Whether Fear Excuses from Sin?
Objection 1: It seems that fear does not excuse from sin. For fear is
a sin, as stated above (A. 1). But sin does not excuse from sin,
rather does it aggravate it. Therefore fear does not excuse from sin.
Obj. 2: Further, if any fear excuses from sin, most of all would this
be true of the fear of death, to which, as the saying is, a
courageous man is subject. Yet this fear, seemingly, is no excuse,
because, since death comes, of necessity, to all, it does not seem to
be an object of fear. Therefore fear does not excuse from sin.
Obj. 3: Further, all fear is of evil, either temporal or spiritual.
Now fear of spiritual evil cannot excuse sin, because instead of
inducing one to sin, it withdraws one from sin: and fear of temporal
evil does not excuse from sin, because according to the Philosopher
(Ethic. iii, 6), "one should not fear poverty, nor sickness, nor
anything that is not a result of one's own wickedness." Therefore it
seems that in no sense does fear excuse from sin.
_On the contrary,_ It is stated in the Decretals (I, Q. 1, Cap.
Constat.): "A man who has been forcibly and unwillingly ordained by
heretics, has an ostensible excuse."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 3), fear is sinful in so far as
it runs counter to the order of reason. Now reason judges certain
evils to be shunned rather than others. Wherefore it is no sin not to
shun what is less to be shunned in order to avoid what reason judges
to be more avoided: thus death of the body is more to be avoided than
the loss of temporal goods. Hence a man would be excused from sin if
through fear of death he were to promise or give something to a
robber, and yet he would be guilty of sin were he to give to sinners,
rather than to the good to whom he should give in preference. On the
other hand, if through fear a man were to avoid evils which according
to reason are less to be avoided, and so incur evils which according
to reason are more to be avoided, he could not be wholly excused from
sin, because such like fear would be inordinate. Now the evils of the
soul are more to be feared than the evils of the body, and evils of
the body more than evils of external things. Wherefore if one were to
incur evils of the soul, namely sins, in order to avoid evils of the
body, such as blows or death, or evils of external things, such as
loss of money; or if one were to endure evils of the body in order to
avoid loss of money, one would not be wholly excused from sin. Yet
one's sin would be extenuated somewhat, for what is done through fear
is less voluntary, because when fear lays hold of a man he is under a
certain necessity of doing a certain thing. Hence the Philosopher
(Ethic. iii, 1) says that these things that are done through fear are
not simply voluntary, but a mixture of voluntary and involuntary.
Reply Obj. 1: Fear excuses, not in the point of its sinfulness, but
in the point of its involuntariness.
Reply Obj. 2: Although death comes, of necessity, to all, yet the
shortening of temporal life is an evil and consequently an object of
fear.
Reply Obj. 3: According to the opinion of Stoics, who held temporal
goods not to be man's goods, it follows in consequence that temporal
evils are not man's evils, and that therefore they are nowise to be
feared. But according to Augustine (De Lib. Arb. ii) these temporal
things are goods of the least account, and this was also the opinion
of the Peripatetics. Hence their contraries are indeed to be feared;
but not so much that one ought for their sake to renounce that which
is good according to virtue.
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