Whether Sedition Is a Special Sin Distinct from Other Sins?
Objection 1: It would seem that sedition is not a special sin
distinct from other sins. For, according to Isidore (Etym. x), "a
seditious man is one who sows dissent among minds, and begets
discord." Now, by provoking the commission of a sin, a man sins by no
other kind of sin than that which he provoked. Therefore it seems
that sedition is not a special sin distinct from discord.
Obj. 2: Further, sedition denotes a kind of division. Now schism
takes its name from scission, as stated above (Q. 39, A. 1).
Therefore, seemingly, the sin of sedition is not distinct from that
of schism.
Obj. 3: Further, every special sin that is distinct from other sins,
is either a capital vice, or arises from some capital vice. Now
sedition is reckoned neither among the capital vices, nor among those
vices which arise from them, as appears from Moral. xxxi, 45, where
both kinds of vice are enumerated. Therefore sedition is not a
special sin, distinct from other sins.
_On the contrary,_ Seditions are mentioned as distinct from other
sins (2 Cor. 12:20).
_I answer that,_ Sedition is a special sin, having something in
common with war and strife, and differing somewhat from them. It has
something in common with them, in so far as it implies a certain
antagonism, and it differs from them in two points. First, because
war and strife denote actual aggression on either side, whereas
sedition may be said to denote either actual aggression, or the
preparation for such aggression. Hence a gloss on 2 Cor. 12:20 says
that "seditions are tumults tending to fight," when, to wit, a number
of people make preparations with the intention of fighting. Secondly,
they differ in that war is, properly speaking, carried on against
external foes, being as it were between one people and another,
whereas strife is between one individual and another, or between few
people on one side and few on the other side, while sedition, in its
proper sense, is between mutually dissentient parts of one people, as
when one part of the state rises in tumult against another part.
Wherefore, since sedition is opposed to a special kind of good,
namely the unity and peace of a people, it is a special kind of sin.
Reply Obj. 1: A seditious man is one who incites others to sedition,
and since sedition denotes a kind of discord, it follows that a
seditious man is one who creates discord, not of any kind, but
between the parts of a multitude. And the sin of sedition is not only
in him who sows discord, but also in those who dissent from one
another inordinately.
Reply Obj. 2: Sedition differs from schism in two respects. First,
because schism is opposed to the spiritual unity of the multitude,
viz. ecclesiastical unity, whereas sedition is contrary to the
temporal or secular unity of the multitude, for instance of a city or
kingdom. Secondly, schism does not imply any preparation for a
material fight as sedition does, but only for a spiritual dissent.
Reply Obj. 3: Sedition, like schism, is contained under discord,
since each is a kind of discord, not between individuals, but between
the parts of a multitude.
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