Question — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica

Question I: What discord is, and what kind of sin

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1.

DISCORD is a dissension of wills concerning the divine good, or the neighbor's good, which each is bound by Charity to will. The Angelic Doctor says the same, p. p. Centil. sect. 18., where he describes it thus: It is a will fleeing the judgment of wisdom, dissenting from what is said by others.

2.

THEREFORE it is a mortal sin of its genus; for it is opposed to Christian peace, which is an act of Charity. Hence Galatians 5. names it among the works of the flesh, of which it is said: Those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God, and Proverbs 6: The seventh his soul detesteth, etc. He that soweth discords among brethren, as the Angelic Doctor shows in speculo animae, cap. 1.

3.

MOREOVER it is the offspring of Pride, as St. Gregory teaches, 31. moral. cap. 31., and St. Thomas art. 2., St. Bonaventure loco cit.; often also of Envy, as St. Thomas says ad 2. It begets many evils, as is said, Matthew 12: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate. Where Jerome: As small things grow by concord, so the greatest crumble by discord, as St. Bonaventure reports, citing the place soon after.

4.

WHENCE the Holy Fathers, as gathered by St. Bonaventure in Pharetra, Lib. 3. cap. 22., gravely reprehend it, chiefly St. Gregory in the Register, lib. 6. indic. 15. cap. 166., and Lib. 1. indic. 9. cap. 78., and Lib. 10. indic. 10. cap. 37., and Lib. 1. moral. cap. 4., and Lib. 22. cap. 6., and in Pastor. part. 3. cap. 1. admonit. 23. and 24., and Lib. 2. Dialog. cap. 3., and homil. 38. in Evang.; St. Jerome epist. 14., and on cap. 12. Matth., and on Michaeam, Lib. 2. cap. septimo; St. Augustine serm. 56. de verbis Domini, epist. 13. ad Macedon, and Lib. 9. confess. cap. 8.; St. Ambrose de Virginitate, Lib. 2. at the end; St. Isidore in Synon. cap. 8., and de summo bono, Lib. 3. cap. 51.; St. Chrysostom homil. 16. in Matthaeum; St. Bernard epist. 78. and serm. 71. in Cantica; the Gloss on 1 John, 3.; Boethius de Consol. Lib. 5. prosa 5. at the end. Hence he describes it wondrously in sermons.

5.

The Angelic Doctor also brings many things from the Scriptures in Bibliis pauperum, cap. 50.