Whether Obedience Is a Special Virtue?
Objection 1: It seems that obedience is not a special virtue. For
disobedience is contrary to obedience. But disobedience is a general
sin, because Ambrose says (De Parad. viii) that "sin is to disobey
the divine law." Therefore obedience is not a special virtue.
Obj. 2: Further, every special virtue is either theological or moral.
But obedience is not a theological virtue, since it is not comprised
under faith, hope or charity. Nor is it a moral virtue, since it does
not hold the mean between excess and deficiency, for the more
obedient one is the more is one praised. Therefore obedience is not a
special virtue.
Obj. 3: Further, Gregory says (Moral. xxxv) that "obedience is the
more meritorious and praiseworthy, the less it holds its own." But
every special virtue is the more to be praised the more it holds its
own, since virtue requires a man to exercise his will and choice, as
stated in _Ethic._ ii, 4. Therefore obedience is not a special virtue.
Obj. 4: Further, virtues differ in species according to their
objects. Now the object of obedience would seem to be the command of
a superior, of which, apparently, there are as many kinds as there
are degrees of superiority. Therefore obedience is a general virtue,
comprising many special virtues.
_On the contrary,_ obedience is reckoned by some to be a part of
justice, as stated above (Q. 80).
_I answer that,_ A special virtue is assigned to all good deeds that
have a special reason of praise: for it belongs properly to virtue to
render a deed good. Now obedience to a superior is due in accordance
with the divinely established order of things, as shown above (A. 1),
and therefore it is a good, since good consists in mode, species and
order, as Augustine states (De Natura Boni iii) [*Cf. First Part, Q.
5, A. 5]. Again, this act has a special aspect of praiseworthiness by
reason of its object. For while subjects have many obligations
towards their superiors, this one, that they are bound to obey their
commands, stands out as special among the rest. Wherefore obedience
is a special virtue, and its specific object is a command tacit or
express, because the superior's will, however it become known, is a
tacit precept, and a man's obedience seems to be all the more prompt,
forasmuch as by obeying he forestalls the express command as soon as
he understands his superior's will.
Reply Obj. 1: Nothing prevents the one same material object from
admitting two special aspects to which two special virtues
correspond: thus a soldier, by defending his king's fortress, fulfils
both an act of fortitude, by facing the danger of death for a good
end, and an act of justice, by rendering due service to his lord.
Accordingly the aspect of precept, which obedience considers, occurs
in acts of all virtues, but not in all acts of virtue, since not all
acts of virtue are a matter of precept, as stated above (I-II, Q. 96,
A. 3). Moreover, certain things are sometimes a matter of precept,
and pertain to no other virtue, such things for instance as are not
evil except because they are forbidden. Wherefore, if obedience be
taken in its proper sense, as considering formally and intentionally
the aspect of precept, it will be a special virtue, and disobedience
a special sin: because in this way it is requisite for obedience that
one perform an act of justice or of some other virtue with the
intention of fulfilling a precept; and for disobedience that one
treat the precept with actual contempt. On the other hand, if
obedience be taken in a wide sense for the performance of any action
that may be a matter of precept, and disobedience for the omission of
that action through any intention whatever, then obedience will be a
general virtue, and disobedience a general sin.
Reply Obj. 2: Obedience is not a theological virtue, for its direct
object is not God, but the precept of any superior, whether expressed
or inferred, namely, a simple word of the superior, indicating his
will, and which the obedient subject obeys promptly, according to
Titus 3:1, "Admonish them to be subject to princes, and to obey at a
word," etc.
It is, however, a moral virtue, since it is a part of justice, and it
observes the mean between excess and deficiency. Excess thereof is
measured in respect, not of quantity, but of other circumstances, in
so far as a man obeys either whom he ought not, or in matters wherein
he ought not to obey, as we have stated above regarding religion (Q.
92, A. 2). We may also reply that as in justice, excess is in the
person who retains another's property, and deficiency in the person
who does not receive his due, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. v,
4), so too obedience observes the mean between excess on the part of
him who fails to pay due obedience to his superior, since he exceeds
in fulfilling his own will, and deficiency on the part of the
superior, who does not receive obedience. Wherefore in this way
obedience will be a mean between two forms of wickedness, as was
stated above concerning justice (Q. 58, A. 10).
Reply Obj. 3: Obedience, like every virtue, requires the will to be
prompt towards its proper object, but not towards that which is
repugnant to it. Now the proper object of obedience is a precept, and
this proceeds from another's will. Wherefore obedience makes a man's
will prompt in fulfilling the will of another, the maker, namely, of
the precept. If that which is prescribed to him is willed by him for
its own sake apart from its being prescribed, as happens in agreeable
matters, he tends towards it at once by his own will and seems to
comply, not on account of the precept, but on account of his own
will. But if that which is prescribed is nowise willed for its own
sake, but, considered in itself, repugnant to his own will, as
happens in disagreeable matters, then it is quite evident that it is
not fulfilled except on account of the precept. Hence Gregory says
(Moral. xxxv) that "obedience perishes or diminishes when it holds
its own in agreeable matters," because, to wit, one's own will seems
to tend principally, not to the accomplishment of the precept, but to
the fulfilment of one's own desire; but that "it increases in
disagreeable or difficult matters," because there one's own will
tends to nothing beside the precept. Yet this must be understood as
regards outward appearances: for, on the other hand, according to the
judgment of God, Who searches the heart, it may happen that even in
agreeable matters obedience, while holding its own, is nonetheless
praiseworthy, provided the will of him that obeys tend no less
devotedly [*Cf. Q. 82, A. 2] to the fulfilment of the precept.
Reply Obj. 4: Reverence regards directly the person that excels:
wherefore it admits a various species according to the various
aspects of excellence. Obedience, on the other hand, regards the
precept of the person that excels, and therefore admits of only one
aspect. And since obedience is due to a person's precept on account
of reverence to him, it follows that obedience to a man is of one
species, though the causes from which it proceeds differ specifically.
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