Dist. 37, Art. 2, 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/37/q/bon-sent-IV-d37-a2-q2
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### Question II. *Whether it is a graver sin to kill one's wife than one's mother.*

Secondly it is asked whether it is a graver sin to kill one's wife than one's mother. And that it is so seems [to be the case]:

1. Because what is more gravely punished is graver in respect of the offense; but the sin of killing a wife is more gravely punished than the sin of killing a mother, as is clear in Cause thirty-three, question two, *Admonere,* etc.

2. Likewise, what is more against nature is the greater sin; but it is more against nature to hate and to kill one's own flesh than another's, because, in Ephesians five, *no one ever hated his own flesh;* and the wife is the flesh of the husband, as is said in the same place, since they are one flesh: therefore it seems the graver sin.

3. Likewise, the love of a wife, as is clear from the text, Genesis two, exceeds the love of father and mother, even chaste love; and this also seems to be intimated in Genesis twenty-four, concerning Isaac, who *so loved* Rebecca that he *tempered the grief which had befallen him over his mother;* but the more anyone is inclined to love, the less [he is inclined] to injury: therefore it seems that, if he kills his wife, he sins more gravely.

4. Likewise, he who kills his wife acts against the good of nature and of the Sacrament, since they are joined into an undivided partnership of life; but he who kills his mother acts against one only: therefore, etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. It is licit to strike and beat a wife in a [certain] case; but it is never licit to beat a mother: therefore the offense inflicted on a mother is graver than [that on] a wife: therefore, etc.

2. Likewise, an offense is graver in proportion as greater reverence is owed to the person against whom it is [committed]; but much greater reverence is owed to a mother than to a wife: therefore the offense which is against a mother is greater, and so on.

3. Likewise, *social* love is more easily broken than *natural* [love], because natural things adhere more; but the love of a mother is *natural,* the love of a wife *social*: therefore it is of greater perversity and cruelty to kill a mother.

4. Likewise, it is graver to offend one from whom more benefits have been received; but more benefits are received from a mother than from a wife: therefore, etc.

### Conclusion.

> *A graver sin, generally speaking, is to kill a mother than a wife.*

**Respondeo:** It must be said that without doubt it is a graver sin, generally speaking, to kill a mother than to kill a wife, both by reason of the *external person,* to whom greater reverence is owed, and by reason of the *lesser proneness.* For an angry man is more prone to beat a wife than a mother, since, when for some cause she displeases [him], a wondrous hatred and loathing is generated; and therefore he is more prone to kill a wife than a mother. But to killing a mother no one's nature is inclined, unless it has been turned by iniquity into a cruelty beyond the beasts. And because man is more prone to wife-killing, hence it is that, although it is a lesser sin, yet a greater penalty is imposed, so that by the striking-in of fear the proneness may be restrained.

1. And by this the first objection is answered.

2. To that which is objected, that it is more against nature because [they are] one flesh; it must be said that the union between son and mother is greater than [that] between husband and wife according to *the thing [itself],* although in matrimony it is greater according to *signification,* because the flesh of mother and son have a correspondence in *substance* and nature, but the flesh of male and female [have it] according to the *act of commingling* and union; and therefore for a time a man is drawn more to a wife, but simply [i.e., without qualification] he is drawn more to a mother.

3. To that which is objected, that [the love of a wife] exceeds more the love of a mother; it must be said that this is true *intensively,* yet as regards *rootedness* it is easier that a husband be stirred up into hatred of a wife, and conversely, through a single fornication, than a mother into hatred of a son, or conversely. Yet this is not said [to mean] that he leaves his mother as regards *affection,* but as regards the conjunction of the sexes.

4. To that which is objected, that he acts against the good of nature and of the Sacrament; it must be said that this is true; but that which preponderates, namely matricide, is so [much] against nature; for nature never so abhors the killing of anyone with whom one is joined [in flesh] as of the one in whose womb one was wholly [contained]. Hence, although the canon says, in Cause thirty-three, question two, that one who kills a wife is crueler than every beast, because "he kills a part of his own body": it must be understood that this is said by an emphatic manner of speaking, according to which manner it could be said that the mother is the whole body of the son, since he drew his whole [substance] from the mother; and this is the truth, although Hugutio on the Decreta held the contrary; for in this his opinion is not approved by the modern doctors.

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