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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.
Objection 2: Further, sedition denotes a kind of division. Now
schism takes its name from scission, as stated above (Question 39,
Article 1). Therefore, seemingly, the sin of sedition is not
distinct from that of schism.
Objection 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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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