Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume I › Book I. On the General Principles of the Christian Life › Treatise III. On Those Things which Dispose Toward Human Acts, or on Habits › Dissertation I. On Virtues › Part II. On Virtues in Particular › Section II. On Supernatural Moral Virtues › Chapter II. On Supernatural Moral Virtues in Particular › Article IV. On Temperance › § IV. On the Potential Parts of Temperance

point — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Point II. On Clemency

450.

I. Notion of Clemency. Clemency is a moral virtue inclining a superior to mitigation, insofar as justice permits, in exacting punishments from his subject according to the prescription of reason illumined by faith.

Clemency

451.

II. Object of Clemency. 1. The remote material object is constituted by external punishments which can be imposed on a subject for transgression of law; but the proximate object is movements of the appetite for showing vindicative power.

  1. The remote formal object is the reason of debt of mitigating, from sweetness of affection, the punishments which can be imposed on a guilty subject; but the proximate formal object is the special moral goodness shining forth in this mitigation from sweetness of affection (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 157, aa. 1-3).

Clemency

452.

III. Opposed Vices. To clemency by excess is opposed cruelty, by which, from atrocity of soul, a greater punishment is exacted than right reason prescribes (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 159, a. 1); but by defect, excessive leniency, by which punishment is mitigated beyond the prescription of right reason.

Clemency