I. On Interior Acts Insofar as They Excite the Flesh

366. - 1. Acts which induce commotions of the flesh and are voluntary as such are called interior acts more in name than they truly are interior. For they are accustomed to be sought and exercised on account of the pleasure which they induce here and now. They please as a cause of pleasure. Wherefore they are rather the work of imperfect or perfect lust excited and obtained by an interior act.

2. This is the more frequent species of sin which penitents accuse when they confess depraved thoughts; and it is that which, in this matter, is chiefly marked by the name of morose pleasure.

Wherefore also, since the object then presented to the imagination does not please except as the cause of present pleasure, it is specified by this pleasure alone.

Therefore this rule is customarily handed down: Those who, desire being excluded, have base thoughts to accuse ought to accuse neither the object nor the base movement, unless there was pollution. Not the object, since thoughts understood in this way do not vary in species according to the various object; for individual things are not loved except as the cause of venereal pleasure, toward which alone the sinners are affected. Not the base movement, for, the thought having been indicated, that movement itself is sufficiently indicated, unless there was pollution.

Wherefore we added that pollution must be declared.

367. - You will ask on this occasion what moral judgment is to be made concerning the ideal representation of a base thing.

1. A merely notional representation, or one without an imaginary imitation of the thing, is in itself neither evil nor proximately provocative. Thus we designate adulteries and homicides by an innocent word. If it was idle or useless, it will laudably be repelled; nevertheless no scruple is to be had concerning it.

2. But the thing can be painted in the phantasy as upon a panel. Concerning this fictitious picture one must reason as concerning a true one.

a) To consider briefly a representation involuntarily present, a lustful intention being excluded, will not be grave. If there was a just cause of study, etc., there will be no sin.

Nevertheless, a cause for contemplating or looking upon an imaginary exhibition will be present more rarely than if a work made by art were to be considered.

But if the attention was undertaken with a lustful intention, a grave sin is committed.

This intention being excluded, a morose consideration of a gravely obscene or gravely exciting phantasm is infected with grave guilt because of the proximate danger of assent, unless a just cause, if one should ever be present, and a positive repudiation of the pleasure remove at once both the danger and the delusion.

A morose consideration of a thing which excites lightly will be venial in itself if a cause was lacking.

b) To excite images of this kind, or voluntarily to render them present, must be estimated by a similar rationale: it will be grave if it is done from lust, or if, because of the nature of the image, you expose yourself to a proximate occasion of assent; otherwise it will be a light sin or no sin, according as a sufficient cause was lacking or excuses the matter.

Active procurement, however, introduces an aggravating circumstance. Cf. Noldin, De sexto, no. 61.

3. Moreover, the positive obligation of repelling impure and useless phantasms - although that repudiation is always praiseworthy and commendable of itself - is not grave, except insofar as a proximate danger of assent to present pleasure must be removed ¹. That danger is judged to be sufficiently removed of itself by an interior act of displeasure made once or twice in the same temptation.

¹ Concerning a will which bears itself "indifferently," cf. Sanchez, In Decalogum, book 1, chapter 2, no. 13.

This danger being removed, a light obligation does not exist except insofar as it can be fulfilled sufficiently conveniently.

But the best manner is that, all anxiety having been put aside and the aid of the Blessed Virgin Mary having been implored, the mind turn positively to other, healthier, and higher things.

But one who knows himself to be subject to these temptations should, preferably outside the temptation, in the morning or evening, according to the usual time of temptation, elicit a firm resolution; let him pray to God; and then, intent upon his own affairs, let him pass by those thoughts as though by neglecting them.

But if they press the mind more, it will often be very useful to promise or perform some act of penance, or even to exercise an act of humility, as if you were to disclose the matter to a spiritual man.

But let one tempted by impure things beware, let him carefully beware lest he quickly judge himself guilty and thus be cast down or disturbed in spirit, whence worse things are accustomed to occur.