3. Whether to Every Sin there Correspond its Proper Satisfaction

46. From this I say about the third article [n.43] that to sins in their kind distinguished into three members, namely into sin of the flesh, sin of concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life [I John 2.16], there correspond by congruity proper satisfactions in their kind, namely: to the sin of the flesh corresponds fasting, or universally any pain of the flesh more directed to repressing such sin of the flesh (and under this I comprehend vigils, pilgrimages, rough clothing, nakedness, going barefoot, indeed universally any fatiguing labor). And to the sin of pride and the other spiritual sins there more appropriately corresponds prayer, which humbles the spirit before God and strengthens the spirit against spiritual sins. And to sins in temporal goods, as to avarice or any cupidity (as rape, theft, unjust removal), there corresponds more appropriately the giving away of alms. The reason for all these is because of the greater correspondence of the penalty to the crime, because “what a man sins in, in that will he also be punished” [Wisdom 11.17]. Such is the statement about this correspondence in general and by congruity.

47. But about the necessary or the congruous in special cases it is not so, because it is not possible for one of these penal works to fit someone who has sinned, however, with a sin to which by congruity such penalty or such satisfaction belongs, as to a pauper who has committed theft is almsgiving not fitting, and so on in other cases; and then, if contrition not suffice, the sin ought not to remain entirely unavenged.

48. It is possible, then, and congruous to the moment, to impose as proper satisfaction on this sin something that yet is not proper to it with a universal correspondence by congruity; and for this is required the discretion of the priest, so that he not impose on anyone a penalty too inappropriate, but one that more agrees with him and that perhaps he will complete better.

49. For example, a pauper can neither give alms nor pray but must labor continually for his necessary sustenance; nor can he fast because then he would not be up to the labor necessary for continually acquiring his necessary sustenance. What then? The labor itself is for him a continuing fast, because it is a continuing pain of the flesh. He need only be induced to undergo that labor in remission for his sins, intending to refer it to this end, at least until the opportunity arises for him to pay some other satisfaction -and other things can be imposed as mildly and lightly as to be possible for him.

50. Likewise, a rich man who has fallen into a sin of the flesh, if he is so delicate that he not wish to fast or to undergo any notable pain, or it is presumed that, if it were imposed on him, he would quickly throw it off and would thus sin with a new sin - he is to be induced to prayer and almsgiving, and that thing is to be imposed on him which he receives gladly and which he is believed more perseveringly to fulfill. Or if he not wish to receive any penitence imposed on him by the priest, yet says he is displeased with the sin he has committed and has a firm purpose of not backsliding, he must be absolved and not dismissed, lest he fall into despair; and the penalty must be announced to him, the penalty that was to be done and imposed for his sins, and that he should, without imposition, study to fulfill it in itself or in its equivalent, otherwise he will pay it to the full in purgatory.

51. This mercy sufficiently accords with the prophecy about Christ that Matthew repeats [Matthew 12.20, from Isaiah 42.3], “The bruised reed he will not break, the smoking flax he will not quench.” The bruised reed is the sinner bruised with temptations and sins; the smoking flax is flax overly dank with sins, but having something of the fire of charity. He is quenched were he obligated by the harshness of the priest to a thing too difficult; but he will not be quenched if it is preached to him that he must either here or elsewhere pay the penalty, and that he should study to pay as much of the penalty here as is due for his sins, lest a harsher penalty be exacted elsewhere.