What is understood by cruelty which is opposed to clemency?
It is a kind of crudity or rawness of soul owing to which one seeks to increase punishment beyond the just limits fixed by reason (CLXI. 1).
And what is savageness?
It is something absolutely inhuman which delights in the infliction of punishment, taking pleasure therein merely because it is an evil. Savageness is directly opposed to the gift of piety (CLIX. 2).
Is such a thing possible?
Yes, of a truth, for depraved human nature can reach even to this excess; in former times there were whole nations apparently in the highest degree of civilization which took supreme delight in the spectacles of the amphitheatres.
Next - The Catechism of the Summa - LIV. OF MODESTY: OF HUMILITY AND OF ITS OPPOSITE SIN PRIDE; OF THE SIN OF ADAM AND EVE; OF SECULARISM (A)
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