Chapter I: General Notions

Reason of order. After religion, by which the supereminent excellence of God, our Creator and Governor, is worshiped, those virtues obtain primacy which worship analogous excellences of men. A Parent approaches most nearly to God. Hence the virtue which is primarily toward him, or piety, must first be discussed.

Utility. A distinct understanding of the genuine ratio of piety must be acquired by us concerning the reason why not only parents and fatherland, but also wife, children, and we ourselves are the object of piety; besides, the mutual offices of parents and children, with their application to present times, must be well known, so that they can be inculcated firmly and efficaciously.

Order of treatment. After general notions have been set forth, we shall speak in order of piety toward parents, toward children, between spouses, toward the remaining blood-relatives; of quasi-piety between tutor and wards, of piety toward the fatherland, of man's piety toward himself (where suicide is treated).

What it is, and toward whom. 1. Now piety is a special virtue by which we cultivate the proper excellence of those from whom we draw origin.

2. a) There is an eminent title of piety in God, since, even in the natural order, He is a principle of being for us more absolutely and by an action more voluntary than any others; and in the supernatural order, by a deifying adoption, He willed us truly to be His children.

b) Then parents, by generation itself, and the fatherland, by the protection and guardianship by which it has guarded parents and ourselves, are truly for us a principle of being. Therefore the formal title of piety is primarily in them.

c) But because of unity with those parents themselves, we can and must venerate parents in a spouse, in children, in blood-relatives, in ourselves. Because "God Himself made us and not we ourselves" (Ps. 99, 3), we must venerate in ourselves not only the blood of parents, but also, indeed more, the image of God. And the spontaneous reverence by which we honor blood-relatives, and which, especially among nearer relatives, is a safeguard of chastity, itself testifies that the formal ratio of piety is participated by a spouse, by children, by blood-relatives, by ourselves. Nor in a dissimilar manner, because of the fatherland, is it participated by citizens; because of God, by the remaining men: in all men God has placed something divine; yet so that the title of piety is stronger in the saints, because they are more divine, and in the poor, because they turn the special solicitude of God toward themselves and bear the image of the suffering Christ, so that they are most of all the object of divine piety. Cf. Quaestiones de religione, etc., n. 178 ff.

Piety is a special virtue by which we cultivate the proper excellence of those from whom we draw origin. The formal title of piety is primarily in God, then in parents and fatherland; because of conjunction with parents, a title is participated by spouse, by children, by blood-relatives, by ourselves, just as, because of conjunction with the fatherland, by citizens; and, because of God, by the remaining men: which last title is stronger in the saints and in the poor.