Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume III. On the Virtue of Chastity (1928) › Book I. On Chastity Generally › Part I. On Chastity Insofar as It Regards Venereal Things › Section II. On the Opposite Vice, or Lust

Chapter — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Chapter II. On Natural Consummated Lust

31.
Show the text of this paragraphHide it again

Natural consummated lust is an act of lust which of itself is apt for generation. Six species are distinguished, namely: fornication, adultery, seduction, rape, incest, and sacrilege.

The said sins differ specifically, since their objects are specifically diverse, or have a specifically diverse repugnance to right reason; St. Thomas explains this as follows: The matter or object of natural lust can fail to agree with right reason in two ways:

I. "In one way because it has repugnance to the end of the venereal act," namely insofar as "the due education and promotion of the offspring born is impeded; this is simple fornication, which is of an unmarried man with an unmarried woman."

II. "In another way the matter in which the venereal act is exercised can be unsuitable to right reason by comparison with other human beings. And this in two ways:

  1. "First, indeed, on the part of the woman herself with whom someone has intercourse," because the honor due to her is not preserved, either because of kinship, and this is incest; or because of a vow, and this is sacrilege.

  2. "Secondly, on the part of him in whose power the woman is; and if she is in the power of a husband, it is adultery; but if she is in the power of her father, it is seduction, if violence is not brought to bear; but rape, if violence is brought to bear" (II-II, q. 154, a. 1).1

Moreover, they are called species of lust, both because the enumerated sins are committed from an affection of libido rather than from an affection of injustice, and the moral species is taken primarily from the end; and also because in them there is a special repugnance to chastity, situated in the fact that one commits lust with some person notwithstanding the circumstance that that person is joined to another, or is consanguineous, or is sacred, and so forth (cf. St. Thomas, De malo, q. 15, a. 3, ad 3).

1 Cf. Billuart, De temperantia, diss. 5, art. 3. Note that seduction and rape are not taken by all in the same sense as by St. Thomas (nn. 43, 45).

LustConsummated Sins of ImpurityNatural Consummated Lust

Within this chapter