HKB
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Often appears with: pride, vanity, and humility · justice as a virtue · flattery and deceit · wastefulness · vice opposed to meanness · truth vs flattery · treaty and league articles · the passions and the emotions · religious persecution and toleration · religious dress · pertinacity · persevering in opinions
Usually: argument (3) · censure (3) · narrative (1) · reflection (1) · injustice endured (1) · curiosity (1) · detachment (1) · exhortation (1) · indignation (1)
“As Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. iii, 12), "in all external things, it is not the use but the intention of the user that is at fault.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) · insight
“But I pray you heartily, tell me the very truth.” And that he spake so heartily that the other thought he would fain have heard the truth, and in that trust he told him a fault in the treaty. And at the hearing of it he swore in great anger, "By the mass, thou art a very fool!” Sir Thomas More, Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation · observation
“I pray thee, good fellow, when thou sayest grace at my board, never bring in a *Gloria Patri* without a *sicut erat.* Any act that ever I did, if thou report it again to mine honour with a *Gloria Patri,* never report it but with a *sicut erat*--that is, even as it was and none otherwise.” Sir Thomas More, Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation · precept
Thomas explains that the goodness of willing “means” depends on intending the “end”: an act is good when ordered to God, and bad when caused by an evil intention like vainglory.
the goodness of the will depends on the goodness of the thing willed, as stated above (AA. 1, 2), it must, of necessity, depend on the intention of the end. On the other hand, intention follows the act of the will, when it is added to a preceding act of the will; for instance, a man may will to do something, and may afterwards refer it to God. And then the goodness of the previous act of the will does not depend on …
He explains that a vice is indeed opposed to meanness, identified as wastefulness that spends more than the work merits, and he distinguishes this from the mean and from magnificence in both act and end.
that there is no vice opposed to meanness. For great is opposed to little. Now, magnificence is not a vice, but a virtue. Therefore no vice is opposed to meanness. Obj. 2: Further, since meanness is a vice by deficiency, as stated above (A. 1), it seems that if any vice is opposed to meanness, it would merely consist in excessive spending. But those who spend much, where they ought to spend little, spend little wher…
Thomas discusses pertinacity as a bad persistence tied to vainglory, arguing it is not opposed to perseverance but is opposed to it by exceeding the mean.
xxxi) that pertinacity arises from vainglory. But vainglory is not opposed to perseverance but to magnanimity, as stated above (Q. 132, A. 2). Therefore pertinacity is not opposed to perseverance. Obj. 2: Further, if it is opposed to perseverance, this is so either by excess or by deficiency. Now it is not opposed by excess: because the pertinacious also yield to certain pleasure and sorrow, since according to the P…
Aquinas addresses whether religious may wear coarser clothes, arguing objections based on avoiding “evil appearance” and excess, then concluding that intention matters and coarse apparel can signify penance and contempt of worldly glory.
Obj. 3: Further, religious should aim especially at doing works of penance. Now in works of penance we should use, not outward signs of sorrow, but rather signs of joy; for our Lord said (Matt. 6:16): "When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad," and afterwards He added: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face." Augustine commenting on these words (De Serm. Dom. in Monte ii, 12): "In this c…
Vincent argues flatterers please vainglorious rulers because they prefer being commended over being amended, then tells how the same prelate angrily rejected a truthful critique of a treaty.
ANTHONY: Surely, cousin, as Terence saith, such folk make men of fools even stark mad. And much cause have their lords to be right angry with them. VINCENT: God hath indeed, and is, I daresay. But as for their lords, uncle, if they would afterward wax angry with them for it, they would, to my mind, do them very great wrong. For it is one of the things that they specially keep them for. For those who are of such vai…