The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 3: The Seventh Commandment

by the Council of Trent

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

"THOU SHALT NOT STEAL." ^[1]

THAT, in the early ages of the church, it was usual to impress on the minds of the faithful the nature and force of this commandment, we learn from the reproof uttered by the Apostle against some who were most earnest in deterring others from vices, in which they themselves were found freely to indulge: "Thou therefore," says he, "that teachest another, teachest not thyself: thou that preachest that men should not steal, stealest." ^[2] The salutary effect of such instructions was, not only to correct a vice which was then very prevalent, but, also, to repress turbulent altercations, and other causes of mischief, which generally grow out of theft. It is a melancholy truth, that in these our days men are unhappily addicted to the same vice: the peace of society is still frequently disturbed by the mischiefs and calamities consequent to theft; and the pastor, therefore, following the example of the Holy Fathers, and the masters of Christian discipline, will urge this point, and will explain with care and assiduity the force and meaning of this commandment.

In the first place, the care, diligence and industry of the pastor will be exercised in unfolding the infinite love of God to man: not satisfied with having fenced round our lives, our persons, our reputation, by means of these two commandments, " thou shall not kill," " thou shall not commit adultery;" he defends, and, as it were, places a guard over our property, by adding the prohibition, " Thou shalt not steal." Other meaning these words cannot have than that which has been already mentioned in expounding the other commandments: they declare that God for bids our worldly goods, which are placed under his sovereign protection, to be taken away or injured by any one. ^[3] Our gratitude to God, its author, should, then, be proportioned to the magnitude of the benefit conferred on us by this law; and, as the truest test of gratitude, and the best means of returning thanks to God, consists not alone in lending a willing ear to his precepts, but, also, in putting forth in our lives practical evidence of our sincere approval of them, the faithful are to be animated and inflamed to a strict observance of this commandment.

Like the former precepts, this also divides itself into two parts: the one, which prohibits theft, is mentioned expressly; of the other, which enforces kindliness and liberality, the spirit and force are implied in the former. We shall therefore begin with the first: "Thou shalt not steal." It is to be observed, that by the word " theft" is understood not only the taking away of any thing from its rightful owner, privately and without his consent; but also, the possession of that which belongs to another, contrary to the will, although not without the know ledge, of the true owner. That the detention of the property of another, under these circumstances, constitutes theft is undeniable, unless we are prepared to say, that he who prohibits theft does not also prohibit rapine, which is accomplished by violence and injustice; whereas, according to St. Paul, " extortioners shall not possess the kingdom of God;" ^[4] and the same Apostle declares, that extortion of every sort is to be avoided. ^[5]

Although rapine, which, besides the deprivation of his property, offers a violent outrage to the injured party, and subjects him to insult and contumely, is a more grievous sin than theft, ^[6] yet it cannot be matter of surprise, nor is it without good reason, that the divine prohibition is expressed under the lighter name of "theft, not under the heavier one of" rapine: theft is more general and of wider extent than rapine; a crime of which they alone can be guilty, who are superior to their neighbour in brute force. It is obvious, however, that when lesser crimes are forbidden, greater enormities of the same sort are also prohibited. ^[7]

The unjust possession and use of what belongs to another are expressed by different names. To take any thing private from a private individual is called " theft;" from the public, peculation: to enslave and appropriate the freeman or servant of another is called "man-stealing:" to steal any thing sacred is called " sacrilege;" a crime the most enormous and sinful of all, yet so common in our days, that what piety and wisdom had appropriated to the divine worship, to the support of the ministers of religion, and to the use of the poor, is employed in satisfying the cravings of individual avarice, and converted into a means of ministering to the worst passions.

But, besides actual theft, the will and desire are also forbidden by the law of God: the law is spiritual: it regards the soul, the principle of our thoughts and designs: " From the heart," says our Lord, " come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies." ^[8]

The grievousness of the sin of theft is sufficiently seen by the light of natural reason alone: it is a violation of justice which gives to every man his own. In order that every man, unless we dissolve all human society, may securely possess what he has justly acquired; it is necessary that stability be given to the distribution and allotment of property, fixed, as it has been, by the law of nations from the origin of society, and confirmed by human and divine laws. Hence these words of the Apostle," Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God." ^[9] The long train of evils, however, which theft entails upon society, are an attestation at once of its mischievousness and enormity. It gives rise to hasty and rash judgments: it engenders hatred: originates enmities; and sometimes subjects the innocent to cruel condemnation.

What shall we say of the necessity imposed by God on all of satisfying for the injury done? " Without restitution," says St. Augustine, " the sin is not forgiven." ^[10] The difficulty of making such restitution, on the part of those who have been in the habit of enriching themselves with their neighbour's property, we may learn not only from experience and reflection, but also from the testimony of the prophet Habaccuc: "Wo to him that heapeth together what is not his own. How long also doth he load himself with thick clay?" ^[11] The possession of other men's property the prophet calls " thick clay," from which it is difficult to emerge and disengage one-self.

Such is the variety of thefts, that it is difficult to enumerate them: to theft and rapine, however, as to their sources, all others may be traced; and the exposition of these two will therefore suffice. To inspire the faithful with a detestation of them, and to deter from such enormities, are objects which will engage all the care and assiduity of the pastor. But to proceed They who buy stolen goods, or retain the property of others, whether found, seized on, or pilfered, are also guilty of theft: "If you have found, and not restored," says St. Augustine, "you have stolen." ^[12] If the true owner cannot, however, be discovered, whatever is found should go to the poor; ^[13] and if the finder refuse to yield it up for their use, he gives evident proof, that, were it in his power, he would make no scruple of stealing to any extent. Those who, in buying or selling, have recourse to fraud, and lying words, involve themselves in the same guilt: the Lord will avenge their frauds. But those who for good and sound merchandize sell bad and unsound, or who defraud by weight, measure, number, or rule, are guilty of a species of theft still more criminal and unjust: it is written, "Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag:" ^[14] " Do not any unjust thing," says Leviticus, " in judg ment, in rule, in weight or in measure. Let the balance be just, and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal:" ^[15] to which passages we may add these words of Solo mon: " Divers weights are an abomination before the Lord: a deceitful balance is not good." ^[16]

It is, also, a downright theft, when labourers and artizans exact full wages from those, to whom they have not given just and due labour; nor are unfaithful servants and stewards any other than thieves; nay they are more detestable than other thieves, against whom every thing may be locked; whilst against a pilfering servant nothing in a house can he secure by bolt or lock. They, also, who extort money under false pretences, or by deceitful words, may be said to steal, and their guilt is aggravated by adding falsehood to theft. Persons charged with offices of public or private trust, who altogether neglect or but indifferently perform the duties, whilst they enjoy the emoluments of such offices, are also to be reckoned in the number of thieves. To detail the various other modes of theft, invented by the ingenuity of avarice, which is versed in all the arts of gleaning together the fruits of injustice, were a tedious and complicated enumeration. The pastor, therefore, will next come to treat of the other general head, to which sins prohibited by this commandment are reducible; first, however, admonishing the faithful, to bear in mind the precept of the Apostle: "They that will become rich fall into temptation, and the snare of the devil;" ^[17] and also the words of the redeemer: "All things whatsoever you will that men do to you, do you also to them;" ^[18] and finally the admonition of Tobias: " See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another." ^[19]

Rapine is more comprehensive than theft: those who pay not the labourer his hire are guilty of rapine, and are exhorted to repentance by St. James in these words: " Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries which shall come upon you:" He subjoins the cause of their repentance; " Be hold," says he, " the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." ^[20] This sort of rapine is condemned in terms of the strongest reprobation in Leviticus, ^[21] Deuteronomy, ^[22] Malachy, ^[23] and Tobias. ^[24] Amongst those who are guilty of rapine are also included persons who do not pay, who turn to other uses or appropriate to themselves, customs, taxes, tythes, and such revenues, which are the property of those who preside over the Church, and of the civil magistrate.

To this class also belong usurers, the most cruel and relentless of extortioners, who, by their usurious practices, plunder and destroy the poor. Whatever is received above the principal, be it money, or any thing else that may be purchased or estimated by money, is usury; for it is written in Ezekiel: " Thou hast taken usury and increase;" ^[25] and in Luke our Lord says: " Lend hoping for nothing thereby." ^[26] Even among the Gentiles usury was always considered a most grievous and odious crime; and hence the question, "What is usury?" which was answered by asking, "What is murder?" The reason why it was thus characterized is, that he who lends at usury sells the same thing twice, or sells that which has no real existence. ^[27]

Corrupt judges, whose decisions are venal, and who, bought over by money or other bribes, decide against the poor and the necessitous, however good their cause, also commit rapine. Those who defraud their creditors, who deny their just debts, and, also, those who purchase goods on their own, or on an other's credit, with an engagement to pay for them at a certain time, and do not redeem their pledge, are guilty of the same crime of rapine; and it is an aggravation of their guilt, that, in consequence of their want of punctuality and their fraud, prices are raised, to the no small injury of the public. To such per sons David alludes, when he says, " The sinner shall borrow and not pay again." ^[28]

But, in what language of abhorrence shall we speak of those, who, themselves abounding in wealth, exact with rigour what they lend to the poor, who have not wherewithal to pay them; and who take as pledges even the necessary covering of their wretched applicants, in defiance of the divine prohibition; "If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shall give it him again before sunset, for that same is the only thing wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me I will hear him, be cause I am compassionate." ^[29] Their rigorous exaction is justly termed "rapacity," and is therefore rapine. ^[30]

Amongst those whom the Holy Fathers pronounced guilty of rapine are persons who, in times of scarcity, store up their corn, thus producing a dearth; and this also holds good with regard to all necessaries for food, and the purposes of life. These are they against whom Soloman hurls this execration, " He that hideth up corn, shall be cursed among the people." ^[31] Such persons the pastor will admonish of their guilt, and will reprove with more than ordinary freedom; and to them he will explain at large the punishments which await such delinquency.

So far for the negative part of the precept We now come to the positive part, in which the first thing to be considered is satisfaction or restitution; for without satisfaction or restitution the sin is not forgiven. But, as the law of restitution is binding not only on the person who commits theft, but also on the person who is a party to its commission, to determine who are indispensably bound to this satisfaction or restitution is a matter which demands explanation. These form a variety of classes. The first ("imperantes") consists of those who order others to steal, and who are not only the authors and accomplices of theft, but also the most criminal in its commission. Another class ("suasores") embraces those, who, like the former in will, but unlike them in power, are equally culpable; who, when they cannot command, persuade and encourage others to commit theft. A third class ("consentientes") is composed of those who are a consenting party to the theft committed by others. The fourth class (" participantes") is that of those who are accomplices in and derive gain from theft; if that can be called gain, which, unless they repent, consigns them to everlasting torments. Of them David says: "If thou didst see a thief, thou didst run with him." ^[32] The fifth class of thieves (" non prohibentes") are those who, having it in their power to prohibit theft, so far from opposing or preventing it, fully and freely suffer and sanction its commission. The sixth class (" non indicantes") is constituted of those who are well aware that the theft was committed, and when it was committed; and yet so far from discovering it, are as silent on the subject as if it had never occurred. The seventh, and last ("custodes") comprises all who assist in the accomplishment of theft, who guard, patronise, receive or harbour thieves; all of whom are bound to make restitution to those from whom any thing has been stolen, and are to be earnestly exhorted to the discharge of so necessary a duty. Neither are those who approve (" approbantes") and commend thefts entirely innocent of this crime: children also and wives who steal from their parents and husbands are not guiltless of theft.

This commandment also implies an obligation to sympathize with the poor and the necessitous, and to relieve them under their difficulties and distresses from the means with which we have been blessed, and by rendering them the good offices which charity inculcates. On this subject, which cannot be urged too frequently or copiously, the pastor will find abundant matter to enrich his discourses in the works of those very holy men, St. Cyprian, ^[33] St. Chrysostome, ^[34] St. Gregory Nazianzen, ^[35] and other eminent writers on alms-deeds. It is theirs to inspire the faithful with an anxious desire and a cheerful willingness to succour the distresses of those, who depend for a precarious subsistence on the bounteous compassion of others.

The necessity of alms-deeds should also form the subject matter of the pastor's instructions: the faithful are to be strongly impressed with the obligation imposed on them of being really and practically liberal to the poor; and to this effect the pastor will urge the overwhelming argument that, on the day of final retribution, the Judge of the living and the dead will hurl against the uncharitable man the indignant sentence of irrevocable condemnation; and will invite in the language of eulogy, and introduce into his heavenly country, those who have exercised mercy towards the poor. Their respective sentences have been already pronounced by the lips of the Son of God: " Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you;" "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." ^[36] The pastor will also cite those texts of Scripture which are calculated to persuade to the performance of this important duty: " Give and it shall be given to you." ^[37] He will cite the promise of God, than which imagination can picture no remuneration more abundant, none more magnificent: " There is no man who hath left house, or brethren, &c. that shall not receive an hundred times as much now in this time; and in the world to come life everlasting;" ^[38] and he will add these words of our Lord: "Make unto your selves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings." ^[39]

But the pastor will explain the different heads into which this duty naturally resolves itself; and will remind the faithful, that whoever is unable to give may, at least, lend to the poor where withal to sustain life, according to the command of Christ our Lord: "Lend hoping for nothing thereby." ^[40] The singular happiness, which is the reward of such an exercise of mercy, is attested by David in these words: " Acceptable is the man that showeth mercy and lendeth." ^[41] But should it not be in our power otherwise to relieve distress, to seek, by labour and the work of our hands, to procure the means of doing so is an act of benevolence, by which we attain the double purpose of avoiding idleness and of discharging a duty of Christian piety. To this the Apostle exhorts all by his own example: "For your selves," says he, writing to the Thessalonians, " know how you ought to imitate us;" ^[42] and again, " Use your endeavour to be quiet, and that you do your own business, and work with your own hands, as we commanded you;" ^[43] and to the Ephesians: " He that stole, let him steal no more; but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need." ^[44]

We should also practise frugality, and draw sparingly on the kindness of others, that we may not be a burden or a trouble to them. This exercise of temperance is conspicuous in all the Apostles, but pre-eminently so in St. Paul: writing to the Thessalonians he says: "You remember, brethren, our labour and toil; working night and day lest we should be chargeable to any of you, we preached amongst you the Gospel of God;" ^[45] and again: "In labour and in toil, we worked night and day, lest we should be chargable to any of you." ^[46]

To inspire the faithful with an abhorrence of all sins against this commandment, the pastor will recur to the prophets and the other inspired writers, to show the detestation in which God holds the crimes of theft and rapine, and the awful threats which he denounces against their perpetrators: " Hear this," exclaims the prophet Amos, " you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, saying, when will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares, and the Sabbath, and we shall open the corn; that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sickle, and may convey in deceitful balances?" ^[47] Many passages in Jeremiah, ^[48] Proverbs, ^[49] and Ecclesiasticus, ^[50] breathe the same spirit; and these, doubtless, are the seeds from which have sprung great part of the evils, which in our times overspread the face of society.

That Christians may accustom themselves to acts of generosity and kindness towards the poor and the mendicant, an exercise of benevolence inculcated by the second part of this commandment, the pastor will place before them those ample rewards which God promises, in this life and in the next, to the beneficent and the bountiful.

But, as there are not wanting those who would even excuse their thefts, they are to be admonished that God will accept no excuse for sin; and that their excuses, far from extenuating, serve only to aggravate their guilt. How insufferable the perversity of those men of exalted rank, who stand excused in their own eyes by alleging, that, if they strip others of what belongs to them, they are actuated not by cupidity or avarice, but by a desire to maintain the grandeur of their families, and the station of their ancestors, whose estimation and dignity must fall, if not upheld by the accession of another man's property. Of this mischievous error they are to be disabused; and are to be convinced, that to obey the will of God and observe his commandments is the only means to preserve and augment their wealth, and to enhance the glory of their ancestors. His will and commandments once contemned, the stability of property, no mutter how securely settled, is overturned; kings are dethroned, and hurled from the highest pinnacle of earthly grandeur; whilst the humblest individuals in society, men towards whom they cherished the most implacable hatred, are sometimes called by God to occupy the thrones, which their rapacity had forfeited. The intensity of the divine wrath, kindled by such cruel in justice, God himself declares in these words, which are recorded in Isaias: " Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves; they all love bribes; they run after rewards. Therefore, saith the Lord, the God of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries; and I will be revenged of my enemies; and I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross." ^[51]

Some there are, who plead in justification of such conduct, not the ambition of maintaining hereditary splendour and ancestral glory, but a desire of acquiring the means of living in greater ease, affluence and elegance. Such false excuses are also to be exposed and refuted: they are to be taught how impious is the conduct, how unacceptable to God the prayers, of those who prefer any earthly advantage to the will and the glory of God; and are to be made sensible of the magnitude of the offence, offered to him, by a neglect of his precepts. Note. And yet what real advantage can there be in theft? Of how many very heavy curses is it not the source? " Confusion and repentance," says Ecclesiasticus, " is upon a thief." ^[52] But, suppose no temporal punishment to overtake the thief, does he not offer an insult to the divine name? does he not oppose the most holy will of God? does he not contemn his salutary precepts? is not this contempt of the divine precepts the source of all the error, and all the dishonesty, and all the impiety, which inundate the world?

But, do we not sometimes hear the thief contend that he is not guilty of sin, because, forsooth, he steals from the rich and the wealthy, who, in his mind, do not even perceive, not to say, suffer injury from the loss? Such an excuse is as wretched as its tendency is baneful. Others imagine that they should be acquitted of guilt, because they have contracted such a habit of stealing, as not to be able to gain an easy victory over the passion, or to desist from the practice. If such persons listen not to the admonition of the Apostle: " He that stole, let him now steal no more," ^[53] let them recollect the awful punishment that awaits their obstinacy in crime, nothing less than an eternity of torments. Some excuse themselves by saying that it was impossible to resist the seasonable opportunity that presented itself: the proverb is trite; " those, who are not thieves, are made so by opportunity." Such persons are to be dissuaded and deterred from such wickedness, by reminding them that it is our duty to resist every evil propensity: were we to yield instant obedience to the impulse of inordinate desire, what measure, what limits to the most criminal and flagitious excesses? Such an excuse, therefore, is marked by more than ordinary turpitude, or rather is an avowal of unbridled licentiousness and unrestrained injustice. To say that you do not commit sin, because you have no opportunity of sinning, is almost to acknowledge, that you are always prepared to sin when opportunity offers. There are some who say that they steal in order to gratify revenge, having themselves suffered the same injury from others. In answer to such offenders, the pastor will urge the unlawfulness of returning injury for injury; that no person can be a judge in his own cause; and that still less can it be lawful to punish one man for the crimes of an other.

Finally, some find a sufficient justification of theft in their own embarrassments, alleging that they are overwhelmed with debt, which they cannot pay off otherwise than by theft. Such persons should be given to understand, that no debt presses more heavily than that from which, each day of our lives, we pray to be released in these words of the Lord's Prayer: " For give us our debts;" ^[54] and to swell the debt which we owe to God, in order to liquidate that which is due to man, is the extreme of infatuation. It is much better to be consigned to an earthly prison than to be cast into the prison of hell: it is far a greater evil to be condemned by the judgment of God, than by that of man; nor should it be forgotten, that, under such trying circumstances, it becomes our duty to have recourse to the assistance and mercy of God, that, in his goodness, he may relieve us from all our difficulties.

Other excuses are also preferred, which the judicious and zealous pastor will not find it difficult to meet; that thus he may one day be blessed with a people, " followers of good works " ^[55]

1. Exod. xx. 15.
2. Rom. ii. 21.
3. Vid. D. Thorn. 1. 2. q. 100. art. 3 et 2. 2. q. 122. art. 6.
4. Cor. vi. 10.
5. Vid. Aug. q. 71. in Exod. et citatur. 32. q. 4. c. meretrices.
6. 1 Cor. v. 10.
7. Vid. D. Thorn, c. 2. 66. art. 4 et 9. item 14, q. 4. c. poenale.
8. Matt. xv. 19.
9. Cor. vi. 10.
10. Epist. liy.
11. Habac. ii. 6.
12. Lib. 50. horn. Horn. 9. et de verbis Apost. serm. 19.
13. It is unnecessary to remind the learned reader that human laws may affect this decision. - T.
14. Deut. xxv. 13
15. Lev. xix. 35, 36.
16. Prov. xx. 23.
17. 1 Tim. vi. 9.
18. Matt. vii. 12.
19. Tob. iv. 26.
20. James v. 1, 4.
21. Lev. xix. 13.
22. Deut. xxiv. 14.
23. Mal. iii. 5.
24. Tob. iv. 15.
25. Ezek. xxii. 12. and xviii. 8.
26. Luke vi. 33.
27. De usnra vid. 14. q. 1. et q. 4. passim, vid. item titulum de usuris in Decretalibus et D. Thorn. 2. 2. q. 78. item Amb. lib. de Tob. c. 14.
28. Ps. xxxvi. 21.
29. Exod. xxii. 26, 27.
30. Titulum habes de pignor. in decretal, lib. 3. tit. 21. vid. Amb. lib. 5. de offic. c. 6.
31. Prov. xi. 6.
32. Ps. xlix. 18.
33. Cypr. lib. de opera et eleemosyn.
34. Chrysost. horn. 32. ad pop. Antioch. et horn. 33. et 34. in Math. vid. etiam nom. 1C). 37. ad pop. Aritioch.
35. Nazianz. orat. de pauperum amore. August, serm. 50 et 227.de tempore: item hom. 18, 19, 28. 45.
36. Matt. xxv. 34. 41.
37. Luke vi. 38.
38. Mark x. 29, 30.
39. Luke xvi. 9.
40. Luke vi. 35.
41. Ps. cxi. 5.
42. 2 Thess. iii. 7.
43. 1 Thess. iv. 11.
44. Eph. iv. 28.
45. 1 Thess. ii. 9.
46. 2 Thess. iii. 8.
47. Amos viii. 4, 5.
48. Jer. v. et xxi. et xxii.
49. Prov. xxi.
50. Eccl. x.
51. Vid. Trid. sess. 22. decret. de reform, cap. 11. item Cone. Aurel. 3. c. 13. 22. Paris, ]. c. 1. Taron. 2. c. 25. Aurel. 5. c. 15. Mogunt. cap. 6. 11. Worm. c. 75. Aqnisgr. c. 88. vid. et 1. 2. q. 2. variis in capit.
52. Eccl. v. 17.
53. Eph. iv. 28.
54. Matt. vi. 12.
55. Tit. ii. 14.