Note 890 — Chapter I · THE TREATMENT OF PENITENTS IN DIFFERENT SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS

St. Alphonsus distinguishes between formal relapsing sinners and material. A formal relapsing sinner is one who, having been instructed and having promised amendment, has returned to his former sin in the same, or nearly the same way, and with the same ease; that is, without having endeavored to amend, and without having adopted any one of the prescribed remedies. A material relapsing sinner is one who was never seriously admonished, or who, in spite of efforts toward improvement, and in consequence of inconstancy of will, has again fallen into the sins already confessed. H. Ap. Tr. ult. n. 9 (cf. Vind. Alph. P. VI. cp. 1, Tom. II. p. 276). In a word, a relapsing sinner is one who has contracted a sinful habit, and, after confession, has fallen into the same sin. S. Alph. Lib. VI. n. 457. Cf. Aertnys, l. c. n. 310; Ballerini, Notæ ad Gury, II. n. 632; Op. Theol. Mor. l. c.; Lugo, De Pœnit. Disp. 14, n. 166; Salmant. Tr. 17, cp. II. n. 167. According to the concurrent teaching of theologians, the following elements are included in the idea of relapse in the theological sense: (1) frequens relapsus post plures confessiones; (2) relapsus in eadem (specie) peccata; (3) defectus omnis, etiam inchoatæ, emendationis. (Suarez, Tr. V. Lib. III. c. 8, n. 7.)