Morals of the Church
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Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Scholion. On Mortal Sin by Accident

283.

Mortal sin by accident is had when a sin venial in itself becomes mortal from an added circumstance. Now a sin venial in itself, and likewise an act indifferent in itself, can become mortal:

I. From invincible erroneous conscience, as if someone thinks the theft of a small thing to be grave sin.

II. From an added end, or if the venial act is referred to a gravely evil end, as if someone lies in order to extort intercourse (St. Alphonsus, V, 59).

III. From proximate danger or grave danger of mortal sin, as if someone from a somewhat immodest touch will probably consent to the venereal delectation to follow, or goes to a person with whom he is probably going to sin (St. Alphonsus, V, 63). Concerning proximate danger, more fully in the treatise on Penance.

IV. From scandal, as if a priest should go about half-drunk before others.

V. From the ultimate end constituted; this happens explicitly if someone holds a lightly evil thing as the supreme good; implicitly, if someone is actually prepared to transgress a grave precept rather than abstain from an act in itself venially evil or not evil at all, as if someone actually proposes rather to neglect Mass than to stop playing (St. Alphonsus, V, 60).

VI. From contempt of authority, namely if someone transgresses a law or precept because he despises the law or precept itself, or the superior as such. It must be said otherwise when someone neglects a law or precept in a light matter, either because the thing commanded is esteemed little, or because the superior is held in little account not as such but as unlearned, imprudent, etc. (St. Alphonsus, I, 142; IV, 161, q. 3).

Likewise one sins gravely, even if the matter in itself is light, if one does not observe a precept because one does not wish to be subject to authority (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 186, a. 9, ad 3).

With these things noted concerning contempt of authority, it is pleasing to add certain things concerning contempt in general. Therefore let there be:

  1. Notion. Contempt is despising a person or thing which is worthy of esteem. It can be either merely internal or externally manifested.

  2. Quality of the sin. Contempt is opposed to that virtue from whose motive it is prohibited. Thus, for example, despising God is opposed to religion; despising one's father as such is opposed to piety; despising a superior as such, i.e., authority, is opposed to observance.

  3. Gravity of the sin. Contempt is a grave or light sin according as it involves grave or light irreverence, etc. Thus, for example, contempt of God, of a man as such, of one's father as such, are grave. It must be said otherwise of contempt of a man or father insofar as, for example, he is given to drunkenness, or of a superior insofar as he is imprudent, proud, etc.

Corollary. He who transgresses even the very slightest law or precept from contempt of the legislator or commander as such sins gravely against dulia. He who transgresses these because he does not wish to be subject to authority sins gravely against obedience. He who transgresses these neither because he contemns authority nor because he does not wish to be subject to authority, but from another motive, sins against that virtue from whose motive the law or precept was given; therefore against obedience if, which will rarely happen, they were given from the motive of obedience. And indeed he sins gravely or lightly according to the matter.

Mortal and Venial Sin