Article II: On Pride

S. Th. II-II, q. 162; I-II, q. 84, a. 2 and 4.

1048. Pride (orgueil; hoovaardigheid) is the inordinate appetite of one's own excellence. It is called:

1. Appetite, because pride resides in the appetite, namely principally in the will, if it seeks excellence in spiritual things, secondarily in the irascible power, which tends to sensible, arduous, and excellent good;

2. Inordinate: to seek excellence according to itself is not evil, but it is against the order of reason that someone tend above that which he is, as the proud man does: "for right reason has this, that the will of each one be borne toward that which is proportioned to him" (a. 1);

3. Of excellence: both relative, by which someone wills to excel others, at least implicitly by contemning them; and absolute, by which someone simply wills to excel above that which he is, even not thinking of others;

4. Of one's own: the special object or proper appetible thing from which pride receives its species is the loftiness of one's own person; for not in this or that matter, but commonly and in all things, the proud man has himself as lofty. Therefore pride seeks a certain universal excellence and by this is distinguished from presumption, ambition, and vainglory, which inordinately seek some particular excellence, whether in honors and dignities.

1049. Pride is a mortal sin. - For pride is contrary to subjection to God and to charity; for the proud man exalts himself above that which has been fixed for him by God, whether contempt of God is included in pride, or the man does not wish to be subjected to his rule.

But pride happens in four ways: 1. by judging that the goods which one has are not had from God, or at least by acting as if he had them from himself; 2. by judging that he has received those things from God but on account of his own merits, or by acting as if it were so; 3. by attributing to himself goods which he does not have; 4. in the goods which he has, by willing, with others contemned, to be preferred to them more than is fitting. The first two modes, since they include formal contempt of God, are mortal sin; the last two often are only venial, because to magnify oneself in affection and to raise oneself more than is just, while one does not refuse to be subjected to God, is not a grave disorder, unless it is done with grave irreverence toward God, or renders one ready to sin mortally, or there is present grave contempt of neighbor or notable detriment.

1050. Gravity of pride. - Pride 1. under a certain respect is the gravest of sins, namely on the part of aversion. For the aversion which in other sins follows conversion to created good pertains per se to pride, which per se refuses to be subjected to God; but not to wish to be subjected to him and to his rule is to be directly turned away from him; hence on the part of aversion it is the gravest of sins: for that which is per se is stronger than that which is through another. Therefore pride exceeds other sins in aversion, which formally completes sin. But on the part of conversion it is not the greatest, because one's own excellence is not an object which has the greatest repugnance to the good of virtue. Finally, simply speaking, it is not the gravest, for sins against the theological virtues have for their object the very aversion from God; but pride has only one's own excellence, by reason of which, since it does not wish to be subject to God, it turns away from him (a. 6).

Hence 2. it is the beginning of every sin: a) indirectly and as it were per accidens, by removing an obstacle, insofar as namely man through pride contemns the divine law, by which he is prohibited from sinning (according to Jer. 2:20): thus it is the cause of sin or the beginning on the part of aversion. For aversion or contempt of God, by which someone does not wish to be subjected to his rule and which per se pertains to pride, is found in all sins implicitly as consequent upon conversion to a good opposed to the law; but from this aversion sin has that it is evil, and therefore there the account of evil begins, and thus it is the beginning of sin; b) per se, insofar as other sins are ordered to the end of pride, which is one's own excellence, to which everything which someone inordinately seeks can be ordered: thus it is the cause of every sin or the beginning on the part of conversion, insofar as all sins can arise from it as from a final cause, insofar as temporal goods which man seeks in other sins can be willed on account of one's own excellence, which is the end of pride.

Hence 3. because it is the final cause of all sins, it is not in the strict sense a capital sin, but rather the cause of all the capitals, and the mother and queen of all vices. Nevertheless there are certain sins which immediately and more frequently arise from it, and immediately serve it, because they seek a certain special excellence and have an object very near to the object of pride; hence they are customarily called its daughters. They are presumption, ambition, and vainglory, concerning which it was said in n. 918.

1051. Remarks. - 1. Pride differs from disobedience: the latter is from disdain for the precept as such, the former from disdain for subjection to God.

2. On the origin and progress of pride, cf. Lehmkuhl, Th. M. I, n. 884.

3. Bernard distinguishes twelve grades of pride which are opposed to the twelve grades of humility. Cf. S. Th., a. 4, ad 4.