The Nature of Impurity

THE means devised by God for the preservation and increase of the human race is the union of the sexes. This union has for its primary object the procreation of children, who require for their proper education the long and assiduous care of both father and mother. Nature, then, as well as the law of God and of the Church, requires that children should only be begotten of parents joined in lawful and indissoluble wedlock. As nature has taken care that the individual should take the food and drink necessary for his personal support by giving him the spur of appetite for nourishment and pleasure in taking it, so the same great Mother has taken care of the race by joining venereal pleasure to the act of procreating children. This venereal pleasure is lawful when indulged in between married people and according to the laws of marriage. In all other cases it is unlawful, and is forbidden by the Sixth and Ninth Commandments.

Venereal pleasure must be distinguished from sensual and from venereo-sensual pleasure. Venereal pleasure has its seat in the genital organs, and is caused by their motions, the irregular motions of the flesh. Sensual pleasure is other than venereal, and rises from indulgence of the senses, from the contemplation of a beautiful picture, from listening to sweet music, from touching the glossy and soft coat of a cat. This sensual pleasure is morally harmless in itself, but there is a certain kind of pleasure which is sensual in its origin but which is connected with, and ordinarily causes, venereal pleasure. It arises from such acts as voluptuous kissing, and is called by divines venereo-sensual, On account of its connection and tendency, venereo-sensual pleasure is evil, and ordinarily is more or less sinful, as we shall see in what follows.

Sins of impurity are consummated or non-consummated. Consummated sins go as far as complete venereal pleasure, which is had through intercourse or through pollution. They are consummated according to nature if the generation of offspring can follow from them; otherwise they are consummated against nature. Non-consummated sins are looks, touches, and immodest conversation, which do not reach complete venereal pleasure.

All sins of impurity of whatever kind or species are of themselves mortal, ‘This doctrine is taught in such passages of Holy Scripture as the following: 1 Cor. vi 9-10; Gal. v 19; Matt. v 28. Moreover, as we saw above, those sins are grievous which cause great harm to society or to the individual; but there is scarcely any cause so prolific of public and private evil of all sorts as sins of impurity, so that we must conclude that they are grievous even by the light of reason. Furthermore, all sins of impurity, if voluntary in themselves and fully deliberate, are mortal; or in other words, it is grievously sinful directly to seek any even slight unlawful venereal pleasure, or to consent to it deliberately even when it has not been directly sought, This doctrine is the approved teaching of theologians, and it has a rational basis, inasmuch as the tendency of men to these sins is so strong and their weakness so great, that slight indulgence in venereal pleasure almost necessarily leads to grave excesses, so that even in light matter there is the whole reason of the prohibition, and so all sins of impurity, if fully deliberate and voluntary in themselves, are mortal, and there are none that are venial merely on account of parvity of matter.

On the other hand, if venereal pleasure is not voluntary in itself but only in its cause, nor deliberately consented to when it arises, although it was foreseen that it would follow from some other action, as from reading a lascivious book, or looking at an immodest object out of curiosity, it may be only venially or it may be mortally sinful, according to circumstances. In general, if in the case in question there is proximate danger of giving consent to the impure pleasure, or if its cause is of its nature such as to occasion great venereal pleasure, this will be mortally sinful even when only indirectly voluntary; in other cases it will be only venially sinful.¹ This same principle will guide us in questions concerning the greater or less malice of venereo-sensual pleasure.

¹ Cf. Book I, p. 8.

AS we saw above, mortal sin is always committed whenever venereal pleasure is directly sought or deliberate consent is given to it, even though the venereal excitement be little and stop short of consummated sin. In other words, there is no parvity of matter, as theologians say, in sins of impurity when the venereal pleasure is voluntary in itself. It follows from this that non-consummated acts of impurity such as immodest touches, looks, talk, reading, will be mortally sinful whenever they are indulged in with a view to exciting venereal pleasure.

The things which we are about to say concerning the virtue of chastity and the vices opposed to it cannot be rightly understood unless certain points concerning the diversity of the sexes and the propagation of the human race are first set down.

I. Diversity of Sex. The human race, like the more perfect species of animals, is propagated through the cooperation of two, namely male and female. Since these have different functions in relation to propagation or generation, there exists a great difference between the body of the male and that of the female with respect to the organs of generation. From this diversity especially arises the diversity of sex.

II. The Male Organs which concur in generation are chiefly these: the two testicles, the epididymides, the two deferent canals, and the male member.

1. The two testicles, or testes, are two oval bodies which are contained in the scrotum. In these the male seed or sperm is produced; in order that it be prolific, it must be full of spermatozoa. Now semen is a liquid substance, white in color and somewhat thick. Moreover, from the time of puberty the testicles begin to produce semen, though for the most part not immediately prolific; this production continues throughout the whole of life, although from the fifty-eighth to the sixty-second year onward the semen is commonly no longer prolific; there are, however, exceptions.

2. The epididymis is a canal, folded back upon itself many times and existing beneath the outer skin of the testis, through which semen is led to the deferent canals.

3. The two deferent canals go out from the testicles and terminate in the male member; through these canals, therefore, the semen is conveyed to the male member.

4. The male member, which is also called the penis, rod, mentula, or veretrum, consists of two cavernous bodies, and emits both urine and semen. When blood has been drawn in, it is erected and made rigid. In the extreme part of the male member is found the glans, which is covered by the foreskin, and is said to be the chief seat of venereal pleasure.

III. The Female Organs which concur in generation are chiefly enumerated as follows: the two ovaries, the uterus, the vagina, and the vulva.

1. The two ovaries are spongy bodies, which are attached to the uterus on the right and on the left, and they produce ova, from which, beginning at puberty, one matures each month, falls from the ovary, and slowly proceeds through the oviduct into the uterus.

2. The uterus, or womb, has the form of an inverted pear and serves for the development of the fertilized ovum.

3. The vagina extends like a flaccid canal from the neck of the uterus and terminates in the vulva.

4. The vulva, in which the vagina terminates, is situated in the lowest and middle part of the body, that is, between the thighs, and consists of the larger or external labia of the pudendum, the smaller or internal labia, and the clitoris. The clitoris is situated between the smaller labia, and is a rudimentary mentula, or as it were a very small penis. It is said to be, together with the bulbs of the vestibule of the vagina, the chief organ of venereal pleasure.

Before the mouth or entrance of the vagina, yet in the vulva, there is the orifice of the urethra, which terminates in the bladder. Thus, beginning from the anterior part of the body, there are: 1. the orifice of the urethra; 2. the mouth of the vagina; 3. the anus. The mouth of the vagina is in large part closed by the hymen, that is, a thin membrane which, once torn, for example by intercourse, is not restored again. It is commonly called the sign of virginity. But since it is sometimes absent, and is not always broken in first acts of intercourse, others place the sign of virginity in a certain contraction and compression by which the parts of the orifice of the vagina are constricted so long as they have not been dilated by carnal intercourse.¹

One should also note the breasts or mammae, which serve for producing milk and giving it to the offspring.

Finally, in women one should note the phenomenon which is called the menses. The menses are a flow of blood which women undergo each month from the vagina. They are interrupted during the time of pregnancy and, at least commonly, of lactation. The menstrual flow is prolonged for two or three days, sometimes for several days. In warmer regions they appear earlier than in colder regions; among us, from the twelfth to the fourteenth year of age. The menses continue until the forty-fifth or fiftieth year of age, at which time a woman's fertility is wont to cease, and this time is called menopause, the critical age, or the age of return.

Moreover, observe:

1. The menstrual flow is very beneficial to health; its suspension, except during pregnancy, or its irregularity is harmful and has an influence especially upon the brain in nervous girls. During the time of the menses, especially the first menses, women undergo an irritation of the nerves, and not rarely are agitated by feelings of anger and sadness. Hence at that time they should be treated more indulgently by the husband.

2. At the time when menopause begins, melancholy and great irritability and sensitivity are accustomed to occupy women; these indeed ordinarily last for a few months. When these have passed, a notable change in physical and moral being often takes place. Those who until then had been subject to infirmities not rarely recover health. Moreover, reason and will seem to acquire something of virile strength.

¹ Vermeersch, De Castitate, n. 139.

IV. Puberty. According to canon law, a male is considered pubescent after the completion of the fourteenth year, a female after the completion of the twelfth year (can. 88, § 2). According to the development of the genital organs, a male is pubescent when he has begun to produce fertile semen, among us from the fifteenth to the eighteenth year of age; a female is pubescent from the time of the production of an ovum or ova. That this time has arrived is manifested by the menstrual flow, which follows the discharge of a mature ovum, and among us begins from the twelfth to the fourteenth year of age.

V. The Act Ordered to Generation, that is, intercourse, consists in this: the male member, made erect and rigid, penetrates the female vagina and pours seed or sperm into it. It is called active generation. Intercourse can take place lying down, standing, or even sitting; likewise, since the vagina is in the lowest part of the body, it can take place both from the posterior and from the anterior part of the woman. But the natural and ordinary position is that it take place lying down and from the anterior part; hence the woman lies beneath and on her back, with knees raised and spread, and the man lies upon her.

VI. Fertilization, or passive generation, takes place in this way. Male semen admitted into the vagina ascends to the inner parts of the uterus and to the ovaries, as though carefully seeking or awaiting the mature ovum. When the ovum is found by the semen, the spermatozoa surround it, attempt to penetrate its substance, and fertilize it once penetrated. The mature and fertilized ovum proceeds into the uterus and develops in it.¹

¹ A mature ovum which falls from the ovary, if it has not been fertilized, is expelled through the vagina on the occasion of the menses.

VII. Pregnancy is said to be the condition of a woman who bears a fetus in the uterus. Ordinarily it is prolonged for nine months or about 280 days. In the first three months pregnancy is recognized as probable from the suspension of the menses, from the swelling of the breasts, and from the greater development of the uterus. Afterwards it becomes certain from the movements of the fetus and the pulsations of its heart. Finally it becomes evident from the enlarged abdomen and the gait of the woman. During the time of pregnancy the opening of the uterus is closed, and a new conception does not take place.

VIII. Birth consists in the expulsion of the fetus, which expulsion indeed takes place through the vagina. Birth is accompanied by rather strong pains, and for several days, ten to fifteen, a flow of blood follows it. The time which follows birth is called the puerperal period or the time of purgation.

IX. Lactation. Around the fifth month of pregnancy the breasts of the woman increase in size and prepare for the production of milk. A few days after birth milk is secreted; this secretion can continue for eighteen to twenty-four months.

X. The Venereal Act is distinguished into complete and incomplete; to the latter belongs libidinous distillation.

1. The complete act consists: 1. among men, in the emission of semen, whether in intercourse or outside it; 2. among women, in extreme venereal commotion, that is, carried all the way to its end, so that full satisfaction is had. It is commonly accompanied by the pouring forth of fluids, both vulvo-vaginal fluids and those which flow from the glands situated in the neck of the uterus. These fluids commonly flow into the cavity of the uterus, and sometimes are even poured outside the body, namely from the vagina. Venereal commotion and the secretion of fluids are indeed useful, but are not necessary for generation.

2. The incomplete act consists: 1. among men, in motions and agitations of the genital organs preceding emission; 2. among women, in non-extreme venereal commotion.

3. Distillation in a man is the secretion of a certain fluid distinct from semen and produced by the glands of the urethra. It occurs drop by drop, and can be joined with venereal pleasure or lack it. In a wife, whether and what distillation properly is, insofar as it is distinguished from venereal commotion, I have not been able to discover.

XI. Venereal Pleasure. Pleasure is distinguished in two ways: venereal and sensible.

1. Venereal pleasure is said to be that which is annexed to the venereal act. It is twofold, complete and incomplete; the former is joined with the complete venereal act, the latter with the incomplete act.

2. Sensible pleasure is that which arises from the conformity of a sensible object with the respective sense; for example, from the touch of a soft thing, from the sight of a beautiful thing, from the taste of a sweet thing, and so forth. This pleasure has annexed to it some alteration of the body through the movement of blood or vital spirits around the breast or heart, but without commotion of the spirits serving generation (St. Alphonsus III, 415).

Sensible pleasure is distinguished into carnal sensible pleasure and purely sensible pleasure, according as it arises from an object of itself apt to excite venereal pleasure, for example from the kiss of a woman, or from another object (St. Alphonsus III, 415-416).

Note 1. The pubescent, and likewise those non-pubescent persons, in the canonical sense, who have semen, even infertile semen, are capable of acts both complete and incomplete.

Non-pubescent persons, say at least thirteen years old, are capable of incomplete acts.

It can be doubted whether the sensation in the genitals of boys, say from eight to twelve years old, is venereal or merely sensible-carnal. If it is to be called venereal, it is certainly explained somewhat better why the said sensation is often sought with such ardor, and why such a frequency of immodest touches occurs, for example in colleges or boarding schools where religion and the vigilance of teachers are lacking; and this among boys from eight to twelve years old. Moreover, it is certain that the capacity for having venereal sensation can be hastened by certain circumstances or by intense or frequent immodest acts (cf. also Duynstee, cited work, p. 146 sq.).

Note 2. Eunuchs by birth, or spadones, that is, those who are such by nature, and likewise eunuchs made such, or castrati, who were deprived of the testes in tender years, are not capable even of incomplete venereal acts. Those who have been deprived of the testes in mature age can for some space of time emit semen preserved in the epididymis,¹ and therefore are capable of complete venereal acts; when that semen has been emitted, they now lack semen, but they remain capable of venereal acts.²

And with these matters having been noted beforehand, we shall speak first of chastity generally, and then, on account of the importance of the matter, of conjugal chastity specifically.

¹ Formerly the two seminal vesicles, that is, canals located between the rectum and the urinary bladder, were thought to be receptacles of spermatozoa, so that emitted semen was said to flow proximately from them. But today they are considered rather as an organ of a certain secretion. This secretion accompanies the flow from the testicles. This, however, does not prevent spermatozoa from often being found in the said vesicles. Whether they are dead or living is disputed. But many living ones are found in the epididymis, so that they can be extracted from the epididymis for artificial fertilization (Vermeersch, cited work, p. 7).

² Cf. Eschbach, cited work, p. 150.

The Sin of Impurity.—This sin, which is also known as lust, is an inordinate desire of sexual pleasure.

(a) Its object is sexual pleasure, that is, the sense of physical enjoyment in the bodily organs or of psychical satisfaction in the lower appetites of the soul derived from acts related to generation. Hence, we should distinguish impurity from sensuality (which is an inordinate attachment to esthetic pleasure or other higher sense-pleasure), from luxury (which is an excessive desire of health and comfort), and from the vice called curiosity (which is an over-fondness for intellectual delights, see 2461). But it should be noted that sensual pleasure easily leads to venereal delight, and that intellectual curiosity about sex matters is dangerous, and hence this sensuality and curiosity may be, and frequently are, a temptation to impurity (see below on Temptations to Impurity).

(b) Impurity is in desire, for the passions in themselves are indifferent (see 121), and they become sinful only when their abuse is consented to by the will.

(c) Impurity is inordinate; that is, it takes pleasure against lhe dictate of reason. This happens when sexual gratifications are indulged by the unmarried, or by the married in unnatural ways. It is a perversion and a sin to cheat the stomach in order to gratify the palate, because God willed that the pleasure of eating should serve the nourishment of the body, or, as the proverb has it, because man does not live to eat, but eats to live. Now, sex pleasure has been ordained by God as an inducement to perform an act which has for its purpose the propagation and education of children, duties that cannot be rightly attended to except in the married state. Hence, those who seek venereal pleasure outside of matrimony, or outside the way intended by nature, act unreasonably, for they sacrifice the end for the means. Instinct guides the animal aright in these matters, but man is a nobler creature and must guide himself by religion and reason.

Kinds of Impurity.—(a) Impurity is consummated when the act is continued to its natural conclusion and complete venereal satisfaction is had. This occurs in semination, which is the termination of the process set up by the impure thought and desire and the realization of its full pleasure. Semination occurs either in the process of coition, or in extracoitional issues known as “pollution.” Equivalent to semination, morally speaking, are other emissions or secretions that accompany complete or almost complete gratification, but in which the fluid is not prolific (e.g., the urethral emissions in boys who have not attained puberty or in eunuchs, the vaginal flow in women, urethral distillations). Consummated impurity is either natural (that is, suitable for reproduction, the end intended by nature), as in fornication or adultery, or unnatural (that is, not suited for reproduction), as in sodomy or pollution.

(b) Impurity is non-consummated when not carried to its natural conclusion of complete satisfaction and semination. There are two classes of the non-consummated sins, namely, the internal (as in thoughts and desires) and the external or lewdness (as in words, looks, kisses). This happens without carnal commotion (e.g., when a frigid old man thinks with mental pleasure only on the wild deeds of his youth), or with carnal commotion, that is, with an excitement and stimulation in the genital organs that prepares the way for semination.

Gravity of the Sin of Impurity.—(a) Impurity is a mortal sin, because it is a disorder that affects a good of the highest importance (viz, the propagation of the race), and brings in its train public and private, moral and physical, evils of the most serious kind. Man has no more right to degrade his body by lust than he has to kill it by suicide, for God is the absolute Lord over the body and He severely forbids impurity of every kind. Those who do the works of the flesh, whether according to nature (e.g., fornicators and adulterers) or against nature (e.g., sodomites) or by unconsummated sin (e.g., the unclean, the impure), shall not obtain the kingdom of God (Gal., v. 19; I Cor., vi. 9 sqq.), nor have any inheritance with Christ (Eph., v. 5).

(b) Impurity is not the worst of sins, because sins against God (e.g., hatred of God, sacrilege) are more heinous than sins against created goods, and sins of malice are more inexcusable than sins of passion or frailty. But carnal sins are peculiarly disgraceful on account of their animality (see 2464 b, 224), and in a Christian they are a kind of profanation, since his body has been given to Christ in Baptism and the other Sacraments (I Cor., vi. 11-19).

(c) Impurity is one of the seven capital vices. The capital sins have a preeminence in evil, as the cardinal virtues have a superiority in good. The preeminence in evil is due, first, to some special attractiveness of a vice that makes it an end for the commission of other sins, which are used as means to it or are incurred for its sake; or, secondly, to a power and influence that is so strong as to hurry those under its sway into various kinds of sin. Now, impurity is a moral disease that ravages every part of the soul, its deadly effects appearing in the reason, the will and external speech; for the more one subjects oneself to the dominion of passion, the less fitted does one become for the higher and nobler things of life; and the more ignoble the inner life, the more vulgar, cheap and degrading will be the conversation.

Hence, the Fathers trace back to impurity the following sins of imprudence in the mind: wrong apprehension, about the end or purpose of life, and precipitancy in deliberation, thoughtlessness in decision, inconstancy in direction, in reference to the means to the end (see 1693 sqq.). They also trace to impurity the following sins in the will: as to the end, voluptuarism (which subordinates all to fleshly pleasure) and hatred of God (which abhors the Supreme Lawgiver who forbids and punishes lust); as to the means, love of the present and horror of the future life (since the carnal man revels in bodily pleasures and dreads the thought of death and judgment). Finally, they trace the following sins of the tongue to the vice of impurity: the subject of the lewd man’s talk is filthy, for out of the heart the mouth speaketh (Matt., xii. 34), the expression itself is foolish, since passion clouds his mind, the origin of his talk is emptiness of mind which shows itself in frivolous words, and his purpose is unsuitable amusement, which leads to farcical or vulgar jokes.

Evil Fruits of Impurity.—In addition to these moral consequences, impurity is also prolific of many other evil fruits.

(a) Thus, for the sinner himself it is like a cruel goad that constantly annoys him and takes away his peace (St. Ambrose), like a sword that kills the nobler instincts (St. Gregory the Great), like a descent from human dignity to a condition below the beasts (St. Eusebius of Caesarea).

(b) For society it is disastrous in many ways, since it propagates dread mental and physical diseases, disrupts the peace of families, brings disgrace and destitution on innocent children, eats away fortunes and leads up to innumerable crimes of injustice and violence.

Is Impurity Ever a Venial Sin?—(a) By reason of the imperfection of the act, impurity is venial when there is no sufficient deliberation or consent. Invincible ignorance in reference to the sixth commandment itself sometimes happens, especially in reference to internal sins of thought, to external sins of pollution if the person is young, and to other external sins when there is some complication of circumstances (e.g., kissing and other intimacy by engaged persons, onanism when married persons are poor or the woman sickly); and more frequently there is invincible ignorance about details of the sixth commandment (e.g., about the precise theological or moral malice of what is known to be sinful).

(b) By reason of the matter, impurity according to the common teaching is always mortal if directly willed, but sometimes venial if only indirectly willed. Impurity is directly willed when one posits an act intending to obtain from it unlawful venereal delectation, or perceives that such delectation is already present and consents to it. No matter how brief this voluntary assent, no matter how slight the commotion of the animal nature, no matter how far from the consummated is the impure act in question, there is always a serious injury done to a great good or at least (exception is made for the case of married persons) the proximate danger of such injury, and hence mortal sin (see 260). That even slight yielding to impurity is a serious peril is the teaching of Scripture (which declares that lust has killed even the strongest, Prov., vii. 26), of the Church (which condemns the opinion that libidinous kisses are not dangerous, see Denzinger, Enchiridion, n. 1140), of theology (which reminds us that by original sin reason has been darkened, the will enfeebled and the passions strengthened), and of experience (which shows that those who expose themselves to passion’s flame will be burnt). A small spark of fire is not trivial in the vicinity of a powder magazine, a minute flaw in a machine is not unimportant if it may bring on disaster, a first step is not safe if it is made on a slippery downward declivity.

(c) Impurity is indirectly willed when deliberately and without sufficient reason one posits an act which is not venereal pleasure (whether the act be good, such as a prayer made with great sensible fervor, or bad, such as gluttony, or indifferent, such as reading a book, looking at a picture, taking a bath), but which produces foreseen venereal pleasure (consummated or non-consummated) that one neither intends nor directly consents to. Impurity thus indirectly willed is sinful, because the pleasure is foreseen and permitted without sufficient reason (see 102), or in other words because one exposes oneself to danger of internal defilement (consent), or external pollution without justification (see 260). Indirect impurity is mortal when there is proximate danger of grave sin in the act done, that is, when the posited act per se or from its nature strongly incites the agent to sexual passion, as when one gazes long and fixedly at obscene pictures, knowing that always or nearly always this arouses impure emotions. The sin is venial when there is only remote danger of grave sin. This happens when the posited act is not of a venereal kind (an unnecessary conversation on indifferent topics) or is only mildly exciting (e.g., a passing glance at an obscene object), or when the agent himself is not greatly affected by it (e.g., when an old man, or one who is of very cold disposition, or an artist whose only thought is the esthetic excellence, carefully studies a picture of the nude).

Temptations to Impurity.—Before treating the various kinds of impurity, we shall speak briefly of temptations that occasion this sin and of the duties of the person tempted.

(a) External temptation comes from the devil or the world, and the duty of struggling against it has been treated elsewhere (see 252, 1455 sqq., 1495 sqq.). Thus, he who finds that certain persons, places or things are for him a temptation to impurity must be guided by the principles given for occasions of sin (263 sqq.); he who finds that another wishes to seduce him into impurity must refuse all internal consent (see 254 sqq.), and must also resist violence when there is hope of success, or when this is necessary to avoid giving scandal or yielding consent (see on self-defense, 1841).

(b) Internal temptation comes from the flesh. It consists in inchoative disturbances or excitements of the organs or fluids that serve generation (e.g., erections, clitoral movements). Sometimes it is produced involuntarily, without any intention or consent of the will, by physiological states (e.g., conditions of the blood, nerves, etc., due solely to the weather, to disease, to aphrodisiac properties of ailment, to clothing, or position) or by psychical states (e.g., spontaneous images or appetites of the soul mentioned in 129), and in these cases the temptation is manifestly free from all sin. St. Pius V condemned the teaching of Baius that those who suffer motions of concupiscence against their will are transgressors of the command: “Thou shalt not covet” (see Denziger, Enchiridion, nn. 1050, 1051, 1075). Sometimes the temptation is directly voluntary, as when the passion is deliberately awakened for the purpose of sin, and then there is grave guilt (see 2496 b). Sometimes the temptation is indirectly voluntary, as when with the foresight of the passion but without desire of it an action is performed that arouses it. In this last case, if there is a just reason for the excitatory action (e.g., a physician sees and hears things that are calculated to be a temptation, but his reason is the exercise of his profession), no sin is committed; but if there is no just reason for the action (e.g., a person reads an erotic book, and curiosity is his only motive), sin is committed, and its gravity depends on the amount of danger to which one exposes oneself (see 2496 c).

Resistance to Internal Temptations.—The fight against internal temptations is of various kinds.

(a) By reason of its subject, the conflict is chiefly in the will, to which it belongs to give or withhold consent; secondarily, in the other powers of the soul and the body, which under command from the will perform acts designed to overcome temptation.

(b) By reason of its manner, the conflict is either removal of the temptation (i.e., cessation from an act which produces the temptation) or resistance, passive or active. Passive resistance is the suspension of activity relative to the temptation till it ends of itself, as when internally the will neither consents nor dissents, or externally nothing is done for or against the temptation. Active resistance is positive opposition offered to temptation. It is made in two ways: first, by way of flight, as when internally the mind turns away to other thoughts (e.g., absorbing studies, meditation on the passion of Christ), or the will devotes itself to other subjects of resolve (e.g., acts of love of God or of purity), or externally the body is removed or freed from conditions that excite temptation; secondly, by way of attack, as when internally the mind turns against the temptation (e.g., thinking of its dangers, calling on God to drive it away), or the will rejects the temptation (e.g., by despising it, by expressing dislike, disapproval and unwillingness, by firmly resolving not to yield, by deciding on measures against the passion), or when externally the body is subjected to pain or mortification.

(c) By reason of its circumstances, resistance to temptation is either prolonged, as when the act by which the will resists is of considerable duration or is renewed at frequent intervals, or is brief, as when the act of rejection is momentary and is not repeated.

What Opposition to Temptation Is Sufficient?—Opposition to temptations of the flesh must be sufficient to remove the temptation, when the temptation is due to the continuance of one’s own sinful or unjustified act; for one is obliged to cease from sin or the unreasonable. This happens (a) when the temptation is directly voluntary—for example, one who wished to experience temptation and therefore reads a very seductive book must give over this reading; or (b) when the temptation is not directly voluntary and is without sufficient reason—for example, one who experiences carnal temptation due to a book which he reads from idle curiosity must desist from the book. But one is not bound to omit or interrupt necessary or useful acts, such as rest and sleep, prayer and charity; consent should be denied the evil, but the good should be continued.

Insufficient, Harmful and Unnecessary Opposition.—In other cases opposition to temptations of the flesh must be such as is sufficient to keep one from consent, that is, to protect one against the proximate danger of sin.

(a) Hence, that resistance is insufficient which does not strengthen the will. It seems that passive will-resistance is of this kind, since it is most difficult for the will to remain inactive in the presence of carnal stimulation or motions of the sensible appetites without being moved by the evil suggestion. In external resistance, however, passive opposition suffices when it alone is feasible, as when temptation grows out of necessary work, or rest that cannot be discontinued or interrupted by active resistance, provided the will registers internally its displeasure or disapproval; but external passivity is not permissible when the will needs the help of external resistance, as in the case of vehement and prolonged temptations.

(b) That resistance is harmful which strengthens the temptation. Hence, resistance by direct attack or by formal rejection is oftentimes to be omitted in favor of resistance by flight or by contempt; for it is a common teaching of the Fathers and Doctors confirmed by experience that dwelling on reasons and means of repelling passion often adds to its strength, and that resolving mightily and expressly to crush a weak and passing temptation often serves only to give it a longer life. It is better to brush a mosquito away than to risk one’s neck by chasing it up and down stairs.

(c) That resistance is unnecessary which demands a physical or moral impossibility. Thus, a prolonged act of resistance or one repeated at intervals of a few minutes, or a resistance that includes extreme corporal austerities, is not required in ordinary cases at least. When a temptation is unusually vehement or is due to one’s own fault, there should be proportionately greater resistance to offset the greater danger; but when a temptation is only moderately dangerous, it suffices to reject it firmly but briefly and to repeat this when there arises a new crisis or danger and the renewal of resistance is useful.

Weapons against Carnal Temptations.—The most powerful weapons against carnal temptations are spiritual ones, and of these the most necessary is grace, which should be asked in prayer (Wis., viii. 21), especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (see Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas, March 25, 1954). But corporal means, chiefly of a preventive kind, should not be neglected.

(a) Physical measures are the observance of what are now often spoken of as sex hygiene for normal and sex therapeutics for abnormal cases. Special health rules whose observance conduces to good morals are especially the cultivation of habits of bodily cleanliness, of hard mental and physical work, of vigorous exercise and the avoidance of unhealthful habits (such as constipation, drug or spirit stimulation), unsuitable clothing or sleeping conditions. Surgical or medical treatment for structural abnormalities or for mental or bodily diseases that react unfavorably on sex life requires the service of a conscientious and competent physician.

(b) Religious measures are various forms of corporal mortification, such as custody of the eyes and other senses, deprivation in food (fasting and abstinence) and sleep (vigils, night watches), afflictive penances through the use of hairshirts, painful girdles, scourges or disciplines. But austerities must be suited to the health, age, condition, duties and other circumstances of the person who practises them, and should not be used without the consent of one’s confessor or spiritual director.

Sinfulness of Negligence in Resisting Temptations.—It is sinful not to struggle against temptation, since he who in no way resists, not even passively, surrenders or yields to sin. Hence, the Church condemned the quietistic indifference to temptation of Molinos (Denzinger, nn. 1237, 1257, 1267). It is also sinful to resist, but only insufficiently, as regards promptness, vigor, manner, etc.

(a) The Theological Malice.—It is mortally or venially sinful to be negligent against temptation, according to the greatness or smallness of the danger to which the negligence exposes one (see 256-262). Thus, it is not a serious sin to omit all resistance to a weak and dying temptation, or to neglect from indolence or other venial fault all external resistance when the danger is made remote by the internal displeasure or resolution; but it is a serious sin to trifle with any very attractive temptation or to put off resistance until a progressing temptation has grown formidable and made self-control difficult, and this is true even though consent is not finally given to the impure suggestion.

(b) The Moral Malice.—Negligences in reference to carnal temptations do not differ specifically but only in degree, according to the approach the stimuli make towards complete lust. Even when there is an object (e.g., fornication, adultery) before the mind, the difference in species of the object, it seems, does not induce a difference in species of the sin, since the sin is the general one of carelessness in presence of temptation. Hence, it suffices to confess that one has been remiss in banishing impure emotions or thoughts.

Non-Consummated Sins of Impurity.—These include all those preparatory sins in which unlawful sex pleasure is not carried to completion by coition or pollution. We shall speak first of the internal sins of thought, delight, and desire (see 232 sqq.), and next of the external sins of unlawful looks, words, kisses, and embraces.

Impure Thoughts.—Impure thoughts (delectatio morosa) are representations in the mind or imagination of impure venereal objects in which deliberate pleasure is taken.

(a) They are representations, that is, mental pictures or images of things absent from the senses, but thought of or imagined as present. Thus, impure thoughts differ from desires, which consist in attraction with will to accomplish, and also from sense contact of various kinds with objects present to the eyes, ears, or touch.

(b) They are joined with deliberate pleasure of the will, that is, one intends them or consents even momentarily to them after perceiving their presence and malice, even though carnal pleasure is not felt or does not threaten. Thus, impure thoughts differ from tempting thoughts, which are transient and unwished forms that appear in the mind, and are thought on before their true character is adverted to, or which gain a lodging in spite of efforts to eject them. A tempting thought is not sinful, but an occasion of merit when resisted, no matter how long it endures (see 2497 b).

(c) The pleasure is taken in a venereal object, that is, in the thought of fornication, adultery or other carnal sin, committed by oneself or by another. Hence, impure thoughts are not to be confused with the pleasure taken in knowledge about impurity (e.g., a professor of medicine or morality is not impure when he rejoices at the sexual knowledge he possesses and which is necessary for his duties, or willingly thinks about sex matters when it is necessary or useful for him to do so), or with pleasure taken in the morally indifferent manner of the venereal sin. For example, amusement over a ridiculous feature of a sin which one detests is not an impure thought (see 233-236).

The Malice of Impure Thoughts.—(a) The Theological Malice.—Impure thoughts are mortal sins: for he who deliberately rejoices at the thought of sin, loves sin and is therefore guilty of it. They are venial sins when there is imperfect advertence, and also when there is lightness of matter on account of the remoteness of the danger of a thought only indirectly voluntary. They are mortal when there is full deliberation and the impure thought is directly voluntary or gravely dangerous (see 2496).

(b) The Moral Malice.—Impure thoughts have the same specific malice as the representation of the object which is entertained as a welcome guest in the mind; for not only is impurity given the hospitality of the mind, but a particular kind of impurity (see 90, 235). Hence it follows, first, that a specifically different object (as is the case with different consummated sins) makes a specifically different sin (e.g., to think pleasurably of unlawful intercourse is mental fornication if the persons in mind are unmarried, and is mental adultery if the person in mind is married); secondly, that objects not specifically different—as is the case with different non-consummated sins of lewdness—do not make specifically different sins (e.g., to think pleasurably of a sinful kiss and to think sinfully of a sinful touch are both mental lewdness or impure thoughts); thirdly, that special malices of the object from which the mind can prescind—viz., those which in the external act do not change the species or do not explain the venereal pleasure—and from which it does prescind, are not incurred (e.g., to think pleasurably of sin with a woman who is married and a relative, if the thought that she is married or one’s relative is not pleasing or is displeasing, is mental fornication, not mental adultery or mental incest). In praxi vero consulitur confessariis ut regulariter abstineant a quaestionibus de specie morali delectationis morosae; nam fideles plerumque nesciunt faciliter distinguere inter species morales cogitationum, et sic interrogatio evaderet vel inutilis, vel etiam ratione materiae perieulosa. Ad haec quum casus crebriores sint, maximo esset incommodo, tum confessariis, tum poenitentibus, si sacerdos exquireret quae vix cognosci possunt. Sufficit igitur ordinarie sciscitari de specie theologica (utrum voluntas complacuerit), vel de specie morali generali (utrum actus internus delectatio morosa vel potius desiderium fuerit). See Canon 888, Sec.2; Norms for Confessors in Dealing with the Sixth Commandment, Holy Office, May 16, 1943.

Impure Rejoicing.—Impure rejoicing is a deliberate pleasure of the mind yielded to the recollection of a past sin of impurity. Hence, this sin of rejoicing is committed when one thinks with approval of a fornication of former days, but the sin of rejoicing is not committed when one confines one’s pleasure to some good consequence of a fornication (e.g., the excellent child that was born), or to a lawful pleasure of the past, as when a widower thinks without present carnal commotion or danger of his former married life. The circumstances are more readily willed here than in impure thoughts, for here the mind is picturing an actual, not an imaginary case of sin, and the mental representation will therefore be more distinct; nevertheless, in the case of impure rejoicing the moral sub-species—at times even the distinction between impure rejoicing and impure thoughts—is usually not perceived. The principles of the previous paragraph apply to impure rejoicing.

Impure Desires.—Impure desire is a deliberate intention to commit impurity in the future.

(a) It is a deliberate intention, that is, a purpose or will to which consent is given internally. Hence, an impure desire is not the same thing as a statement of fact, as when a passionate person declares that he would sin, were it not for fear of the consequences, meaning only that he is frail, not that he wishes to sin. Neither is it the same as a mere velleity, which desires venereal pleasure under circumstances that would make it lawful, as when a married man wishes that he were lawfully married to a woman other than his present wife, or that both he and the other woman were free to marry each other. But these velleities are foolish and venially sinful, and often on account of danger they are mortally sinful. An impure desire exists when the will consents unconditionally (as when a person decides or wishes to fornicate tomorrow) or conditionally under a proviso that does not take away the malice (as when a person decides that he would fornicate were it not for fear of punishment, or Wishes that it were lawful for him to practise fornication).

(b) It is an intention to commit impurity, and hence there is no impure desire in wishing what is not venereal pleasure (e.g., the spiritual, mental or bodily relief that follows on an involuntary pollution), or what is lawful venereal pleasure (e.g., when engaged persons think, but without carnal commotion or danger, of the benefits of their future married relationship).

Malice of Impure Desires.—Impure desires are mortal sins and have the malice of the object and of the circumstances that one has in mind; that is, one commits the same kind of sin in desiring as in performing impurity. Hence, Our Lord declares that he who looks upon a woman to desire her unlawfully has already committed adultery in his heart (Matt., v. 28), and hence also the ninth commandment forbids sins of impure desire. The principles given in 2506, 2507, apply also to impure desires with this difference that the mind when it wills external performance considers the object as it is in itself, not as it is mentally represented, and hence is less likely to prescind from actual circumstances known to it, But even here confessional investigation is sometimes not necessary on account of its moral impossibility.

Lewdness.—After the internal sins follow the external sins of lewdness or indecency (impudicitia). These may be defined as “external acts which are performed from or with deliberate venereal pleasure that is not consummated, and which are not directed to the conjugal act.”

(a) They are external acts of the body, such as the looks of the eye, the speech of the tongue, kisses of the lips, touches, fondling, embraces, pressure of the hand, etc. Those also are guilty of lewdness who permit themselves to be petted, kissed or otherwise impurely handled, unless it is morally impossible to resist, as when a woman who gives no internal consent cannot defend herself against a forced kiss without being killed, or cannot without great scandal refuse to shake hands with one whose motive is impure love. Lewdness (e.g., an impure look) may also be directed to one’s own person, or to an animal, or to an artificial object, such as a statue or book.

(b) They are performed from or with pleasure; that is, passion either causes or accompanies the impure look or other act. These non-consummated acts are indifferent in themselves and may be licitly performed for a just cause; they become sinful by reason of the evil passion that animates them. The carnal motive appears either from the end of the act (e.g., an indecent kiss naturally tends to impurity or grave danger thereof, no matter what good purpose the kisser may have), or from the end of the one acting (e.g., a decent kiss becomes an impure act if the one who kisses is moved by carnal desire). Hence, there is no sin of lewdness when one of the acts now considered is performed becomingly as to externals and innocently as to the internal motive and quality (e.g., from a sense of duty, not from pleasure).

(c) The pleasure intended or consented to is venereal; that is, such as is consummated in copulation or pollution. Hence, there is no sin of lewdness when the acts in question are performed becomingly and with and for pleasure of a spiritual kind (as when members of a family give one another the customary kiss or embrace of affection), or of a merely sensual kind (e.g., when a nurse kisses the tender skin of an infant). On the distinction of intellectual, sensual and venereal pleasures see above (2461).

(d) The external act is not consummated by copulation or pollution. These are often its result but they are a different degree of sin, and lewdness is committed even without them (see 2486).

(e) Lewdness is an action not directed to the conjugal act. Coition itself is lawful in the married state, and this legitimatizes all the preparatory or accessory endearments. Hence, the rule as to married persons is that venereal kisses and other such acts are lawful when given with a view to the exercise of the lawful marriage act and kept within the bounds of decency and moderation; that they are sinful, gravely or lightly according to the case, when unbecoming or immoderate; that they are venially sinful, on account of the inordinate use of a thing lawful in itself (85 a), when only pleasure is intended; that they are mortally sinful, when they tend to pollution, whether solitary or not solitary, for then they are acts of lewdness. The rights and duties during courtship and engagement will be treated below in Question III.

The Consummated Sins of Impurity.—There are in all seven species of completed acts of impurity. (a) Thus, some sins of impurity are against reason because they do not observe the ends of sexual intercourse. These ends are, first, the begetting of children (to which is opposed unnatural impurity), and, secondly, the rearing of children (to which is opposed fornication).

(b) Other sins of impurity are against reason because they violate a right of the person with whom intercourse is had (incest), or of a third party to whom that person belongs. If the third party is injured in conjugal rights, there is adultery; if in parental rights, there is defloration or rape, according as the injury is done without or with force; if in religious rights, there is sacrilege. This second category of sins is classed under impurity rather than under injustice, because the purpose of the guilty person and his act belong to venereal sin.

Comparative Malice of the Sins of Consummated Lust.—(a) In the abuse of an act, the worst evil is the disregard of what nature itself determines as the fundamentals upon which all else depends, just as in speculative matters the worst error is that which goes astray about first principles. Now, the prime dictates of nature as to sexual intercourse are that it serve the race and the family. Hence, the sin of unnatural lust (which injures the race by defeating its propagation) and the sin of incest (which injures the family by offending piety) are the worst of carnal vices.

(b) In the abuse of an act a lesser evil is that which observes the natural fundamentals, but disregards what right reason teaches about things secondary, in the manner of performing the act. But reason requires that in sexual intercourse the rights of the individual be respected. A most serious violation of individual right is adultery, which usurps the right of intercourse belonging to another; next in gravity is rape, which violently seizes for lust a person under the care of another or undefiled; next is defloration, which trespasses on the right of guardianship, or removes bodily virginity, but without violence; last among these sins is fornication, which is an injury done not to the living, but to the unborn.

Multiplication of Sins of Lust.—The various kinds of lust may be combined in one and the same act, as when unnatural vice (e.g., sodomy) is practised with a relative (incest). Sacrilege, of course, aggravates every other kind of carnal sin, and thus there is sacrilegious sodomy, sacrilegious adultery, sacrilegious incest, etc.

Fornication.—Fornication is the copulation of an unmarried man with an unmarried woman who is not a virgin.

(a) It is copulation, or sexual intercourse suited for generation of children. Thus, it differs from lewdness, which consists in unconsummated acts, and from sodomitic intercourse, which is consummated but unsuited for generation. Onanism is an aggravating circumstance of fornication, or rather a new sin of unnatural intercourse. (b) It is committed by unmarried persons, and thus it differs from adultery. (c) It is committed with a woman, and is thus distinguished from sodomy. (d) It is committed with a woman who is not a virgin, and thus differs from defloration.

Incest as a Distinct Species of Sin.—(a) There is a specific distinction between incest and other forms of lust, since incest violates not only purity, but also the piety and respect due each other by those who are so closely related as to be unable to contract a lawful marriage. Nature itself abhors this sin; for, apart from the exceptional cases in which a dispensation is given, even lawful marriage with near relatives would be an incentive to many sins before marriage and would prevent the widening circle of friendships between mankind which marriage with non-relatives produces, and would cause a physical and mental enfeeblement of the race. In Scripture incest is spoken of with peculiar horror as a nefarious deed deserving of death (Lev., xx. 11 sqq.), and as an act unworthy even of pagans (I Cor., v. 1 sqq.).

(b) There are three distinct sub-species of incest, namely, natural incest (between kin by blood or marriage), spiritual incest (between the baptized and his baptizer or god-parent), and legal incest (between persons who are kin in virtue of 8, marriage-impeding adoption). The first violates piety due to natural origin, the second that due to spiritual origin, and the third that due to legal origin. And in each species the nearer the relationship, the greater the sin (e.g., incest with a sister-in-law is less than that with a sister, incest with a sister is less than that with a mother).

Carnal Sacrilege.—Carnal sacrilege is the violation by an act of impurity of the sacredness of a person, place or thing.

(a) It is a violation of sacredness, and thus it is a special sin, adding irreligion to lust (see 2308 sqq.).

(b) It is an act of impurity, internal or external, consummated or non-consummated. The impurity, however, must be so related to that which is sacred as to treat its sanctity with injury or contempt (formal disrespect), and there is no sacrilege if the impurity is associated with something holy in such a way as not to show any notable irreverence (material disrespect).

(c) Its first species is personal sacrilege, and it is committed by a sacred person (see 2309) when he is impure internally or externally, or by a non-sacred person when in desire or act he commits impurity with a sacred person. If two sacred persons sin together, there is a double sacrilege, which multiplies the sin.

(d) Its second species is local sacrilege, and is committed when an impure act is done in a sacred place (2311) in such a way as to show formal disrespect. Hence, consummated acts done in a church are sacrilegious, and the same is probably true of non-consummated acts, at least if they are of an enormous kind (e.g., a lascivious dance), and even of internal desires to sin in the sacred place. But impure thoughts or passing glances of prurient curiosity in a church are not sacrilegious.

(e) Its third species is real sacrilege, and it occurs when impurity is committed in such a way as to show formal disrespect to a sacred object (2311). Hence, there is sacrilege of this kind when one commits impurity immediately after Communion, or when one uses the Sacrament of Penance as a means to solicit impurity. But the fact that a person commits impurity while wearing a scapular is not sacrilegious, unless contempt for the scapular was intended.

Unnatural Lust.—Worst among the sins of impurity, as such, are crimes of unnatural lust, for they exercise the sexual act, not only illicitly, but also in a manner that defeats its purpose of reproduction. In some non-venereal respects, however, natural sins of impurity may be worse than the unnatural; for example, adultery is worse as regards injustice, sacrilegious lust as regards irreligion, etc. There are four distinct species of unnatural impurities— pollution, unnatural coition, sodomy, bestiality (see Denzinger, n. 1124).

(a) For procreation nature requires copulation, and hence pollution is unnatural, for it exercises semination without copulation, either alone (self-abuse, solitary vice, masturbation) or with another (softness).

(b) For procreation nature requires proper copulation, that is, one that will permit of a fertile union between the two life elements, the sperma and the ovum. Hence, unnatural coition does not comply with this necessity, for it does not employ the proper organ of sexual union, substituting rectal for vaginal intercourse, or else by some form of natural or artificial onanism it frustrates the act of its destined conclusion. This sin is worse than pollution, since pollution omits to use intercourse, whereas unnatural coition positively abuses it.

(c) For procreation nature requires heterosexual intercourse, a condition disregarded by sodomy, which is the lustful commerce of male with male (pederasty, uranism), or of female with female (tribadism, sapphism, Lesbian love). This sin is worse than unnatural coition, for it is a greater perversity to neglect one of the two needed life elements than to neglect the right process for their union (see Gen., xix. 24, 25; Lev., xx. 13; Rom., i. 26, 27).

(d) Finally, for procreation nature requires homogeneous intercourse, a law violated by bestiality, which is coition of a human being, male or female, with a brute animal. This is the worst of unnatural impurities, since it sins against the most fundamental condition for the sexual act, namely, that the participants be of the same nature (see Lev., xx. 15, 16). Similar to bestiality is the crime of necrophilism (intercourse with a corpse).

Pollution.—Pollution is the voluntary emission of semen apart from coition.

(a) It is an emission, that is an external discharge. The internal secretion in the so-called female semination is also included by many under the head of pollution. The carnal motions spoken of in 2497 b are a preparation for pollution.

(b) It is a discharge of semen, that is, of the male fluid that fertilizes the female ovum. But equivalent pollution, from the moral viewpoint, is found in the discharge of certain non-prolific fluids that are accessory to generation or that produce in their movement a venereal satisfaction, such as the vaginal fluid in females (female semination), the urethral fluid in males capable or incapable of procreation (distillation). There is no pollution, however, in natural discharges such as menstruation and urination.

(c) It is apart from coition, and thus it differs from other consummated sins. But pollution may be committed either alone (solitary vice), or with another, and in the latter case it pertains reductively to adultery, fornication, sodomy, etc., as the case may be.

(d) It is voluntary directly or indirectly: directly, when one intends it as an end (e.g., for the sake of the pleasure) or as a means (e.g., as a relief from temptation or bodily itching, to obtain a specimen of semen for medical diagnosis); indirectly, when one unjustifiably does something from which one foresees that pollution will result. In all these cases pollution is formal or sinful, and it is not to be confused with material or natural pollution, which is a discharge of semen or distillation that is involuntary or unimputable.

Cases of Material or Non-Sinful Pollution.—(a) Involuntary pollution is passive or active. The former happens even when one is awake. It is evoked by such slight causes as physical movement and exertion, and is unaccompanied by pleasure; when habitual, it is a disease due to organic debility The latter happens during sleep, and may be caused by a superfluity of fluid. It is accompanied by pleasure and often by libidinous dreams. It is a means used by nature to relieve the system, and is therefore healthful and beneficial, unless the discharges are too frequent (e.g., nightly). There is no obligation of repressing the continuance of a pollution that began involuntarily during sleep, since it may be regarded as an act of nature; but consent must be withheld (2498 sqq.). Moreover, if merely natural pollution be considered, not as to its venereal gratification but solely as to its good effects (e.g., that it ends a temptation, that it benefits the mind or the health), there is no sin in rejoicing at its accomplishment or in desiring its fulfillment, provided nothing is done to produce it and the intention is good; for then the object of the will is indifferent and the end is good.

(b) Unimputable pollution is caused by a lawful act from which one foresees that pollution will ensue, there being no proximate danger of consent to sin, and the pollution being only permitted, and that for a proportionately grave reason.

Unimputable Pollution.—In reference to unimputable pollution the following distinctions should be noted:

(a) the danger risked by an act may be either of formal pollution (i.e., with consent to sin) or of material pollution (i.e., without consent to sin);

(b) the danger of pollution is either proximate or remote, the former being that from which pollution naturally and usually results and the latter that from which it does not naturally or usually result. Remotely dangerous are acts of a non-venereal kind, such as horseback riding, gymnastics, drinking alcoholic beverages, and also acts of a sexual kind that are only mildly exciting, such as conversations or books that are slightly “off color” when the parties are of mature age (see 2517, 2518). Proximately dangerous are acts of a venereal kind that notably inflame passion, such as warm and lingering kisses between persons of opposite sexes (see 2517, 2518);

(c) the reason for running the danger of pollution is either grave, serious, or slight. A grave reason is real necessity (e.g., the removal of disease or pain or of a very painful or troublesome itch due to the blood or disease) or great utility (e.g., the preservation of health, cleanliness of body); a serious reason is an important convenience of soul or body (e.g., the exercise of common politeness, the enjoyment of reasonable comfort); a slight reason is one in which none of the mentioned motives is found (e.g., the satisfaction of an idle curiosity, the removal of a trifling irritation or itch).

Proximate and Remote Occasions of Pollution.—It is never lawful to expose oneself to the immediate danger of sin, for he who loves the danger loves the sin (see 258, 260); but if one uses means to make the danger remote, one may lawfully encounter it for a good reason (see 258, 260, 261). It is lawful to permit an evil effect when there is sufficient justification according to the principle of double effect (see 103 sqq.).

(a) Hence, if there is proximate danger of formal pollution (that is, of consent to sin), no reason excuses an act even of a non-sexual kind, such as horseback riding. But if the act is necessary, the danger must be made remote by the use of special means, such as prayer, firm resolves, etc. (see 2497 sqq.).

(b) If there is proximate danger of material pollution, a grave reason suffices (e.g., the care of patients by physicians and nurses, assistance of bathers by attendants, warm soporific drinks taken for the sake of sleep).

(c) If there is remote danger of material pollution, a serious reason suffices (e.g., customary salutations of the country, physical exercises, moderate comfort in posture, seasoning in food.). A slight reason may excuse at times from mortal sin (e.g., unnecessary curiosity about the sciences of anatomy or sexology).

The Theological Malice of Sinful Pollution.—(a) From its nature pollution is a mortal sin, because it is an act of impurity (2494^†) and a perversion of nature (2534). Moreover, its consequences are most injurious to society (it tends to self-indulgence and the avoidance of the burdens of marriage) and to the individual (when habitual, it weakens mental and will power and often brings on a breakdown of bodily vigor especially among young people), In Scripture it is represented as gravely illicit (I Cor., vi. 10; Gal., v. 19; Eph., v. 3). Hence, pollution is always a mortal sin when directly willed (e.g., when practised deliberately in order to be rid of a temptation or of bodily irritation or itch certainly due to superfluity of semen or to passion), and also when indirectly willed if there is proximate danger of consent to sin (e.g., when one who has always committed formal pollution in certain company goes into that company without necessity, or without use of means to prevent a fall) or grave danger of pollution and no sufficient reason for permitting it (e.g., undue familiarities from which nocturnal pollution is foreseen as most probable).

(b) From the imperfection of the internal act, pollution is sometimes only a venial sin. This happens in case of invincible ignorance (e.g., young children who do not understand the evil of masturbation, students who have been taught by instructors or physical directors that it is necessary for health or that it is unsanitary but not sinful), or of incomplete consent (e.g., when the person is only half awake and does not ordinarily desire pollution, when he is a psychopathic and not fully responsible for his acts).

(c) From the lightness of the matter pollution is venial when willed indirectly and permitted without sufficient reason, if there is only slight danger of it from the nature of the action performed (see 2496). Examples are the reading for pastime of love stories before falling asleep with the prevision that this may possibly bring on pollution during sleep.

The Moral Species of Sinful Pollution.—(a) The general species of pollution is distinct from other consummated sins of impurity, since it is unnatural, and this in a special way (see 2534, and Denzinger, n. 1124), But some authors regard equivalent pollution (see 2493, 2535) as not a consummated sin, since it is without true semination, and hence according to them it may be confessed simply as impure pleasure (see 2519 b).

(b) The particular species of pollution is derived from circumstances that give it a new essential malice. If it is solitary, and committed by one who is under no bond of marriage or vow, and accompanied by no thought or desire except in reference to self or self-gratification (autoerotism, narcissism), there is the single sin of pollution. But there are other sins if it is committed by one under special obligation (i.e., adultery or sacrilege), or if committed with another person (e.g., seduction, cooperation, rape), or if committed with impure thoughts or desires about others (e.g., mental adultery, fornication, sodomy, bestiality). The manner in which pollution is performed (e.g., whether cooperative pollution is active or passive, by irrumation or concubitus or touch, with or without an instrument) is per se an accidental circumstance. According to some authors, cooperative pollution brought on by touch alone is not diversified in species, if there is no special affection for the other person, but only the desire of carnal gratification, and hence it may be declared simply as pollution from touch.

Penalties for Immorality Decreed in Canons 2357-2359.—(a) Laymen who are guilty of certain offenses against the sixth commandment become infamous on conviction and are excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts. In case of adultery, the injured spouse may obtain a separation, temporary or perpetual, from the offending spouse (Canon 1129). (b) Clerics in minor orders are subject to special punishments, and may even be dismissed from the clerical state. (c) Clerics in major orders are subject to penalties named in law (e.g., suspension, infamy, deposition) for graver crimes such as concubinage, adultery, and to penalties decreed by the lawful superior for other delinquencies.

412. General Principles. - I. Lust of any kind or species is per se a grave sin. The reason is, 1. because it fights gravely against nature. For the use of the venereal thing by its nature was instituted and is necessary for the sole preservation and propagation of the human race; therefore it cannot be usurped outside marriage (indeed not even in marriage except in the due manner) without grave disturbance of the right order; 2. because it is prohibited under grave sin by God, the Author of nature, as is clear from innumerable places of Sacred Scripture; thus Gal. 5. 19: The works of the flesh, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, lust..., concerning which I foretell you, as I have foretold; because those who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.

II. Lust directly voluntary in any kind never admits smallness of matter. The reason is that any delight directly sought necessarily brings in the subversion of the natural order established by the Creator. This is also clear from proposition 40 condemned by Alexander VII, which lies thus: The opinion is probable which says that a kiss had on account of carnal and sensible delight which arises from the kiss, with danger of further consent and pollution removed, is only venial.

III. But lust indirectly voluntary admits smallness of matter; because then there is no consent or direct intention into venereal pleasure, but only into the cause, which is lightly or gravely sinful according as it lightly or gravely influences the delight ². - Thus all.

² Concerning the causes of carnal motions and of the connected delight (which motions indeed can reach even to the ultimate effect of pollution), for the sake of clarity a threefold hypothesis must be made.

The first will be when someone aptly and deliberately, intending these motions, places their causes so that he may enjoy the proper delight of them. And then already you have lust directly voluntary, concerning whose guilt nothing is to be doubted.

The second, plainly opposite hypothesis will be when motions of this sort are stirred up spontaneously and naturally, with no voluntary cause given to them by him who then merely suffers them. And then there is no reason why we should seek guilt in the will as their cause.

Finally, the third, middle between the preceding, will be when some action is voluntarily placed which furnishes some cause, proximate or remote, for stirring up those motions; and yet one does not place the action for this end or intention, that he may stir up such motions in himself, or enjoy them. But then the principle is valid which from St. Alphonsus we reported elsewhere (note to n. 176), namely that in these effects, since they are voluntary only in the cause, there is only so much guilt as there is in the cause itself. Hence St. Alphonsus concludes (lib. 3, n. 484): "The common and more probable opinion teaches that pollution is not mortal unless it proceeds from a cause per se mortal in the genus of lust.... The reason is that since pollution is not willed except in the cause, it will be evil in that degree in which the cause itself is evil." And indeed he says watchfully, "from a cause per se mortal in the genus of lust"; for if the cause, although gravely culpable in itself, is outside the genus of lust, as for example drunkenness or eating meat on Friday, or indeed is in the genus of lust but lightly culpable, as for example curious reading venially base, then the efficacy of causality is lacking, and (as St. Alphonsus says, l. c.) "since the cause concurs lightly toward pollution, there is no grave obligation of avoiding that cause on account of pollution which happens besides the intention."

Indeed, since not all actions which bring grave fault in the genus of lust have of themselves that efficacy, nor even have equal efficacy as to all men, but one plainly diverse according to the diverse weakness of persons; hence, by reason of the effect, grave fault can be absent even when grave fault was present in the act which furnished occasion for the motions, which for that reason are then judged to follow per accidens. Hence the Salamancans conclude (tr. 26, cap. 7, n. 41): "If in some body, by reason of weakness... or of another cause, there is a positive indisposition to Venus, although causes be applied to him which otherwise of themselves gravely influence pollution or carnal delight with respect to others...; nevertheless with respect to him... they will not be gravely influencing, but only lightly or even in no way, or they will be causes materially only in the genus of lust; wherefore commonly... by reason of their influence on pollution he will not sin mortally."

But all fault can be absent when the action is per se licit and honorable, although wicked motions to follow are foreseen, which nevertheless one in no way wills or intends. Hence St. Alphonsus (lib. 3, n. 483): "If the aforesaid actions" (which otherwise in n. 482 he had said were causes gravely influencing) "are placed from a cause necessary, or useful, or suitable to soul or body, then... pollutions proceeding from them, even foreseen, are not sins, provided danger of consent is absent. Thus commonly Sylvius, Croix, and others with the common opinion and St. Thomas." And in reality the Angelic Doctor says thus (3, q. 80, art. 7): "Previous lascivious thoughts sometimes can be wholly without sin, for example when someone, for the sake of reading or disputation, is compelled to think of such things. And if this is without concupiscence and delight, they will not be unclean thoughts, but honorable; from which, however, pollution can follow, as is clear from the authority of Augustine..." But the words of Augustine (De Gen. ad litt., lib. 12, cap. 15) are: "since this happens as much without sin as it is said without sin by those who are awake."

But of acts which, by reason of necessity, are without fault, St. Alphonsus adds these examples (lib. 3, n. 483): "Hence, even when involuntary pollution is foreseen (and a fortiori these things ought to be valid concerning wicked motions of lesser moment), it is lawful for pastors and also other confessors to hear the confessions of women, and to read treatises on base matters; for surgeons to look at and touch the parts of a sick woman, and to study medical matters... to serve in baths.... It is lawful for someone who suffers great itching in the private parts to drive it away by touch, even if pollution follows." But examples of actions free from fault by reason of a certain propriety he has these (ibid.): "It is lawful for others to address, kiss, or embrace women according to the custom of the country... and the like." Finally (ibid.), as regards actions which, notwithstanding pollution foreseen, are lawfully exercised as suitable to soul or body, he adds these three examples: namely, that it is lawful, 1. to ride a horse not only for the sake of necessity and utility, but also recreation; 2. to lie down in a certain position of the body for resting more conveniently; 3. to take hot foods or drink moderately, and to lead honorable dances. - And indeed to all and each of these things St. Alphonsus observes that opinions of this sort pertain to the doctrine commonly received.

Nevertheless, the limitation must be kept before the eyes which St. Alphonsus (l. c.) appends from the common opinion: "provided danger of consent is absent," namely into wicked motions and the delight that has arisen. Indeed the obligation of avoiding the danger of sinning is sufficient for an action to become illicit which otherwise would be dishonorable neither by reason of itself nor precisely by reason of the motions which it induces.

But if it is asked of what sort the danger ought to be which renders the cause of motions gravely illicit, let it suffice for the present to have suggested that the norm can be taken from those things which are customarily handed down in the Treatise on Penance concerning the proximate occasion of sinning, since this must therefore be removed or fled because it induces the danger of sinning. Therefore that frequency of falls, and the other adjuncts which according to the common doctrine constitute a proximate occasion, necessarily to be removed, will constitute this same danger on account of which someone is obliged to abstain from placing the cause of carnal motions.

Sins of this genus are kisses, touches, looks, base conversations, and readings.

Here we must treat only of external sins; for concerning internal sins, or concerning lingering delight and wicked desire, it has already been said in the Treatise on Sins, n. 167 and following. Hence we shall speak, 1. of sins not consummated; 2. of consummated sins.

22. Special pleasures. Sensible enjoyment, according to itself, is more precisely called by the name pleasure, while the name joy is better reserved for the pleasure which follows reason and which can also be perceived concerning a sensible thing ¹.

¹ St. Thomas, Summa theol., I-II, q. 31, art. 3.

Provident God is accustomed to join subjective satisfaction to useful acts, which sweetly invites one to exercise the action.

Hence this saying received among theologians: pleasure is for the sake of operation.

There is therefore a pleasure proper to each sense: to sight, hearing, touch, taste, and carnal appetite. The former pleasures are called purely sensible, while the last is called venereal and has its proper seat in the sexual parts.

Observe, in this place, that the venereal sense does not have its seat on the surface of the skin, nor can it, any more than taste, be reduced to any form of touch. Rather, with blood flowing into the sexual organs, it passes into act in a reflex manner, as if of its own accord, after bodily or mental excitations.

Hence, when these parts have been removed, venereal pleasure can no longer be felt properly. A place nevertheless remains for its affection, its imaginative image, and pleasure.

23. Mixed pleasures. As we saw above, nos. 16-17, the individual senses, except taste, have very great power to excite venereal arousal. It thus easily happens, because of the nature of the object, or the agent's intention or moral disposition, that an object pleases insofar as it is seen, heard, touched, or smelled, and at the same time, often through the imagination or an association of ideas, begins to excite venery. A man then experiences a pleasure which can be called mixed, insofar as venereal appetite intervenes there in addition to another sense. Hence this pleasure is deservedly called sensible-carnal.

24. More general sensible pleasure. Besides that distinct cooperation of the other senses with some special sense, the wonderful concord of human nature brings it about that the whole body participates in the proper operations and pleasures of the individual senses by a certain harmonious disposition.

One might say that there is a certain diffusion of each of the senses through the rest of the body.

Hence students of physiology, besides the special sensations of the individual senses, recognize a certain general attunement to the individual sensations of the body, or a less definite and more general sensation (general somatic, visceral, and kinesthetic sensations). For with every human thought or intellectual representation there is that which in French they call an affective tone or emotional index. This affection consists of various bodily changes, whose particular form and intensity partly depend upon the nature of the thing represented. These changes are approximately the following: a more or less forceful and frequent palpitation of the heart; varying local pressure of the blood, through vasomotion; more or less ample and frequent breathing; more intense or more relaxed muscular tone; varying distribution of electrical potential throughout the body; varying affection and activity of the nerves, or differences of innervation; and so forth.

Concerning this change of the body it is useful, moreover, to note the following two things.

25. 1. This cooperation of the body can accompany a specific operation and can even, for example, if that operation has been foreseen and expected, precede it. What precedes, moreover, prepares the specific sensation.

Thus we all observe how, through hunger and a more abundant production of saliva, the satisfaction of taste is prepared. So also, for the contemplation of a beautiful spectacle or the hearing of a sweet harmony, the body disposes itself in a suitable condition. And in our matter, does not the mere hope of carnal commerce seize men, as it were, with venereal tendencies, so that they are able to do or contemplate nothing else? Indeed, it happens to not a few that, if for even a just cause, for example to care for or wash the body, they must do, indeed see or read, something unusual, they already beforehand, even against their will, impatient of delay and almost wholly affected toward the matter, feel and manifest venereal inclinations. They perhaps do not yet experience venereal pleasure, and they will remain apart from it, but they suffer a grave venereal "coenesthesia."

2. Properly spiritual love and carnal love are prepared and assisted, as though by a sympathetic companion, by a similar and related, though not strictly identical, condition and affection of the body (an analogous coenesthesia, not a strictly identical one). Thus there is a certain more general affection and attunement of the body almost common to both affections.

This physiological law of association then obtains: two affections which have a similar repercussion in the body can be excited by that repercussion itself, just as the one can also induce the repercussion of the other. Hence it is not so surprising that a man, especially a male, while fostering a spiritual, indeed a religious, affection, suffers against his will certain movements of the flesh, such as even the saints have sometimes experienced during prayer.

26. Since these things are so, this general disposition of the body, insofar as it is pleasant, gives place to a pleasure which:

a) is less defined by its object, and thus merits the general name of sensible pleasure;

b) according to the varying intention of the mind and the image depicted in the soul, must lead proximately to carnal pleasure or remain of itself apart from it. Hence, according to itself, it can be called intermediate and, according to the varying intention and thought, the same pleasure will deservedly be called sensible-carnal or sensible-spiritual;

c) is nevertheless shown, according to itself, to be more proximate and akin to carnal pleasure. Hence, unless the mind positively draws it upward with itself, of itself it rather prepares the way for sexual libido: one who deliberately adheres to it for its own sake will soon experience the flesh aroused.

Hence it happens that physicians and physiologists simply refer this general pleasure to sexual appetite. For theologians, however, this sensible pleasure is that intermediate pleasure which they sometimes seem to labor to describe or explain.

27. Let Palmieri be heard on this matter, as quoted by Ballerini ²: "Nevertheless, the distinction of sensible pleasure, which is other than venereal pleasure, into the purely sensible, the spiritual, and the sensible-carnal is not displeasing.

² Opus theol., vol. 2, no. 961.

"The first is that which the very aptitude of an object for a sense produces. The second is interior, arising from an honorable affection, for example toward one's mother, indeed even toward God, with a certain movement of the blood or spirits around the heart; to excite this, although sight and touch sometimes concur, a certain vehement thought or apprehension alone nevertheless suffices. The third is, with the same movement, determined by a less honorable affection, although not a venereal one, generally on account of the beauty or comeliness which pleases in some person; and it is accustomed to be perceived both with touch and by sight alone, and frequently by thought alone bringing the object back; this thought, although not obscene in itself, is nevertheless suited gradually to pave the way toward venereal arousal. The author, Busembaum, calls this sensuality."

In this description of his, Palmieri seems sufficiently to confuse the more general or intermediate pleasure, which, because of a connatural tendency, can be called sensible-carnal, with the special pleasure which, because it is mixed from sensible and carnal enjoyment, is also called sensible-carnal. What the "movement of blood around the heart, etc." represents can be gathered from our fuller description of coenesthesia. It is a certain notable part of that more general affective state.

Sensible-carnal pleasure is therefore of two kinds, namely, mixed and more general. In the mixed pleasure there is already carnal pleasure, but not it alone; in the other, carnal pleasure of itself stands proximately at hand.

28. Venereal pleasure is the proper pleasure of generation begun or perfected.

Venereal movement is a physical change of the body which brings about that pleasure.

We prefer this definition to the more common one, by which venereal movement is described as a pleasurable change of the exterior sexual parts. For this definition at once calls for these observations: not too much attention must be given to whether that very change is perceived as pleasurable. If anyone obtains from an imaginative representation both a change of the sexual parts and a pleasure distinct from the purely sensible, let him not doubt that he undergoes venereal movement or experiences venereal pleasure.

Conversely, however, if the proper pleasure is lacking, a simple erection of the male member is not yet to be called a movement strictly carnal or venereal. Experience, moreover, testifies that it often happens that the penis becomes erect at length because of causes disconnected from sexual appetite or related to it. A mechanical erection differs more from venereal arousal than does one which depends upon a center of the brain.

That which proceeds from a sexual image or sexual affection, however, even if it is not yet pleasurable in itself, is proximate to venereal pleasure.

Therefore, in the man, venereal movements will be the pleasurable erection of the penis and its movement, by which the emission of semen is prepared; in the woman, however, the pleasurable erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

423. - A. In the lower or animal psychic life.

We call strictly sexual or venereal any act which nature destines and reserves, by an immediate or mediate relation, to the proper conjunction of both sexes - we are not treating of the sexual function of lower animals - or any actuation of the genital apparatus which, from the end of the work, tends toward the procreation of offspring. Therefore, the complete acts are natural and unnatural intercourse; and the incomplete acts are, in the man, pleasurable erection and agitation of the member; in the woman, pleasurable erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

Therefore: 1. Venereal sensations are: a) an external sensation, when by contact itself, in the glans, clitoris, lips of the pudendum, vagina, or mouth of the uterus, the titillation proper to the sexual organ is excited - not a mere sensation of heat, hardness, etc.; b) kinesthetic sensations which are directed toward a venereal act or arise from a strictly sexual impulse, for example from an obscene phantasm. Therefore, the mere sensation of an erection of the member, by which we are informed concerning its position, is not sexual; c) organic sensations produced by the blood by which the cavernous bodies of the penis and clitoris are filled, which are joined with the emission of semen, at least broadly so called.

2. As regards affection, we have already said above that, according to the more probable opinion, in animal life there is no specifically proper affection if it is taken separately from sensation.

But an affection merely agreeable is observed in the complete act; in the incomplete act, however, an affection composed of partial affections, some agreeable and others disagreeable, yet in such a way that the dominant or prevailing one is an affection of a certain discomfort and tension which has not been satisfied.

3. Venereal appetite spontaneously embraces the complete act as satiating; if it is not complete or is altogether absent, it is borne of its own accord, through sexual instinct, toward completing it or procuring it by suitable actions.

424. - Corollary. What is venereal pleasure? It is the psychic state induced by a venereal or strictly sexual sensation and the affection joined with it. The consequent movement of the sensitive appetite toward this pleasure solicits the higher appetite itself.

425. - Scholion. All venereal sensations can also be represented phantastically, and then produce the same effect as external sensations.

426. - 1. Through reflex cognition, both the good of venereal pleasure and the morally good, together with its demands, are known. These give place to deliberation concerning consent to or rejection of the sensation which has arisen and the affection produced.

2. The higher appetite can deliberately embrace the present pleasure, or not consent to it; in the latter case the pleasure is never full or of the whole man. Man cannot directly restrain the sensations and the connected affection, at least entirely, by the command of the will. Before they have arisen, however, he will be able by a physical means, for example by ligation, to prevent blood from flowing in and thus to prevent reflex agitations of the member from taking place. He can often, though not always, prevent the cooperation of the phantasy, especially by diverting the imagination to other things to be considered.

Usefulness. A sufficiently distinct knowledge of bodily constitution and function is required, so that several moral solutions can be given and understood in their foundation.

I. Fecundation. , by which provision is made for the human race by multiplication, requires that some zoosperm or nemasperm (spermatozoid) should have penetrated the feminine ovule. This penetration occurs in the ovary or in the oviducts, that is, the uterine tube.

2. To this fecundation the genital apparatus of each sex is adapted:

a) The male organs are the twin testes or testicles, which before birth are hidden in the abdomen, but from the birth of the infant are contained in the scrotum, and in which the zoosperms are elaborated. These glands are at the same time sources of an internal secretion which is mixed with the blood, and to which are attributed the signs of virility (beard, hairs in the pubic region, masculine voice) and the force of nourishing, through the so-called "hormones," the sexual appetite. - There are besides two deferent canals (vasa deferentia), very slender, which from the testes through the abdomen and prostate flow together into the urethra as ejaculatory canals. But the secretion of the testes is led to them through the epididymis, or a canal often folded back on itself, so that, under the exterior skin, it seems to be, as it were, an interior tunic of the testes. Moreover several little canals (10-15) first bring the same secretion to the epididymis itself. They are called afferent canals or cones. - Then, there are two seminal vesicles, which, placed between the rectum and the urinary bladder, are so called because formerly they were thought to be receptacles of the nemasperms, whereas now they are considered rather as the organ of a certain secretion. This secretion, together with secretion from the end of the deferent vessel, from the prostate, and perhaps from the glands of Littré and Cowper, accompanies the flow from the testes. - Then there is the prostate, which is a gland hidden in the abdomen under the urinary bladder and the seminal vesicles, through which the ejaculatory ducts and the urethra pass. - Then the two glands of Cowper, which, situated under the prostate, also flow into the urethra.

Then there is the urethra, or urethral canal, which is the lower part of the male member and emits both sperm and urine. - Finally, there is the male member (penis, little rod, mentula, veretrum), which is constituted by two joined cavernous bodies, under which the urethra is. It is erected when it is filled with blood. The glans, very excitable, holds the extreme part of the member and is covered by the prepuce, a membrane which by no means adheres to the glans.

Under the prepuce, at the root or crown of the glans, the so-called smegma of the prepuce is gathered, which among many, when the prepuce has been drawn back, must sometimes be removed, lest it become foul-smelling or even impel to masturbation.

b) The female organs of generation are: the vulva, under which name come the exterior parts of the woman's genitals, i.e.: the large lips, which are two folds of the exterior skin, these alone being seen externally; the small lips, or nymphae, i.e. two smaller folds, situated between the large lips, where smegma of the same nature as the smegma of the prepuce, frequently needing removal, is produced; the clitoris, or very small penis without a urethra, which is an instrument of pleasure and is delightfully erected.

Then there is the vagina, of cylindrical form, always closed by the three coverings of which it consists. Its opening¹, among virgins, is regularly covered by a membrane, called the hymen, which is wont to imitate the figure of a half-moon, so also that it does not cover the whole opening. In the vagina there are glands named after Bartholin, which, in very vehement heat, emit a fluid rather similar to the fluid emitted by the man in seminal emission: this emission is feminine pollution, and was formerly thought to be the woman's semination. - Then there is the uterus or womb, which, rather similar to a small flask, is, by its lower part, which is called the neck, inserted as it were into the vagina¹, while the upper part, or body of the uterus, has a triangular form. In the middle of the neck, the interior part of which is called the tench's snout (museau de tanche), there is a small mouth by which the uterus communicates with the vagina. But the interior surface of the vagina and of the uterus is wrinkled. - Then there are the fallopian tubes or oviducts: they are two canals, nearly 10-12 centimeters long, which communicate with the uterus through the so-called uterine opening. - The ovaries, or two glands, to the right and to the left of the uterus, by which eggs are produced.

The oviducts are not constantly applied to the ovaries. But they end in a certain kind of shell or end of the tube (pavillon de la trompe), which, at the time when the mature ovules fall from the ovaries from the so-called vesicles of Graaf, is adapted to the ovaries so that it may receive the ovules which are afterward led through the tube toward the uterus. This time recurs nearly every month. When no fecundation has occurred, the ovules are emitted through the vagina together with blood dripping drop by drop: this is called the menstrual flow. It ceases during pregnancy. - Finally, the breasts or paps are destined for producing and giving milk.

¹ The opening of the vagina is placed between the urinary meatus, or the mouth which, placed under the clitoris, is destined for emitting urine, and the anus.

¹ By that insertion there are effected, on the right and left of the neck, in the vagina itself, two bends or recesses where part of the sperm can lie hidden before it penetrates the uterus.

Virginity. , or the viridity of intact flesh, i.e. of flesh immune from libidinous contact, is demonstrated by no physical indication in the male, while, in the female sex, physical virginity designates that apparent integrity of the body which consists in the preserved seal or enclosure of virginity.

Most persons, especially the more ancient, place the virginal enclosure in the hymen; nevertheless the hymen can be absent from birth; it is broken for various other causes; nor is it always torn in the first acts of copulation. Therefore others place this enclosure in a certain contraction and compression by which the parts of the opening of the vagina are constricted, until they have been dilated by carnal copulation. But neither from this side is an altogether certain sign had.

Male seed. , or sperm, contains, besides the nemasperms, fluids distilled or secreted through the other glands, so that there is obtained a liquid mixture which can flow and be ejaculated. This is complete sperm, or sperm strictly so called, in which the zoosperms swim. Besides these zoosperms, the testes contribute almost nothing to that fluid. If zoosperms are lacking, there remains, on account of the other fluids, sperm or male seed more broadly so called.

The female seed is seen to be constituted by ovules.

Intervention of the threefold life. The production and emission of sperm, the spontaneous production and falling of ovules, and the very conjunction of each element, or fecundation, are, according to themselves, functions of the vegetative life, like the chewing and assimilation of food: they occur in plants. But provident God joined sensations and delight to a function so useful and so necessary for preserving the species, by which the sensitive life, or inferior psychic life, intervenes. Then these sensible affections are perceived by higher cognition and are ruled, at least in part, by rational appetite, so that the higher psychic life with imputable action is by no means excluded. Hence venereal delight, venereal appetite, sexual instinct.

1. Venereal delight. can be described as the proper delight of an operation generative in itself, so that it is felt fully or perfectly in the operation itself, but incompletely in its beginnings. But that operation is copulation. This denotes penetration of the erect male member, with effusion of seed, at least broadly so called, into the vagina of the female, who herself is accustomed to have her own motions attracting the seed and to experience a delightful heat.

In each effusion, nemasperms are contained in an immense number, which they estimate at 250,000,000 to 200,000,000. If the man has perfectly penetrated the vagina, already in the very act of copulation many nemasperms enter the uterus. But such is their motion that they traverse the hundredth part of a meter within ten moments (minutes). Moreover the beginning of the vagina is distant from the opening of the uterus by 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 centimeters; but by 10 to 15 centimeters from the fallopian tubes, where, if they meet the female ovule, which descends by a slow motion, fecundation is wont to occur, unless it occurs in the ovaries themselves. Therefore, when all things proceed in the best way, fecundation already takes place after an hour and a half from the completed copulation.

2. Both complete and incomplete venereal delight is described materially as a delightful change of the organs proximately serving generation.

For rightly understanding this description, one must beware: a) lest you think that the organs of generation are, simultaneously and in all their extension, the seat of venereal pleasure. This seat, in the man, is the male member, especially the glans by which it is terminated; in the woman it is the clitoris, the vagina up to the uterus, and to some extent the nipples of the breasts. Wherefore they think the woman's venereal delight is greater than that of the man; b) lest you confuse the seat of pleasure with the place whence excitation can proceed. Thus, from the exciting place, they distinguish in the woman papillary, uterine, and clitoral pollution; and even in the man touches exercised on parts neighboring the sexual organs, which have a nervous affinity, can excite venery. And in more distant parts secondary centers are observed, for example the lips, where a touch of the surface can induce or increase venereal stirring. Nor is contact needed. Through the other senses also, whether immediately, or especially through the mediation of phantasy, which alone suffices, man is excited; c) lest you think that delight is so proper to those organs that you exclude or deny the participation of other parts, while not a few moderns contend that sensations are perfected in the brain itself; d) lest there be too much attention to this, that that very change of the organs itself be perceived as delightful. Let one who, from a phantastic representation, obtains at the same time both a change of the sexual parts and a delight distinct from the purely sensible, not doubt that he experiences venereal delight.

3. But the more accurate or formal definition of venereal delight is: a psychic state brought on by venereal sensation and a joined affection.

But venereal sensations are: a) an external sensation, so called from an exterior object or cause, when by the contact itself in the glans, etc., the proper titillation of the sexual organ is excited; b) kinesthetic sensations, by which the situation or motion of the sexual organs is perceived, when they arise from a strictly venereal impulse, for example from an obscene phantasm, or are directed to a strictly venereal act, copulation or emission of seed; c) organic sensations brought on by the blood with which the cavernous bodies of the penis and clitoris are filled, especially those which are joined with the emission of seed at least broadly so called.

Moreover those sensations induce an affection (impression, sentiment) of pleasantness (de bien-être), either pure, as in the complete act, or mixed with some less pleasant tension, as in an incomplete or not yet perfect act.

— In what manner the delight of the sensitive order is special it is useful to indicate more accurately. Now indeed it is special insofar as it is taken as incorporated in the sensation, and effects something one with it. But if the enjoyment of the subject is taken according to itself, the more probable opinion today holds that various sensible enjoyments (jouissances) taken as if separated from the cause do indeed vary in intensity and in unequal participation of body and soul, but are reduced to one common satisfaction generically or specifically, so that the moral specification must be derived from the cause.

In joy, or higher delight, the object not merely brings satisfaction, but, being reflexively known, estimated, and loved, enters the delight itself and changes it, so that this separation cannot be had, and joys are truly specifically diverse.

Venereal appetite. The affection of pleasantness brings about prosecutive tendencies which compose appetite. Therefore the inferior venereal appetite, spontaneously, as satiative, embraces the complete act; if it is not complete or is altogether lacking, it is spontaneously borne through sexual instinct to completing the same or to procuring it by apt actions.

When reason intervenes and complies, there is then added a formal pursuit of rest in the possessed good, or of preserving the pleasantness and increasing it artificially.

This appetite can be sound or regular, which, both in force or intensity, and in the mode in which it is excited, and in the object to which it is borne, is adapted to human nature; and it can be infected by various vices, i.e.: a) considered in its force or intensity, it can labor under anesthesia or hypesthesia, when it is none or too weak; or, on the contrary, it can rage too much through hyperesthesia, which in the man is called satyriasis, in the woman nymphomania; b) considered in its object or term, it can be borne either toward one's own body, or toward the same sex, or toward another genus, in animals; c) considered in the mode of excitation, it can be excited by things which commonly do not excite others, for example by sight or touch of an animal or of a material object, or not be excited in circumstances which commonly would be the cause of grave heat. The vices sketched under b) and c) are called by the common name, besides their proper names, paresthesias.

Sexual instinct. strictly so called is an innate propensity toward sexual acts which procure venereal delight.

Observe, therefore, that it does not incline toward generation as such, but toward copulation, which of itself denotes an order toward generation.

But in man there must also be considered sexual instinct broadly so called, which seeks the very person of the other sex on account of secondary sexual characters¹, i.e. on account of psychic and somatic qualities which render the intercourse of one sex with the other sex pleasant or agreeable. But since at the same time the whole body is present close by, this pursuit of the person remotely disposes to venereal delight. The passage from spiritual appetite to carnal appetite is rendered more difficult or easier according to the nature of the affection and of the qualities attracting.

For the affection can be one of piety, as between father and daughter, mother and son, between brothers and sisters; and then the very reverence which enters that affection is wont to restrain carnal appetite. It can be simple friendship, founded on intellectual, moral, supernatural endowments; and this, placid, tranquil, without envy, seeks bodily demonstrations of kisses and embraces less even than piety. It can be love, or an affection similar to that which is wont to join both spouses. This affection between strangers is of suspect honesty, contains a certain mutual handing over which, since it lacks a useful end, gives place to scruples; it is wont to be fostered between two only, with others jealously excluded; and it impels to frequent significations of affection, which are wont to render the mind unquiet. Founded more on typical bodily qualities, it frequently induces physiological changes in the genital organs themselves, so that a carnal appetite is mixed with the more noble one.

¹ Primary characters result from the genital apparatus itself.

Sensible delight, merely sensible. Carefully to be distinguished from venereal delight, just described, is sensible delight, whether that special delight of the exterior senses, for example the touch of a soft thing, which can also be obtained in the sexual organs, or the less defined delight which is brought by an affection depending on sexual instinct broadly so called. And when the passage to carnal commotion is easy, that delight is called sensible-carnal, and those who indulge it are said especially to favor sensuality.

Merely sensible is the delight of sight, hearing, and touch without relation to the sexual appetite.

It also happens, because love properly spiritual and carnal love are helped by a similar and allied bodily disposition and affection, i.e. by a similar coenesthesia¹, that, on account of the physiological law of association, a man, especially a male, while he fosters a spiritual, indeed a religious affection, unwillingly suffers certain motions of the flesh. According to that law of association, two affections which have a similar repercussion in the body can be excited by that very repercussion, just as also one repercussion can induce the other.

¹ Do not confuse kinesthetic sensations, by which the situation and motion of the organs are perceived, with coenesthetic sensations, or sensations common to several operations.

Extension of the sexual appetite in man. It is also proper to man that even in another person of the same sex, indeed in his own person, he finds sources of satisfaction either broadly or strictly sexual. Whence, even without any perversion or inversion of appetite, he can yield to sexual instinct broadly or strictly so called in his intercourse with persons of the same sex or alone, and can will to procure for himself sensible-carnal or strictly carnal delight. Think of the dangerous friendships of adolescents of the same sex in boarding schools, which, by the aforesaid marks of love, are distinguished from friendship properly so called.

Venereal instinct. impels to various contacts which, by new stimuli, increase carnal excitation. Nor does what is called the appetite for "contacts" have any other signification than a carnal one among brute animals. In man, on the contrary, kisses and embraces can also be commanded by a noble affection, for example of piety or friendship, or by a dangerous affection, not yet, however, carnal.

These things must be accurately distinguished, observing especially whether the propensity is moderate, quiet, content with the accustomed signs of affection, or, on the contrary, tends toward excessive and unusual demonstrations: this avidity introduces suspicion of a carnal affection.

Carnal motions or acts. which are strictly sexual now seem to have been sufficiently declared. They are in every use of venereal things as such, or in any "actuation" of the genital apparatus, which from the end of the work is destined to procreating offspring.

Therefore, besides the complete use of natural or unnatural copulation and of pollution, there are, in the man, a pleasurable, not every nervous, erection of the member and agitation of the member; in the woman, a delightful erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

Force of phantasy. By the phantasms themselves sensations can be represented and similar effects brought about as by exterior sensations.

For in the brain itself there is a center of excitation; another is had in the spinal cord; a third, in a certain part of the genital apparatus.

1. Fecundation, which is wont to occur in the ovary or oviduct, requires that some zoosperm should have penetrated the feminine ovule.

2. Zoosperms are elaborated in the testicles, which at the same time are sources of an internal secretion by which, through the so-called hormones, the sexual appetite itself is nourished; while the feminine ovule, nearly every month, from puberty to the age of about 50 years, which thence is called menopause, spontaneously falls with a flow of blood, menstruation. Complete male sperm contains besides fluids secreted through other glands, in which the zoosperms swim.

3. To the function generative in itself, or copulation, God has joined the proper delight which is called venereal, and which is materially described: the delightful change of the organs proximately serving generation; but formally it can be defined: a psychic state brought on by venereal sensation and a joined affection. It can be complete or incomplete: the latter tends toward the complete.

4. Venereal appetite denotes concupiscence of that delight; and it can be sound or regular, such as commonly is had, or labor under the vice of anesthesia or hypesthesia, hyperesthesia, and paresthesia. It can exist without or with the participation of reason.

5. Appetite is fostered by sexual instinct, which, strictly taken, is an innate propensity toward sexual acts which induce venereal delight; but, taken more broadly, it seeks the person of the other sex on account of secondary sexual characters.

6. Sensible delight is contained in every enjoyment of the sense. Merely sensible delight excludes venereal delight; sensible-carnal delight is a less defined bodily satisfaction which easily passes to carnal commotion. The voluntary pursuit of sensible delight, if it is either excessive or is borne toward the sensible-carnal, which, in unmarried persons, can always be called excessive, is called sensuality.

7. A carnal motion, or a strictly sexual act, is had in any actuation of the genital apparatus which, from the end of the work, is destined for generating offspring.

Therefore there is, besides the complete use of the faculty, in the man an erection pleasurable in itself and agitation of the member; in the woman, a delightful erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

A threefold center of venereal excitation is had finally: the brain, the spinal cord, and part of the genital apparatus.

8. Bodily integrity in the female alone is regularly demonstrated by a visible indication, i.e. either by an intact hymen or by a complication of the parts.

II. Pleasure is the repose or complacency of the appetite in a present or possessed good: for whenever a human power, by acting, attains or possesses its proper object, pleasure arises in the appetite. But there are several human powers tending toward diverse goods; hence diverse pleasures also arise. And indeed there is:

a. spiritual pleasure in the will, from the possession of an intellectual or spiritual good;

b. sensible pleasure in the sensitive appetite and in the senses alone, from the possession of a sensible good proportioned to itself;

c. carnal or sexual and venereal pleasure in the same sensitive appetite, and also in the genital organs from the exercise or use of these, which per se pertain to the vegetative powers. But since the human powers are intimately connected with one another, it often happens that one pleasure draws another with it; and thus two intermediate pleasures arise between the three aforesaid pleasures. Hence five pleasures are distinguished by theologians:

1. Purely spiritual pleasure is that which arises either from the intellectual knowledge of some thing, for example when someone rejoices in the knowledge of some truth long sought, or arises from the thing known itself, for example if someone rejoices in God, or in virtue, whose beauty he considers. It is morally good or evil according as that which pleases is good or evil, for example to rejoice in the knowledge of the existence of God, or in a new means of stealing or of inflicting injury on another.³

³ It is called purely spiritual by reason of the faculty, not by reason of the object, for "everything that we desire according to nature, we can also desire with pleasure of reason, but not conversely" (St. Thomas, I-II, q. 31, a. 3). Hence it can also be about a sensible or venereal object: concerning which see I-II, q. 31, a. 3, 4, 5; cf. q. 34, a. 1. Spiritual pleasure of itself follows the nature of rational love, whence per se it is good or evil according to the object. By Saint Thomas it is called intelligible pleasure (q. 31, a. 5), pleasure of reason, or that which follows reason (a. 3). Hence, unlike sensible pleasure, one cannot act on account of spiritual pleasure alone: for this is per se joined to a good either honest or dishonorable.

2. Spiritual-sensible pleasure is that which arises from a more vivid representation, especially from the sight or touch of a person tenderly but honestly loved, especially on account of spiritual qualities. This pleasure also per se resides in the will, but is so vehement that it redounds into the sensitive appetite and is joined with a commotion of the heart and blood.⁴ Such pleasure is accustomed to accompany the love of a mother for a son, of a spouse for a spouse, of a friend for a friend. Per se it is separated from carnal pleasure, and therefore on this side is morally indifferent.

⁴ By Saint Thomas it is called spiritual pleasure with a redounding into the lower appetite (I-II, q. 31, a. 5).

3. Merely sensible pleasure is that which arises from some sensible thing other than a venereal one. It is, namely, a grateful and pleasant affection which is perceived in the very organs of the senses from the conformity or proportion of the sensible object with the sense, for example from the sight or touch of a thing that pleases, the sight of a beautiful thing, the touch of a soft thing, the taste of savory food.⁵ Per se it is without venereal commotion, and therefore such pleasure per se is indifferent. If it is sought according to the order of nature, that is, with and on account of its natural end, it is good, for example when food and drink are thus taken with pleasure of taste; but if the pleasure is turned away from its proper end, or if it is sought for its own sake, it is evil.

⁵ By Saint Thomas it is called sensible or animal pleasure according to knowledge, I-II, q. 31, a. 5 and 6.

4. Sensual or sensible-carnal pleasure is a pleasure which of itself is merely sensible, because it arises from a merely sensible, not venereal, thing, which nevertheless is apt to excite venereal pleasure, for example the look, touch, kiss, or merely sensible conversation of a person loved with sensitive affection on account of beauty. This pleasure as a whole resides per se in the sensitive appetite; nevertheless the more vehement pleasure is joined with a commotion of the heart and blood, and then it easily excites carnal commotion and redounds into the venereal appetite. Such pleasure, if by reason of the agent it involves the proximate danger of consenting to an inordinate venereal appetite, is a sin grave by its genus; if such danger is not present, nor on the other hand a reason fully excusing, such as the custom of the country, friendship not sensual but conformable to reason, and so forth, it is a light sin.

5. Venereal or carnal⁶ or genital pleasure, which arises from the commotion of the organs and humors serving generation: by its nature it is an act of the sensitive appetite to which the voluptuous sense, or pleasurable alteration existing in the genital organs, is pleasing. For the man it consists in the pleasurable erection⁷ of the virile member and the agitation of the same which pours forth semen; for the woman, in the pleasurable erection of the clitoral organ and in the contraction of the female genital canal with distillation. Therefore not every pleasure of the genitals is venereal: for in them also a merely sensible pleasure can be perceived; but that alone is venereal which is proper to these organs and can be perceived only in them. This is the proper matter of chastity and lust.

⁶ The pleasure which is taken in food and drink, not indeed from taste but from the very touch of foods or drinks, is also bodily, and therefore with Saint Thomas can be called carnal, because it is perfected in the touch of the body (I-II, q. 72, a. 2). Yet this pleasure does not regard the present matter; and therefore in the present matter we take carnal pleasure in a stricter sense, for pleasure from venereal touch alone (ibid., ad 4). Both carnal pleasures are called by Saint Thomas sensible by reason of utility, namely for the conservation of animal nature; they are perfected in touch (I-II, q. 31, a. 6).

⁷ From venereal and pleasurable erection must be distinguished a purely natural and quasi-mechanical erection: the former is from venereal phantasy or with pleasure; the latter is accustomed to arise from a merely physical cause and is had without any sense of pleasure. Cf. for example Aertnijs, Theologia Moralis, I, n. 219; Vermeersch, cited work, n. 28.

It is twofold: complete, perfect, or consummated; and incomplete, imperfect, or begun, according as it proceeds to the final natural term of the act and satiates nature, or arises from carnal commotion which does not proceed to the final term and does not satiate nature.

Therefore this pleasure, ordered and restrained according to right reason, is the object of chastity; inordinate and unrestrained, it is the object of lust. Unduly, either really to seek that pleasure, completely or incompletely, or by thinking to represent it to oneself and to have complacency in it in the mind, is lust.

V. Lust is the inordinate appetite, that is, love and use, of venereal pleasure; but it is inordinate if, outside legitimate use in conjugal copulation and in acts disposing toward it, pleasure is sought. For pleasure, just as also the use of the genitals, by its nature is essentially ordered to the propagation of the human race. But this cannot occur in due mode except in the permanent matrimonial union, which is altogether necessary for the right education of offspring. Therefore the appetite and use of venereal things is inordinate if it is sought: first, without order to the act of legitimate marriage; secondly, in that act, but in an illegitimate and undue mode, beyond the rules prescribed by nature and reason.

By reason of the mode in which it occurs, lust is one thing when it is A. merely internal, which consists in the mere affection for or desire of pleasure or of the use of venereal things, and is prohibited by the ninth precept of the Decalogue; B. another when it is also external, which occurs with the use and commotion of the genital organs, and is prohibited by the sixth precept. This latter can be:

1. complete, perfect, and consummated, if the exterior act is brought to its natural term, that is, to satiative pleasure; whether a. it be natural or according to nature, and the act is apt for obtaining its natural end of generation, as fornication, adultery, incest; or b. it be unnatural or against nature, and the act is not apt for its natural end, but this is rendered impossible, as pollution, onanism, sodomy;

2. incomplete, imperfect, and begun, if the exterior act is not brought to its natural term and does not attain the final term of satiative pleasure. This stands to complete lust as beginning to term, means to end, inception to consummation; and therefore it is not so much called lust, which concerns the very pleasure of copulation, but rather immodesty concerning the accompanying pleasures.

By reason of the diverse intention of the will by which lust is committed, and therefore of diverse gravity and imputability:

1. one kind is directly and in itself willed, when someone intends and procures venereal pleasure itself for its own sake;

2. another is voluntary in the cause, when someone voluntarily places a cause which procures venereal pleasure, without willing and intending that pleasure in itself;

3. another is indirectly voluntary, when someone neither intends nor procures venereal pleasure, but does not prevent it, though it has arisen involuntarily, when he can and ought to prevent it.

Concerning the gravity of these outside marriage we must now speak.

VIII. Lust voluntary in its cause, from which it is foreseen to follow, is sin to the extent that the cause, insofar as it influences it, is sin. Hence it is a sin grave by its genus, which admits lightness of matter.

It is proved: in venereal pleasure willed in the cause, the consent of the will is borne only toward the cause which provokes the pleasure; therefore it is evil only to the extent that the cause itself is evil. Hence the malice is to be determined from the influence on venereal pleasure; and besides this it must be seen whether perhaps there is a just and proportionate reason for placing the cause on account of a good effect and permitting the evil effect.

Now there are actions which cause a base motion per se, others per accidens, according as they are apt to cause it, or on the contrary are not apt to cause it although nevertheless they can cause it. Actions which by their nature are apt to excite venereal pleasure, and thus are ordered to generation, cause it per se, for example a base look, touch, or imagination. Moreover, of these actions some influence that effect proximately and notably, namely those from which the base effect always or almost always follows, for example a repeated touch on the obscene parts of another person;²³ others influence the base motion only remotely and lightly, from which therefore the evil effect rarely arises, for example a touch made in passing on the immodest parts of one's own body.²⁴ Their influence must also be considered relatively, because by its nature it depends somewhat on the varying inclination and disposition of the subject, as in childhood, youth, or old age, in affection or habit of mind, in a warm or cold bodily constitution; hence certain causes are more vehement with respect to one such person, which are light with respect to another, for example a continued look at a naked person of the same sex, or a continued touch of one's own body.

²³ Actions gravely exciting, according to Lehmkuhl, Theologia Moralis, I, n. 864, are: "a more vivid practical thought concerning venereal matters; touch exercised on the obscene parts of another person, unless perhaps it is done entirely in passing in a person of the same sex without depraved affection; a voluntarily continued look at a completely naked person of the other sex; indeed also the look of a man at the naked chest of a woman, or the look at an obscene picture, at least if it is continued after commotion has already arisen."

²⁴ Actions lightly exciting, according to Lehmkuhl, ibidem, are: "touch or look on the immodest parts of one's own body made in passing; a non-immodest and light touch of a woman made in passing; taking her hand; a light kiss from an honorable cause; vain conversation with a woman; a non-fixed look at the chest; a fortiori other lighter looks."

Actions which of themselves pertain in no way to generation and are outside the genus of immodesty cause a base motion per accidens, for example to eat or drink immoderately, to use a bath, to ride, to sit or lie in a certain position, to exercise sight or touch on honorable parts on account of merely sensible pleasure. Indeed there are persons who, from actions which in no way relate to the venereal matter, are vehemently excited by a hidden force. Among causes per accidens are counted those actions which remotely and lightly influence the base effect, even if sometimes they influence it gravely, because this proceeds not from their nature but from the intervention of another cause, for example from the subject's infirmity, custom, obsession, weakness, heredity, and so forth.²⁵

²⁵ From the preceding things those opinions can be reconciled which at first sight seem opposed, while some deny that the influence of the cause is to be determined from the disposition of the agent, while others on the contrary affirm it, or assert that it depends principally on the nature of the cause, secondarily on the disposition of the agent. Noldin says, for example, cited work, n. 35: "He who, on account of peculiar disposition and infirmity, suffers frequent pollutions from actions licit in themselves, which by their nature influence them only lightly, is not bound to abstain from those actions, provided consent to the pleasure is excluded: for in placing them he uses his own right." Namely, this is valid concerning causes per accidens, not concerning causes per se. On the contrary, Genicot, Theologia Moralis, I, n. 377: "For determining which causes influence gravely and which lightly, attention must principally be paid to the nature of the cause; secondarily to the disposition of the agent. Whether a cause by its nature influences gravely or lightly often appears easily enough to each one. But in many cases the matter is not so clear: in these especially one must attend to the condition from the disposition of the agent. For the influence of the same causes is very much diminished or increased according to age, constitution, force of imagination, education, degree of virtue, custom of hearing, seeing, handling base things, and so forth." Indeed Aertnijs, Theologia Moralis, I, n. 260, conformably to the doctrine of Saint Alphonsus: "He who, from inclination toward venereal things, has experienced frequent pollution from causes not indeed gravely immodest by their nature, nor on the other hand altogether light, but which in him more vehemently arouse pollution, is bound, when no reason is given for placing them, to abstain from them, and indeed under grave obligation: because with respect to such a person, on account of his inclination, causes of this sort excite not lightly but gravely." Namely, these things are valid concerning causes per se, not concerning causes per accidens.

With these things posited we say:

a. It is a mortal sin without sufficient reason to place a cause which per se proximately or gravely influences carnal motions or venereal pleasure, even if these by accident do not follow; for example very obscene reading, or a prolonged touch or look at an immodest part. One case is excepted: when someone from his own experience knows certainly that he is not gravely moved by an action of this sort.

Practically, however, for mortal sin two things are often required: first, that the cause influence grave motions, that is, vehement ones, or those sufficiently proximately disposing to pollution, or causing great pleasure; for since light and transitory motions are most frequent, to avoid the causes of all of these would be very troublesome, indeed morally impossible, and therefore not to be urged under grave obligation, because often there is present a reason excusing in some measure, not from the whole, namely, but from so much; secondly, moreover, that the cause influence those grave motions proximately or gravely. Therefore Saint Alphonsus rightly notes²⁶ that even pollution itself is not mortal unless it proceeds from a cause per se mortal in the genus of lust or immodesty. It must be mortal, because since pollution is not willed in itself but only in the cause, it will be evil to that degree to which the cause itself is evil, that is, to which the cause is evil insofar as it is a cause or insofar as it influences; but every and only a cause which of itself gravely influences motions prohibited under grave obligation, unless there is present a reason excusing from a good effect which compensates the evil, is mortal insofar as it is a cause. It must be in the genus of lust, because otherwise it would influence pollution not gravely but only lightly, for example drunkenness or immoderate eating of meat.

²⁶ Theologia Moralis, book III, treatise IV, n. 484.

b. It is a venial sin without a just cause to place an action influencing lightly or remotely or per accidens into even vehement motions and complete venereal pleasure, provided those things do not please and no proximate danger of consent is present. For a light influence on a grave thing is a light thing.²⁷ Such things are a conversation not prolonged with a girl, a look, a touch, reading that is not very base. A sufficient reason is any reasonable cause of necessity, utility, or fittingness.

²⁷ And so an act which would influence only lightly into grave commotion, indeed into pollution, would for this reason be only venially evil. And in this there is a great difference from lust voluntary in itself: for direct intention toward venereal pleasure, even a small one, manifests a disposition of soul very different from that which is found in him who does not seek, indeed does not will, that pleasure. The first per se incurs proximate danger of consenting to further pleasure on account of his own propensity; not so necessarily the other.

c. It is no sin to place from a just cause an action from which inordinate motions are foreseen to follow, even pollution, provided the proximate danger of consent is always absent. A just cause is, for a priest, to hear confessions and to study base matters; for a surgeon, to look at and touch immodest parts; likewise for one serving the infirm or in baths; for all, to kiss women according to the custom of the country, to touch oneself from necessity, to ride for the sake of recreation or utility, to perform gymnastic exercises, to lie down in a more comfortable position, while sitting to put leg over leg according to custom, and to take warm foods and drinks moderately.²⁸

²⁸ You will find the whole doctrine concerning lust voluntary in its cause expounded in Billuart, diss. 6, a. 12. P. Vermeersch proposes the matter otherwise and speaks of disguised lust, cited work, n. 374 and 388, in place of lust voluntary in its cause. Yet our mode seems clearer and more open, more conformable to principles and older. Moreover, although at first sight the distinguished theologian may seem to dissent, nevertheless in fact he teaches the same. "For observe," he says, "that the sin of imperfect lust is committed directly, not only when it is sought by express intention, but also when, without another immediate cause, acts are exercised which directly excite the flesh: for then you are judged to effect the venereal motion" (n. 374). Behold the principle; if now you want an example: "Kisses too frequently repeated, especially on the mouth or lips, too prolonged embraces, because they gravely move the flesh and have no cause among unmarried persons, are argued to be grave unless the carnal motion is positively repressed and, if pollution more strongly threatens, one ceases from these" (n. 401). Genicot-Salsmans has the right doctrine concerning lust voluntary in its cause as regards pollution voluntary in this way (Theologia Moralis, I, n. 401), but not as regards venereal motions, which are not proved to be grave, since in them, he says, there is no evident affection toward complete pleasure (n. 403). But this reason is null, for he who seeks incomplete pleasure by that very fact implicitly seeks complete pleasure, and he who wills the cause of pleasure implicitly wills the effect. Moreover this doctrine is new and is not found in the first editions made under the care of P. Genicot himself; it is not founded in tradition: the traditional doctrine holds that to place a cause per se gravely influencing grave motions is of itself a grave sin; nor is it sustained according to principles: for if something is in itself gravely evil, as venereal motions outside marriage are, it is also gravely evil perfectly to cause it, in the case at hand to place a cause per se gravely influencing such motions. Others state more practically: if the motions are grave and excited without just cause, there is great danger, and the sin is grave; on the contrary, if the motions are light, the danger is small and the sin light. But this is said according to presumptions, according to that which often or ordinarily occurs. For if the motions are grave, danger is not always and for all persons grave, nor is it grave to place a cause lightly influencing such motions. On the contrary, if the motions are only light, nevertheless sometimes grave danger can be present. And so it must be said in principle: to place a cause per se gravely influencing venereal motions is of itself a grave sin; to place a cause influencing lightly or per accidens is of itself a light sin.

IX. Lust indirectly voluntary, which the will does not procure nor intend, to which it neither positively consents nor resists, but toward which it behaves negatively, and which it only permits because it does not repress it when it can and ought to repress it, is of itself venially evil; per accidens, sometimes mortal on account of danger of consent.

It is proved: in this a man sins, because reason and will are lacking in their office of directing and repressing the motions of the lower powers, nor can he bear himself indifferently to whether his motions and acts are inordinate or not; but:

a. per se he does not sin mortally, because positive consent of the will is lacking;

b. per accidens he would sin mortally if from this there were a proximate danger of consenting to venereal pleasure.

Hence man is bound to resist those motions positively, insofar as is necessary and morally possible for not consenting and for repressing the motions:

1. ordinarily not directly, that is, by contrary or violent acts, such as suppression of imagination, compression of the members, chastisement of the body, and so forth, because this is not necessary for the aforesaid end, or is too difficult, or even excites more;

2. but indirectly, by applying the mind to other incompatible things, especially those which more strongly affect the mind, for example by interrupting the work, pursuing business, an external occupation requiring special attention, praying, and so forth; indeed:

3. sometimes, if there is a just cause for not resisting otherwise and for not repressing the motions, positive resistance by a simple act of displeasure, at least implicit, suffices. This act is not to be frequently repeated, since until it is retracted it is judged morally to persevere. Thus if someone has experienced that other resistance is useless for checking the motions, or excites and increases them more; or if the motions have their origin from a necessary cause or from a useful action, as was said in the preceding number, c, and it is too troublesome to repel them, for example on account of duration; or if the motions are light and transitory, both because the causes exciting such motions are very frequent and therefore the obligation of repressing them would be too difficult, and because they are repressed better and more effectively by contempt: for solicitude about impeding them is accustomed to excite imaginations and increase the motions. All these things are easily verified in the scrupulous person, who therefore will show sufficient displeasure by simply despising the motions.

The passion which prompts to sexual intercourse is altogether natural in itself, and, as such, intended by the Creator to be indulged in at the right time and in the proper manner. It is the stimulus which He has provided for the propagation of the human race. If the stimulus is strong at times, this too is a special effect of His wisdom; because without a powerful prompting of this kind, most men would shirk the burden of married life, just as very many would not care to toil if they had no hunger and thirst and other bodily wants to satisfy.

But though all these cravings are useful and even indispensable to mankind, all of them need the regulation of reason. When they are indulged immoderately or in unnatural ways, they become most copious sources of bodily diseases, of mental disorders, and moral degradation. Every one knows how the passion of drink, when abused, proves the ruination of millions; excessive eating, too, injures the systems of countless people. But no animal passion is more liable to become disorderly, none needs more firm control and habitual watchfulness, than the passion of lust. Reason dictates that it should be indulged for no other purpose than that for which the Creator has made it, namely, marital intercourse. I say marital and not merely sexual intercourse; for outside of married life all nations have always condemned its indulgence.

Besides, it is only in the married state that the children, which are the fruit of such intercourse, can be properly educated. To generate a race of young barbarians is certainly not the purpose of the sexual relations. Children must not be begotten unless they can be properly raised, in a manner worthy of their noble destiny. Now, it is only in the married state, in the family or domestic society, that they can be thus educated. They need the tender hand of a mother to supply their material wants; they need the manly care of a devoted father to provide the necessaries of life, his firm hand to break their wanton wills, and his wise direction to set them well on the road to temporal and eternal happiness. Therefore, no one has the right to beget or to bear children except in marital life. Now, the sexual passion is to be exercised only in connection with its proper object, the procreation of children and the fostering of such mutual love between husband and wife as is conducive to domestic happiness. Therefore this passion is to be kept under careful and rational constraint. This the law of morality requires; all nations have ever exacted that this passion shall be subject to established rules; no free-love has ever been tolerated where there was the least pretence to civilization, and I do not know that it was ever permitted even among barbarians.

Even the distant approach that Mormonism made towards free-love has been absolutely condemned and repressed by the common-sense of the American people, as incompatible with civilization. In fact, all history testifies that the true civilization of any race or country rises or falls with the restraints imposed on the passion of lust; no polygamous nation has ever been more than half-civilized. The greatness of Rome and Greece decayed when the laws of social purity declined; and in our own day the immorality of what is called “the social evil” is the darkest stain on modern civilization.

And what we say of civilization or social soundness, the soundness of the body politic, applies in a great measure to individual soundness, the health of every person’s mind and body. Personal purity promotes health and vigor, it lends beauty to form, gives a keen edge to the intellect, adds energy and brings success to manhood, and prepares for enduring and honored old age. Venereal excesses, on the contrary, undermine the vigor of the constitution, bring on a host of bodily infirmities, exhaust the system before the proper time, debauch and degrade the mind and will, and prepare their victims for an early grave or a decrepit old age.

St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 151-156; St. Alphonsus, III, 412; ed. G., I, p. 665; Sporer-Bierbaum, III, n. 467 ff.; Gopfert, II, 316; Genicot, Theol. mor., I, 387; Antonelli, Med. past., II, 160 ff.; Eschbach, Disp. phys.; Tanquerey, Suppl. de Castit.; Sani, de 6 Praec.; Berardi, Theol. mor., II, p. 333 (ed. 1905); Noldin, de Sexto (ed. 13); Capellmann, Pastoralmed. (ed. 16), p. 128; Gemelli, Non moechaberis.

763. Things to be noted beforehand. The Author of nature implanted in each sex a generative power ordered to this most excellent end, that through the natural intercourse of man and woman in legitimate matrimony, the human species may be propagated and conserved. But the pleasure that accompanies the act of this power rightly concurs unto the same end insofar as it draws men to a thing very burdensome in its consequences; it is ordered to the common good, not to private good.

But for a fuller understanding of this treatise and of the other on Matrimony, we judge that a few things must be said concerning those things that regard human generation, reduced to the norm of more recent physiologists.

1. In the man, three organs especially serve for generation: the testicles, in which the semen is prepared; the seminal vesicles, in which the semen is preserved; the urinary tube (the male member, the rod) through which the semen is cast forth. In the female likewise three organs are numbered: the ovary, in which the little egg matures; the womb (uterus), into which the little egg proceeds; the vagina, which extends from the uterus to the external part of the body. The mouth of this canal is closed by a thin membrane, which they call the hymen, the seal of virginity.

2. Generation is distinguished into active and passive. Active generation, to which the highest pleasure is attached, is the same as copulation, concubitus, coitus, and consists in this, that the male member is introduced into the vagina of the female and the male semen is ejaculated in the female vessel. It is the connatural act by which generation is made possible, so that generation itself ought to follow unless something stands in the way. Passive generation is conception, or the conjunction of the masculine semen with the female little egg.

3. Therefore the man concurs toward generation by providing prolific semen, or sperm, which is a certain fluid secreted by the testicles of the man, containing little bodies called spermatozoa, by which it is rendered prolific. But the woman concurs in this, that she supplies the little egg to be fecundated by the spermatozoa. If at the moment of copulation, or at a time more or less distant, she has a mature little egg, and if the semen of the man meets this little egg, a conjunction is produced and the spermatozoa fecundate the little egg, whence conception arises. But the little eggs are torn away from the female testes, which are called ovaries. This tearing away is sometimes accelerated by lust, but of itself it happens without lust and spontaneously among individual females almost in individual months, or perhaps more often.

But whether the female concurs toward generation through an effusion of fluid, or semination, which she has in the act of copulation? Several among the ancients (thus the Scotists with Galen) affirmed that the semen of the woman is necessary for generation, but today (as Aristotle and St. Thomas already held) it is certain that no semen properly so called is present in women in that fluid which, either inwardly (as more often), or outwardly, is poured forth from the vulvo-vaginal glands. Physicians think that that semen improperly so called is useful for generation, but not necessary. And indeed this opinion already seemed more probable to St. Alphonsus (VI, 918).

4. Menstruation (in French: les regles, les epoques) accompanies ovulation and at the same time is very useful to the health of the woman. This is common blood which, as soon as the severance of some mature little egg from the ovary presses, flows more abundantly to the uterus, both indeed that by its heat it may meet the great work of ovulation to be duly performed, and that it may furnish nourishment to the new fetus, if perchance it is conceived. This flow of blood is called menstrual because for the most part it is accustomed to return on the 28th day, or in individual lunar months (and also a little more frequently), from the time of puberty up to menopause (which ordinarily in our regions happens between the 40th and 50th year), and regularly lasts for 2 or 3 days. During the time of this flow, women suffer various pains rather than feel venereal pleasure.

5. It is also to be noted that eunuchs and the impubescent lack semen. Males in our regions rarely attain puberty before the completed 15th year; but before the 18th year their semen is not accustomed to be prolific.

Among those who have reached puberty there sometimes occurs a morbid and frequent flow of semen, which in men is called gonorrhea, in women white flow or leucorrhea. Gonorrhea for the most part is a certain species of syphilis and therefore contagious; pregnant women not rarely suffer from white flow. By certain ancients (for example Croix, apud St. Alph., VI, 910), the leucorrhea of women is called gonorrhea.

According to today's physicians, semen is not corrupted, because a part of the semen, having gone out beyond its seat, is either absorbed or expelled. Therefore we shall purposely omit the questions of the older theologians looking to this.

6. The effusion of semen is to be distinguished most exactly from distillation. This is a certain subtler fluid, coming from the prostatic gland and mucous membrane of the urethra. In the effusion of semen, ordinarily the semen is ejaculated with vehement pleasure and movement of the flesh; but in distillation, the fluid ordinarily flows out drop by drop, with light or even no pleasure and almost no movement of the flesh. Besides, it can occur even in the impubescent, indeed also in the castrated.

7. By carnal movements, venereal movements, there is understood a certain tendency toward the effusion of semen, manifesting itself ordinarily through erection of the male member or of the female clitoris, joined with pleasure. This erection has as its cause blood flowing together to those members, on account of various causes. But from venereal and pleasurable erection is to be distinguished purely natural erection, which is had from a merely physical cause and without any sense of pleasure (Aertnys, Theol. mor., l. III, n. 219).

On knowledge of the sexual matter. Authors have much disputed what ought to be done concerning instructing sons (and daughters) about the sexual matter. To not a few, even Catholics, the theory was pleasing concerning the virtue and efficacy of full physiological knowledge, to be handed on to each one from tender years, for restraining the impulse of immorality. Ignorance, so they say, is the parent of all evils. Yet to others, and those weighing all things wisely, it has seemed that this theory, if ever it is brought into practice without cautions, renders a flood of lasciviousness unavoidable. Hence they established the following: a) Children before all things are to be educated in virtue, love of God, and horror of sin. b) As premature knowledge of the sexual matter is dangerous, so also is ignorance too long protracted with respect to this matter. The latter sharpens curiosity and exposes the incautious to seduction; the former kindles the fire of lust. c) Therefore knowledge of these things is to be given, but increased gradually, according to the age, necessity, and virtue of adolescents. d) It belongs to those persons to teach children these things to whom God has entrusted the office of watching over them: such as parents, guardians, or, in some cases, prudent and God-fearing outside persons. For two things are owed to a child: charity and reverence. Cf. Gatterer-Krus, Education de la Chastete; Forster, Sexualethik u. Sexualpadagogik; Linz. Quart. Schr., vol. 61, p. 45 and 783; Ami du Cl., 1911, p. 406.

764. Definition. Chastity (from chastising), taken broadly, is a general virtue, consisting in purity of soul from every inordinate love and pleasure of creatures. Chastity, in the proper sense, is a virtue that moderates the affection for and use of venereal things.

"Modesty is the virtue moderating certain less principal acts pertaining to the aforesaid concupiscence, such as kisses, touches, looks, embraces, lascivious conversations, etc. Yet it is not a special virtue distinct from chastity, but only expressing the same chastity, insofar as it is concerned with certain circumstances. For all those lustful acts, antecedent to and concomitant with the more principal one, are restrained by reason according to the same rule, on account of the same end, and in the same manner. But it is called modesty from shame, because concerning these acts, even while they are done licitly, an honorable soul is especially abashed, both because they are less subject to reason, and because in them man comes more nearly to the condition of beasts" (Goudin, Phil. mor., q. 6, a. 3, § 1).

Division. Chastity is divided into chastity specially so called and virginity. Chastity specially so called is that which only restrains the impulse toward illicit pleasures (of the flesh), but moderates licit ones, so that they may happen with the required things observed; and it can be divided into juvenile, conjugal, and widowly. But virginity is a certain heroic chastity so taming concupiscence that for God it does not concede to it even the voluntary experience of licit pleasures. Cf. Goudin, l.c.

Virginity is a special virtue, having itself toward chastity as magnificence toward liberality; because it conquers a special difficulty, and indeed a very great one (2.2, q. 152, a. 3). It consists materially, and as a state, in immunity from every experience of venereal pleasure, and in a certain integrity of the member or genital organ; but formally, and as a virtue, in the purpose of abstaining from every venereal pleasure.

1. If the integrity of the flesh is violated merely materially through rape, or involuntary pollution, the prerogative of virginity is not lost, namely the right to the accidental reward, called the aureola, with which virgins are gifted in heaven.

2. If virginity is violated formally only through internal sin, its prerogative is indeed lost, but reparably, namely so that through penance and a reassumed purpose of preserving virginity perpetually, the right to the aureola is had again.

3. If virginity is violated both formally and materially, namely through the external sin of completed lust (or even through mere touches so lustful that of themselves, in healthy nature, they would cause pollution, even if by accident this does not happen), the prerogative of the virtue is lost irreparably, as innocence is lost through mortal sin. Cf. Salmant., tr. 26, c. 1, n. 47 ff.; Lessius, de Temper., c. 2, d. 14 and 16; Eschbach, Disp. physiol.-theol., disp. 4, c. 2.

765. Principles. I. Conjugal chastity is good, widowly continence better, but virginal perfection best. Thus Venerable Bede (apud Benedict XIV, de Beatif. SS., l. 3, c. 24, n. 56). Hence St. Jerome (in Matth., XIII): "The hundredfold fruit," he says, "we assign to virgins, the sixtyfold to widows, the thirtyfold to chaste marriage." The reason is at hand from the things defined above.

Indeed, it must be held with divine faith that the state of virginity and celibacy is to be preferred to marriage. This is established from the words of the Apostle (1 Cor., 7), and from Trent: "If anyone says that the conjugal state is to be placed before the state of virginity or celibacy; and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be joined in matrimony: let him be anathema" (Sess. 24, c. 10).

II. Spiritual beauty is present most excellently in chastity. It is established: 1. From Sacred Scripture (Wis., 4, 1): How beautiful is a chaste generation with clarity: for its memory is immortal: because it is known both before God and before men. 2. From reason: "For chastity is so much the more excellent and more beautiful, as that affection (which it moderates) is more insolent, stronger, and less heeding of reason. For in it, on that account, order, vigor, and the command of reason over the raging appetite shine forth more splendidly" (Goudin, l.c.). Hence St. Alphonsus (Vera Sposa, c. 1, n. 12), with St. Cyprian: "Virginity," he says, "is queen of virtues, possession of all goods"; and with St. Ephrem: "If you have loved this, you will prosper from the Lord in all things."

766. Practical Rules. a) If a penitent who has sinned gravely against chastity asks whether he has irreparably lost the aureola of virginity, let the confessor rather respond by dissembling, lest the penitent fall in spirit. He will be able to say, for example, that penance restores the former goods of the soul, that there is no sin that cannot be repaired before God; and similar things.

b) If a girl asks whether, although she has sinned gravely against chastity, she can become a religious, let the confessor attend to the following:

He can respond: affirmatively, if there is question of entrance into a Religious Congregation (with other things to be posited having been posited). He must respond: negatively, if there is question of an Order with solemn vows, and the girl was voluntarily corrupted: because in Orders virgins are consecrated; hence she who without integrity of flesh would receive the veil would bring grave irreverence upon sacramentals.

A girl who several times acted shamefully with herself by touches, while conserving the seal of virginity, can be admitted into an Order: because before men she conserves the state of a virgin. Similarly, according to a rather probable opinion, a woman who was corrupted against her will can be consecrated; for it does not seem equitable that she should lose her right who by her will preserved virginity. Cf. Piat, I, n. 305.

Note. Some authors judge that even with those voluntarily corrupted the confessor can act more benignly. See Gopfert, II, § 99, at the end.

767. Definition. Lust is the inordinate appetite or use of venereal pleasure (III, 412). It is said: inordinate, i.e. outside matrimony and its laws.

Venereal pleasure (libidinous, lustful, carnal) is that which arises (in each sex) from the movement of fluids serving generation and is felt in the genital parts. It differs specifically from sensitive pleasure (natural, sensible), which is had from the conformity of a sensible object with the sense, for example from the contact of a smooth thing (III, 415; Vind. Alph., P. III, q. 13, a. 1).

Sensitive pleasure can be perceived: a) From the sight or embrace of him whom you pursue with tender but honorable love, insofar as that love (which resides in the will) overflows into the sensitive appetite and becomes a cause of movement in the heart and blood. It is called spiritual-sensitive, and if honorable ends are preserved, such pleasure is not to be condemned. b) From an object not of itself apt to move lust (although by accident it sometimes arises), as from hearing music; then by some it is called purely sensitive. c) From a carnal object, but not a shameful one, of itself apt to move lust (although by accident it does not move to it), as from the touch or kiss of a woman's hand; then it is called sensual. Cf. Sporer, Theol. mor., P. IV, n. 680; Ballerini-Palmieri, de 6 Praec., n. 70; Noldin, n. 7.

Immodesty is a vice, repugnant to human shame, in the use of venereal things and of things ordered to them: for example in carnal copulation, and in looks, touches, kisses, embraces, and other things ordered to it. Akin to these is lasciviousness, which is an indecent motion of the body, proceeding from dissolution of the soul.

Immodesty, of itself, differs from lust, because it is not necessarily joined with venereal pleasure; yet it easily leads to this, and on account of the proximate danger of this sort it is ordinarily gravely evil, and therefore, in practice, sins of immodesty are scarcely distinguished from sins of imperfect lust, or of lust indirectly willed (cf. n. 769).

Division. Lust is divided in several ways:

1. By reason of the intended end, one kind is directly willed, namely when pleasure is intended in itself by deliberate plan; another is indirectly willed, when something else is intended, from which pleasure arises. 2. By reason of the effect that follows, one is consummated (or perfect), in which effusion of semen or fluid intervenes; another is unconsummated (or imperfect), in which that terminus of venereal things does not intervene. Both differ specifically among themselves (cf. n. 791, 792). 3. By reason of the act, one is internal, another external.

Lust is subdivided, by reason of circumstances, into various species, as will be explained below n. 771 ff.

Causes of lust. The occasions and causes that lead man to acts of lust are innumerable: a) External causes are given, such as: bad examples, idleness, imprudent questions (sometimes in the sacred tribunal), solitude, certain times of the year, dances, visits of lovers, etc. Cf. n. 824. b) Internal causes are given, namely those that are observed in the subject: not having care of the genitals, sitting for a long time, lying supine in bed, wearing garments too tight, using exciting foods or narcotic substances, etc. All these things either irritate the genital parts, or first bring congestions in the spinal marrow.

Certain diseases are to be numbered among internal causes, especially those that affect the nervous system or the spinal marrow. The more important are: pulmonary phthisis, arthritis, chlorosis, neurosis of the genitals, epilepsy, progressive paralysis of the demented, and especially hysteria. Therefore it is no wonder that there are many who labor under hypersexuality or sexual perversion, that is, who incline excessively to sexual things or to perverse things. There are those who do not feel pleasure unless they act cruelly against themselves (masochism) or against others (sadism). There are those who are insanely drawn to the unspeakable crimes of sodomy. Let the prudent confessor see to what Christian physician he should commend such penitents; because hygienic remedies contribute much to relieving them. Let him also remember that among these, imputability is often diminished, indeed sometimes taken away. Cf. Antonelli, II, n. 160, where all things are given copiously.

768. Principles. I. Lust directly willed is a grave sin from its whole genus. It is said: 1. It is a grave sin; the reason is taken from the frustration of the natural end of this pleasure. For it is a grave sin, or grave inordination, to usurp for a merely private good the highest pleasure that nature constituted and ordered to the common good, namely the conservation and propagation of the human race. But lust directly willed does this. St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 153, a. 3.

It is confirmed from the reason of the common good. That indeed is gravely illicit which, unless it were prohibited, would yield to the grave harm of the whole man, indeed also of the human race. But if venereal pleasure were licit outside matrimony, man without restraint, with the greatest detriment of himself, would give himself to it; because it is proper to carnal pleasure to corrupt the whole rational nature, and indeed in each sex. For we are much affected by those things in which we take pleasure; and therefore reason is either entirely taken away, or greatly weakened concerning other things, in him who hands himself over to pleasures of this sort. Add that the body itself is weakened by lust and a mass of diseases is frequently generated. There accedes a most grave argument from the harm that would come to the human race itself; for men would care little about entering marriage and generating offspring, if pleasure were licit without such a burden. Finally it is evident from the Apostle declaring the lustful to be excluded from the kingdom of God (Gal., 5, 19).

2. From its whole genus; so that every venereal pleasure, even light, taken with full advertence and consent, outside matrimony, is a mortal sin. The reason is that any carnal pleasure, even light, on account of man's highest propensity to venereal things, either implies the aforesaid inordination, or exposes man to a proximate danger of progressing even to complete and certainly grave pleasure. But that which generates danger of gravely sinning, even if in itself it were venial, becomes grave by reason of the danger joined to it (Billuart, de Temper., D. V, a. 2).

Therefore the natural law prohibiting directly willed lust is as it were the law of the Creator of the human race, founded on the presumption of common danger, or on the presumption of law. Cf. the things said on the obligation of a law of this kind, n. 191-192.

It is confirmed from proposition 40, condemned by Alexander VII, with which, as Viva says, the contrary opinion can scarcely be reconciled: "The opinion is probable which says that a kiss had on account of carnal and sensible pleasure, which arises from the kiss, with danger of further consent and pollution excluded, is only venial" (III, 415; H. Ap., IX, 2).

769. II. Lust indirectly willed (and likewise immodesty) admits smallness of matter, i.e. it is reputed grave or light according as the act from which carnal pleasure is foreseen as about to follow influences it, by its force and nature, either proximately and gravely, or only remotely and lightly. The reason is that the evil effect, which follows from an action beyond the intention, must be held evil to that degree to which the cause itself was evil. Recall the things said concerning the indirect voluntary (n. 313-315).

Corollaries. To know the gravity of indirect lust, one must attend to the end on account of which acts are exercised, and besides to the danger that they bring. Acts can, outside matrimony, be exercised from a fourfold end: 1. from the intention of venereal pleasure; 2. from the intention of sensible pleasure; 3. from levity of soul, petulance, and curiosity; 4. from necessity, or from some other just cause.

a) If the aforesaid acts are exercised on account of carnal pleasure, they are mortal sins, even if they are not in themselves greatly dishonorable. Reason: because the intended end is gravely evil; from which end the act of immodesty falls back into lust directly willed. Hence, to touch the hand of a woman on account of carnal pleasure is a mortal sin (III, 415).

b) If they are exercised, with venereal affection excluded, from the sole intention of sensible pleasure, several authors indeed deny that they exceed venial fault; because, they say, it is not more inordinate to take pleasure from the contact of a woman's hand than from the contact of a smooth thing, for example a rose, a silk cloth, and the like. - But, with attention given to the circumstances of manner and time, this opinion, especially if the touches are done with full advertence and consent, is not practically probable,¹ since studiously to seek that pleasure, for the most part, on account of our corrupted nature, carries with it the danger of falling into and consenting to carnal pleasure, especially in persons apt for copulation and especially if those acts are had with some affection and delay.

c) If they are exercised from levity, jest, curiosity, they are not, of themselves, except venial sins; provided they are not in themselves very dishonorable, nor are done with delay and proximate danger of lust, or with the scandal of others, as would be the case if they were done by ecclesiastics (III, 418). - The same must be said if the acts are done from irritation of the nerves.

d) If they are exercised on account of necessity or a just cause, for example touches by a surgeon for healing, they are not sins, even if venereal pleasure arises: provided the will turns away from it and the danger of consenting to it is absent.² This is evident from the things said concerning the indirect voluntary (n. 315).

Note. The danger of indirect lust can arise not only from acts that of themselves hold themselves in the matter of lust (touches, looks, etc.), but also from acts that wander outside the matter of lust, and only by accident influence lust, for example from drunkenness, from the sight of the killing of animals, etc. - Each kind of actions can have proximate or remote influence. See what is to be said n. 795, where at length.

770. It is asked. Whether invincible ignorance can be given concerning sins of lust?

Resp. With experience as witness, it can be given concerning the grave malice of certain sins of lust, whether non-consummated, or even consummated: 1. in adolescents, for a short time, especially when deep silence has been preserved before them about these matters; 2. in the uneducated (indeed perhaps also in others for a short time), when a special circumstance apparently rendering the act honorable intervenes. Thus, for example, there can be ignorance of the grave malice of dishonorable kisses or touches between betrothed persons, of the malice of internal acts, of the malice of onanism among spouses who are already burdened by numerous offspring. Cf. the things said n. 125; Gopfert, II, 320.

Let the confessor beware lest he admonish penitents accustomed to a vice, whose gravity indeed they know, but whose special malice they are ignorant of, concerning this special malice. For such an admonition seems to be of little profit, and from it formal sins would be multiplied. Otherwise one must speak if the penitent thinks that some lustful act that he exercises is not a sin, or is not mortal; because amendment of frequently committed lust will scarcely be possible thereafter, and ignorance, in such a case, cannot be anything except exceedingly harmful to the penitent (Praxis, n. 39; Scavini, I, 391).

483. Definition. Luxury (so called from loosening) is the inordinate appetite for, or use of, venereal delectation or sense.

Venereal delectation (libidinous, luxurious, simply carnal) is that which arises from the movement of the spirits serving generation, and is felt around the genitalia.

It differs specifically from sensitive delectation (natural, sensible), which is had from the contact of a smooth thing, without any movement of the genitalia being present. There are those who distinguish this species of delectation into sensitive carnal, which arises from contact with living flesh, and simply sensitive or merely organic, which arises from contact with any other soft thing.²

Division. One luxury is directly sought, which is had when libidinous or carnal pleasure is intended precisely in itself. Another is indirectly willed, when another thing is intended, from which the aforesaid pleasure arises, as happens, for example, in looks or readings less chaste from curiosity or another illicit end.

The species of luxury are various, as they are recounted in Chapters II and III.

484. Principles. - I. Luxury of any species whatever directly willed is a grave sin from its whole genus, so that every venereal delectation, even slight, taken with full advertence and consent is a mortal sin.³ For the Apostle openly declares that the luxurious are excluded from the kingdom of God,⁴ and Alexander VII condemned proposition 40, which said: "that a kiss had for carnal and sensible delectation, which arises from the kiss, is only venial." The reason is, 1° because every carnal delectation or venereal movement is a certain begun effusion of semen or movement toward it; and therefore, if it is sought outside the legitimate act of marriage, it tends toward a grave disturbance of essential order: 2° because the character of delectation of this sort is such that it corrupts the whole rational nature. For we are much affected by those things in which we delight; and therefore reason is either altogether taken away or very much weakened concerning other things in him who lingers in carnal delectations.¹

II. Luxury, indirectly willed, admits smallness of matter, that is, it is judged grave or slight according as the action from which carnal delectation is foreseen as going to follow influences it either proximately and gravely, or only remotely and lightly. The reason is that an evil effect following beyond the intention from an action is judged evil in that degree in which the cause itself is evil. Cf. Scavini.²

485. Questions. - Quaer. 1° Can lightness of matter be given in sensible delectation, if someone, for example, is delighted by contact with the hand of a woman as by contact with a smooth thing?

Resp. Several affirm with St. Antoninus, Sylvius, etc.; for, they say, just as he who hears a sweet voice or tastes savory food precisely for organic delectation does not sin except venially, so he is judged to sin only venially who looks at a beautiful woman, or touches her hand or face, on account of organic delectation alone, willing or feeling nothing further.

But indeed, this opinion is not practically probable, and St. Alphonsus teaches that the opposite is altogether to be held, at least as a general rule. The reason is that, on account of corrupted nature, it is morally impossible to take that natural delectation without carnal and venereal delectation being felt, especially by persons apt for copula; and especially if those acts are had with some affection and delay. Moreover, to expose yourself to the danger of consenting to venereal delectation is of itself mortal. - Wherefore St. Doctor admits the first opinion only "in some rare case, in which through long experience someone would be morally certain that no danger of consent threatens him; but this case," he adds, "when will it be?"³

Yet the Saint notes "that to act on account of sensible delectation is one thing, to act with such delectation another, in which lightness of matter can well be given; provided (it must be added) that the agent not rest in it, but detest it in act. Otherwise he would act not only with delectation, but also on account of delectation; which cannot be separated from the danger of falling into venereal delectation."¹

Quaer. 2° Can invincible ignorance be given concerning sins of luxury?

Resp. It can be given, experience testifying, invincible ignorance concerning the grave malice of certain sins of luxury, whether not consummated, or even consummated: 1° in adolescents, for a short time, especially when deep silence concerning these things has been kept before them; 2° in the rude (indeed perhaps also in others for a short time), when a special circumstance intervenes apparently lending an honorable appearance. Thus, for example, the grave malice of unchaste kisses or touches between betrothed persons can be unknown; the malice of onanism among the unmarried, or even among spouses who are now burdened with a numerous family to be fed. Likewise "rustics, commonly speaking, judge rape a greater sin than simple fornication; on the contrary they do not know the malice of adultery; therefore with those who have the habit of this vice, it is not expedient to admonish them concerning the malice of adultery, when it is foreseen that the admonition will be of little profit, but will only effect that the penitent sin with a twofold sin if he does not resist the concupiscences of the flesh."² Yet carefully beware lest from this you generally conclude for practice that penitents who inculpably do not know that some act of luxury which they have posited either is a sin or is mortal are to be left in good faith; for ignorance of this sort is usually only very harmful to the penitent. For on account of the very ignorance he will repeat that act more easily, and therefore also more often. From this there will soon exist a habit, and one which will put down roots deeper day by day. But amendment is most difficult for a habit of luxury, especially a rooted one: for the sin of luxury, as St. Thomas says,³ is of the greatest adherence.

681. 1. Notions. In a broad or even metaphorical sense, lust signifies every excess or abundance. Thus, for example, we speak of luxury or excess in food, clothing, buildings, and gardens; thus lambs and kids frisking, trees putting forth more abundant branches, and fields excessively fertile are said to luxuriate.

But in the strict and proper sense lust is customarily defined: an inordinate appetite for venereal pleasure. What venereal pleasure is¹³¹⁸ was already said above. For it is that carnal pleasure which arises from an agreeable commotion and alteration of the members serving generation and reaches its highest degree in carnal intercourse or in pollution. It is called venereal pleasure because the ancient Gentiles imagined Venus to be the goddess of this pleasure. It must be recalled that this venereal pleasure is altogether distinguished from sensitive or organic pleasure, and a fortiori from spiritual pleasure.¹³¹⁹ - Venereal pleasure can be licit if the right order of reason is preserved. But it has been established by the Creator that this pleasure is never had licitly and according to right reason except in the use of legitimate marriage.

2. Distinctions. a) Lust is distinguished into consummated and non-consummated. The former produces complete venereal pleasure, which, namely, satisfies nature, since it brings pleasure to its ultimate terminus; or, in other words, it is the same pleasure which is also wont to occur in the act of generation. The latter causes incomplete venereal pleasure, which, namely, arises from thoughts, speech, looks, touches, etc., and is joined with some commotion of the genital parts, but does not proceed to the emission of human seed in the male or of another fluid serving generation in the female. But when there is altogether no commotion of the genital parts, venereal pleasure is not wont to be present either.

b) Consummated lust is subdivided into that according to nature and that contrary to nature. Consummated lust which is according to nature comprises six sins, concerning which there will be discussion below in § 4. It is that from which generation is of itself possible. - Consummated lust contrary to nature renders generation impossible and includes three sins, which will be treated below in § 5.

c) Non-consummated lust is subdivided into internal sins, for example, lustful joy or desire, which will be treated below in § 2; and external sins, for example, lustful touches, which will be discussed below in § 3.

Note. Although boys and girls before puberty, eunuchs, those who have undergone vasectomy, etc., cannot emit true seed, they are nevertheless capable of complete venereal pleasure.

3. Moral malice. In order to judge rightly concerning the malice of lust, it is necessary to distinguish between lust directly and indirectly willed.

¹³¹⁸ In German: geschlechtliche Lust; in French: délectation sexuelle [sexual pleasure].

¹³¹⁹ Cf. above, n. 643.

682. Principle 1. Venereal pleasure directly willed outside legitimate marriage is a mortal sin from its whole genus, so that it admits no smallness of matter.

Thus holds the most common opinion against Caramuel¹³²⁰ and a few other older authors, who admit smallness of matter even in lust directly willed. Venereal pleasure directly willed is present not only when it is directly intended, but also when someone perceives himself to be shamefully aroused and takes complacency in this.

The principle stated is proved by the following reasons:

1. Venereal pleasure is ordered to the act of generation, which the Creator for most just causes gravely prohibited outside legitimate marriage.¹³²¹ Therefore, fittingly, the Creator gravely prohibited not only the highest venereal pleasure which is found in the act of generation, but also every other such pleasure directly willed. For, as experience testifies, man is exceedingly prone to venereal pleasure, which, once arisen, is wont to be so vehement a passion that reason is quickly clouded and the will is violently carried away. Hence, just as a man placed at the edge of a precipice ought not to take even a few steps downward without evident danger of death, so neither can he procure a small venereal pleasure without proximate danger of proceeding further even to the completed act of lust. Therefore, just as a man is bound under grave obligation to avoid not only grave sin itself but also its proximate danger, so he ought under grave obligation to avoid not only a perfect act of inordinate lust but also any light act whatsoever directly willed. The words of St. Paul seem to be understood of this directly willed venereal pleasure:¹³²² "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, lust ... since they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."

2. From proposition 40 condemned by Alexander VII: "The opinion which says that a kiss had for the sake of the carnal and sensible pleasure which arises from the kiss, with the danger of further consent and pollution excluded, is only venial, is probable."¹³²³ Theologians indeed dispute in what sense this proposition was condemned; nevertheless, this seems certain: its falsity consists in this, that it supposes that a kiss had for the sake of carnal, that is, venereal, pleasure does not by that very fact induce danger of consent to graver acts.

It cannot be objected against the stated principle that smallness of matter is granted in the inordinate lust or venereal pleasure of spouses directly willed, as theologians commonly teach, and therefore also in any other lust whatsoever. For the disparity is that between spouses there is no danger of consent to a completed act gravely sinful. For since the highest pleasure in the act of generation itself is licit for spouses, other venereal pleasures also are not so gravely prohibited to them, provided, however, that they are not directly opposed to the end of marriage.

Note. The older theologians distinguished excellently in venereal pleasure between placentia and complacentia. Placentia is the physical venereal pleasure itself, which can arise from many physiological and psychical causes and of itself has no morality; but complacentia is illicit consent to pleasure of this kind; if this consent is perfect, it is gravely sinful, but when it is semi-deliberate, it is only a venial sin. Hence it is rightly said: "Sensation does no harm where there is no consent."¹³²⁴

¹³²⁰ Theol. fund. n. 1708. The author, however, speaks rather theoretically; for he himself asserts: "In lust, on account of the annexed danger, smallness of matter is not granted in practice." Amadaeus Guimenius (Matthaeus de Moya), De peccatis, prop. XI, wrote about this matter quite tastelessly and calumniously.

¹³²¹ Cf. below, where the malice of fornication is treated.

¹³²² Gal. 5:19 ff.

¹³²³ Denzinger, n. 1140.

¹³²⁴ Among the works of St. Bernard, De conscientia aedificanda, c. 8 (Migne, Patr. lat. 184, 515).

683. Principle 2. Venereal pleasure only indirectly willed is not a mortal sin from its whole genus, but admits smallness of matter.

Thus theologians most commonly teach, at least as to the sense, although some diversity exists among them as to the words.¹³²⁵ Venereal pleasure indirectly willed is that which is in no way desired in itself, but which is joined with an action which someone posits; for example, a young man reads a book foreseeing that carnal pleasure will follow from this reading.

Proof. As is clear from the first principle, directly willed venereal pleasure therefore admits no smallness of matter because the proximate danger of consent to a completed act is always present. But such danger often does not exist when an action honest or indifferent in itself is posited, from which venereal pleasure is indeed foreseen but is not intended; and therefore sometimes no sin, and sometimes only a light sin, is present, according as a sufficient or not sufficiently weighty cause exists for positing the action from which it is foreseen that venereal pleasure will follow. But when not only venereal pleasure is foreseen, but also consent to that pleasure, then it is not lawful to posit the action; otherwise a mortal sin is committed.

Practical rules. In order to judge in practice concerning the sinfulness of venereal pleasure indirectly willed, the rules given concerning the indirect voluntary are to be applied. It is therefore required: a) that the action posited be honest in itself, or at least indifferent. Actions which are outside the genus of lust and produce carnal movements only accidentally, such as eating abundantly, riding horseback, using a hot bath, sitting or lying in a certain position, are actions honest or indifferent in themselves. But actions which of themselves indeed offend pudicity, such as looks, embraces, kisses, touches, etc., are not themselves intrinsically evil, even if they are exercised outside legitimate marriage; for otherwise they could never be performed licitly, for example, by a physician, by parents, etc., which assuredly no one would say. The Angelic Doctor writes to the point:¹³²⁶ "Something is said to be a mortal sin in two ways: in one way, according to its species; and in this way a kiss, embrace, or touch according to its nature does not denote a mortal sin; for these things can be done without lust, either on account of the custom of the country, or on account of some necessity or reasonable cause. In another way something is said to be a mortal sin from its cause [from its motive].... Therefore, when kisses and embraces and things of this kind are done for the sake of pleasure of this kind, it follows that they are mortal sins. And thus alone are they called lustful." - Hence in the genus of lust, only pollution (perfect or begun) or intercourse had outside legitimate marriage seems to be an action intrinsically evil. For this action voluntarily posited can never be licit. - It is then required b) that venereal pleasure not be intended; otherwise it is always a mortal sin, as is clear from the first principle. - Finally, it is required c) that a proportionately grave cause be present for positing the action; which cause ought indeed to be the graver, the more the action influences venereal pleasure (especially in view of the circumstances of the person). For in this matter of venereal pleasure much depends upon the circumstances of persons, and what for one man constitutes a grave sin on account of grave danger of consent to venereal pleasure is no sin for another, because no danger of consent is present. Hence in practice it is exceedingly difficult, not to say impossible, always to determine with certainty whether in some venereal pleasure indirectly willed there was a mortal sin or not. But the confessor ought to turn penitents away even from the danger of any lust whatsoever, and ought not so easily to believe those who claim that in matters sufficiently lewd they felt no shameful carnal movement or pleasure.

¹³²⁵ Cf. Billuart, De luxuria diss. 5, a. 2.

¹³²⁶ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 154, a. 4.

684. Scholion. On the effects of lust. Lust is a capital sin,¹³²⁷ because very many other sins arise from it. After St. Gregory, St. Thomas assigns eight vices which are wont to be born as daughters from lust, namely: blindness of mind, precipitation, inconsideration, inconstancy, inordinate love of self, hatred of God, attachment to the present world, and horror of the future.¹³²⁸ From blindness of mind, which arises from lust, the worst evils are wont to spring forth. For the lustful man, given over to carnal pleasures, is wont to do the most foolish things. Hence Solomon, the wisest man, fell into idolatry because of love of women; King David had to sustain the severest punishments because of the adultery committed. How many calamities are wont to be produced from lust for bodily health, for the peace of the family, for honor, for reputation, for goods of fortune, etc.! Therefore natural reason itself dictates that lust is diligently to be avoided.

¹³²⁷ Cf. above, I, n. 420.

¹³²⁸ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 153, a. 5.

S. Th. II-II, q. 153; Q. D. de Malo 15, a. 2.

1000. Luxury (onkuischheid) is an inordinate appetite for venereal pleasure.¹ "Someone is called luxurious as if dissolved in pleasures. But venereal pleasures especially dissolve the mind of man; and therefore luxury is especially considered concerning venereal pleasures" (a. 1). Hence luxury properly signifies excess in venereal pleasure.

¹ We propose the doctrine on chastity and luxury briefly and summarily. Whoever desires more should go to our little work Quaestiones de Castitate et Luxuria, where he will also find physiological notions and an indicated congruent bibliography.

But the appetite, that is, the love and use, of venereal pleasure is excessive and inordinate if it is sought outside the legitimate use in conjugal copulation and the acts disposing to it. For pleasure, just as the use of the genitals, from its nature is essentially ordered to the propagation of the human race. But this cannot be done in a due manner except in a permanent matrimonial union, which is altogether necessary for the right education of offspring. Therefore the appetite and use of venereal things is inordinate if it is sought: 1) without order to the act of legitimate marriage; 2) in that act, but in an illegitimate and undue mode, apart from the rules prescribed by nature and reason.

1001. Internal and external, complete and incomplete luxury. - Just as venereal pleasure, which is proper to the genital organ in which it is perceived, restrained and ordered according to right reason, is the object of chastity, so inordinate and unrestrained venereal pleasure is the proper object of luxury.

Unduly to seek it, whether really, completely or incompletely, or by thinking to represent it to oneself and to take complacency in it mentally, is luxurious: as perceived completely and perfectly, it is complete or consummated luxury; as perceived imperfectly and incompletely, it is begun or incomplete luxury; as represented in the mind and thus mentally pleasing, it is internal luxury.

Hence by reason of the mode in which it happens, luxury is: A. merely internal, which consists in the mere affection or desire for venereal pleasure or use, and is prohibited by the ninth precept of the decalogue; or B. also external, which happens with the use and commotion of the genital organs, and is prohibited by the sixth precept. This latter can be:

1. Complete, perfect, and consummated, if the exterior act is brought to its natural terminus, that is, satiative pleasure, whether a) it is natural or according to nature and the act is apt for obtaining the natural end of generation, as fornication, adultery, incest; or b) it is unnatural or against nature and the act is not apt for its natural end, but this end is rendered impossible, as pollution, onanism, sodomy;

2. Incomplete, imperfect, and begun, if the exterior act is not brought to its natural terminus and does not attain the ultimate terminus of satiative pleasure. This stands to complete luxury as beginning to terminus, inception to consummation, and therefore it is not so much called luxury, which is more concerned with the pleasure itself of copulation, but rather immodesty concerning the surrounding pleasures.

1002. Principle I. Luxury is a mortal sin from its kind. - It is proved:

1. From Scripture, where the Apostle, Gal. 5:19-21, among the works which exclude from the kingdom of God, enumerates luxury.

2. By reason: Of the account of luxury it is that it exceeds the order and mode of reason concerning venereal things; but such an excess is mortal from its kind. For the more necessary something is, the more the order of reason must be preserved concerning it, and consequently, if the order of reason is passed over, it is gravely vicious. But the use of venereal things is very necessary for the common good, which is the conservation of the human race, just as food is necessary for the conservation of the individual. Therefore excess concerning venereal things, apart from that which the order of reason requires, is of itself mortal, as in a grave matter (a. 3).

This is confirmed: a) Luxury is contrary to legal justice, because from its nature it is apt directly to harm the common good, namely the conservation and due propagation of the human race; but this is of itself gravely vicious.

b) It violates the right of dominion which God has over our body, of which we have only the use, and indeed only for the due end. Hence "from the fact that someone uses his body inordinately through luxury, he does injury to God, who is the principal lord of our body" (ad 2). But to violate right is of itself gravely evil.

c) The special deformity of luxury consists in this: that the action and pleasure most necessary to the common good and immediately destined to the good of the species are deprived of this natural order to the species, since they are sought for merely personal pleasure and are referred only to the individual. But this is against the natural order of human nature itself.

1003. Principle II. Luxury directly and in itself voluntary, or venereal pleasure sought for its own sake, outside marriage, is a mortal sin from its whole genus; hence it does not admit lightness of matter, but of itself is always grave.

It is said:

1. Luxury or venereal pleasure arising from the commotion of the powers and organs serving generation: for merely sensible or sensual pleasure from the sensible perception of a fitting object, even if sought for its own sake, does not exceed venial fault, because, as was said concerning gluttony, it is only an inordination of a thing indifferent in itself. Hence just as one who hears a sonorous voice, or tastes savory food, precisely for the sensual pleasure arising from it, sins only venially, so one sins only venially who looks at a beautiful woman, or touches her hand or face, precisely for the merely organic or sensual pleasure consisting in a certain proportion and conformity of the thing seen or touched with the organ of sight or touch, so that it is nothing other than pleasure in a beautiful thing which is seen, or in a pleasant, soft, tender thing which is touched, without any other pleasure in a shameful thing.1 And this also holds in practice, though Cajetan and St. Alphonsus think otherwise. Nevertheless it is advisable for all not to linger over these organic pleasures, because from sensual pleasure to venereal pleasure, especially in the sense of touch or sight, progress is easy.

2. Luxury voluntary in itself, or pleasure sought for its own sake: for luxury only voluntary in the cause or indirectly voluntary admits lightness of matter. For, as is clear from the principles set forth in the treatise on Sins:

a) venereal pleasure voluntary in the cause, unless there is a proportionate reason for causing it, is grave or light according as the cause is of itself apt to influence it notably or lightly (I, n. 450);

b) venereal pleasure indirectly voluntary, namely which the will does not repress though it can repress it, is of itself only venial, unless accidentally there is proximate danger of consent (I, n. 449).

3. Outside marriage: for in marriage, luxury even voluntary in itself, or venereal pleasure sought for its own sake, is of itself venial, as being only the excess of a licit thing; unless, however, it happens against nature, in a mode which impedes generation, or includes a danger of this kind.

4. It is of itself always grave and does not admit lightness of matter; hence every luxury, whether complete or incomplete, even the least, provided it is willed in itself, is of itself mortally evil.

It is proved:

1. What is directly opposed to the ordination and primary intention of our nature and of the Creator of nature is a mortal sin (I, n. 539). But every venereal pleasure, by the primary intention and ordination of our nature and of the Creator of nature, is ordered only to procuring generation in legitimate marriage. Therefore every venereal pleasure sought for its own sake outside marriage is directly opposed to this intention and ordination, and is a mortal sin.

2. Incomplete venereal pleasure from its nature tends to the complete pleasure of which it is the beginning; and therefore he who seeks it for its own sake, by that very fact loves and seeks the complete, not indeed as to be executed but as delightful.2 But love of complete pleasure outside marriage is without doubt a mortal sin, because it is directly contrary to the common good, as is clear from the grave malice of fornication. Therefore also love of incomplete pleasure.

Nor should you say that a human act tends into an object as it is proposed by reason; but reason can abstract from complete pleasure, indeed the will can exclude it. - Resp.: It cannot validly exclude it, because consummated pleasure is necessarily implicitly desired by him who seeks its beginning, which by its nature necessarily tends to consummation. The abstraction of the intellect and the intention of the will cannot change the nature of things.

Therefore, just as he remains truly superstitious who, intending to exclude the intervention of the demon, uses vain means which cannot have effect without the intervention of the demon, since thus implicitly and necessarily he seeks that intervention and so acts against his intention (n. 777); so he who, wishing to exclude complete pleasure, desires incomplete pleasure, acts against his own intention. For by that very fact he implicitly and necessarily desires the complete, because the incomplete is not desirable except as the beginning and part of complete pleasure, and except by reason of complete pleasure.

3. He who voluntarily seeks venereal pleasure for its own sake exposes himself to grave danger of seeking further and complete pleasure, on account of the vehemence of the concupiscence of the flesh and common human frailty. Therefore he sins mortally.

Thus it is impossible for anyone to seek incomplete venereal pleasure without implicitly seeking and willing the complete pleasure, and incurring its inordination, or having an affection toward complete luxury and exposing himself to its danger.

Hence proposition 40 was condemned by Alexander VII: "The opinion which says that a kiss had for carnal and sensible pleasure which arises from the kiss is only venial, the danger of further consent and pollution being excluded, is probable"; because it falsely supposes that a kiss had for carnal, that is, venereal pleasure, does not induce the danger of consent to graver acts.

1. Billuart, diss. V, a. 2.

2. It is founded on the principle that "always the beginning of something is ordered to its consummation"; hence he who wills the beginning, by that very fact implicitly and necessarily wills the consummation, just as he who wills a participated good, by that very fact wills it "as tending into the perfect good." I-II, q. 1, a. 6.

1004. Remark. - Luxury is also a capital sin and very dangerous, as we said in the treatise on Sins (I, n. 505).

For the understanding of those things which follow, these things are to be noted beforehand:

I. Lust is the disordered appetite of a venereal thing, and consists in venereal pleasure voluntarily admitted outside marriage. But venereal pleasure is pleasure arising from the stirring of the spirits serving generation, and occurs around the genitals. Therefore it is not to be confused with merely sensible pleasure, which arises from the proportion of a sensible object to some sense, e.g., of a visible object to sight, of an audible object to hearing, etc. The first, many theologians call also carnal, and the other natural.

II. There are various species of lust, according as its objects are diverse. Thus impure touches and gazes differ in species; solitary acts and acts exercised with others; consummated and non-consummated acts; likewise acts consummated according to nature and acts consummated against nature. But these species contain under themselves other subordinated or inferior species also, as will be clear from what is to be said.

III. One lust is directly sought, another indirectly. The former is had when carnal pleasure is intended precisely in itself; but the latter when something else is intended, from which carnal pleasure arises beyond the intention, as happens in less chaste gazes or readings had from curiosity or some other end. These things having been noted beforehand:

LUxury is defined by D. Bonaventure in the aforesaid Centiloquium sect. 24. and in the Diaeta tit. 1. cap. 9. and in the declaration of theological terms and in the Compendium of Theology, part III. cap. 21. and in the Mirror of the Soul, cap. 3. D. Thomas, quaest. 153. Luxury is the vice opposed to chastity, whereby the mind is inordinately disposed toward venereal pleasures, the reason of the definition is taken from the opposite virtue of chastity, as St. Bonaventure notes, loc. cit. Centil.

I assert that Luxury is a capital vice. Its daughters are eight, from D. Gregory, lib. XXXI. moral. cap. 17. Blindness of mind, Inconsiderateness, Inconstancy, Precipitancy, Self-love, Hatred of God, Affection for the present world, Horror, or despair of the world to come. So D. Bonaventure, loc. cit. Centiloquii.

It is proved, because a capital vice is one that has an end excessively desirable, so that man, in pursuing it, proceeds to commit many sins, which are all said to arise from that vice; now the end of Luxury is the pleasure of venery, which is both the greatest and the most desirable according to the sensitive appetite, both on account of the vehemence of the pleasure and on account of the connaturality of that pleasure and concupiscence, as the Saintly Doctor argues, lib. III. Compend. Theol. cap. 14. and 21. and in the other places cited.

The generation of these daughters from Luxury is explained as follows. Since the inferior powers are affected toward their objects, it follows that the higher powers are impeded and disordered in their acts; but through luxury the inferior appetite is greatly affected by the delightful object: Therefore the higher powers, Reason and Will, are consequently disordered.

And this happens specifically as follows: For there are three acts of practical reason. The first is simple understanding, which apprehends some end as good; and this act Luxury impedes, by making the object of Luxury seem good, as is said Dan. 13. Beauty hath deceived thee, and concupiscence hath subverted thy heart, and behold blindness of mind.

The second act is counsel about the means to be chosen, and this is impeded in Luxury, which impedes the exact comparison of the means with one another, as Terence says in the Eunuch; and behold precipitancy, whereby one attacks everything impetuously, as the Saintly Doctor says, loc. cit. Centiloquii.

The third act is judgment about what is to be done, which is impeded by Luxury, diverting the mind from the consideration of the things that are fitting, according to that text Dan. 13. They have perverted the sense, and turned away their eyes, that they might not see heaven, nor remember just judgments; and behold inconsiderateness, which refuses to foresee what is to be done, as the Saintly Doctor says. On the part of the will also there follows a twofold inordinate act: One in order to the end, and in this respect there is self-love in excessive pleasure, and hatred of God who forbids: The other is the appetite for the things that are toward the end, and there is set down affection for the present world, in which one desires to enjoy pleasure; and horror of the future, fleeing spiritual things. Hence Osee 4. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. So discourses the Saintly Doctor, loc. cit. Centiloquii.

Nor yet does Isidore speak badly, cited by D. Thomas, art. 5., looking especially at inordinate speech, accustomed to arise from luxury, when he enumerates four effects, Turpiloquy, Scurrility, Jesting, and Foolish speaking. Indeed in speech a fourfold disorder can be observed: The first on the part of the matter; and behold turpiloquy, for, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, as is said Matth. 12. The second on the part of the cause; because luxury drives one headlong, therefore inconsiderateness precipitates one into scurrilous talk. The third on the part of the end, because the luxurious person intends pleasure, and therefore breaks out into jesting words. The fourth as regards the sense of the words, and so luxury, on account of the blindness of mind it causes, pours itself out into foolish speech. See D. Bonaventure, loc. cit.

I assert secondly that the species of Luxury are six, Fornication, Stuprum, Rape, Incest, Adultery, and the Vice against nature, which is subdivided into several species. For either the pollution causing venereal pleasure is procured without intercourse, and this is mollities (softness), Gal. 5. and 2. Cor. 12. Or there is intercourse with brutes, and this is Bestiality. Third, there can be intercourse with the sex not due, male with male, or female with female, as the Apostle says, Rom. 1. and it is called Sodomy. The fourth and fifth is, if the manner of coupling is not observed, either as regards the instrument, or vessel not due, or as regards other monstrous and bestial manners of coupling, which, if they obstruct generation, are mortal sins even in spouses. Which the Apostle detests as abominable, Rom. 1. 1. Cor. 6. and 12. Galat. 5. Ephes. 5. and Heb. 12.

That these are sins specifically distinct is proved by Cajetan, art. 11. Tanner, disp. 3. quaest. 3. dub. 3. num. 149. from the diversity of motives, for they have different motives of pleasure: For the first have only venereal consummation; the second, a thing of another species; Sodomy, the person of the sex not due, etc.

But to say that the aforesaid five sins are not mortal, specifically distinct, nor so far to be necessarily declared in confession, as some recent authors have insinuated, is not only not safe, as Tannerus says, num. 149. but erroneous, and it was condemned in the year 1665 by the Sacred Congregation by the Decree of Alexander VII, of most holy memory, as we saw, tom. 4. disp. 17. quaest. 10. ad proposit. 14.

All these species are so intrinsically deadly that they are never lawful, except the manner of coupling in marriage from some necessity, provided the vessel be preserved and generation not be impeded, as Tannerus noted, num. 150.

For a threefold cause God forbade Luxury, as the Saintly Doctor says in the Diaeta, tit. 3. cap. 5. First, because it is pernicious, like a pestilence. Second, because it gathers many together at once in sin. Third, because it is the broad way to hell. See the Saintly Doctor. Add that Generation is the way to the production of a most noble creature, namely man created to the image of God; wherefore it will be impious to abuse it with foul and illicit couplings.

To these species are reduced, as dispositions, others contained in this verse, cited from D. Bonaventure, loc. cit. Centiloquii. The look, and speech, touch, and the kiss, This last is the consummation of the whole sin.

Note that the Seraphic Doctor, in the Confessional, cap. 2. particula 14., places grave fault in conjugal copulation. First, if it is done from the impulse of lust through wanton endearments: Second, when it is done against the natural use: Third, in the prohibited time: Fourth, in a filthy place: Fifth, when one approaches a menstruating woman. But of this, Tract. de matrimonio. The Saintly Doctor teaches these things from Allen, and warns that one must proceed cautiously in questioning in confession. These species are to be treated in the following dubitations.