Article I. On Superstition

Superstition is a vice opposed to Religion by excess, by which either undue worship is exhibited to the true God, or worship due to God alone is exhibited to a creature. - Thus commonly from St. Thomas 2. 2. q. 92. art. 1. ¹.

¹ Thus St. Thomas: Superstition is a vice opposed to religion according to excess; not because it exhibits more in divine worship than true religion; but because it exhibits divine worship either to whom it ought not, or in the mode in which it ought not. Now just as superstition is opposed to the virtue of religion according to excess, so another vice is opposed to the same virtue according to defect, namely irreligiosity, concerning which the Author speaks in the following article.

But the Doctors thus distinguish a twofold superstition of undue worship, that is, of worship furnished to the true God, but in a manner in which it ought not: one is superstition of false worship, another of superfluous worship; concerning which see St. Alph. (Lib. 3. n. 3.).