Question XI: On meekness

MILDNESS is the virtue establishing moderation in the appetite for vengeance, that is, in anger, or in the bearing of injuries, as St. Bonavent. teaches in Hexaëmer. serm. 5. and lib. 5. Compend. Theol. ver. cap. 49., where he asserts it to be the same virtue as meekness, of which it is said Blessed are the meek, etc. It differs from patience, which is in the bearing of bodily troubles.

That this is a virtue is evident, because it is concerned with an arduous object morally good, which is the moderation of anger.

It is also proved because the prayer of the meek hath always pleased him, as is said Judith 9., and Numbers 12., where Moses is called the meekest among men, and is praised; and Matthew 5.: Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. This the Holy Doctor in Diaeta, tit. 7. cap. 2., who adds that Christ also is praised as mild, Jerem. 11.: I was as a mild lamb, and Psalm 44.: For truth and mildness, etc.

On this see the splendid things there, especially concerning the nature of man, distinct from the wild beasts.

This gentleness, and instruction, and apt disposition of information in divine things, James 1. asserts:³ In mildness receive the ingrafted word. Then they are not assailed, but inherit the land, as is said Matthew 5. Third, they are exalted, as Christ, who came mild, Matthew 21., and Psalm 75.: God shall arise in judgment, to save all the mild of the earth. Fourth, they are honored the more, Psalm 146.: The Lord lifteth up the mild. This the Holy Doctor in Diaeta, tit. 8. cap. 4. ³ Editor's note: the print/OCR reads 'HANC vetitatem'; rendered as 'facilitatem' (docility/easiness), which fits the citation of James 1: 'in mansuetudine suscipite insitum verbum', since 'vetitatem' is not intelligible Latin.

Yet the Holy Doctor warns that this virtue is not always to be employed, but sometimes severity, on those words of John 6.: You seek me, because you saw signs, therefore he says that severity and discipline are sometimes necessary for a master, when the disciple has been slow and dull. Therefore in serm. 5. Hexaëmer. he says that mildness is against Irascibility and anger, not so that man should not be angry at all, but when he ought, and as much as he ought, as is said 2. Eth. cap. 7. and lib. 4. cap. 6.