9th. Neither can the indifferency or lawfulness of the thing done, nor the ordinance of authority commanding the use of it, make the scandal following upon it to be only passive, which otherwise, _i.e._, in case the thing were neither lawful nor ordained by authority, should be active. Not the former; for our divines teach,(357) that _scandalum datum_ riseth sometimes, _ex facto in se adiaphoro_, when it is done _intempestive, contra charitatis regulam_. Not the latter; for no human authority can take away the condition of scandal from that which otherwise should be scandal, because _nullus homo potest vel charitati, vel conscientiis nostris imperare, vel periculum scandali dati prestare_, saith a learned Casuist.(358) 10th. A scandal is passive and taken by the scandalised without the fault of the doer, only in this case,(359) _cum factum unius est alteri occasio peccandi praeter intentionem facientis, et conditionem facti_, so that to the making of the doer blameless, is not only required that he intend not his brother’s fall, but also that the deed be neither evil in itself, nor yet done inordinately, and with appearance of evil. _Sect._ 6. 11th. The scandal not to be cared for is only in necessary things, such as the hearing of the word, prayer, &c., from which we may not abstain, though all the world should be offended at us. In these, I say, and these only, _scandalum quod oritur ex rebus per se bonis et necessariis, non licet evitare, &c., at rerum legitimarum sed non necessariarum dispar est ratio, &c.,_ saith a great Formalist.(360) 12th. We ought, for the scandal of the malicious, to abstain from all things from which we ought to abstain for the scandal of the weak; for we ought not to abstain from necessary things for the scandal of the weak, no more than for the scandal of the malicious, and from things that are not necessary, we ought to abstain for the scandal of the malicious as well as for the scandal of the weak. So that weakness and malice in the offended _non variant speciem scandali_, but only _gradum ejusdem speciei_. Both his fault who is offended through malice, is greater than his fault who is offended through weakness, and likewise his fault who offends the weak in the faith, is greater than his fault who offends those who are malicious against the faith, because as we ought to do good to all men, so chiefly to those of the household of faith. Nevertheless, the kind of scandal remains the same, whether we have to do with the malicious or the weak.