Covetousness

Covetousness or avarice is the inordinate love of wealth, It is not sinful to value and seek after money in moderation, but the love of money becomes inordinate when it causes a man to be too close and niggardly in spending it, too eager and absorbed in acquiring it, and ready to do what is wrong in order to come at it.

It is of itself a venial sin, but it becomes mortal when it leads to the transgression of a precept which binds under grievous sin. Although it is of itself only a venial sin, yet it is very dangerous because of man’s proneness to it, and because the vice is apt to grow fast by what it feeds upon, until it becomes mortally sinful. Holy Scripture frequently condemns it and warns us against it.¹

¹ 1 Tim. vi 9, etc.

Covetousness is opposed to liberality by defect, while prodigality is opposed to liberality by excess. Liberality is the virtue which moderates the love of wealth and inclines us to spend it well, according to the dictates of right reason. Prodigality inclines a man to squander his wealth on unworthy objects, or to give more than he should do, so that he is not able to live according to his state of life, or he is unable to fulfil his obligations, or he reduces his family to beggary.

I. Notion. Avarice is the inordinate appetite for goods of fortune. It is opposed to liberality.

II. Morality. Avarice per se, i.e., insofar as it is opposed to liberality, is venial. It can become mortal, for example, by reason of violated justice, charity, etc.

III. The daughters of avarice are: hardness of heart, restlessness of heart, violence, fallacy (deceit in words), fraud (deceit in deed, for example, in contracts), betrayal (deception against faith given or owed) (St. Thomas, I-II, q. 84, a. 1; II-II, q. 118; St. Alphonsus, V, 68-70).

IV. Remedies of avarice: 1. Weigh the vanity of earthly goods, which slip away, while heavenly goods endure.¹ 2. Consider that you are destined for higher things and therefore that the heart of man is not satisfied by riches.² 3. Consider the example of Christ, who for our sake was made poor.³ 4. Exercise liberality, by distributing alms, etc.⁴

Note. Just as avarice is opposed to liberality by defect, so prodigality is opposed to it by excess. Now prodigality is a superfluous distribution of one's own goods. Prodigality per se, i.e., insofar as it is opposed to liberality, is a venial sin. It can become mortal, for example, by reason of harm to the family that will follow, etc. (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 119; St. Alphonsus, V, 68).

¹ Luke 12:20.

² Eccles. 5:9; Matt. 16:26; Luke 12:31.

³ 2 Cor. 8:9.

⁴ Cf. Sweens, Theologia moralis fundamentalis, n. 96.

III. Opposed Vices. To liberality are opposed: by defect, avarice, by which someone omits to give riches according to the debt of moral goodness; by excess, prodigality, by which someone gives riches more than the prescription of reason illumined by faith permits, or to one to whom it does not permit.

The predominant individual motives for sin are as numerous as the different characters of those addicted to sin, and hence it is impossible to classify them. The predominant general motives for sin, on the contrary, can be assigned according to the principal goods that most often move or repel with wills of all who commit sin, as follows: (a) goods of the soul, such as praise and honor, inordinately pursued (the vice of pride); (b) goods of the body, inordinately desired (the views of lust and gluttony); (c) goods that are external, unduly loved (the vice of avarice); (d) one’s own good, not sufficiently wished (the vice of sloth); (e) the neighbor’s good, not suffiviently desired (the vices of envy and anger).

Vice of Avarice.—The vice which is opposed to liberality by defect in giving is avarice, which, properly speaking or as distinguished from theft and robbery, is an immoderate desire, love or delight entertained in respect to external corporal goods, such as lands or money.

(a) The Absolute Malice of Avarice.—This sin is per se venial, since it is only an excess in the love of a thing that is in itself indifferent and lawful; but it becomes mortal if the affection for money is so great that one is prepared to sacrifice grave obligations for its sake (e.g., to stay away from church rather than contribute to religion or the suffering poor). It is not merely carnal, since not concerned with bodily pleasure; nor merely spiritual, since riches are not a spiritual object; hence, it stands midway between spiritual and carnal vices.

(b) The Comparative Malice of Avarice.—In regard to deformity, avarice is not worse than other sins, but rather the contrary. The less the good to which a vice is opposed, the less the deprivation caused by the vice; and hence since external goods, to whose proper esteem avarice is opposed, are less important than divine or human goods, it follows that avarice is not so sinful as irreligion, homicide, theft, etc. In regard to shamefulness, however, avarice is worse than other sins. The less valuable the created good that a vice pursues, the more disgraceful the vice; and hence since the miser sets his heart on external things, which are the lowest of all goods, preferring them to goods of body and of soul (e.g., to health, education) and even to divine goods, he is rightly regarded as more contemptible than other sinners. Some forms of avarice, too, are more despicable than others. Thus, in some persons avarice shows itself in their fear to consume or expend for their own necessary uses (parsimony, penuriousness); in others it shows itself by an unwillingness to give to others (stinginess, niggardliness), or a willingness to live at the expense of others (sponging); finally, the most disgusting form of avarice is seen in those who cannot bear to part with their possessions either for their own sake or for the sake of others, and find their happiness in mere possession (miserliness). In regard to influence, avarice has a pre-eminence among sins that causes it to be numbered among the seven capital vices. A capital vice is one of the chief sources of evil attraction that produces other sins, and it is clear that immoderate love of riches is one of the most prolific of sins. All are drawn to happiness, and money seems to secure the requisites for happiness (Ecclus., x. 16); hence we see that for the sake of holding to money men become hard of heart (Matt., xxiii. 14; Luke, xvi. 21), for the sake of acquiring it they become carnal and restless in mind (Ecclus., xiv. 9; Matt., xiii. 22) and have recourse to deeds of violence (III Kings, xxi. 2), of deception (Acts, xxiv. 26), of perjury (Matt., xxviii. 12 sqq.), of fraud (Luke, xvi. 4 sqq.), and of treachery (Matt., xxvi. 15). Avarice is at the same time one of the most dangerous of sins, for it will lead a man to sell even his own soul (Ecclus., X. 10) and to commit any enormity (I Tim., vi. 9), and one of the most incurable, for the miser never has enough (Prov., xxx. 15, 16) and is always able to make believe that his avarice is prudence or some other virtue (Wis., xv. 12).

Comparison of Avarice and Prodigality.—(a) They are associable, for the same person may be both avaricious and prodigal, though in different respects (e.g., some persons are spendthrifts in giving money away, and are thus forced to be grasping to get money and ready to obtain it by any means, foul or fair). (b) They are unequal in malice. Prodigality is less sinful than avarice, because it is less removed from liberality, less harmful to self and others, and less difficult to cure. It is said that prodigality is the vice of youth, avarice the vice of old age.

What is avarice? Avarice is the inordinate appetite of temporal goods. An inordinate appetite, by being unwilling rather to lose them than God; by denying alms to the poor when the obligation of charity urges; by unjustly desiring others' things; by loving or desiring riches too much, or by taking too much delight in them. Too much, beyond due measure, namely by acquiring or retaining them according as they are necessary for life, according to one's own condition. Avarice, insofar as it is precisely opposed to the virtue of liberality, is from its genus only a venial sin. Nevertheless it can become mortal in three ways: 1. Against charity toward oneself, by constituting the last end in riches, or by transgressing the precepts of God rather than suffer loss in temporal goods. 2. Against charity toward neighbor, by not helping him when constituted in grave necessity, etc. 3. Against justice, by taking what belongs to another, etc. S. Th. 1. 2. q. 84, a. 1; 2. 2. q. 118; L. 68.

Liberality is the virtue by which we use well all those external goods which have been granted to us for our sustenance. There is a twofold use of exterior goods, one toward oneself, another toward others. And therefore it pertains to liberality that on account of immoderate love of money someone not be impeded from fitting expenditures, nor from fitting gifts. But to give pertains most of all to liberality, since this is more perfect than to receive, or to spend upon oneself. S. Th. 2. 2. q. 117, aa. 1, 4. As avarice, so also prodigality is opposed to liberality, both according to excess in giving, and according to defect in retaining and acquiring. S. Th. 2. 2. q. 118, 119.

What are the daughters of avarice? - They are the following: 1. Hardening of heart, against mercy, by not compassionating the needy and poor, by reproaching them, by demanding debts too harshly when the debtor is not able to pay, etc. By this one can sometimes sin mortally, when the precept of almsgiving or charity urges, and nevertheless from such hardness he is not helped. L. 69. 2. Disquiet of heart, i.e., a vehement and inordinate application of the mind to acquiring or conserving riches, with empty and vain fear lest they not be acquired or lest they be lost. It is mortal when it withdraws from spiritual things or other things to which we are obliged by grave precept, or induces superfluous fear, and from this distrust toward God. It is venial if it is concerning a good matter, but at an undue time or place, e.g., concerning family, harvest, vintage, when someone is in church, or should be free for God. S. Th. 2. 2. q. 55, a. 6; L. 69.

3. Violence, namely the usurpation of another's thing by force. It is mortal if it concerns a grave thing, or inflicts grave force. L. 69. 4. Fallacy, or deceit in words; it can be mortal by reason of the end or of the means. S. Th. 2. 2. q. 55, a. 4; L. 69. 5. Perjury, if confirmation by oath is added. 6. Fraud, or deceit in deed. It is mortal from its genus; and it occurs in many ways in contracts. S. Th. 2. 2. q. 55, a. 5; L. 69. - 7. Betrayal, which is deception against faith given or owed, to the harm of another. It is mortal from its genus. It occurs in almost three ways: 1. concerning persons, in which way Judas betrayed Christ; 2. concerning things, as if you show to the enemy the manner of taking a fortress, or show to a robber money, clothing, etc., that has been hidden; 3. concerning a secret, either by revealing one committed to oneself, or by reading others' letters. But if this is in a grave matter, it is per se mortal. L. 69; S. Th. 2. 2. q. 118, a. 8; q. 55, a. 8.

175. • Avarice is the disordered appetite of temporal goods. It is opposed to justice or liberality. If the former, it will easily break forth into mortal sin, namely as often as it impels to grave injustice toward the neighbor. - If the latter, of itself it will beget only venial sins. Moreover excessive affection toward earthly things can, and indeed usually does, propel one into other sins, even grave ones.

The daughters of avarice are: hardness of heart toward the miserable, disquiet of mind, or disordered solicitude about earthly things, perfidy, deceit, etc...

Remedies: consideration of the vanity of earthly things, of the baseness, unhappiness, and dangers of this vice. - St. Lig., no. 69.

556. 1. Notion. (A) Avarice is the immoderate love of riches. It can be immoderate especially in three ways: (a) if riches are acquired not from an honorable end, such as is the intention of providing for one's own necessities or those of the family, but from inordinate love of money, which is delighted in accumulated wealth; (b) when riches are acquired with excessive solicitude, so that the mind thinks of nothing, the heart seeks nothing except gain; (c) when money is spent with excessive parsimony, insofar as someone deprives himself and his own of those things which, according to each one's state, are held necessary.

³ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118; De Malo, q. 13; Nat. Alexander, op. cit., p. 819-951; Ball. P., n. 708-709; Pruner, p. 344-346; Descuret, t. II, p. 275-297; Massillon, Discours synodaux, De l'avarice des pretres, De la compassion des pauvres; Monsabre, Retraites pascales, 1892-1894, Paris, Les Idoles: la richesse.

(B) Avarice is found not only in the rich, but sometimes also in the poor, insofar as they cling with too great affection to the things possessed, or gape with immoderate desire after those things which they do not have. - Although it is sometimes found in the young, nevertheless it is more frequent in the old, who, when the other passions have been weakened, adhere to this one, and, from immoderate prudence, fear lest perhaps they lack necessities.¹ - Formerly, when money was retained at home and carefully guarded in chests, there were not lacking avaricious men who cultivated coins as certain idols, and truly served mammon, depriving even themselves and their own of necessities.² But today, since money is fruitful in such diverse ways, generally it is not loved for its own sake, but on account of the diverse conveniences which it brings, namely splendid houses, exquisite foods, pleasures, honors, authority over others, since all things obey money.³

¹ "But what is here most deplorable for this vice in a priest is that age and reflections usually cure the other passions, whereas this one seems to revive and take on new forces in old age... The more death approaches, the more one broods with one's eyes over one's miserable treasure; the more one regards it as a necessary precaution for an imaginary future. Thus age rejuvenates, so to speak, this unworthy passion; years, illnesses, reflections, everything thrusts it more deeply into the soul; and it is nourished and inflamed by the very remedies which cure and extinguish the others." (Massillon, op. cit., Oeuvres, Besancon, 1822, t. IX, p. 183).

² "The other (the avaricious man) amasses only in order to amass: it is not to provide for his needs; he refuses them to himself: his money is more precious to him than his health, than his life, than his salvation, than himself; all his actions, all his views, all his affections, refer only to this unworthy object." (Massillon, op. cit., p. 180).

³ Thus many modern rich men (plutocrats), as may be seen apud Carnegie, The Empire of Business.

557. But the effects which it produces (commonly they are called its daughters) are: (a) hardening of heart toward the poor, because the heart, clinging to riches, is not softened by mercy, nor does it wish to help the miserable, but addresses them harshly and repels them, indeed rigorously exacts debts from them, even if they are unequal to paying them; (b) disquiet of heart, or anxious application of the mind to acquiring and preserving riches, or many solicitudes and fears lest the wealth sought with so much solicitude be lost; (c) frauds, fallacies, for deceiving contracting parties concerning the quality or quantity of things sold, so that gain may be perceived more easily and more quickly; to these are sometimes joined perjuries, indeed also betrayals, as is clear concerning Judas, who from avarice betrayed Christ; (d) violence and crimes, by which others' goods are unjustly seized.

558. 2. The malice of avarice and cupidity. (A) Considered in itself, avarice (a) is a mortal sin from its kind, when it is opposed to justice, namely by stealing or retaining the goods of another, as is explained fully in the Treatise on Justice; (b) but it is a venial sin when it is opposed to liberality, because this virtue of itself obliges only under light obligation; nevertheless if someone, in a particular case, from inordinate cupidity, were to deny aid to a poor man placed in extreme necessity, he would sin mortally, as will be clear from the things to be said below concerning Charity.

559. (B) But in its effects, avarice not rarely draws to grave sins against God, neighbor, and oneself: (a) against God, insofar as the avaricious man, on account of temporal good, despises eternal things, and cultivates riches, not God. Hence avarice is called by the Apostle service of idols,¹ and Christ says:² "You cannot serve God and mammon," because, namely, no one can serve two masters. In reality there are not lacking those who, on account of love of riches, do not fear to act against the love of God. (b) Against the neighbor, because, as St. Thomas says,³ "in exterior riches one man cannot abound unless another lacks, because temporal goods cannot be possessed by many at the same time." Now the rich are able to become richer, and sometimes by unjust contracts, wicked lawsuits, monopolies, and iniquitous exactions they vex and despoil the poor. Wherefore St. Ambrose, recalling the history of Naboth, despoiled by cruel Jezebel, writes:⁴ "The history of Naboth is old in time, daily in use. For what rich man does not daily covet others' things? What one of the very wealthy does not strive to drive a poor man from his little field, and to eliminate the needy man from the boundaries of his ancestral land? Who is content with his own? Whose rich soul is not inflamed by a neighboring possession?" (c) Against himself, insofar as the avaricious man is made a slave of riches; for he does not possess gold, but rather is possessed by gold, and is made a captive of his own opulence; for how many labors, solicitudes, vigils are required for gathering or guarding or increasing that wealth? He is cruel against himself, defrauding himself of true spiritual goods in order to obtain perishable riches. In the highest affluence of goods he is needy and poor, not only because he lacks tranquillity of soul and joy of heart, but also because he always seeks greater riches: for avarice is insatiable, and cannot be filled even in man's old age. - Moreover he renders himself liable to many temptations: the richer someone is, the more frequently he falls into occasions of sin, according to that saying of the Apostle:¹ "For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many useless and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition. For cupidity is the root of all evils."

¹ "For understand this, that every fornicator, or unclean man, or avaricious man, which is service of idols, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. 5:5). Yet not a few think, from the context, that by the name avaricious man is designated him who immoderately indulges lust.

² Matt. 6:24.

³ St. Thomas, q. 118, a. 1, ad 2.

⁴ De Nabuthe, c. 1, P. L., XIV, 731.

¹ 1 Tim. 6:9-10.

560. 3. Remedies against avarice and cupidity. (a) The vanity of temporal goods, compared with the excellence of spiritual goods, ought to deter Christians from avarice: "Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where rust and moth destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal... Seek therefore first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you."²

² Matt. 6:19-20, 33.

He indeed is rich who possesses God, and he is very poor who, abounding in wealth, lacks the grace of God. Wherefore the first Christians were not ashamed of their poverty, but gloried in it: "Moreover, because most of us are called poor, this is not our infamy, but glory: for as the soul is loosened by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality; and yet who can be poor, who does not lack, who does not gape after another's goods, who is rich in God? He is rather poor who, although he has many things, desires more."³

³ Minucius Felix, in Octavio, c. 37, P. L., III, 351; cf. Bossuet, Sermon sur l'eminente dignite des pauvres, - sur nos dispositions a l'egard des necessites de la vie.

Besides, death comes, and separates us even unwilling from all riches, and therefore he acts foolishly who places his hope in perishable things: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you: but the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be?"⁴

⁴ Luke 12:20.

561. (b) Especially powerful above all is the example of Christ, who, although he was rich, became poor for us, that by his poverty we might be rich;⁵ namely born of a poor mother in a stable, and wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger, he led a poor life with the poor, chose poor disciples, openly declared the poor blessed, died most poor on the cross, despoiled of his own garments. The sign of his divine mission is the evangelization of the poor. Therefore our patrimony is the poverty of Christ, and he denies Christ who glories in riches and adheres to them with his whole heart.

⁵ 2 Cor. 8:9.

(c) Therefore let the poor not be ashamed of their poverty, but rather be content with it, gaping after eternal goods. But let the rich redeem past sins by alms, and guard against future ones by using wealth to do good to the poor: "Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God... to become rich in good works; to give easily, to communicate; to store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may apprehend true life."¹ - In reality nothing more efficaciously turns the mind away from earthly things, nothing renders salvation more secure than the copious pouring forth of alms into the bosom of the poor.

¹ 1 Tim. 6:17-19.

II. COVETOUSNESS. —Covetousness or avarice (avaritia, philargyria) is an inordinate love of earthly things, an immoderate desire to possess, keep, and increase them (tenacitas). With regard to no other sin is it so difficult to draw a line of demarcation between what is licit and what is forbidden as with regard to avarice, which loves to hide under the cloak of duty, frugality, and other virtues. It is sinful to attach one's heart to earthly goods, to serve Mammon instead of God,¹³ to be niggardly toward one's fellowmen and unscrupulous in the satisfy one's greed. Avarice leads to mendacity, deceit, perjury, treason, theft, and every other kind of injustice.¹⁴ St. Paul no doubt had these consequences in mind when he censured avarice as "the root of all evils." ¹⁵ Among the consequences of covetousness are insatiability, discontent, fear of persecution and poverty,¹⁶ and that "infatuation of self-love," as Blair calls it, which so often ends in impenitence.¹⁷

¹³ Cfr. Matth. VI, 21, 24; Eph. V, 5; Col. III, 5. —Cfr. St. Polycarp, Epist. ad Philipp., c. 11: "If anyone does not abstain from avarice, he will be defiled by idolatry and will be reckoned as among the Gentiles, who do not know the judgment of the Lord." (Ed. 2a, F. X. Funk, p. 308).

¹⁴ Cfr. Gen. XXXI, 7; Ecclus. XXXI, 5-7; Is. V, 8; Jer. XXII, 17; Am. VIII, 5-6; John XII, 4-6.

¹⁵ 1 Tim. VI, 10.—Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 1a 2ae, qu. 84, art. 1. —Sophocles, Antigone, 221 sq.

¹⁶ Cfr. Matth. XIII, 22.—Ps.-Augustine, Append. Serm., 293 (a/. 250 de Temp.), n. 1: "Avarice, I say, must be despised; like fire, the more it receives, the more it seeks." (Migne, P. L., XXXIX, 2301). —Horace, Carm., Ill, 16, 17: "Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam." —IDEM, Satyrae, I, i, 28 sqq. —Juvenal, Satyrae, XIV, 28-29. —When these pages were being prepared for the printer, the Fortnightly Review (St. Louis, Mo., Vol. XXIV, No. 9) published the following: "Mrs. Hetty Green, who died not long ago, leaving an estate of about $100,000,000, according to testimony filed in a surrogate's court by her son, lived under at least six assumed names, and probably many others, hoping thus to elude schemers who might be seeking her money, and murderous cranks, such as the one who tried to kill her friend Russell Sage. She never owned in New York so much as a three-legged stool in the way of furnishings for what men call a home, and moved from one $10 to $15 boarding-house to another, in constant fear that her fellow-boarders would learn her identity. This immensely wealthy woman, who possessed the means to gratify her every whim, lived almost like a criminal dreading arrest. She dreaded to lose the very wealth which oppressed her, and the world's richest woman was perhaps more familiar with the fear of poverty than many a penniless clerk on the pay-roll of her estate.... If she had labored to reduce her own fortune by wise and unselfish giving, her journey might have been more cheerful, for thus she might have escaped the limitations of poverty and at the same time divested herself of the heaviest burdens of wealth." VI, 9.

¹⁷ Cfr. Luke XII, 15-21; 1 Tim.

Ordinary sins of covetousness are in themselves venial, but become mortal if they lead to the transgression of precepts that bind under pain of grievous sin. Al- though covetousness is in itself but a venial sin, "yet it is very dangerous because of man's proneness to it, and because the vice is apt to grow fast by what it feeds upon, until it becomes mortally sinful. Holy Scripture frequently condemns it and warns us against it." ¹⁸ III. LUST. —Lust (luxuria)¹⁹ is an inordinate desire for the pleasure which has its seat in the organs of generation. Sins of lust may be internal (thoughts and desires) or external (words and acts). In these sins there is no smallness of matter (parvitas materiae), but every act of wrongful indulgence in venereal pleasure, if directly sought or consented to, is grievously sinful. No sin against chastity is venial except that which remains internally incomplete (actus imperfectus), not on account of outward circumstances, but because the will resists.

¹⁸ Th. Slater, S.J., A Manual of Moral Theology, Vol. I, pp. 157 sq. —Cfr. 1 Tim. VI, 9, etc.

¹⁹ Cfr. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2a 2ae, qu. 153 sq.: St. Alphonsus, Theol. Moralis, 1. Ill, n. 412 sqq. (ed. Gaude, Vol. I, pp. 665 sqq.).

Not all sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, therefore, are mortal. If an impure thought, word, or act is freely willed, or, a fortiori, if it is deliberately excited, it is a mortal sin. Not so if it arises in the mind against one's will or without one's deliberate consent. External acts, such as immodest touches, looks, etc., are mortally sinful if due to lust; they are venially sinful if due to curiosity or inadvertence, and transient in character; and they are not sinful at all if performed for some reasonable cause, even though accompanied by venereal pleasure, provided, of course, no consent is given to such pleasure.

1. Some sins of lust or impurity are according to the order of nature, others are against nature. a) Sins according to the order of nature (in or dine naturae) are all acts of sexual intercourse committed by unmarried persons, e. g., fornication, concubinage, etc. b) Sins against the order of nature (contra ordinem naturae) are those which frustrate the divinely ordained purpose of sexual intercourse, é. g., onanism, self-pollution, pederasty, sodomy, etc.²⁰ Certain sins of impurity derive additional gravity from the attending circumstances, e. g., double adultery, incest, fornication committed by persons vowed to celibacy,²¹ seduction practiced by persons in authority upon their subjects, etc.

²⁰ Cfr. Gen. XIX, 5-7; XXXVIII, 9; Ex. XXII, 19; Lev. XVIII, 22 sq.; XX, 13, 15 sq.; Judg. XIX, 22 aqq.; Wisd. XIV, *6; Rom. I, 26 •q.; x Cor. V, x; VI, 9 sq.; 1 Tim. I, 9 gq.

²¹ Cfr. Gen. XIX, 31 sqq.; XXVIII, 13 sqq.; 2 Kings XLI, 4; XIII, n sqq.—Cfr. 1 Cor. VI, 15, 19; St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 154, art. 6-10.

2. Lust or impurity is a sin which ought "not so much as be named" among Christians.²² It involves most serious consequences for the individual as well as for society. a) "Know you not," says St. Paul, "that your bodies are members of Christ? Am I then to take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid! Or know you not that he that cleaveth to a harlot is one body [with her]? The two/ it is said, 'shall become one flesh/ But he that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit [with him]. Flee from impurity. Every [other] sin that a man committeth is [a thing] outside the body; but the impure sinneth against his own body. Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own, for you have been bought at a price. Glorify God, then, in your body." ²³ With every other sin (avarice, pride, anger, gluttony, etc.) either the object, or the means of its attainment, lie outside of the subject, whereas in the case of impurity the sinner makes his own body the direct means of wrong-doing (materia peccandi). This vice is especially offensive in a Christian whose body has been raised to the supernatural order by Baptism. God has not only redeemed us from the servitude of the devil and ransomed us at a tremendous price (the life of His only begotten Son), but He has made us temples of the Holy Ghost and members of the mystical body of Christ. For this reason impurity in a Christian involves a kind of sacrilege, a desecration of the temple of God and a violation of the property rights of Jesus Christ.²⁴

²² 1 Cor. V, 1; Eph. V, 3.

²³ 1 Cor. VI, 15 sqq. (Westminster Version).

²⁴ Rom. III, 23-25; 1 Cor. III, 16; VI, 13; Eph. V, 30; 1 Thess. IV, 7 sq.; 1 Pet. I, 18 sq.

These considerations will explain why of all the capital sins impurity is most injurious to the body and the moral character. b) Impurity not only causes concupiscence to grow stronger,²⁵ but leads to self-deception, inconstancy in the keeping of good resolutions, indifference toward considerations of honor and property, intemperance in eating and drinking, disgust for spiritual things, dread of eternity, hatred of God, unbelief, and suicide.²⁶ The effects of this vice on the bodily and spiritual health of its victims and the welfare of their descendants are incalculable. "Sexual intercourse outside of marriage/' says a modern penologist, "is the cardinal crime from which, directly or indirectly, most other crimes spring." ²⁷ There is an intimate connection between lust and cruelty, especially rape and murder.²⁸

²⁵ Cfr. St. Jerome, Epist., 123 (al. 11), n. 14: “Lust, when its act is past, always leaves remorse for itself; it is never satisfied, and when extinguished it is rekindled. It grows by use and fails; nor does that which is driven by impulse obey reason.” (Migne, P. L., XXII, 1055).

²⁶ Os. IV, 1 1; 2 Kings XI, 4 sqq.; XIII, 11 sqq.; Prov. V, 1 sqq.; XXIX, 3; Ecclus. XIX, 2 sq.; Luke XV, 13, 30. —St. Ambrose, Epist., 27, n. 2\ "The lustful man detests the work of virtue; the glutton flees it. Thus the Egyptian body, which loves enticements, opposes the virtues of the soul, abominates command, flees the disciplines of the virtues and all works of this kind." (Migne, P. L., XVI, 1047). —IDEM, Epist., 58, n. 16: "When anyone begins to live lustfully, he begins to stray from the true faith. Thus he commits two very great crimes: disgraces of the flesh and sacrileges of the mind." (P. L., XVI, 1182).— St. Bernard, In Cant., s. 39, n. 7: "The chariot of lust likewise rolls on four wheels: gluttony of the belly, lust of intercourse, softness of clothing, and relaxation in idleness and sleep. It is drawn by two horses alike, prosperity of life and abundance of possessions; and two drivers preside over these, the torpor of sloth and faithless security." (P. L., CLXXXIII, 980).—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 153, art. 5: "Through the vice of lust the lower appetite, namely the concupiscible, tends most vehemently toward its object, namely the pleasurable, because of the vehemence of passion and delight. Consequently, through lust the higher powers, namely reason and will, are especially disordered." —J. Gerson, De Examinatione Doctr., P, I, consid. 6 (.Opera, I, 18): "Just as no passion is more vehement than lustful desire, so none is more dangerous for falling into error and teaching falsehood."

²⁷ Beneke, Gefängnisstudien, p. 54. —Horace says (Carm., III, 6, 17 sqq.): "The ages fruitful in guilt have polluted marriage, offspring, and homes; the calamity derived from this source has flowed into country and people." Cfr. the same writer's Satyrae, Book III, 3, 107 sq.: "Nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus deterrima belli causa...."

²⁸ Cfr. Ez. XVI, 49; Am. II, 7. — Jos. Müller, Die Keuschheitsideen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung und praktischen Bedeutung, Mayence 1897, pp. 152 sqq.

"It is vanity to follow the lusts of the flesh and to desire that for which thou must afterwards be grievously punished.... For they who follow sensuality, defile their conscience and lose the grace of God," says Thomas a Kempis.²⁹

²⁹ De Imit. Christi, I, 1. Cfr. S. J. Auer, O. Praem., De Virtute Castitatis, eiusque Laesionibus, Innsbruck 1920; P. Merkelbach, O.P., Quaestiones de Castitate et Luxuria, Paris 1926.

— Notion. 1. Avarice is the inordinate appetite of temporal things. Venial from its kind, it becomes mortal if because of it grave violations of the law are committed.

2. It is a capital vice insofar as it begets: hardness of heart, or too great an application to acquiring or conserving riches, with an empty and vain fear lest they not be acquired or be lost; violence; fallacy, which is deceit in words; fraud, which is deceit in deeds; betrayal, which is a harmful deception contrary to faith given. Persons, goods, secrets can be betrayed. Fraud and betrayal are mortal from their kind.

3. The opposite vice of prodigality is defective in conserving goods and excessive in expending them: it is venial from its kind.

— Opposite virtue. Liberality, midway between both vices, uses riches well, especially by expending them for others.

416. Notion. Avarice, philargyria, is the immoderate love of having possessions or riches.⁵⁰ Such love is disordered a) if riches are acquired not from an honorable end, but from a disordered love of money, which takes delight in heaped-up wealth; b) if riches are acquired with excessive solicitude, so that a man thinks of and desires almost nothing else except temporal gain to be made (Habsucht); c) if riches are retained with excessive parsimony, so that a man deprives himself and his own of things necessary according to the fittingness of his state (Geiz). - Avarice is found not only in the rich but also sometimes in the poor. Ordinarily and rightly it is said that avarice is a vice proper to old men, who often are too tenacious of money and are filled with immoderate care for future necessities. Rarely are young men given to avarice, but rather to the opposite vice of prodigality.

⁵⁰ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 118, a. 2.

417. Malice. Sometimes it can be discerned with great difficulty whether cupidity for temporal things is illicit or licit. Then such cupidity is certainly sinful when it induces a certain true servitude toward money. Hence sinful avarice is called by St. Paul "the service of idols,"⁵¹ and Christ admonishes: "You cannot serve God and mammon."⁵² But as to discerning the degree of sinfulness, a distinction is needed: avarice which is opposed to justice is from its genus a mortal sin; but that which is opposed only to the virtue of liberality is a venial sin from its genus.⁵³ For avarice can be considered in two ways: in one way, insofar as someone acquires and preserves temporal goods beyond what is due, by stealing or retaining the things of others, for example by an unjust monopoly or syndicate demanding unjust prices for merchandise. Of itself it is clear that such avarice is a mortal sin, since not only the virtue of liberality but also the virtue of justice is thereby injured. Indeed there arises an obligation of restitution on account of justice injured. - In another way avarice is opposed only to the virtue of liberality, insofar as, with the virtue of justice preserved, it induces an exaggerated love of temporal goods. Such avarice, because it is only an excess in love of a thing indifferent and licit according to itself, is not so gravely repugnant to right reason and divine law, and is from its genus a venial sin; nevertheless it can become mortal if "the love of riches grows to such an extent that it is preferred to charity, so that, namely, on account of love of riches someone does not fear to act against the love of God and neighbor,"⁵⁴ as for example to commit perjury, not to hear Mass on a feast day, not to assist the poor who are in grave or extreme necessity.

Avarice is a very base sin, because it is altogether repugnant to the dignity of man that he should be a servant of mammon. Consequently an avaricious man is wont to be despised and held in hatred by all. Hence also it is said: "Nothing is more wicked than to love money; for such a one also has his soul for sale, because in his life he has cast away his inmost things,"⁵⁵ and: "They that will become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition; for cupidity is the root of all evils."⁵⁶

⁵¹ Eph. 5, 5.

⁵² Matth. 6, 24.

⁵³ Cf. S. theol. l. c. a. 4.

⁵⁴ Ib.

⁵⁵ Eccli. 10, 10.

⁵⁶ 1 Tim. 6, 9 sq.

418. Daughters of avarice. By St. Gregory⁵⁷ the following seven vices are assigned as flowing from avarice and serving it: hardness of heart, restlessness, violence, fallacy, perjury, fraud, betrayal.

1. Hardness of heart⁵⁸ toward the poor and neighbors, whom the avaricious man treats without mercy, by not assisting them, by compelling them to pay debts even if they are unequal to it.

2. Restlessness, that is, superfluous and tormenting care for goods to be acquired and for acquired goods to be preserved.

3. Violence, that is, a brutal manner for acquiring goods.

4. and 5. Fallacy and fraud, that is, deceit done either by word or by deed for deceiving one's neighbor and for acquiring money. Many so-called modern "stock-exchange speculations" are stained by fallacies and frauds.

5. Perjury. Since the avaricious man is a servant of mammon, he is deterred by no crime, not even by perjury, in order to seize gain.

6. Betrayal, of which Judas Iscariot, given to avarice, offers the sad example.

⁵⁷ Moral. l. 31, c. 45 (Migne, Patr. lat. 76, 162).

⁵⁸ Hartherzigkeit, hardheartedness.

419. Remedies against avarice are: 1. Meditation on the vanity of all earthly goods. Hence Christ admonishes: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.... Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."⁵⁹ Besides, all earthly goods are so unstable and transitory; death comes and separates man from all riches.⁶⁰ 2. Meditation on the example of Christ, who, though he was rich, became needy for us, that by his poverty we might be rich.⁶¹ In his whole earthly life, from the manger even to the cross, Christ always exercised poverty. 3. Works of liberality and charity, for example the giving of alms, donations. - Besides, the vice of avarice is cured with greatest difficulty, both because it creeps in secretly under the pretext of prudent care concerning the future, so that few avaricious men recognize their avarice, and because it flatters under the name of virtue and induces an almost ineluctable servitude.

⁵⁹ Matth. 6, 19 sqq., 33.

⁶⁰ Cf. Luc. 12, 20 sq.

⁶¹ Cf. 2 Cor. 8, 9.

St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118; De Malo q. 13.

503. Avarice is the inordinate appetite of riches: but under the name of riches come all exterior goods insofar as they are useful to man and can be valued by money.

Avarice is twofold: 1. the inordinate appetite of riches in taking and retaining unduly, which is opposed to justice and therefore often is gravely evil; 2. the inordinate affection for riches, by which they are too much loved or desired or please too much in delight, which is opposed to liberality, and of itself is lightly evil, unless on account of affection for riches someone does not fear to commit some mortal sin, or constitutes his ultimate end in riches.

504. From avarice seven vices more frequently arise, as from a final cause, which are called its daughters. Insofar as it is immoderate in retaining, there arises 1. hardening of heart, or inhumanity against mercy toward neighbor; insofar as it is immoderate in taking, there arises 2. in affection: unrest or superfluous solicitude about acquiring goods; in effect: 3. violence, when someone uses force for acquiring goods; 4. fallacy, and 5. perjury, when he uses deceit in words, either simple words or words confirmed by oath; 6. fraud, and 7. betrayal, when he uses deceit in deed, either as to things or as to persons, as is clear concerning Judas, who from avarice betrayed Christ.

I. Avarice is the inordinate appetite for riches, or immoderate love of having. It is called:

1. an appetite for riches, under the name of which come not only monies but all exterior goods, insofar as they are useful to man and their price is measured and estimated by money: "all exterior things which come into the use of human life are understood under the name of money insofar as they have the account of a useful good";¹

¹ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118, a. 2 ad 1.

2. inordinate, that is, immoderate and excessive. For riches are a useful good for the sustaining of life according to someone's condition. But the useful is good insofar as it is commensurated to the end, and the excess of this measure is evil. Whence the appetite for riches insofar as they are necessary or useful for life is good, but to desire them beyond this is evil.

"In all things which are for an end, the good consists in a certain measure; for those things which are for an end must be commensurated to the end, as medicine is commensurated to health... But exterior goods have the account of useful things for an end. Whence it is necessary that man's good concerning them consist in a certain measure, namely while man seeks to have exterior riches according to some measure, insofar as they are necessary for his life according to his condition. And therefore sin consists in the excess of this measure, namely when someone wishes to acquire or retain them above the due mode, which pertains to the account of avarice, which is defined as immoderate love of having. Whence it is clear that avarice is a sin."²

² St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118, a. 1.

II. The gravity and species of avarice. - The love or appetite for riches can be immoderate in two ways:

a) in one way, in receiving and retaining riches, insofar, namely, as man acquires or preserves them more than is due. Thus it is directly a sin against the neighbor and is opposed to justice, and it is mortal from its genus, while nevertheless admitting lightness of matter;

b) in another way, in interior affection, if someone loves riches too much, desires them, or is delighted in them, even if he does not wish to snatch away the goods of others. Thus it is a sin of man in himself, and is opposed to liberality, and according to itself is venial, unless on account of affection for riches someone does not fear to commit some mortal sin, or establishes his last end in riches.³

³ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118, a. 1 ad 2; a. 3 and 5; Quaestiones disputatae de Malo, 13, a. 1 and 2.

From these things it is clear that avarice, or immoderate love of having, is not only the love of retaining riches, but of desiring them in any inordinate way whatsoever.

III. The general influence of avarice upon other sins. - The Apostle says in 1 Tim. 6:10: Cupidity is the root of all evils; this is to be understood of avarice properly so called.⁴ The reason is that through riches man acquires the faculty and facility of perpetrating any sin whatsoever, and the occasion of desiring any sin whatsoever, because man can be assisted by money in order to have any temporal goods whatsoever, according to Ecclesiastes 10:19: All things obey money. Whence just as a root furnishes nourishment to a tree, so money nourishes the desire of every sin. And therefore avarice is the root of all sins, not indeed in this sense, that every sin viewed individually arises from it, but because every genus of sin can arise from it and more frequently does arise from it.⁵

⁴ Several indeed have understood this of avarice improperly so called, namely a) of inordinate conversion or tendency toward any temporal good whatsoever, which is found in every sin. This general cupidity is called the cause of sins on the part of conversion toward created good, from which sin is nourished and fostered, whence it is called the root. Also b) of the inclination of fallen nature toward inordinately desiring temporal goods, from which all sins come. These things are true, but they do not hand down the sense of Scripture, which manifestly speaks of avarice properly so called, which is a special sin, namely the inordinate appetite for riches. I-II, q. 84, a. 1.

⁵ St. Thomas, I-II, q. 84, a. 1.

Therefore avarice properly so called, like pride properly so called, is the cause of all sins, not indeed on the part of aversion, but each on the part of the act or of conversion toward a created good which is in sin. Nevertheless they differ: 1. in the account of causality, for pride is the final cause of all, while avarice is a disposing cause toward all, insofar as it procures the means of acquiring all things which the other vices desire; whence 2. each is first in a different order: pride in the order of intention, in which the end is the principle that precedes the means; avarice in the order of execution, in which, on the contrary, the means precede the end, which is their term: "It must be considered that in voluntary acts a twofold order is found, namely, of intention and of execution. In the first order (pride) has the character of principle and of end. . . . But on the part of execution, that is first which furnishes the opportunity of fulfilling all the desires of sin, which has the character of a root, namely riches. And therefore on this side avarice is said to be the root of all evils."⁶

⁶ Ibid., a. 2.

IV. Avarice is a capital sin. - A capital vice is that from which other vices arise according to the character of an end, that is, because it has a supremely desirable end: whence, to obtain it, a man does many other things, even evil ones. But the supremely desirable end is happiness, "and therefore the more anything participates in the conditions of happiness, the more desirable it is." Now one of the conditions of happiness is that it be self-sufficient, a condition which is verified in riches: for money, which all things obey, most of all gives a man what suffices for himself. Therefore avarice is a capital vice. - Money, namely, although by its nature it is a useful good, and hence is not an end but a means to the end, nevertheless because of its universality, inasmuch as it is useful for acquiring all external goods, virtually contains all things, and so has a certain likeness to happiness, and is exceedingly desirable.⁷

⁷ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118, a. 7; Quaestiones disputatae de Malo, 13, a. 3.

Nor does this stand in the way: that pride is not numbered among the capital vices because it is itself the cause of all; therefore, by parity, avarice too is not to be placed among the capital vices, since it is the root of all sins. - For pride is the cause of all sins under the character of an end, and therefore it is not a capital vice, which is the final cause of some sins only; avarice, however, is not the root of all sins inasmuch as it is their end, but inasmuch as it disposes toward all and furnishes the faculty and the means of desiring and perpetrating all, and under this respect it is not a capital vice; but because it is besides the final cause of some, it is rightly numbered among the capital vices.⁸

⁸ St. Thomas, I-II, q. 84, a. 4, ad 4.

V. Avarice has seven daughters. - From avarice, as from a final cause, seven vices more frequently arise, according to Gregory, Morals, book 31, c. 45 (or 17), which are called its daughters. Inasmuch as it is immoderate in retaining, there arises: 1. hardness of heart, or inhumanity against mercy toward one's neighbor; - inasmuch as it is immoderate in taking, there arises 2. in the affection: restlessness, or superfluous solicitude about goods to be acquired; in effect: 3. violence, when someone uses force to acquire goods; 4. deceit and 5. perjury, when he uses guile in words, whether simple words or words confirmed by oath; 6. fraud, when he uses guile in deed as to things; and 7. treachery, when he uses guile as to persons, as is clear concerning Judas, who from avarice betrayed Christ.⁹

⁹ St. Thomas, II-II, q. 118, a. 8; Quaestiones disputatae de Malo, 13, a. 3.

VI. Remedies against avarice. - Besides prayer, there is customarily proposed a twofold kind of remedy: one internal, in the mind; another external, in work.

A. In the mind: consideration both a) of the loftiness of heavenly things and the vanity of earthly things; and b) of the example of Christ the Lord, who, though He was rich, became needy, that He might show us that the contempt of riches is the more certain way of salvation; and c) of the baseness, unhappiness, and dangers of avarice; and d) of death, which will despoil us of all earthly things.

In particular, think:

1. how inconstant are the riches of this world, which pass away "as a shadow" (Wis. 5:9), and like things possessed in sleep, after which, when it has passed, "all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands" (Ps. 75:6);

2. whither riches acquired with such solicitude will go: strangers will snatch away my labors, my heirs and those born of them will squander them. God warns the avaricious man: "Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:20-21);

3. how vile are the goods of this world: they are extrinsic, they make the possessor neither better nor blessed, but for the most part restless, forgetful of heaven, proud, luxurious, a contemner of divine things, hard also toward the miserable, as Sirach 10:9-10 testifies: "There is nothing more wicked than the avaricious man... Nothing is more wicked than to love money; for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale."

B. In work: a) largess of alms, b) visitation of the miserable, and c) conformity to the divine will in the loss of goods: namely, let the poor love poverty; let the rich be drawn back from riches by the good use of them.

In particular, call to mind the sayings of Scripture:

1. "He that giveth to the poor shall not want; he that despiseth him that asketh shall suffer want" (Prov. 28:27).

2. "He lendeth to the Lord who hath mercy on the poor" (Prov. 19:17); "As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me" (Matt. 25:40); "And do not forget beneficence and communication, for by such sacrifices God is merited" (Heb. 13:16).

3. "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord." He is truly rich who possesses God; poor is he who lacks God.

4. "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth,... but lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven... Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:19-20, 33; printed citation: Mt. VI, 19, 20, 23). "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

Avarice is the disordered appetite of temporal goods. It is opposed to justice or to liberality. If the former, it will easily issue into mortal sin, namely as often as it impels one to grave injustice toward the neighbor. - If the latter, of itself it will produce only venial sins. For the rest, excessive affection toward earthly things can impel, and indeed is accustomed to impel, into other even grave sins. From avarice also proceed hardness of heart toward the miserable, disquiet of soul, perfidy, deceit, etc. - Cf. St. Thom. 2-2, q. 118; and QQ. DD. De Malo, q. 13.

TWO are the vices opposed to Liberality, namely, Avarice, and Prodigality.

AVARICE consists in an immoderate appetite for having, even if it injures no one. Thus St. Doctor defines it in the Diaeta, tit. 1. cap. 6: Avarice is an immoderate love of money to be sought, or retained. There he sets forth splendid similitudes of avarice and reviews its harms.

He there enumerates the twelve daughters of Avarice, and these are they. Usury, Rapine, Robbery, Unjust Tallies, The fraud of traders, The deception of Advocates, The acceptance of gifts, Simony in the promotion of relatives, The sins of Anchorets, that is, of those who are promoted by favor and the power of Princes, The fraud of merchants, Avarice for knowledge, The iniquity of Gamblers. This is roughly what he has in the places cited, and they are rather material species, as also those referred to in 4 Eth. cap. 1.

In Compend. Theolog. verit. lib. 3. cap. 19. he defines Avarice thus from D. Bernardo, epist. 42: Avarice is an insatiable and dishonorable desire for things of any kind. Or from Tullio: It is an immoderate love of having.

That this is a grave sin he proves from the Apostle Ephes. 5, where it is called: the service of idols, because it renders to money what is owed to God; for it hopes in money, places in it its ultimate end, and loves it supremely. Hence Eccles. 10 says: Nothing is more wicked than the avaricious man; but avarice does not have this precisely in itself, but because it — covetousness — is the root of all vices, on account of which many have erred from the faith; for all crimes are wrought through avarice: thefts, perjuries, homicides, debaucheries, adulteries. Second, because it is against the law of nature, Luke 6: Whatever you wish that men do to you, etc. Third, because it is against the written Law, Luke 6: Be merciful, etc. Fourth, because it is against the law of universal communication; for the avaricious man holds goods captive so that they may not be shared.

He asks, indeed: whether it is lawful to heap up treasures. And he answers that it is not lawful with the affect of avarice, without one's own or another's necessity; but it is lawful from consideration of necessity; thus it is lawful for parents, for raising children and endowing daughters, but not for enriching them; and this with the manner or state of the person preserved.

It is lawful also for Princes and Kings to heap up treasure for the preservation of the Kingdom. But Ecclesiastical persons, he says, may not, because the Church has money not to keep it, but to spend it, as St. Ambrose says, lib. 2. offic. cap. 28. He there enumerates the seven daughters of Avarice. See him.

In p. p. Centil. sect. 22. he hands down many definitions of avarice, and besides those enumerated above he brings another from D. Augustino, lib. 14. de civit. cap. 15: Avarice is the lust of having money; he soon brings the reason why it is called: the service of idols, Eph. 5: because the worshiper of God is compared to him in three ways, by honoring, by hoping, by loving; and the avaricious man renders these to money.

But St. Doctor observes that Avarice is opposed to liberality, and to Charity, and insofar as it is against liberality, it is an immoderate appetite for money, and thus it is not a mortal sin, if it stops there, so that it does not prefer its love to the Divine love or the love of neighbor, so that one is not willing to do anything against what is owed to God or neighbor. So also D. Thom. q. 118. art. 4, and commonly, as Tanner says, num. 45.

But as it is opposed to Charity, it is mortal; for he loves money, preferring it to the commandments of God, to almsgiving, to restitution, etc.; he does not shun frauds, betrayals, perjuries, violences, mercilessness, and the like.

He treats all these things more exactly in speculo animae, cap. 2.

But he notes there that this is the concupiscence of the eyes, of which John speaks in epist. 1. He says that three branches arise from this stock: namely, the Inordinate appetite for having, Inordinate acquisition, and inordinate possession. From inordinate love arise inordinate desire of having, inordinate love of what one has, and inordinate grief over what is lost. From inordinate desire of having arise solicitude in the mind, and injustice in deed. This solicitude can be mortal, if on account of it the commandments are omitted, for instance of sanctifying the Feast, or hearing Mass.

Injustice in deed is either open or hidden, and the latter is called fraud: the open is divided into Theft, Rapine, Usury, An unjust sentence, Unjust advocacy, Unjust tolls, Extortions, the acceptance of gifts, the use of forbidden games.

Hidden injustice contains frauds in contracts, not only about temporal things, but also spiritual ones, as about benefices, judgments, sentences, counsels, etc.

Inordinate love of having causes Mercilessness toward the poor, delay of restitution, non-recompense, illiberality, etc. All these have been discussed in the preceding Tractates.

In Compend. Theol. verit. lib. 3. cap. 26. he gives rules for knowing when avarice is mortal or venial. He presupposes, however, the definition of avarice from Cicero above: It is an immoderate love of having.

This desire consists either in appetizing, or in acquiring, or in retaining. As to desire in acquiring, he assigns five modes.

The FIRST is, if one appetizes efficaciously, and would proceed to the act if the faculty were present; and it is a lethal sin.

The SECOND, if one appetizes with an incomplete illicit will, namely insofar as one procures, but simoniacally, so as to obtain an Ecclesiastical benefice undeservedly.

The THIRD, if one appetizes simply to have superfluous things, with an appetite that suffocates the mind from care for oneself and consideration of divine things, so that on this account one falls away from God, wishing rather to be enriched than to observe the commandments; and this is lethal.

The FOURTH, if with a superfluous love one clings to temporal things, yet beneath God, not on that account wishing to be wanting to God's commandments; and this is venial.

The FIFTH, which he records in the third place, is of one who appetizes such things, whether illicit or another's, with a conditional will, namely, if one could have them without offense to God or injury to neighbor. And then it is either no sin, or venial, if one actually or habitually adds such a condition.

This being said, that great question is resolved: Whether a conditional consent, by which one wills something under that condition — if it were lawful for me, or if it were not a sin — excuses, when the act is mortal.

Many respond thus categorically. When the added condition takes away all malice, it excuses from fault, as, if it were not a sin, I would kill Peter; but not when the condition does not take away the malice, as by saying, if there were no infamy, I would steal. Thus Gerson 2. part. in reg. moral. alphab. 24. littera G, where he has the same words which I reported from D. Bonavent. Caietanus summa, verb. Cogitatio, Armilla num. 1. Sà verb. Peccatum, num. 2. And they speak also of sins against the law of nature. Alcozer follows them, sum. cap. 6. doctrina 2. Manuel citing others, tom. 2. sum. in 2. edit. cap. 112. Vasquez prima 2. quaest. 74. art. 8. dub. 116. cap. 2. num. 4. Sayrus in clav. reg. lib. 8. cap. 7. num. 28. and 29. This is the opinion of D. Bonavent. in the place cited, and it is true.

The OPPOSITE indeed others hold, distinguishing: for if that thing be intrinsically evil, as if it is against the law of nature, they say the malice is never purged by a condition, because, being essentially evil, it cannot be purged by any condition, and the condition added involves a contradiction. Thus Adrianus quodl. 10. art. 2. Azor tract. 1. Instit. moral. lib. 4. cap. 6. quaestio 10. Sanchez Tom. 1. in Decal. lib. 1. cap. 2. num. 23, citing others.

I ASSERT with the former opinion that a condition wholly purging whatever malice there is in the act excuses from sin.

It is PROVED, because whenever the malice is taken away from the act, there is no sin; but in this case it is taken away: Therefore. The minor is proved, because the will is borne in the manner in which it represents the object to itself under the condition; but this is, not to will the object efficaciously unless it is purged of malice; for it is not borne efficaciously absolutely into the object, but efficaciously conditionally. Here Sanchez was deceived, urging that the will is borne efficaciously into that object. For I say it is borne efficaciously, therefore not with mere complacency; but not efficaciously absolutely, rather conditionally, if it were lawful; and it has no act of not willing the thing, but it would have one, if it were lawful; whence, just as it implies that the object is purged of malice, because it is intrinsically evil, so it implies that the will is not borne absolutely into that object.

But let us now return to our opinion.

The SECOND branch of avarice consists in acquiring unjustly; and this in three ways: First, in any manner whatever. Second, by such a forbidden work, and these are lethal. Third, by a work venially evil, as in games, as those who teach dogs to dance — and it is venial, unless out of delight he conducts himself dissolutely in such things, altogether forgetful of all else. If, however, he should devote himself to such an art altogether out of necessity, because he has no other means of livelihood, St. Doctor says it is not mortal, even if he devotes himself wholly to it, provided he does not omit the commandments.

The THIRD branch is unjust retention, and it is divided into three other branches. The first is to retain those things that must be restored, when one knows it and can restore them. Second, if one retains superfluous things, unwilling to spend what is his own in the extreme or grave necessity of a neighbor, when he can. Third, if one retains superfluous things out of the utmost covetousness, letting things rather rot than being willing to dispense them — and these are mortal. A fourth retains superfluous things out of an inordinate love of mere largesse, and this is venial.

SIMILAR things St. Doctor has de profectu religiosi, lib. 1. cap. 34.

VERY MANY examples of avarice from the Scriptures St. Doctor reports in Bibliis pauperum, cap. 75.

REMEDIES for avarice he enumerates in the book cited, de profectu religiosi, cap. 35. and other places.

The FIRST is, to leave all things for Christ, as the faithful did in the time of the primitive Church. Act. 2. and 4. Hence Luke 14. Matth. 19. Christ imposes on those wishing to be his disciples that they renounce all things.

The SECOND remedy is to consider that riches are full of the dangers by which they are acquired, of the solicitudes by which they are preserved, etc. See the splendid things there.

The THIRD is confidence in God, as is said Matth. 6: Be not solicitous. See St. Doctor. He teaches things not unlike in Pugna spirituali, cap. 5.

HOW the confessor ought to interrogate about this vice. See in Confessionali, cap. 2. particula 6.

You have SPLENDID things from the Fathers against this vice in Pharetra, lib. 2. cap. 11. for sermons. I do not enumerate them here, so as to remit the reader to the fountain of Siloe, where he will be able to draw the waters of wholesome doctrine for irrigating the dry hearts of the people.

The HARMS of avarice St. Doctor enumerates in great number in Diaeta, salut. tit. 1. cap. 6. and 12. and Compend. Theolog. veritat. lib. 3. cap. 19., where he also brings similitudes of the avaricious man, which serve exceedingly well for sermons: The things pertaining to the species of this vice have their Tractates scattered through this work.