1 There may be some fault even in this obedience; but the fault thus committed is venial; it is a fall, but a fall on the knees which may terminate in prayer.
Les Misérables 1 By Victor HugoContext Highlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV—WORKS CORRESPONDING TO WORDS 2 Besides this confession in a loud tone, for which all faults in the least serious are reserved, they have for their venial offences what they call the coulpe.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor HugoContext Highlight In BOOK 6: CHAPTER II—THE OBEDIENCE OF MARTIN VERGA 3 Let us remark in passing, that the burial of Mother Crucifixion under the altar of the convent is a perfectly venial offence in our sight.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor HugoContext Highlight In BOOK 8: CHAPTER V—IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO BE DRUNK IN ORDER TO BE ... 4 Careless fellow as I am, I am not so indifferent, Mrs. Bounderby, as to be regardless of this vice in your brother, or inclined to consider it a venial offence.
5 There she stood still around her stretching the vast night atmosphere, whose incomplete darkness in comparison with the total darkness of the heath below it might have represented a venial beside a mortal sin.
Return of the Native By Thomas HardyContext Highlight In BOOK 1: 6 The Figure against the Sky 6 While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and advancing toward the front, prepared to atone for his venial remissness, by freely exposing his life in defense of those he attended.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore CooperContext Highlight In CHAPTER 13 7 Sometimes he had amused himself by putting difficult questions to me, asking me what one should do in certain circumstances or whether such and such sins were mortal or venial or only imperfections.