a venereal act. It contains a twofold malice: one against chastity, the other against religion.

Personal sacrilege is committed when a person dedicated to God either through a public vow (solemn or simple) of chastity or through sacred order is contaminated by lust, whether internally through morose delectations, or externally through immodest acts committed either upon himself or upon another person. But if this other person is also sacred, then there is a twofold sacrilege, because two sacred persons are contaminated. Likewise sacrilege is committed if a non-sacred person has venereal desires toward a sacred person. Whether violation of a private vow of chastity is sacrilege properly so called is controverted; cf. above, n. 544.

Sufficient was already said above, n. 546, concerning local sacrilege.

Real sacrilege of lust is committed when sacred things are employed for a lustful act. A very grave example of this real sacrilege is solicitation to shameful things in the confessional. Whether pollution or fornicatory intercourse performed within a half-hour after Communion takes on the grave species of real sacrilege seems doubtful and not solidly proved, unless, however, such sins are committed with a willed relation to Communion.¹³⁶⁴

The ecclesiastical penalties against the diverse species of sacrilege are treated in their proper places.

¹³⁶⁴ See the diverse opinions concerning this matter in St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 463.

703. 6. Adultery is carnal intercourse between persons of whom at least one is bound by marriage, or the violation of another's bed. It is simple if a spouse sins with an unmarried person; it is double if each accomplice is joined in marriage.

Besides the sin against chastity, adultery includes a grave sin against justice. How justice injured by adultery must be repaired, see above, n. 151 ff., in the tract on justice. - Even if a husband consents to the fornication of his wife, nevertheless true adultery is present, because the husband cannot cede his right.¹³⁶⁵ Proposition 50 was condemned by Innocent XI: "Intercourse with a married woman, with the husband consenting, is not adultery."¹³⁶⁶

The character of imperfect adultery is also assumed by a) other gravely immodest acts which a married person exercises or admits with another person; b) pollution which a married person perpetrates upon himself. Hence a married person committing something of this kind must declare his marital state in confession.

¹³⁶⁵ Cf. Billuart, l.c. a. 5.

¹³⁶⁶ Denzinger, n. 1200.