CONTINENCE. - Continentia from contineo (cum and teneo) in its first etymological sense means the very act of containing oneself within the limits that befit reason, without going beyond to illicit things. Therefore it is abstinence from illicit things (ἐκράνεια), not only external, however, but also internal. By virtue of this disposition, as Cicero says, «cupiditas consilii gubernatione regitur» (Cicero, Invent., II, 54, 164). And since our strongest concupiscences are those that are nourished by the desires for food and venereal satisfactions, continence in a narrower sense is the disposition to resist our disordered appetites in this area.
Thus continence, as St. Thomas teaches (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃe, q. 145, a. unico), is linked to the virtue of temperance and has as its material object the appetites that lead man to the pleasures of the senses and as its formal object the containing of these appetites within the limits of reason (loc. cit., q. 141, a. 1, 2; q. 155, a. 1 ff.).
Usually, however, by continence is meant only complete abstinence from carnal pleasures, as in St. Paul (I Cor. 7, 9). Understood thus, continence is confounded with chastity and finds its most perfect expression in the state of one who irrevocably vows himself to interior and exterior chastity.
St. Thomas in his acceptation depends on Cassian, for whom the concept of chastity is linked to that of apatheia, in dependence on the quite rudimentary physiology of the era. Impassibility, the tranquility of the heart and of the spirit, constitutes the culminating point of monastic perfection.
The acquisition of the virtues will not be perfect unless the monk comes to possess the virtue and to rejoice in it with impassibility. Thus in the matter under discussion «as long as there remains some attraction for voluptuousness, one is not chaste, but continent» (Collat., II, ch. 10: PL 49, 888). The combat against the flesh and the uncertainty of victory cannot be confused with perfect chastity, which is «unchangeable tranquility» (op. cit., II, ch. 11: ibid., 889-90).
Even in the Thomistic conception continence is not a virtue in the full sense, but has the character of virtue in the sense that it indicates firmness of soul. Indeed it has a savor of imperfection to feel the motions of concupiscence, even while resisting them, whereas the perfection of virtue is had with chastity, when the motions become rare following a subjugation of the sensitive appetite to reason.
1) Continence is therefore a rather mobile habit, which has its seat not in the concupiscible appetite, but in the will, which by means of continence is disposed to resistance to depraved concupiscences, by which the incontinent person allows himself to be dominated (loc. cit., q. 155, a. 3).
2) It is directed to the concupiscences proper to touch, not insofar as it moderates them (which is proper to the virtue of temperance), but as it animates resistance (loc. cit., ad 1, 3).
3) Consequently continence differs from temperance, as that which is imperfect differs from that which is perfect and complete. The man who has the virtue of temperance has subjected his concupiscible appetite to reason: the continent man resists, but does not have full control of that same appetite (loc. cit., a. 4).
Opposed to continence is incontinence, which occurs: a) when the will yields to the passions, before taking counsel from reason, and the concupiscence is not restrained either through excessive haste or through too great vehemence of passion; b) when man is inconstant in those things that reason has counseled and on which it has pronounced its judgment, and then he fails through weakness.
Incontinence is a sin for a double reason: because the incontinent person recedes from what is according to reason and moreover immerses himself in base satisfactions.
Incontinence, however, is a lesser sin than intemperance, because the intemperate person sins through a permanent bad habit, whereas the incontinent person sins through momentary passion. Now where there is a greater inclination of the will to sin, there is a greater sin (loc. cit., q. 156, a. 3). The intemperate person moreover is dominated by a greater ignorance, which concerns the very end, in that he thinks it a good thing to leave the passions without restraint (loc. cit., ad. 1). Consequently his correction is more difficult, given the greater ignorance and the stronger inclination (loc. cit., ad. 2). To remain continent, one must have recourse to the means necessary to be chaste, continence being the way to chastity (v.). Moreover it is useful and necessary to develop the sense of all that is great, strong, pure in all fields of the spiritual life; to cultivate the will to the good; to make this will resolute, independent and tenacious, in particular to present the ideal of a truly chaste life as a great value in life. It is necessary moreover to cultivate a delicate modesty, the instinctive modesty, which is not the exaggerated reserve of a sick soul, but the respect of one's own body, which proceeds from a healthy soul. For periodic continence v. OGINO-KNAUS-SMULDERS (theory of).