Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

S. Th. I-II, q. 63, a. 3 et 4 ; De Virt., q. 1, a. 10.

626. Thesis. Besides the theological virtues, supernatural moral virtues are to be admitted, as Saints Augustine, Gregory and Thomas teach, against Scotus and the Nominalists, and as the quasi common opinion of theologians now admits. For :

In the natural order man would not only be well disposed habitually toward the last end, but also concerning the means to the end through acquired moral virtues. Therefore, also in the supernatural order, about which God certainly provides no less, it will not suffice that man be habitually well disposed toward the supernatural last end, but it is also necessary that he be habitually well disposed concerning the supernatural means to be ordered toward the last end, which is done through infused moral virtues (q. 65, a. 3). — Otherwise a) there would be lacking the proportion between the soul raised to the divine being and its moral life, between the supernatural end and the moral virtues, between the theological virtues about the end and the moral virtues about the means : for there would not be of the same order, but the divine effects of theology would have to be operated through instruments not proportioned and defective. Whence b) supernatural moral acts would not be elicited by us connaturally, but the faculties would be moved to them as it were violently (q. 63, a. 3).

This is supposed by Innocent III and the Council of Vienne (n. 624,3) and by Leo XIII, ep. to Card. Gibbons (n. 581) ; and Scripture hints at it (Wis. VIII, 7) : « She teaches sobriety and prudence (eternal Wisdom), justice and virtue, than which nothing is more useful in the life of men » (Cf. II Peter I, 5-7).

627. Infused moral virtues are operative principles by which we are ordered toward the right choice of human acts as means to the supernatural last end, and therefore they are not immediately about God the supernatural end, but about our acts and the whole life to be ordered, for which reason they are called moral.

Whence 1) they also pertain to the divine life participated in us, inasmuch as they mediate pursue the supernatural end itself : for under the influence of the theological virtues they in some way order all works toward God the end and His glory, as God orders all things to Himself.

2. They are therefore as many as the many and diverse human acts ; in general theologians say that as many supernatural moral virtues are infused as natural virtues can be acquired¹]. They can however all be reduced to the four cardinal ones, in the same way as was said about acquired virtues.

**628. Supernatural moral virtues are distinguished from natural ones, as was said above, q. I, n° 620, and indeed not only

a) according to essence, as habits less properly so called from those properly so called ; and

b) according to the efficient cause, which is God alone, not our acts ; and

c) according to the end and nature, namely that man be well disposed for the heavenly city and eternal life, and not only for human things ; but also

d) according to the formal object : in natural virtues the good is according to the rule of human reason ; in supernatural ones the good is according to the rule of the divine law, or of human reason raised through faith. Thus e.g. natural prudence dictates what is good according to reason, supernatural prudence what is good according to the supernatural law of faith ; justice chooses the mean by a higher title, preserves peace and society, that peace and society be as it were deiform and heavenly ; by natural abstinence man uses food moderately for the sake of human reason, e.g. lest it harm his health, by supernatural for the sake of the reason of faith, e.g. that he may chastise his body and reduce it to servitude and himself more freely attend to divine things ; supernatural patience is to be exercised not from the reason of human wisdom, but that he may be conformed to Christ, etc. Whence infused prudence does not always dictate the same mean as acquired prudence, and therefore infused moral virtues do not have the same act as acquired virtues (q. 63, art. 4). Whence they differ in species.

629. Corollary. — From which can be understood how the virtues are distinguished as political, purgative, and of the purified soul, as S. Thomas teaches, q. 61, a. 5 :

« A. Because man according to his nature is a political animal,

1. virtues,... insofar as they exist in man according to the condition of his nature, are called political, inasmuch as man according to these virtues behaves rightly in the conduct of human affairs...

B. But because it pertains to man that he also draw himself toward divine things as much as he can... and this is commended to us in Scripture in many ways, as is that Mt. V, 48 : Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, it is necessary to posit certain virtues intermediate between the political ones, which are human virtues, and the exemplary ones, which are divine virtues (in God Himself) ; ... so namely that 2) certain virtues are of those tending toward divine likeness, and these are called purgative virtues : so namely that prudence despises all worldly things by the contemplation of divine things and directs every thought of the soul to divine things alone ; temperance indeed leaves, inasmuch as nature allows, what the use of the body requires ; fortitude is that the soul not be terrified by the departure from the body and the approach to heavenly things ; justice is that the whole soul consent to such a proposed life.

3. Certain virtues however are of those already attaining divine likeness, which are called virtues of the already purified soul, so namely that prudence contemplates divine things alone, temperance knows nothing of earthly desires, fortitude is ignorant of passions, justice is allied with the divine mind in perpetual covenant, namely by imitating it ; which virtues indeed we say are those of the blessed and of the most perfect in this life ».

Whence virtues are distinguished as political, purgative, and of the already purified soul.