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Summa Theologiae · II-II, q. 186

Question 186. Of Those Things in Which the Religious State Properly Consists

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Second Part of the Second Part. 10 articles.

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Text: Summa Theologiae, Project Gutenberg #18755, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. The Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa in the English Dominican translation (first printed 1911 to 1925; second and revised edition from 1920). A sample check on 2026-11-09 against pre-1931 printings at the Internet Archive (first printings of 1915 and 1916 and the second and revised edition of the 1920s) found that the article text matches, with no 1947 introduction, synopsis, or index. Question and article numbers were added by the transcriber. Rights: Public domain (US)

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We must now consider things pertaining to the religious state: which consideration will be fourfold. In the first place we shall consider those things in which the religious state consists chiefly; secondly, those things which are lawfully befitting to religious; thirdly, the different kinds of religious orders; fourthly, the entrance into the religious state.

Under the first head there are ten points of inquiry:

(1) Whether the religious state is perfect?

(2) Whether religious are bound to all the counsels?

(3) Whether voluntary poverty is required for the religious state?

(4) Whether continency is necessary?

(5) Whether obedience is necessary?

(6) Whether it is necessary that these should be the matter of a vow?

(7) Of the sufficiency of these vows;

(8) Of their comparison one with another;

(9) Whether a religious sins mortally whenever he transgresses a statute of his rule?

(10) Whether, other things being equal, a religious sins more grievously by the same kind of sin than a secular person?

Articles

  1. Whether Religion Implies a State of Perfection?
  2. Whether Every Religious Is Bound to Keep All the Counsels?
  3. Whether Poverty Is Required for Religious Perfection?
  4. Whether Perpetual Continence Is Required for Religious Perfection?
  5. Whether Obedience Belongs to Religious Perfection?
  6. Whether It Is Requisite for Religious Perfection That Poverty, Continence, and Obedience Should Come Under a Vow?
  7. Whether It Is Right to Say That Religious Perfection Consists in These Three Vows?
  8. Whether the Vow of Obedience Is the Chief of the Three Religious Vows?
  9. Whether a Religious Sins Mortally Whenever He Transgresses the Things Contained in His Rule?
  10. Whether a Religious Sins More Grievously Than a Secular by the Same Kind of Sin?

Also online, linked only: the same translation at New Advent and the Latin text at Corpus Thomisticum. Neither is copied here.

Source: Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part. Project Gutenberg #18755. Project Gutenberg record. Public domain in the USA. Outside the U.S., check local copyright rules. Project Gutenberg notices retained. The full Project Gutenberg license is kept in the hosted text.