The Positions Compared: Fortitude and the Vices Against It

Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.

The virtues: Faith · Hope · Charity · Prudence · Justice · Fortitude · Temperance

Every point on which our authors part ways about fortitude and the vices against it, as the comparison notes of the Virtues and Vices pages set them out, each set out here as its sides, with each author of this library who answers it placed on his side in his own words. St. Alphonsus has a column of his own: his Theologia moralis is not yet in this library, so his opinion is given as our authors report it, and where two of them report it differently, both reports are shown. The counts are of the authors in this library, whose shelf is not evenly balanced: it holds more Jesuits than any other school.

In the table, a letter is the side an author takes; ± means he sets out both without choosing; a blank means the fuller entry does not place him. Each point opens below, with every author quoted and linked.

Point	St. Thomas	St. Alphonsus	Thomist			Franciscan	Alphonsian		Jesuit
Point	St. Thomas	St. Alphonsus	Prümmer	Merkelbach	McHugh-Callan	Bontempi	Marc	Wouters	Noldin	Vermeersch
Which Side of the Mean
Timidity and daring	A		C	B					A	B
Impatience and insensibility			B	A				A
Fearlessness: by excess or defect	A			B			B		A	B
Whether daring has a contrary deficiency	A		A	A	B	B			B
What a Thing Is or Requires
Whether martyrdom requires death	A		A	A		A		B	B
Martyrdom: first grace by the work done, or with contrition			A			B			A
Fortitude: its parts integral or potential								B
Where It Belongs
Capital vice, or daughter of pride	A			A				B	B
The chief vice against perseverance	A		A			B
How Many
Daughters of vainglory	A							C	B
An eighth daughter of vainglory	A					B
Ways ambition is inordinate	A			B		A
Vices opposed to patience				A		B
One Word, Two Senses
Vanity					B				A
Perseverance and constancy	B			B					A

Which Side of the Mean

Timidity and daring

A. Measured by fear: timidity by excess, fearlessness by defect

St. Thomas: “by excess of fear” (II-II, q. 126, a. 2)
Noldin (n. 277)

B. Measured by firmness: timidity by defect, fearlessness by excess

Merkelbach (II, n. 912)
Vermeersch: “timidity and sloth” (n. 713)

C. Timidity and cowardice one vice

Prümmer (II, n. 638)

Held by most of our authors: B (B 2, A 1, C 1). The fuller entry.

Impatience and insensibility

A. Impatience by defect, insensibility by excess

Wouters (n. 428)
Merkelbach (II, n. 926)

B. Insensibility by defect (of sadness), impatience by excess of sadness

Prümmer: “By excess (of sadness, but by defect of endurance)” (II, n. 641)

They agree on the vices and differ only in what they measure.

Held by most of our authors: A (A 2, B 1). The fuller entry.

Fearlessness: by excess or defect

A. By defect (of fear)

St. Thomas: “by deficiency of fear” (II-II, q. 126, a. 2)
Noldin: “by defect” (n. 277)

B. By excess (of fortitude)

Merkelbach (II, n. 911)
Marc — named on this side in the fuller entry
Vermeersch — named on this side in the fuller entry

Held by most of our authors: B (B 3, A 1). The fuller entry.

Whether daring has a contrary deficiency

A. No contrary deficiency but timidity (cowardice is another name for it)

St. Thomas: “has no contrary deficiency, save only timidity” (II-II, q. 127, a. 2, ad 3)
Prümmer — named on this side in the fuller entry
Merkelbach — named on this side in the fuller entry

B. Cowardice, a vice of falling short in daring

Noldin (n. 277)
McHugh-Callan — named on this side in the fuller entry
Bontempi (On the vices opposed to fortitude, n. 8)

Held by most of our authors: B (B 3, A 2). The fuller entry.

What a Thing Is or Requires

Whether martyrdom requires death

A. Martyrdom in the strict sense requires death

St. Thomas: “the perfect notion of martyrdom requires that a man suffer death” (II-II, q. 124, a. 4)
Prümmer: “is not to be called a martyr in the strict sense” (II, n. 623)
Merkelbach: “have the merit of martyrdom” (II, n. 908)
Bontempi: “for the perfect notion of Martyrdom it is required that one endure death for Christ” (On martyrdom, n. 21)

B. Death need not follow

Noldin: “It is not required that death actually follow,” (n. 280)
Wouters: “according to the more common opinion it is not demanded that death in fact follow” (n. 418)

Held by most of our authors: A (A 3, B 2). The fuller entry.

Martyrdom: first grace by the work done, or with contrition

A. It gives first grace by the work done; attrition suffices

Prümmer: “as though ex opere operato” (II, n. 624)
Noldin: “perfect contrition is not required, but that attrition suffices” (n. 281)

Also named on this side: Soto, Bellarmine, Suarez, Lessius, as Bontempi reports (Whether martyrdom confers first gr, n. 1).

B. Not by the work done: one in mortal sin needs contrition

Bontempi: “Martyrdom has not the power of conferring first grace ex opere operato” (Whether martyrdom confers first gr, n. 4)

Also named on this side: St. Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales, St. Thomas, Vasquez, as Bontempi reports (Whether martyrdom confers first gr, n. 1).

Held by most of our authors: A (A 2, B 1). The fuller entry.

Fortitude: its parts integral or potential

A. The same four virtues are integral and potential parts

B. Integral when restricted to fortitude's matter, distinct virtues in lesser matters

Wouters: “are restricted to the proper matter of fortitude” (n. 419)

All five give the same four; Wouters follows St. Thomas most closely.

One author of this library answers it (B 1). The fuller entry.

Where It Belongs

Capital vice, or daughter of pride

A. A capital vice, next under pride

St. Thomas
Merkelbach — named on this side in the fuller entry

B. A daughter of pride

Noldin (n. 336)
Wouters (n. 303)

Held by most of our authors: B (B 2, A 1). The fuller entry.

The chief vice against perseverance

A. Softness (effeminacy, inconstancy) is the chief vice by defect

St. Thomas
Prümmer: “softness or inconstancy” (II, n. 642)

B. Obstinacy is the chief vice opposed to perseverance

Bontempi: “the chief vice opposed to Perseverance” (On the vices opposed to perseveran, n. 1)

Our authors are evenly divided (A 1, B 1). The fuller entry.

How Many

Daughters of vainglory

A. St. Thomas's seven daughters

St. Thomas

B. No daughters; three ways it shows itself

Noldin (n. 336)

C. The seven as ways of sinning, not daughters

Wouters (n. 303)

Our authors are evenly divided (B 1, C 1). The fuller entry.

An eighth daughter of vainglory

A. Seven daughters

St. Thomas

B. Eight, adding incontinence

Bontempi (On the vices opposed to magnanimit, n. 8)

One author of this library answers it (B 1). The fuller entry.

Ways ambition is inordinate

A. Three ways

St. Thomas (II-II, q. 131, a. 1)
Bontempi — named on this side in the fuller entry

B. Four, adding honor sought for a blameworthy thing

Merkelbach: “for a blameworthy thing, as for sin or for a thing acquired by sin” (II, n. 918)

Our authors are evenly divided (A 1, B 1). The fuller entry.

Vices opposed to patience

A. Insensibility (hardness) is opposed by the other extreme

Merkelbach: “consonant neither with human nature nor with social life” (II, n. 926)

B. No vice by defect is commonly assigned

Bontempi: “no vice opposed to patience by defect is commonly assigned, because the more lightly adversities are borne, the more it is held worthy of praise” (On the vices opposed to patience, n. 3)

Our authors are evenly divided (A 1, B 1). The fuller entry.

One Word, Two Senses

Vanity

A. One kind of vainglory: praise sought from lesser goods

Noldin: “from goods of lesser moment” (n. 336)

B. Vainglory itself

McHugh-Callan (n. 2450)

Our authors are evenly divided (A 1, B 1). The fuller entry.

Perseverance and constancy

A. One part, under two names

Noldin: “perseverance or constancy” (n. 278)

B. Two, differing by what makes persisting difficult

St. Thomas: “differ as to those things which make it difficult to persist in good” (II-II, q. 137, a. 3)
Merkelbach (II, n. 930)

Our authors are evenly divided (A 1, B 1). The fuller entry.