erior, or expressed in the rule, since this would be
to act contrary to the vow of obedience.

Reply Obj. 1: He who professes a rule does not vow to observe all the
things contained in the rule, but he vows the regular life which
consists essentially in the three aforesaid things. Hence in certain
religious orders precaution is taken to profess, not the rule, but to
live according to the rule, i.e. to tend to form one's conduct in
accordance with the rule as a kind of model; and this is set aside by
contempt. Yet greater precaution is observed in some religious orders
by professing obedience according to the rule, so that only that
which is contrary to a precept of the rule is contrary to the
profession, while the transgression or omission of other things binds
only under pain of venial sin, because, as stated above (A. 7, ad 2),
such things are dispositions to the chief vows. And venial sin is a
disposition to mortal, as stated above (I-II, Q. 88, A. 3), inasmuch
as it hinders those things whereby a man is disposed to keep the
chief precepts of Christ's law, namely the precepts of charity.

There is also a religious order, that of the Friars Preachers, where
such like transgressions or omissions do not, by their very nature,
involve sin, either mortal or venial; but they bind one to suffer the
punishment affixed thereto, because it is in this way that they are
bound to observe such things. Nevertheless they may sin venially or
mortally through neglect, concupiscence, or contempt.

Reply Obj. 2: Not all the contents of the law are set forth by way of
precept; for some are expressed under the form of ordinance or
statute binding under pain of a fixed punishment. Accordingly, just
as in the civil law the transgression of a legal statute does not
always render a man deserving of bodily death, so neither in the law
of the Church does every ordinance or statute bind under mortal sin;
and the same applies to the statutes of the rule.

Reply Obj. 3: An action or transgression proceeds from contempt when
a man's will refuses to submit to the ordinance of the law or rule,
and from this he proceeds to act against the law or rule. On the
other hand, he does not sin from contempt, but from some other cause,
when he is led to do something against the ordinance of the law or
rule through some particular cause such as concupiscence or anger,
even though he often repeat the same kind of sin through the same or
some other cause. Thu