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Objection 1: It would seem that pride is not a sin. For no sin is
the object of God's promise. For God's promises refer to what He
will do; and He is not the author of sin. Now pride is numbered
among the Divine promises: for it is written (Is. 60:15):
"I will make thee to be an everlasting pride, a joy unto generation
and generation." Therefore pride is not a sin.
Objection 2: Further, it is not a sin to wish to be like unto
God: for every creature has a natural desire for this; and especially
does this become the rational creature which is made to God's image
and likeness. Now it is said in Prosper's Lib. Sent. 294,
that "pride is love of one's own excellence, whereby one is likened
to God who is supremely excellent." Hence Augustine says
(Confess. ii, 6): "Pride imitates exaltedness; whereas Thou
alone art God exalted over all." Therefore pride is not a sin.
Objection 3: Further, a sin is opposed not only to a virtue but
also to a contrary vice, as the Philosopher states (Ethic. ii,
8). But no vice is found to be opposed to pride. Therefore pride
is not a sin.
On the contrary, It is written (Tobias 4:14): "Never suffer
pride to reign in thy mind or in thy words."
I answer that, Pride [superbia] is so called because a man thereby
aims higher [supra] than he is; wherefore Isidore says (Etym.
x): "A man is said to be proud, because he wishes to appear above
(super) what he really is"; for he who wishes to overstep beyond
what he is, is proud. Now right reason requires that every man's
will should tend to that which is proportionate to him. Therefore it
is evident that pride denotes something opposed to right reason, and
this shows it to have the character of sin, because according to
Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv, 4), "the soul's evil is to be
opposed to reason." Therefore it is evident that pride is a sin.
Reply to Objection 1: Pride [superbia] may be understood in two
ways. First, as overpassing [supergreditur] the rule of reason,
and in this sense we say that it is a sin. Secondly, it may simply
denominate "super-abundance"; in which sense any super-abundant
thing may be called pride: and it is thus that God promises pride as
significant of super-abundant good. Hence a gloss of Jerome on the
same passage (Is. 61:6) says that "there is a good and an evil
pride"; or "a sinful pride which God resists, and a pride that
denotes the glory which He bestows."
It may also be replied that pride there signifies abundance of those
things in which men may take pride.
Reply to Objection 2: Reason has the direction of those things for
which man has a natural appetite; so that if the appetite wander from
the rule of reason, whether by excess or by default, it will be
sinful, as is the case with the appetite for food which man desires
naturally. Now pride is the appetite for excellence in excess of right
reason. Wherefore Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiv, 13) that
pride is the "desire for inordinate exaltation": and hence it is
that, as he asserts (De Civ. Dei xiv, 13; xix, 12),
"pride imitates God inordinately: for it hath equality of fellowship
under Him, and wishes to usurp Hi. dominion over our
fellow-creatures."
Reply to Objection 3: Pride is directly opposed to the virtue of
humility, which, in a way, is concerned about the same matter as
magnanimity, as stated above (Question 161, Article 1, ad
3). Hence the vice opposed to pride by default is akin to the vice
of pusillanimity, which is opposed by default to magnanimity. For
just as it belongs to magnanimity to urge the mind to great things
against despair, so it belongs to humility to withdraw the mind from
the inordinate desire of great things against presumption. Now
pusillanimity, if we take it for a deficiency in pursuing great
things, is properly opposed to magnanimity by default; but if we take
it for the mind's attachment to things beneath what is becoming to a
man, it is opposed to humility by default; since each proceeds from a
smallness of mind. In the same way, on the other hand, pride may be
opposed by excess, both to magnanimity and humility, from different
points of view: to humility, inasmuch as it scorns subjection, to
magnanimity, inasmuch as it tends to great things inordinately.
Since, however, pride implies a certain elation, it is more directly
opposed to humility, even as pusillanimity, which denotes littleness
of soul in tending towards great things, is more directly opposed to
magnanimity.
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