Whether Contention Is a Daughter of Vainglory?
Objection 1: It would seem that contention is not a daughter of
vainglory. For contention is akin to zeal, wherefore it is written (1
Cor. 3:3): "Whereas there is among you zeal [Douay: 'envying'] and
contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to men?" Now zeal
pertains to envy. Therefore contention arises rather from envy.
Obj. 2: Further, contention is accompanied by raising of the voice.
But the voice is raised on account of anger, as Gregory declares
(Moral. xxxi, 14). Therefore contention too arises from anger.
Obj. 3: Further, among other things knowledge seems to be the matter
of pride and vainglory, according to 1 Cor. 8:1: "Knowledge puffeth
up." Now contention is often due to lack of knowledge, and by
knowledge we do not impugn the truth, we know it. Therefore
contention is not a daughter of vainglory.
On the contrary stands the authority of Gregory (Moral. xxxi, 14).
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 37, A. 2), discord is a daughter
of vainglory, because each of the disaccording parties clings to his
own opinion, rather than acquiesce with the other. Now it is proper
to pride and vainglory to seek one's own glory. And just as people
are discordant when they hold to their own opinion in their hearts,
so are they contentious when each defends his own opinion by words.
Consequently contention is reckoned a daughter of vainglory for the
same reason as discord.
Reply Obj. 1: Contention, like discord, is akin to envy in so far as
a man severs himself from the one with whom he is discordant, or with
whom he contends, but in so far as a contentious man holds to
something, it is akin to pride and vainglory, because, to wit, he
clings to his own opinion, as stated above (Q. 37, A. 2, ad 1).
Reply Obj. 2: The contention of which we are speaking puts on a loud
voice, for the purpose of impugning the truth, so that it is not the
chief part of contention. Hence it does not follow that contention
arises from the same source as the raising of the voice.
Reply Obj. 3: Pride and vainglory are occasioned chiefly by goods
even those that are contrary to them, for instance, when a man is
proud of his humility: for when a thing arises in this way, it does
so not directly but accidentally, in which way nothing hinders one
contrary from arising out of another. Hence there is no reason why
the _per se_ and direct effects of pride or vainglory, should not
result from the contraries of those things which are the occasion of
pride.
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