Editing Cardinal virtues (section)

== In Christian tradition ==
{{Thomism}}

[[Catholic moral theology]] drew from both the Wisdom of Solomon and the Fourth Book of Maccabees in developing its thought on the virtues.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Charles Curran (theologian)|last=Curran|first=C. E.|title=Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History|chapter=Virtue|location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|publisher=[[Georgetown University Press]]|year=2008|pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=enB4otKhEFwC&pg=PA168 168–172]}}</ref> [[Ambrose]] ({{circa|330s|397}}) used the expression "cardinal virtues":

{{Blockquote|And we know that there are four cardinal virtues - temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude.
|''Commentary on Luke'', V, 62}}

[[Augustine of Hippo]], discussing the morals of the church, described them:

{{Blockquote|For these four virtues (would that all felt their influence in their minds as they have their names in their mouths!), I should have no hesitation in defining them: that temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.
|''De moribus eccl.,'' Chap. xv<ref>{{cite book|last=Brady|first=B.V.|title=Christian Love|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Georgetown University Press|year=2003|page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=bnRpeNVw8HcC&pg=PA122 122]}}</ref>}}

=== In relation to the theological virtues ===
The "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the [[Theological virtues|three theological virtues]]: Faith, Hope, and Charity ([[Agape|Love]]), named in [[1 Corinthians 13]].

{{Blockquote|And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.}}

Because of this reference, a group of [[seven virtues]] is sometimes listed by adding the four cardinal virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice) and three theological virtues (faith, hope, charity).
While the first four date back to [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] philosophers and were applicable to all people seeking to live moral lives, the ''theological virtues'' appear to be specific to [[Christians]] as written by Paul in the New Testament.

Efforts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues differ. Augustine sees faith as coming under justice. Beginning with a wry comment about the moral mischief of [[pagan]] deities, he writes:

{{blockquote|They [the pagans] have made Virtue also a goddess, which, indeed, if it could be a goddess, had been preferable to many. And now, because it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, let it be obtained by prayer from Him, by whom alone it can be given, and the whole crowd of false gods vanishes. For as much as they have thought proper to distribute virtue into four divisions - prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance - and as each of these divisions has its own virtues, faith is among the parts of justice, and has the chief place with as many of us as know what that saying means, ‘The just shall live by faith.’
|[[City of God (book)|''City of God'']], IV, 20}}

[[Dante Alighieri]] also attempts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues in his [[Divine Comedy]], most notably in the complex allegorical scheme drawn in ''Purgatorio'' XXIX to XXXI. Depicting a procession in the Garden of Eden (which the author situates at the top of the mountain of purgatory), Dante describes a chariot drawn by a gryphon and accompanied by a vast number of figures, among which stand three women on the right side dressed in red, green, and white, and four women on the left, all dressed in purple. The chariot is generally understood to represent the holy church, with the women on right and left representing the theological and cardinal virtues respectively.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Musa |editor-first=Mark |date=1981 |title=Dante: The Divine Comedy Vol. II: Purgatory |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=315, 318–319 |isbn=0-14-044-442-4}}</ref> The exact meaning of the allegorical women's role, behaviour, interrelation, and color-coding remains a matter of literary interpretation.

=== In relation to the seven deadly sins ===
In the High Middle Ages, some authors opposed the seven virtues (cardinal plus theological) to the [[seven deadly sins]]. However, “treatises exclusively concentrating on both septenaries are actually quite rare.” and “examples of late medieval catalogues of virtues and vices which extend or upset the double heptad can be easily multiplied.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bejczy |first=István P. |url=https://archive.org/details/cardinalvirtuesm00bejc |title=The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages: A Study in Moral Thought from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |location=Boston |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VgPRu0CJ_sQC&pg=PA228 228-229] |isbn=9789004210141 |url-access=limited}}</ref> And there are problems with this parallelism:

{{Blockquote|The opposition between the virtues and the vices to which these works allude despite the frequent inclusion of other schemes may seem unproblematic at first sight. The virtues and the vices seem to mirror each other as positive and negative moral attitudes, so that medieval authors, with their keen predilection for parallels and oppositions, could conveniently set them against each other.  … Yet artistic representations such as Conrad’s trees are misleading in that they establish oppositions between the principal virtues and the capital vices which are based on mere juxtaposition. As to content, the two schemes do not match each other. The capital vices of lust and avarice, for instance, contrast with the remedial virtues of chastity and generosity, respectively, rather than with any theological or cardinal virtue; conversely, the virtues of hope and prudence are opposed to despair and foolishness rather than to any deadly sin. Medieval moral authors were well aware of the fact. Actually, the capital vices are more often contrasted with the remedial or contrary virtues in medieval moral literature than with the principal virtues, while the principal virtues are frequently accompanied by a set of mirroring vices rather than by the seven deadly sins.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages: A Study in Moral Thought from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century|last=Bejczy|first=István Pieter|year=2011|isbn=9789004210141|publisher=Brill|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VgPRu0CJ_sQC&pg=PA232 232-233]}}</ref>}}