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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow QUESTION CLI.: OF CHASTITY. - Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2)

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Subject Area: Philosophy
Subject Area: Religion

QUESTION CLI.: OF CHASTITY. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2 (Summa Theologica - Secunda Secundae Pt.2) [1274]

Edition used:

Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas. A Translation of the Principal Portions of the Second part of the Summa Theologica, with Notes by Joseph Rickaby, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, 1892).

Part of: Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, 2 vols.

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QUESTION CLI.

OF CHASTITY.

Article I.

§ 1. Chastity resides in the soul as in its subject, but the matter thereof is in the body. For it belongs to chastity that, according to the judgment of reason and the choice of the will, a person should use with moderation the bodily members.

Article II.—Is chastity a general virtue?

R. The name of chastity is taken in two ways: in one way properly, and in that way it is a special virtue having a special matter, namely the desires of sexual pleasure. In another way, the name of chastity is taken metaphorically. For as it is in the union of bodies that sexual pleasure consists, which is the proper matter of chastity and of the opposite vice of luxury, so in the spiritual union of the mind with certain objects there arises a delight, which is the matter of a spiritual chastity, metaphorically so called, or of a spiritual fornication, also metaphorically so called. For where the mind of man takes delight in spiritual union with that object with which it ought to be united, namely with God, and abstains from the delight of union with other objects contrary to the due requirement of divine order, such delight and such abstinence is called spiritual chastity, according to the text: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”1 But if, contrary to the due requirement of divine order, the mind takes delight in a union with other objects, it will be called spiritual fornication, according to the text: “Thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers.”2 And taking it in this way, chastity is a general virtue, because by every virtue the mind of man is withdrawn from the delight of union with unlawful objects.

Article IV.—Does modesty belong specially to chastity?

R. Modesty is especially concerned with the signs of sexual affection, as looks, kisses, and touches; but chastity regards rather the sexual act itself. And therefore modesty is referred to chastity, not as a virtue distinct from it, but as the expression of a circumstance of chastity. Sometimes however one is put for the other.

[1 ]2 Cor. xi. 2.

[2 ]Jerem. iii. 1.