Fortitude
123. The Virtue of Fortitude
1. We speak of fortitude as a virtue. In another place we shall discuss the gift of the Holy Ghost which has the same name. Fortitude is the virtue which enables a person to withstand the greatest difficulties that block him from attaining his true goal.
2. It is the special business of fortitude to stand up to grave difficulties and dangers. Since it has a special business, a special aim and purpose, it serves good in a special way, and is a special virtue. This means that fortitude is specifically distinct from other virtues, and is a clear-cut virtue on its own account.
3. Fortitude puts down the paralysis of fear that would keep a person from facing up to danger. On the other hand, it moderates daring or courage which, without it, might lead a man to wildly impulsive and ineffective action.
4. In strictest interpretation of its meaning, fortitude is the virtue of bravely facing the danger of death. A man capable of meeting with fortitude this greatest of dangers is not daunted by lesser perils.
5. Therefore, fortitude is a soldierly virtue which faces danger of death in defense of a just cause, whether in actual war, or in the warring we wage in daily life against the enemies of our soul and its salvation. Fortitude is the hero's virtue, the martyr's virtue; it faces death bravely in spite of inner fears. Fortitude strengthens the soldier in war; fortitude helps a man practice religion in the face of derision and persecution; fortitude enables a person to care for the sick or to bury the dead in spite of the serious risk of deadly infection.
6. The chief act of fortitude is that of enduring, of bearing up, of seeing the business through. It is not alone the virtue of coming to grips with danger; it is also the holding on.
7. The brave man cherishes fortitude as something good in itself, and he strives to have it, to preserve it, and to manifest it in action when occasion calls for its exercise.
8. The man of fortitude has delight of soul in his strong endurance for good. Yet he must bear threat and hardship, pain, and perhaps death; in these trials, as such, there is no delight, but sorrow.
9. Fortitude is a virtue which meets danger as it comes, and often it comes suddenly and without warning. But fortitude endures because it is seated in the soul as a habit, and therefore it involves long forethought and preparation by which a man is made ready for sudden assaults.
10. Into the action of a brave man under the stress of attack and serious danger, there enters an element of anger; not immoderate, but moderate anger.
11. Fortitude is a fundamental or cardinal virtue. It is an aid to every other virtue as a bulwark of steadfastness, and helps other virtues attain their ends despite what blocks and deters them.
12. Fortitude is a great and necessary virtue, but it is not the most excellent of all. Of the four cardinal virtues, the descending order of excellence is as follows: prudence is first, justice second, fortitude third, and temperance fourth.
124. Martyrdom
1. The Greek word martyr means a witness. A martyr, then, in the meaning of a person who dies for the faith, is one who bears witness to the truth, and will not withdraw his testimony even though it cost him his life. Martyrdom is an act of virtue standing firm for truth and justice against all persecution.
2. The virtue of which martyrdom is an act is the virtue of fortitude. Some have said that martyrdom for the faith is an act of faith; some have called martyrdom an act of love for truth; some have considered martyrdom an act of the virtue of patience. But the real essence of martyrdom is its enduring with faith, love, and patience, the terrors and pains of deadly persecution. Therefore, primarily, martyrdom is an act of fortitude.
3. Indeed, charity or love for the cause for which a martyr suffers, is so prominent a feature of martyrdom that it makes it an act of the greatest perfection. Fortitude is not, in itself, the most excellent of virtues, and yet this act of fortitude is a most excellent act. This is so because martyrdom is suffused with charity which, as scripture says (Col. 3:14), is "the bond of perfection."
4. Martyrdom, in completeness and perfection, consists in suffering death for the sake of a cause. Christian martyrdom is dying for the sake of Christ. For, until death has ended all his acts, a man has not given full and complete demonstration of his unshakable endurance and his unchanging will.
5. All the virtuous acts of a Christian are professions of his faith. Therefore, all the virtues from which the virtuous acts come may be assigned, each in turn, as the causes of martyrdom. For a person can, under persecution, be called upon to suffer death as the alternative for clinging steadfastly to any one of the Christian virtues. Yet, in every case, it is the faith which the virtue represents that is the chief target of attack. Hence, we may say that the faith, or the truth of the faith, is the cause of the act of martyrdom in the martyr.
125. Timidity or Cowardliness
1. Sin puts disorder into human acts. Now, fear which is ordinate, and in line with right reason, helps a man shun what he ought to shun; this is a good fear, not a sinful fear. Indeed, when such ordinate fear is imparted as a supernatural dower to the soul, it is called the gift of fear; it is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. But inordinate fear leads a man to avoid what virtue requires him to face and endure. This is the sinful fear called cowardice or timidity.
2. Fear shrinks from what is apprehended as evil, and especially from the physical evil of death. Fortitude stands up to such evils. It is evident, therefore, that sinful fear stands opposed to the virtue of fortitude.
3. Sinful fear is often a venial sin. But it can be a mortal sin. It is mortal sin when it makes a man ready to violate divine law in serious matters in order to escape what is feared. Thus the fear that leads a man to deny the faith rather than endure martyrdom, is a mortally sinful fear.
4. Yet fear diminishes a man's responsibility somewhat, and, to that extent, excuses from sin. For fear is a stress which bears on the will and hampers its free choice. What is done from a motive of fear, however great, is indeed simply voluntary, but at the same time is in some sense involuntary, since it would not be done except for the stress of fear. Hence, an act done through fear is a mixture of voluntary and involuntary. But it is voluntary enough to make a man responsible, even for mortal sin.
126 Insensibility to Fear
1. If a man, from lack of love, or from pride, should be wholly without fear in any circumstance, he would be guilty of an evil. Such insensibility is in conflict with reason. If, however, insensibility comes merely from dullness of mind, which is not a man's own fault, it is not a sinful insensibility.
2. Insensibility to fear is opposed to fortitude. The virtue of fortitude regulates or moderates fear, so that a man faces grave danger in spite of it. But insensibility is a dullness, stupidity, or pride which has no fear to regulate. Fortitude faces dangers; to insensibility, there are no dangers.
127. Foolhardiness
1. Foolhardiness consists in action that is overbold, unreasonably daring. It is in conflict with reason, and hence is an evil or sin.
2. Foolhardiness sins against the virtue of fortitude by excess. It is not a reasonable, and even heroic, enduring of danger, but a foolish and unreasonable rushing into dangers that need not be encountered. Fortitude regulates fears and impulses in the face of danger; foolhardiness is ill-regulated and wildly impulsive. Hence foolhardiness conflicts with fortitude.
128. THE PARTS OF FORTITUDE
1. The parts of a virtue are its subsidiary or associated virtues; that is, virtues aligned with it, but not coextensive with it. The parts of fortitude are listed by Cicero (De Inv. Rhet. iii) as: (a) magnificence, or lofty undertaking, with noble purpose of mind; (b) confidence, or firm hope in the undertaking; (c) patience, or prolonged endurance for virtue's sake; (d) perseverance, or fixed persistence in a well-considered purpose.
129. Magnanimity
1. Magnanimity (which literally means large-mindedness), is a kind of stretching forth of the mind to great deeds. Now, an act or a deed is great, either (a) when it is the best use of the best things, and this is absolute greatness; or (b) when it is the very good use of a lesser thing, and this is proportional greatness.
2. Among external things, high and true honors are the best. With respect to possessing these honors and manifesting them nobly, man is said to be magnanimous.
3. Magnanimity shows itself in greatness of courage for obtaining or defending what is noble and honorable. It is a reasonable, regulated, and settled habit of mind; hence, it is a virtue.
4. Honor is the reward of every virtue, and therefore magnanimity has a reference to all the virtues. Yet it is a special virtue, for it focuses upon a special phase of good.
5. Magnanimity accords with fortitude in strengthening the mind and will to endure difficulty in view of a noble end. Thus magnanimity is a part of fortitude.
6. Cicero seems to indicate magnanimity when he assigns confidence as a part of fortitude. Confidence is a firm trust or hope in an assurance given, whether by the word of a man, or by the condition of affairs. Since confidence means strong hope that good will be attained despite difficulties, it is a noble expectation that appears to belong to magnanimity.
7. Security is not the same as confidence; security denotes freedom from care and fear; it consists in being strong against worry, and enemies, and misfortune. Thus, security belongs directly to fortitude, whereas confidence belongs directly to magnanimity and, through magnanimity, to fortitude.
8. In so far as goods of fortune (riches, power, friends) are honorable in themselves and are apt instruments for virtuous uses, these goods are conducive to magnanimity.
130. Presumption
1. Presumption, as we use the word here, means the immoderate and unreasonable assuming that one can do what actually lies beyond one's power to perform. Since presumption conflicts with reason, it is sinful.
2. Presumption is an evil opposed to magnanimity. For magnanimity is greatness of mind and purpose for honorable achievement which, however difficult, lies within a person's power to attain. But presumption reaches with ill-founded confidence for what lies beyond its power to grasp.
131. Ambition
1. Desire for honors is good when it includes recognition that what is truly honorable is from God, and that the honor itself is ultimately to be referred to God. Now, the desire for honors which a man wishes for himself without referring them to God, is sinful ambition.
2. Sinful ambition is opposed to the virtue of magnanimity, because the desire or love of honors, which magnanimity regulates, is manifested without regulation in ambition.
132. Vainglory
1. Glory, in the present use of the term, means praise that is given to excellence displayed. Such praise may be from many persons, or from few, or from one, or even from oneself. Now, glory can be vain in three ways: (a) when it is praise for something unworthy; (b) when it is praise given by unworthy persons; (c) when it is praise unrelated to God directly, or indirectly as contributing to the spiritual good of man. For any of these reasons, glory is called vainglory. Vainglory is manifestly an inordinateness, and is therefore a sin.
2. Magnanimity refers to honors, and glory is an effect of honor; thus true glory falls into the field of magnanimity. Therefore vainglory, the opposite of true glory, is an evil opposed to magnanimity.
3. It is possible for vainglory to be a serious sin, but, for the most part, it is a venial sin. In itself, it is not necessarily opposed to charity. When, accidentally, it is brought into conflict with charity, it is a mortal sin.
4. Vainglory is not mentioned in the list of capital sins. Yet St. Gregory (Moral. xxxi) names it with pride. He says that pride is the greatest vice and is found in all sins, but that vainglory is an immediate offspring of pride, and should be named as one of the capital sins.
5. St. Gregory further says that vainglory, as a capital sin, gives direct rise to disobedience, boastfulness, hypocrisy, contention, obstinacy, discord, and the craze for what is new. These vices, St. Gregory calls "the daughters of vainglory."
133. Faintheartedness or Pusillanimity
1. Faintheartedness or pusillanimity is a culpable disposition to refuse to face up to situations of difficulty that one might well handle and overcome. By presumption, a man takes on more than he can handle; by faintheartedness, a man refuses to do what he can. This faintheartedness is a sin. The servant who buried his one talent because he was too fainthearted to engage in trade with it, was punished, as for a sin (Matt., chap. 15).
134. Magnificence
1. The word magnificence which is commonly used to mean rich display, really means "doing great things." In this literal meaning, magnificence is a virtue.
2. Magnificence not only means the perfection of other virtues, but it is a special virtue itself. For magnificence has a special aspect of goodness in view, namely, the doing of something great-in quantity, quality, value, dignity-and thus it is specified as a virtue.
3. In external great works, magnificence requires large expenditure of money. Aristotle (Ethic. iv 2) says that magnificence, unlike liberality, does not belong to all uses of money, but only to the larger transactions. In splendid external matters, magnificence regulates the outlay of money: on the one hand, it curbs the love of money which would scamp the work; on the other hand, it prevents mere garish display. Thus it worthily meets the high demands of a truly great external work.
4. As a virtue, magnificence is allied with fortitude. For while magnificence does not face up to danger, it does face up to difficulty. It demands the difficult surrender of large amounts of one's possessions; it demands a lot of money.
135. Meanness or Littleness
1. Magnificence aspires to great things and does not shrink from paying for them. Yet it is not foolish, nor over-lavish, nor wasteful; for it is a virtue, and therefore an ordinate thing, a thing in good relation to reason. Opposed to this virtue of magnificence is the vice of littleness or meanness. This vice either (a) aspires to little things only, when greater should be attempted; or (b) exercises a pinchpenny care which refuses to noble enterprise its full greatness of execution.
2. Magnificence, to which littleness or meanness is opposed, is not the direct contrary of this vice. For magnificence stands between two opposed vices, namely, meanness on the one hand, and wastefulness or prodigality on the other. A mean man spends less than his undertaking is worth; a wasteful man spends more than the work deserves.
136. Patience
1. Patience is the virtue by which a man bears up against the evils that tend to make him sad and to break his spirit. St. Augustine (De Patientia 1) says that patience is a virtue, and a great gift of God.
2. In estimating the relative excellence of virtues, we say, first of all, that those virtues which actively incline a man to do good are greater than those which incline him to avoid evil. And, among the virtues inclining a person to avoid evil, those are greater which check the greatest and strongest impulse to evil. On these considerations, we see that patience is not the greatest of virtues. Patience ranks after the theological virtues, and after the cardinal virtues.
3. Patience, as a virtue, comes from love or charity; that is, from the grace and friendship of God. We speak, of course, of supernatural patience. For patience is possible only when the soul loves something good with a love strong enough to make it bear up under oppressing evils. Patience cannot be a perfect virtue unless "the love of God above all" is its core and essence.
4. Patience, as the suffering "with untroubled mind, the evils inflicted by others," is a virtue aligned with fortitude, and it is called a part of fortitude.
5. We bear by patience the heavy trials of life. We bear by long-suffering or longanimity continued, long enduring evils. In both virtues, our strong and steady effort manifests constancy. Thus, longsuffering and constancy have much in common with patience. But they are not wholly identified with it.
137. Perseverance
1. Perseverance is the virtue which disposes a person to hold steadily to a good purpose, keeping the end steadily in view, despite delays, fatigue, and temptations to indifference.
2. Perseverance is a part of the virtue of fortitude.
3. Constancy and perseverance agree in point of steadfastness. But these are not identical virtues. Constancy stands firm against stresses external to the virtue practiced; perseverance stands firm under the weariness that comes from the effort of the virtue itself.
4. Perseverance as a supernatural virtue requires grace. And as the act of "persevering unto the end in Christ," perseverance is a special and freely bestowed gift of God.
138. Vices Opposed to Perseverance
1. Opposed to perseverance is the vice of softness or effeminacy, which tends to give way under the effort of sustained virtue, even when the stress is slight. Effeminacy takes no joy in good, and quickly wearies of it.
2. Also opposed to perseverance is pertinacity, which is the vice of headstrong, stubborn, opinionated people who want their own way rather than what is right, and who wish to humble and defeat their opponents. While effeminacy falls short of perseverance, and sins by defect or deficiency, pertinacity runs ahead of perseverance and sins by excess. Cicero (De Inv. Rhet. ii) says that pertinacity is to perseverance as superstition is to religion.
139. The Gift of Fortitude
1. We have considered fortitude as a virtue. We are to speak of fortitude now as one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Fortitude as a virtue disposes a person to firmness in good, despite great dangers. Fortitude as a gift of God moves a man to steadfastness in perils, and gives him confident hope of eternal fife at the last. The gift makes the exercise of the virtue easier, richer, more confident.
2. The gift of fortitude moves man to virtuous living, which is difficult, and gives him a spiritual desire for "the works of justice" (as virtuous deeds in general are called). This spiritual desire is comparable to the bodily desire of a man for food and drink. Thus, the gift of fortitude stands in correspondence with the fourth beatitude (Matt. 5:6): "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice."
140. The Precepts of Fortitude
1. All divine laws which direct man towards heaven are precepts of fortitude inasmuch as the way to heaven is beset with temptations and dangers that a man must steadfastly overcome.
2. The virtues annexed to fortitude-patience, perseverance, magnanimity, constancy-involve laws of virtuous procedure in the face of hardships and perils, and are thus precepts of fortitude.