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[11] Boll., No. 53.
[12] Ibid., p. 671.
[13] Boll., p. 668.
[14] Boll., p. 672.
[15] Ps. xlvii.
[16] Boll., p. 672.
[17] Boll., p. 669.
[18] Ibid., p. 667; cp. Ps. lxx, 20.
[19] Boll., p. 675.
[20] Touron, Vie de S. Thomas d'Aquin, Paris, 1740, p. 353.
[21] Boll., p. 706; cp. p. 665.
[22] Prol. to Ia., IIdæ.
[23] Prol. to III. Pars.
[24] Prol. to IIa., IIdæ.
[25] Prol. to IIa. IIdæ.
[26] Prol. to Qu. CLXXI. of the IIda., IIdæ.
[27] Comment. on IIa., IIæ., cxlviii. 4.
[28] Boll., p. 680.
[29] See Bardenhewer, Patrologie, i. 319.
[30] Smith and Wace, Dict. of Christian Biography, i. 847.
[31] Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina, s.v. Walafridus and Rabanus.
[32] Ibid., s.v. Hugo à S. Caro.
I. Does the Virtue of Religion Direct a Man To God Alone?
S. Augustine, sermon, cccxxxiv. 3
on Psalm lxxvi.
sermon, cccxi. 14-15
IV. Is Religion a Special Virtue Distinct From Others?
V. Is Religion One of the Theological Virtues?
VI. Is Religion To Be Preferred To the Other Moral Virtues?
VII. Has Religion, Or Latria, Any External Acts?
S. Augustine, of Care for the Dead, V.
VIII. Is Religion the Same As Sanctity?
Cardinal Cajetan, on the Distinction Between
Sanctity and Religion
Cicero says[33]: "Religion offers internal and external reverence to that Superior Nature which we term the Divine."
S. Isidore says[34]: "A religious man is, as Cicero remarks, so called from religion, for he is occupied with and, as it were, reads through again and again (relegit) the things that concern Divine worship."[Pg 28] Thus religion seems to be so called from reading again (religendo) things concerning Divine worship; for such things are to be repeatedly revolved in the mind, according to those words of Proverbs iii. 6: In all thy ways think on Him. At the same time religion might be said to be so called because "we ought to choose again (re-eligere) those things which through our negligence we have lost," as S. Augustine has noted.[35] Or perhaps it is better derived from "binding again" (religando); thus S. Augustine says[36]: "Let religion bind us once more to the One Almighty God."
But whether religion be so called from frequent reading, or from fresh election of Him Whom we have negligently lost, or from rebinding, it properly implies a certain relation to God. For it is He to Whom we ought to be especially bound as our indefectible principle; to Him must we assiduously direct our choice as our ultimate end; He it is Whom we negligently lose by sin and Whom we must regain by believing in Him and by professing our faith in Him.
But some deny that religion directs a man to God alone, thus:
1. S. James says[37]: Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation; and to keep oneself unspotted from this world. But to visit the fatherless and widows indicates relation to our neighbour, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world[Pg 29] refers to ourselves. Hence religion is not confined to our relationship with God.
But religion has two sorts of acts. Some belong to it properly and immediately, those acts, namely, which it elicits and by which man is directed to God alone, as, for instance, to offer Him sacrifice, to adore Him, etc.
But there are other acts which religion produces through the medium of the virtues which it controls, directing them, that is, towards reverence to God; for that virtue which is concerned with the end directs those virtues which have to do with the means to the end. And in this sense to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation is said to be an act of religion because commanded by it, though actually elicited by the virtue of mercy. Similarly to keep oneself unspotted from this world is an act commanded by religion, though elicited by temperance or some other virtue.
