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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 and
contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to men?" Now
zeal pertains to envy. Therefore contention arises rather from envy.
Objection 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.
Objection 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 (Question 37, Article 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 to Objection 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 (Question
37, Article 2, ad 1).
Reply to Objection 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 to Objection 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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