486. 6. Adulteries of the first degree are adulteries of ignorance, which are committed by people who are not yet able to or cannot consult the intellect and so prevent them. All evils, including therefore adulteries, are, viewed in themselves, products of the inward and outward self. The inward self intends them and the outward self commits them. Consequently, whatever the character of the inward self is in the deeds which it commits through the agency of the outward self, such is the character of the deeds regarded in themselves. Nevertheless, because the inward self and its intention are not visible to men, everyone has to be judged publicly on the basis of his actions and words in accordance with the enacted law and its strictures. The inner sense of the law ought to be regarded by the judge as well.

But to illustrate by examples: Suppose, for instance, that adultery is committed by an adolescent boy who does not yet know that adultery is a greater evil than fornication. Suppose that it is committed by a person of extreme simplicity. Suppose that it is committed by someone who as a result of illness has lost his power of judgment; or by someone who experiences periods of delirium, as happens with some, and who is then in the same state as people actually deranged. Or again, suppose that it is committed in a state of raving drunkenness; and so on. It is evident that the inward self or mind is then not present in the outward one, scarcely differently from the way it is not in an irrational person.

The adulteries of such people are attributed to them by a rational person in accordance with the circumstances. Yet the same person, sitting as judge, still convicts and punishes the doer in accordance with the law; while after death their adulteries are imputed to them in accordance with the presence, character and capability of understanding present in their will.