Article III. On the Causes of Sins

The discussion is of the efficient causes of sins. Now the efficient causes of sin can be distinguished as: 1. immediate; 2. mediate.

The immediate cause of sin is the perverse will of man. "It is certain that sin is committed by the will, as all teach with St. Augustine and St. Thomas" (St. Alphonsus, V, 5). The reason is that the whole essence of sin is founded on the free voluntary. But the immediate cause of the free voluntary is the will. "If you say that not all sins are elicited by the will, but many are commanded by it, such as heresy, intemperance, etc.; I respond that these and similar things indeed are not elicited by the will as to their material element, yet they are as to their formal element, namely as to the character of the voluntary and aversion from God."¹

The mediate causes, i.e., the causes which induce the will to sin, are some external and some internal; and to know these causes is of the highest importance, so that the priest may be able to speak to the penitent more aptly and efficaciously concerning the state of conscience and manner of life, and may select more suitable remedies and make them acceptable to the penitent. Hence we shall speak of each.

¹ Billuart, De peccatis, diss. 4, art. 1.