OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

THE ANGELIC DOCTOR

SUMMA THEOLOGICA

SECOND PART OF THE SECOND PART.

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QUESTION XCII.

CONCERNING THE VICES OPPOSED TO RELIGION, AND FIRST CONCERNING SUPERSTITION, DIVIDED INTO TWO ARTICLES.

Afterwards, we must consider the vices opposed to religion; and first, those which agree with religion in this, that they offer divine worship; secondly, those vices having a manifest contrariety to religion, through contempt of those things which pertain to divine worship. The first of these pertains to superstition; the second to irreligion. Whence we must first consider superstition itself and its parts; then irreligion and its parts. Concerning the first, two questions are raised: 1. Whether superstition is a vice contrary to religion. — 2. Whether it has many parts, or species.

ARTICLE I. — WHETHER SUPERSTITION IS A VICE CONTRARY TO RELIGION (1).
Concerning these matters, see also below, Q. XCIV, art. 1, corp.; Q. XCV, art. 1, corp.; Q. CXXII, art. 5, corp.; and Sent. I, dist. 2, Q. II, art. 1, Q. II, ad 2.

To the first, it is proceeded thus: 1. It seems that superstition is not a vice contrary to religion. For one of the contraries is not placed in the definition of the other. But religion is placed in the definition of superstition: for it is said that superstition is "religion observed beyond measure," as is evident in the Gloss (interlinear, on Colossians II), on that verse: Which have a show of wisdom in superstition. Therefore, superstition is not a vice opposed to religion.

2. Furthermore, Isidore says (Etymologies, lib. X, at the letter S): "Cicero (2) says that those were called superstitious who prayed and sacrificed for whole days so that their children might survive them (3)." But this can also be done according to the worship of true religion. Therefore, superstition is not a vice opposed to religion.

3. Furthermore, superstition seems to imply a certain excess. But religion cannot have an excess: because, as was said above (Q. LXXXI, art. 5, ad 3), according to it, it is not possible to render to God an equal of what we owe Him. Therefore, superstition is not a vice opposed to religion.

But contrary to this is what Augustine says in the book De decem chordis (chap. 9, mid.): "You touch the first string, by which one God is worshipped, and the beast of superstition falls." But the worship of one God pertains to religion. Therefore, superstition is opposed to religion.

(1) According to the mind of St. Thomas, superstition may be defined: a vice offering divine worship either to whom it should not be offered, or in a manner in which it should not be offered.
(2) Thus Cicero: De natura deorum (lib. II, no. 28).
(3) Or, according to Servius in VIII Aeneid, superstition is said to be from the fact that men feared excessively the wrath of the gods hanging over them from above, and as it were standing over (superstantem).