Chapter II: On the Specific Distinction of Virtues

Toletus, 2.2, q. 18, a. 6; Pesch, de Virt., n. 34; Mazzella, de Virt., p. 17; Tanquerey, Synopsis, ed. 3, p. 342; Lehmkuhl, I, n. 843.

387. "Since virtue is ordered to good, where there is a special notion of good," says St. Thomas (2.2, q. 81, a. 4), "there must there be a special virtue."

From this general principle it follows first of all that the theological virtues differ in species from the moral virtues: for by these latter man pursues the honest good proportioned to human nature; by the former, however, the divine good, exceeding the nature of man. But this first distinction is followed, both in the natural order and in the supernatural order, by many other distinctions, which must be weighed individually.