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THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY (Concluded) V. THE PLACE oF HuMILITY AMONG THE VmTUEs In a previous installment* we have endeavored to give a clear idea of humility itself. It remains to correlate it with the other virtues, to determine its place and rank among them, and its similarities to several of them. We know that it inheres in the will and influences especially the lower irascible appetite; but what is its exact position? Is it an intellectual, theological, or moral virtue? If moral, is it cardinal, or merely reducible to one of the cardinal virtues? And if the last hypothesis be true, is it a subjective, integral, or potential part of that cardinal virtue? We can discard at once the possibility that humility is an intellectual virtue. Despite the peculiar intellectual preparation it requires due to its dependence on self-knowledge, its function is to moderate the passion and affection of hope. It pertains essentially not to the cognoscitive but to the appetitive side of the soul. But is it theological? It is the formal motive which gives rise to this question. Subjection to God out of reverence for Him seems allied to the motives of the theological virtues/35 which by their objects reach out to God and touch Him. As charity loves God because of His infinite goodness, as faith believes in God because of His infinite veracity and infallibility, so humility subjects itself to God because of His infinite authority as Creator, Provider, Uplifter, and Redeemer of man. *THE THOMIST, Vol. VII, No. 2 (April 1944), pp. 185 ff. 185 Cf. IV Sent., d. 88, q. 8, a. 8, ad 6: " ... humilitas videtur virtutibus [theologicis ] propinquissirna esse, quia per earn homo se ex reverentia Deo subjicit, et per consequens alii propter Deurn. . .. " 363 364 SEBASTIAN CARLSON On close inspection, the argument loses all its force. Humility , indeed," regards principally the reverence by which one is subjected to God." 136 Yet this is its formal motive, not the formal object, which is not God Himself as in the case of the theological virtues, but the moderation of the irascible appetite in its elan toward the excellent. Moreover, the formal motive of humility, if one considers it carefully, is not the divine authority itself, i.e., God as He is infinitely superior to His creatures, but rather the reverence which He inspires, the obligation which the soul feels to follow His guidance. Hence lowliness of heart is not one of the theological virtues, since ,neither its object nor its motive attains God Himself. Surely humility ought to be ranked, then, on the next lower grade, for the praises accorded it by the Fathers and Doctors, and the titles with which they grace it, seem to imply that it is as indispensable as the cardinal or princip'al virtues themselves . It is called the foundation of the spiritual life, the root and cause of all the virtues, their mother, nurse, and chaperon. Its role in the Redemption is unique. As Augustine says, " The entire life of Christ on earth, through the humanity he deigned to assume, was an instruction in right living." 137 But it was His humility that He proposed esp~cially for our imitation, saying, " Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart." 138 And Gregory 139 says that " the keynote of our redemption is found to be the humility of God." 140 Thomas did not hesitate to write that " the whole New Law consists in two things: in humility and meekness." 141 Judged 136 "Humilitas enim praecipue respicit reverentiam, qua quis subjicitur Deo."Art . 4, arg. 1. 131 De vera religione, Cap. XVI, 32. M L 34, 135. 138 Matt., xi, 29. 139 Liber regulae pastoralis, III, Cap. XVII (Admonit. XVIII) . M L 77, 78 B. 100 " Sicut Augustinus dicit, ' tota vita Christi in terris, per hominem quem suscipere dignatus est, disciplina morum fuit.' Sed praecipue humilitatem suam imitandam proposuit, dicens, 'Discite a_me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde.' Et Gregorius dicit quod 'argumentum redemptionis nostrae inventa est humilitas Dei.' "-Art. 5, arg. 4. 101 We give the whole passage: "Et quid est illud: 'Discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde ' ? Tota...

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