The Four Cardinal Virtues...easier said than done

Cardinal virtues

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Christian tradition there are 4 cardinal virtues:

• Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time
• Justice - proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others
• Restraint or Temperance - practicing self-control, abstention, and moderation
• Courage or Fortitude - forbearance, endurance, and ability to confront fear and uncertainty, or intimidation

These were derived initially from Plato's scheme (see Protagoras 330b, which also includes piety (hosiotes)) and adapted by Saint Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas (see Summa Theologica II(I).61). The term "cardinal" comes from the Latin cardo or hinge; the cardinal virtues are so called because they are hinges upon which the door of the moral life swings.

The Cardinal virtues as depicted on the tomb of Pope Clement II in Bamberg Cathedral

Iustitia (justice)	Fortitudo (fortitude)	Prudentia (prudence)	Temperantia (temperance)

Plato identified them with the classes of the city described in The Republic, and with the faculties of man. Temperance was common to all classes, but primarily associated with the producing classes, the farmers and craftsmen, and with the animal appetites, to whom no special virtue was assigned; fortitude was assigned to the warrior class and to the spirited element in man; prudence to the rulers and to reason. Justice stands outside the class system and divisions of man, and rules the proper relationship among the three of them.
It may have been taken up from there into Jewish philosophy; Wisdom 8:7 reads, "She [Wisdom] teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.
It was certainly taken up in Christianity, as St. Augustine, discussing the morals of the church, described them:

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.

These "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity (see 1 Corinthians 13). Together, they comprise what is known as the seven virtues, also known as the theological virtues.

Hand Colored Print of the Four Cardinal Virtues Temperance            Prudence               Fortitude                   Justice    This beautiful hand-colored print depicts the Four Cardinal Virtues, the practice of which is inculcated in the First or Entered Apprentice Degree of Freemasonry and are thus explained. Temperance - The Freemason who properly appreciates the secrets which he has solemnly promised never to revel, will not, by yielding to the unrestrained call of appetite, permit reason and judgment to lose their seats, and subject himself, by the indulgence in habits of excess, to discover that which should be concealed, and thus merit and receive the scorn and detestation of his Brethren.  And lest any Brother should forget the danger to which he is exposed in the unguarded hours of dissipation, the virtue of temperance is wisely impressed upon his memory, by its reference to one of the most solemn portions of the ceremony of initiation.  Some Freemasons, very properly condemning the vice of intemperance and abhorring its effects, have been unwisely led to confound temperance with total abstinence in a Masonic application, and resolutions have sometimes been proposed in Grand Lodges which declare the use of stimulating liquors in any quantity a Masonic offense.  But the law of Freemasonry authorizes no such regulation.  It leaves to every man the indulgence of his own tastes within due limits, and demands not abstinence, but only moderation and temperance, in anything not actually wrong. Fortitude - instructs the worthy Freemason to bear the ills of life with becoming resignation, "taking up arms against a sea of trouble," but, by its intimate connection with a portion of our ceremonies, it teaches the candidate to let no dangers shake, no pains dissolve the inviolable fidelity he owes to the trusts reposed in him.  Or, in the words of the old Prestonian lecture, it is "a fence or security against any attack that might be made upon him by force or otherwise, to extort from him any of our Royal Secrets." Prudence - Preston first introduced it into the Entered Apprentice Degree as referring to what was then, and long before had been called the Four Principal Signs, but which are now known as the Perfect Points of Entrance. Preston's eulogium on prudence differs from that used in the lectures of the United States, which was composed by Webb.  It is in these words:   "Prudence is the true guide to human understanding, and consists in judging and determining with propriety what is to be said or done upon all our occasions, what dangers we should endeavor to avoid, and how to act in all our difficulties." Justice - The Freemason who remembers how emphatically he has been charged to preserve an upright position in all his dealings with mankind, should never fail to act justly to himself, to his Brethren, and to the world.  This is the corner-stone on which alone he can expect "to erect a superstructure alike honorable to himself and to the Fraternity."  In iconology, the general science pertaining to images, Justice is usually represented as a matron, her eyes bandaged, holding in one hand a sword and in the other a pair of scales at equipoise.  But in Freemasonry the true symbol of Justice, as illustrated in the First Degree, is the feet firmly planted on the ground, and the body upright.

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