Nature

(Summa Theologica, II-II, qq. 123-140.)

The Virtue of Fortitude.—This virtue ranks next after justice and before temperance. Prudence has the greatest amount of goodness since it deals directly with reason, the essential good of man; justice is next because it realizes the dictates of reason in human affairs; the other virtues uphold the reign of reason against the rebellion of passion, fortitude repressing fear, the most powerful foe of reason, and temperance subduing pleasure, which is after fear the strongest of reason’s enemies (cfr. 157, 1627, 1688). Fortitude is nobler than temperance because more closely related to reason; it is the more difficult virtue, because it is harder to bear pain than to abstain from pleasure.

Fortitude in General.—Fortitude (etymologically, strength, vigor, firmness) in general is a moral quality which makes a person unshaken from the right by danger or difficulty. It has various senses.

(a) It is used for a seeming virtue, which has the act but not the requisites (i.e., the knowledge and the free choice) of a moral virtue. Thus, some are brave from ignorance or want of reflection, because they do not realize the danger (e.g., intoxicated persons) or because habit makes them act without thought, or because many successes have rendered them over-sanguine; others are brave from compulsion, because cowardice is severely punished, or from passion, because they are beside themselves with pain, anger, desire, etc.

(b) It is used for an inchoate virtue or a natural fitness to withstand attack or encounter danger. Thus, some persons are so constituted physically that the thought of risk, pain, or death does not affect them strongly (fearlessness, intrepidity), or even attracts them (adventurousness). This kind of bodily bravery is a preparation or predisposition for moral courage.

(c) Fortitude is also the name of a general virtue or rather of a general condition which must be found in every virtue. For there is no virtue without firmness and persistence in good, as the name virtue (i.e., strength) indicates. Thus, a person who is weakly inclined to temperance and opposes no strong resistance to temptation cannot be said to possess the virtue of temperance.

(d) Finally, fortitude is the name of a special virtue which confers vigor and steadfastness in a special kind of trial, such as perils and pains which threaten or inflict severe evils. It is of this fortitude that we now speak.

Definition of Fortitude.—Fortitude is defined as “a virtue which in the face of the greatest evils moderates the passions of fear and confidence within the bounds dictated by right reason.”

(a) The primary object of fortitude is the passions, or motions of the sensuous appetite through which the appetite is attracted or repelled by an object brought before it as good or evil, agreeable or disagreeable. Justice is concerned with operations, fortitude and temperance with passions (see 1709).

(b) The passions that chiefly fall within the scope of fortitude are fear and confidence; and thus it is set apart from temperance, which deals with the passions of pleasure. Fortitude has to do with that which is disagreeable to sense, temperance with that which is agreeable. Fear is a disturbance of soul produced by the imminence of an external evil that cannot be easily escaped; confidence is a feeling of self-reliance impelling one to face or attack a threatening evil.

(c) The function of fortitude is to moderate fear and confidence, or to keep them to the happy mean between excess and defect. The passions in themselves are not evil, but they need regulation (see 121, 122); and hence without fortitude one falls either into cowardice or rashness.

(d) Fortitude acts in the face of the greatest evils, that is, even when death itself, the greatest of corporal evils and the king of terrors, is at hand. Virtue is the act of a perfect man, and hence we do not ascribe fortitude to a man who is not brave except in reference to things that are fearful only slightly or not at all (such as having a tooth pulled or a finger lanced). The right regulation of fear springs, therefore, from different good qualities, according to the kinds of objects that inspire alarm: to fortitude in the strictest sense, if there is question of supreme natural evil (that is, death or its equivalent in deadly disease, mortal wound or torture); to fortitude in a wider sense, if there is question of lesser corporal evils (e.g., blows, wounds or mutilation that do not cause death); to some other virtue, if there is question of other kinds of evils (e.g., liberality regulates the fear of losing money).

(e) The motive of fortitude is conformity with right reason. The courageous person despises dangers because he wishes to hold fast to virtue and has for his last aim God and true beatitude. Fortitude is exercised, then, only when one is courageous in a good cause; the end of the work (finis operis), or at least the end of the agent (finis operantis), must be virtuous. The aim of bravery itself is virtuous when it is the common good (e.g., soldiers fighting in defense of country) or the good of a particular virtue (e.g., a judge contending for justice, a virgin for purity, a martyr for religion); the aim of the brave man is good when he performs an indifferent act for virtue’s sake (e.g., waits on another during pestilence because of friendship, goes on a perilous journey because of a pilgrimage). On the contrary, fortitude is not exercised if bravery has nothing to do with virtue (e.g., the imperturbability during sickness or shipwreck of a person who had resolved on suicide), or if it is opposed to virtue (e.g., the daring and coolness of a pirate, bandit, gunman or dueller); to risk ignoble death with bravado is not a virtue.

The Two Acts of Fortitude.—(a) The moderation of fear is followed by endurance or firmness in the midst of danger, as in the case of the martyrs. This act in common speech is more especially designated “fortitude.” It is not accurate to speak of it as passive resistance or passive courage. By it, indeed, no external act is performed, but this is due to a most firm internal resolution and self-control, such as a refusal to accept defeat, surrender principles or make peace with wrong. Endurance to undergo is not the same thing, then, as stoical indifference or apathy.

(b) The moderation of confidence is followed, where circumstances call for it, by prudent attack or even, when discretion is the better part of valor, by retreat as in warriors. A truly brave man does not fear to be called a coward, and hence he will not advance when reason forbids nor hesitate to retire when reason commands. Brave endurance is a nobler act of fortitude than brave attack; for endurance struggles against superior strength, it feels the evil already present, and its fight is long and continuous, whereas attack is borne on by a sense of power, the object of dread is still in the distance, and its rush is quick and passing (Prov., xvi. 32). Hence, not all who are courageous in attack are courageous under attack. But both acts are noble, and each is necessary at its proper time.

The Excellence of Fortitude.—(a) Its Rank.—Fortitude is one of the four principal or cardinal virtues. A principal virtue is one that exercises in the most difficult circumstances one of the four qualities that every moral virtue must have. These qualities are firmness (for every virtue is a habit or strongly rooted quality), rectitude (since a virtue inclines to the good as the right or obligatory), moderation (since a virtue is moral, or measured according to reason), and discretion (since good inclinations must be guided by true direction). Now, just as rectitude is most difficult, on account of self-love, in dealing with others, and moderation in governing the appetites, and discretion in ruling one’s own actions, so firmness is most difficult in the presence of the greatest dangers; and therefore with justice, temperance, and prudence must also be associated fortitude as one of the chief of all virtues. These four principal virtues are also called cardinal virtues (from cardo, a hinge), because the whole moral life of man hinges on them. Thus, though perils of death are comparatively rare, the occasions of such perils are common and one is constantly called on to exercise fortitude (e.g., to be prepared to incur mortal enmities rather than forsake justice, or purity, or religion).

(b) Its Utility.—Fortitude has a certain general utility, for it is found to be of advantage everywhere. Thus, brave men and just men are admired in peace as well as in war, whereas liberal men are serviceable only in certain matters (Aristotle). Fortitude is like a strong tower, or like an army that protects the other virtues, and there are continual demands for its exercise. The life of man is a warfare (Job, vii. 1), and a manly spirit is needed to struggle against the temptations, injuries, infirmities, and trials that threaten virtue. Without fortitude, then, no one can be saved, for the kingdom of heaven is captured only by the aggressive (Matt., xi. 12), and only those who fight shall receive the crown (II Tim., ii. 5).