y deficient, inasmuch as it does not actually subject itself
to its proper rule. This defect, however, is not a fault, but fault
follows upon it from the fact that the will acts with this defect.

Reply Obj. 4: Evil has no direct cause, but only an accidental cause,
as was said above.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 49, Art. 2]

Whether the Supreme Good, God, Is the Cause of Evil?

Objection 1: It would seem that the supreme good, God, is the cause of
evil. For it is said (Isa. 45:5,7): "I am the Lord, and there is no
other God, forming the light, and creating darkness, making peace, and
creating evil." And Amos 3:6, "Shall there be evil in a city, which
the Lord hath not done?"

Obj. 2: Further, the effect of the secondary cause is reduced to the
first cause. But good is the cause of evil, as was said above (A. 1).
Therefore, since God is the cause of every good, as was shown above
(Q. 2, A. 3; Q. 6, AA. 1, 4), it follows that also every evil is from
God.

Obj. 3: Further, as is said by the Philosopher (Phys. ii, text 30),
the cause of both safety and danger of the ship is the same. But God
is the cause of the safety of all things. Therefore He is the cause
of all perdition and of all evil.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 21), that, "God is not
the author of evil because He is not the cause of tending to
not-being."

_I answer that,_ As appears from what was said (A. 1), the evil which
consists in the defect of action is always caused by the defect of
the agent. But in God there is no defect, but the highest perfection,
as was shown above (Q. 4, A. 1). Hence, the evil which consists in
defect of action, or which is caused by defect of the agent, is not
reduced to God as to its cause.

But the evil which consists in the corruption of some things is
reduced to God as the cause. And this appears as regards both natural
things and voluntary things. For it was said (A. 1) that some agent
inasmuch as it produces by its power a form to which follows
corruption and defect, causes by its power that corruption and
defect. But it is manifest that the form which God chiefly intends in
things created is the good of the order of the universe. Now, the
order of the universe requires, as was said above (Q. 22, A. 2, ad 2;
Q. 48, A. 2), that there should be some things that can, and do
sometimes, fail. And thus God, by causing in things the good of the
order of the universe, consequently and