Dist. 16, Part 2, Art. 3, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/16/q/bon-sent-IV-d16-p2-a3-q2
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### Question II. *Whether one is bound to repent of a venial sin.*

Secondly there is inquiry concerning the penance for venial sins as regards the necessity of the remedy. And the question is whether one is bound to repent of a venial sin. And that he is, it seems:

1. Because it is impossible to enter into glory unless the venial sin be remitted; but a venial sin is an actual sin, and one is not justified from it except through penance: therefore it is necessary to repent.

2. Likewise, there is some venial sin which by consent becomes mortal: therefore there are things to which we are bound to dissent, lest they come to be: therefore, after such things have been committed, we are bound to dissent and to grieve over them: therefore also to repent.

3. Likewise, a multitude of venial sins disposes one nearly to mortal sin, though not necessarily: therefore he who lets venial sins be multiplied in himself commits himself to danger; but all are bound not to commit themselves to danger: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, that exterior punishment is necessary seems so, because the Master says in the text that the breast is to be struck, and that however small a punishment is to be borne.

5. Likewise, Augustine, speaking of the danger of venial sins: «Let fastings, he says, and prayers and almsdeeds keep watch».

**On the contrary:**
1. Those things which we are not bound to avoid, of these we are not bound to repent — this is certain, because, just as the virtue of penance detests the deed done, so it guards against the doing — but such are venial sins: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, we are bound to nothing without which charity can exist; but charity can exist without the deletion of venial sins, because it stands together with venial sins: therefore of venial sins we are not bound to repent.

3. Likewise, I am not bound to repent of this venial sin nor of that, and so of the others: by parity of reasoning, therefore, of none.

4. Likewise, that exterior punishment is not owed to a venial sin seems so: because a venial sin is less than a mortal one infinitely; but to a mortal sin a finite exterior punishment is owed: therefore to a venial sin none.

> **Conclusion.** Penance for a venial sin, taken in itself, is not necessary, but well [advised], inasmuch as it furnishes a ground of being endangered.

**I respond:** It must be said that there are two ways of speaking about the disease of venial sin: either in itself, or insofar as it furnishes an occasion of being endangered, which Augustine sets down in the text, whether through consent or through contempt. If we speak of a venial sin *in itself*; thus I say that it is not necessary to repent of a venial sin, neither with interior penance nor with exterior penance; since, as will be seen below, a venial sin is deleted not only in this life, but also after death. — But if we speak by reason of the danger to which it leads; thus I say that, because they lead the impenitent man himself into danger, a man is bound to repent of certain things, when he perceives the danger, as Augustine manifestly says in the text.

And therefore it must be noted, as was touched on, that there are three kinds of venial sins: certain ones from sudden impulse; and of these we are not bound to repent except as fitting; certain ones from thought, to which if one consents the man falls into mortal sin; and of such a man is bound to repent not absolutely, but in a [particular] case, or according to place and time, when he reflects on them, lest, if he consent, he fall. But there are certain venial sins which by their multitude increase concupiscence, like those in which there is consent, but [only] a disorder below God; and of these I say that a man is bound to repent, lest they be multiplied, and the man commit himself to peril and danger. And to penance for such Augustine exhorts, showing the danger that is in the multitude of venial sins, comparing it to sand, comparing it to tiny beasts, comparing it to multiplied drops, comparing it to the itch; and the likeness is to be understood, as regards all these, by reason of the danger, not as though the venial sins themselves do it of themselves, but because they prepare a man for this. And concerning these it is sound counsel to bear punishment also, as Augustine determines. But whether we are bound to confess them to a priest and to make satisfaction at his judgment, will be a question below, when confession is treated.

From these things the objections to either part are clear. For the reasonings to the first part proceed by reason of the danger to which they dispose, except the first, which is to be solved by [its] suppression, because they can be remitted in the other age. — But the reasonings to the opposite proceed by reason of the disease in itself.

The last, however, does not hold. For although a mortal sin, so long as it is mortal, is disproportionate; nevertheless in the very justification the eternal punishment is remitted, and the mortal sin becomes in a certain way venial, and so proportionate.

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