Article I: On Superstition

554. NOTIONS. Superstition is defined: Vain or false religion, exhibiting to God undue worship. - It is opposed to religion by excess, "not because it exhibits more divine worship than true religion, but because it exhibits divine worship either to whom it ought not, or in that mode in which it ought not" (2.2, q. 92, a. 1). Thus worship can exceed both on the part of the mode and on the part of the object; whence a twofold superstition is distinguished, namely: 1. superstition of undue worship; 2. superstition of the thing worshiped (III, 2).

I. Superstition of UNDUE worship is worship which is indeed exhibited to the true God, but in an incongruous mode; because, namely, the worship which is offered is either false or superfluous.

False worship is that which has a false signification, as if someone should worship God through the ceremonies of the old Law, for example circumcision, immolation of the lamb, etc., because these signify Christ as still about to come and not yet having come; or if someone, for increasing the devotion of the people, should narrate false miracles, or propose false relics. - Worship of this kind is a sin grave of itself, because it founds religion upon lies, indeed exposes true miracles, etc., to doubt.

But superfluous worship is that by which God is worshiped in a mode not approved by the Church, or plainly alien from her practice. Thus, for example, if you were unwilling to pray or hear Mass before sunrise; or if in Mass or in the canonical Office you added something not prescribed by the rubrics; or if candles had to be arranged in a certain order; or if you fasted on Sunday when you do not fast on other days, or abstained from certain indifferent works on Saturday, etc. Such superfluous worship, scandal, contempt, or vain observance being excluded, does not exceed venial fault, because the matter is light, and those actions are not evil in themselves.

555. II. Superstition of the THING WORSHIPED, or worship of a false deity, is had when worship owed to God is offered to a false god or to creatures.

This superstition, according to the diverse ends of divine worship, is subdivided into diverse species. For since, according to St. Thomas (2.2, q. 92, a. 2), divine worship looks to this, that man practically acknowledge the excellence, knowledge, and auxiliary intervention of God, that threefold end can be perverted by a threefold species of superstition, namely: 1. idolatry, when reverence of excellence owed to God alone is exhibited to a creature; 2. divination, when knowledge is investigated from the demon; 3. vain observance, when, for the sake of help, recourse is had to the same demon. And since recourse can also be had to him for inflicting harm on neighbor, hence, on account of the malice of injustice joined to it, there is had: 4. malefice.

Now discourse must be instituted concerning each.