Article I: Notions and Divisions

— The greatest delight of the bodily order, which is joined with the use of the generative faculty, demands a moderating virtue, which is chastity. This, such as it would exist in the natural order, inclines man to moderate the sexual appetite according to the laws of reason. It is placed under the genus of temperance as a species.

Observe the distinction which intervenes between the formal object of this virtue and the formal reason for preserving order in the use of the faculty. Operation generative in itself denotes an immediate order to the good of the species; temperance immediately places order in the acting man himself, who subjects his inferior appetite to reason. But the good on account of which that order is deserted is a delightful good. And thus, through the command of reason over delight, toward which virtue helps, provision is made immediately for the good of man, mediately for the good of the species. Therefore the formal reason of the precept and of the virtue which is placed in charge of preserving the precept is diverse.

— By reason of matter, chastity is distinguished into matrimonial chastity, which, for spouses, moderates the appetite of venereal delight, and extra-conjugal chastity, which does so for persons loosed from the matrimonial bond.

By reason of the accompanying purpose, chastity is called perfect, which bids farewell to every carnal delight, even that which is made honorable by matrimony. This is virginal chastity, in a person who has voluntarily admitted no complete venereal satisfaction.

The very pursuit of virginity can be directed to perfection, when it emulates the purity of the angels, who do not experience carnal pleasure, are alien in mind from seeking it, and do not have to fear the contagion of vices and the seduction of allurements. Therefore angelic chastity: a) sincerely and fully preserves every affection alien from carnal pleasure; b) insofar as is fitting and the ability is had, strives to preserve the body free from every carnal motion; c) keeps itself immune from the contagion of secular corruption. And it reaches the summit when, every servitude of the sense having been repudiated, the mind enjoys no sensible delight as such.

The pursuit of perfect chastity is called continence, under which name also comes the persevering will of chastity in interior difficulty. For because most must struggle with a propensity to lust, strictly speaking they have not attained the acquired virtue of chastity. For acquired virtue connotes facility of act. Wherefore, in place of chastity, they possess the virtue of continence, which Aristotle calls a mixed virtue on account of the remaining difficulty. Nevertheless a certain facility of prompt victory can be acquired by the habit of energetic resistance.

Those who join the purpose of perpetual virginity with integrity of the flesh satisfy the conditions of the aureole of virgins, i.e. they merit an accidental but distinguished reward on account of the special victory which they have won back in the fight against the flesh, and on account of the liberality by which they preserve their heart, or affective life, for Christ. (Cf. On Chastity, n. 155 sqq.).

Matrimonial chastity consists in a threefold grade. First, and this necessarily, spouses have the destiny of so fulfilling all duties that they do not exceed the limit of conjugal flesh; in a more perfect grade, carnal mingling is exercised for the sake only of having children; third, and at the highest grade, spouses preserve perfect continence. (Cf. St. Augustine, Against Julian the Pelagian, l. 3, c. 21, n. 43, and l. 4, c. 2, n. 10. P.L. 44, 724 and 741).

— The vice opposed to chastity, lust, signifies the inordinate appetite of venereal delight. It is opposed to chastity by excess, while insensibility is opposed to the same by defect, which declines the due use of venereal things in matrimony. Lust is distinguished into complete or perfect lust, which infects the consummated use of the venereal faculty, and imperfect or incomplete lust, which is the beginning of the former. The acts of imperfect lust are some interior, namely base desires; others exterior, as libidinous looks, touches, conversations, etc. The acts of perfect lust are both natural acts, which do not repugn to nature in this respect, that, the nature of the act being considered, generation can follow, and unnatural acts, which violate the very order toward generation.

Lust can be directly, or in itself, willed, and indirectly willed, or permitted, when something else is intended from which carnal pleasure follows, not beyond foresight, but beyond intention.