The term "cardinal virtues" (virtutes cardinales) was first used by the 4th-century theologian Ambrose, who defined the four virtues as "temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude". These were also named as cardinal virtues by Augustine of Hippo, and were subsequently adopted by the Catholic Church. They are described as "human virtues" in the Catholic Catechism.
Prior to Ambrose, these four qualities were identified by the Greek philosopher Plato as the necessary character traits of a good man, and were discussed by other ancient authors such as Cicero. They can also be found in the Old Testament Book of Wisdom,
which states that wisdom "teaches moderation and prudence,
righteousness and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful than
these."
The theological virtues are those named by Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 13: "And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." The third virtue is also commonly referred to as "charity", as this is how the influential King James Bible translated the Greek word agape.
The traditional understanding of the difference between cardinal
and theological virtues is that the latter are not fully accessible to
humans in their natural state without assistance from God. Thomas Aquinas
believed that while the cardinal virtues could be formed through
habitual practice, the theological virtues could only be practised by
divine grace.
Seven capital virtues
The seven capital virtues or seven lively virtues (also known as the contrary or remedial virtues) are those thought to stand in opposition to the seven capital vices (or deadly sins).
Prudentius,
writing in the 5th century, was the first author to allegorically
represent Christian morality as a struggle between seven sins and seven
virtues. His poem Psychomachia
depicts a battle between female personifications of virtues and vices,
with each virtue confronting and defeating a particular vice.
However, Prudentius did not base his allegory on the cardinal and
theological virtues, nor did he use the traditional list of capital
vices. The combatants in the Psychomachia are as follows:
The success of this work popularised the concept of capital virtues
among medieval authors. In AD 590, the seven capital vices were revised
by Pope Gregory I,
which led to the creation of new lists of corresponding capital
virtues. In modern times, the capital virtues are commonly identified as
the following:
Although some medieval authors attempted to contrast the capital vices with the heavenly virtues, such efforts were rare.
According to historian István P. Bejczy, "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".
Ancestral sin, generational sin, or ancestral fault (Koinē Greek: προπατορικὴ ἁμαρτία; προπατορικὸν ἁμάρτημα; προγονικὴ ἁμαρτία), is the doctrine that teaches that individuals inherit the judgement for the sin of their ancestors. It exists primarily as a concept in Mediterranean religions (e.g. in Christian hamartiology); generational sin is referenced in the Bible in Exodus 20:5.
The most detailed discussion of the concept is found in Proclus's De decem dubitationibus circa Providentiam, a propaedeutic handbook for students at the Neoplatonic Academy
in Athens. Proclus makes clear that the concept is of hallowed
antiquity, and making sense of the apparent paradox is presented as a
defense of ancient Greek religion. The main point made is that a city or a family is to be seen as a single living being (animal unum, zoion hen) more sacred than any individual human life.
The doctrine of ancestral fault is similarly presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by Celsus in his True Doctrine, a polemic against Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the mills of the gods grind slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after them". The idea of divine justice taking the form of collective punishment is also ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible, e.g. the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the destruction of Shechem, etc., and most notably the recurring punishments inflicted on the Israelites for lapsing from Yahwism.
Teaching by religion
In Christianity
The Bible speaks of generational sin in Exodus 20:5,
which states that "the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the
sons and daughters—unto the third and fourth generation."
This concept implies that "unresolved issues get handed down from
generation to generation", but that "Jesus is the bondage breaker ...
[and] He is able to break the cycle of this curse, but only if we want
Him to."
The formalized Christian doctrine of original sin
is a direct extension of the concept of ancestral sin (imagined as
inflicted on a number of succeeding generations), arguing that the sin
of Adam and Eve is inflicted on all their descendants indefinitely, i.e. on the entire human race.
It was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, in his struggle against Gnosticism.
Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view that the Fall was a
step in the wrong direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed, his
descendants had some solidarity or identity.
Ezekiel 18:19-23 states "the son shall not bear the iniquity of
the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of
the wicked shall be upon him."
Eastern Orthodoxy
Ancestral sin is the object of a Christian doctrine taught by the Orthodox Church as well as other Eastern Christians. Some identify it as "inclination towards sin, a heritage from the sin of our progenitors". But most distinguish it from this tendency that remains even in baptized persons, since ancestral sin "is removed through baptism".
Saint Gregory Palamas taught that, as a result of ancestral sin (called "original sin" in the West), man's image was tarnished, disfigured, as a consequence of Adam's disobedience.
The Greek theologian John Karmiris
writes that "the sin of the first man, together with all of its
consequences and penalties, is transferred by means of natural heredity
to the entire human race. Since every human being is a descendant of the
first man, 'no one of us is free from the spot of sin, even if he
should manage to live a completely sinless day'. ... Original Sin not
only constitutes 'an accident' of the soul; but its results, together
with its penalties, are transplanted by natural heredity to the
generations to come. And thus, from the one historical event of the
first sin of the first-born man, came the present situation of sin being
imparted, together with all of the consequences thereof, to all natural
descendants of Adam."
Roman Catholicism
With regard to breaking generational curses, clergy of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal have developed prayers for healing.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Greek translation of which uses "προπατορική αμαρτία" (literally, 'ancestral sin') where the Latin text has "peccatum originale",
states: "Original sin is called 'sin' only in an analogical sense: it
is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed'—a state and not an act.
Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the
character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants."
Eastern Orthodox teaching likewise says: "It can be said that while we
have not inherited the guilt of Adam's personal sin, because his sin is
also of a generic nature, and because the entire human race is possessed
of an essential, ontological unity, we participate in it by virtue of
our participation in the human race. 'The imparting of Original Sin by
means of natural heredity should be understood in terms of the unity of
the entire human nature, and of the homoousiotitos
of all men, who, connected by nature, constitute one mystic whole.
Inasmuch as human nature is indeed unique and unbreakable, the imparting
of sin from the first-born to the entire human race descended from him
is rendered explicable: "Explicitly, as from the root, the sickness
proceeded to the rest of the tree, Adam being the root who had suffered
corruption" (Saint Cyril of Alexandria).'"
Judaism
The Hebrew Bible provides two passages of scripture regarding generational curses:
The Lord, the Lord, compassionate
and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth
... Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the
children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and
fourth generation.
The Talmud
rejects the idea that people can be justly punished for another
person's sins and Judaism in general upholds the idea of individual
responsibility. One interpretation is that, even though there is no
moral guilt for descendants, they may be negatively impacted as a
consequence of their forebear's actions.
The thin bamboo rod in the hand of the Brahmana is mightier than the thunderbolt of Indra.
The thunder scorches all existing objects upon which it falls. The
Brahmana's rod (which symbolizes the Brahmana's might in the form of his
curse) blasts even unborn generations. The might of the rod is derived
from Mahadeva.
Although Shinto has its own view of sin, ancestral sin is not one
opted for. Instead, Shinto pushes for all humans being inherently pure,
with any accumulated sin, or kegare, being what is accumulated in one's current life. These are to be removed purification rituals, such as harae.
Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, the Erinyes exacted family curses. Certain dynasties have had tragic occurrences happen upon them.
The House of Cadmus, who established and ruled over the city of Thebes, was one such house. After slaying the dragon and establishing Thebes upon the earth that the dragon terrorized, Ares cursed Cadmus and his descendants because of the dragon's sacredness to Ares. Similarly, after Hephaestus discovered his wife, Aphrodite,
having a sexual affair with Ares, he became enraged and vowed to avenge
himself for Aphrodite's infidelity by cursing the lineage of any
children that resulted from the affair. Aphrodite later bore a daughter,
Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, from Ares' seed.
Cadmus, annoyed at his accursed life and ill fate, remarked that
if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well
wish that life for himself. Immediately Cadmus began to grow scales and
change into a serpent. Harmonia, after realizing the fate of her
husband, begged the gods to let her share her husband's fate. Of the House of Cadmus, many had particularly tragic lives and deaths. For example, King Minos of Crete's wife fall madly in love with the Cretan Bull and bore the Minotaur. Minos would later be murdered by his daughters whilst bathing. Semele, the mother of Dionysus by Zeus, was turned into dust because she glanced upon Zeus's true godly form. King Laius of Thebes was killed by his son, Oedipus.
Oedipus later (unknowingly) marries the queen, his own mother, and
becomes king. After finding out he gouges his eyes and exiles himself
from Thebes.
Another dynasty that was cursed and was subject to tragic occurrences was the House of Atreus (also known as the Atreides). The curse begins with Tantalus,
a son of Zeus who enjoyed cordial relations with the gods. To test the
omniscience of the gods, Tantalus decided to slay his son Pelops and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience. All of the gods, save Demeter, who was too concerned with the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades, knew not to eat from Pelops's cooked corpse. After Demeter had eaten Pelops's shoulder, the gods banished Tantalus into Tartarus
where he would spend eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a
fruit-bearing tree with low branches. Whenever he would reach for a
fruit, the branches would lift upward so as to remove his intended meal
from his grasp. Whenever he would bend over to drink from the pool, the
water would recedes into the earth before he could drink. The gods
brought Pelops back to life, replacing the bone in his shoulder with a
bit of ivory with the help of Hephaestus, thus marking the family
forever afterwards.
Pelops would later marry Princess Hippodamia after winning a chariot race against her father, King Oenomaus. Pelops won the race by sabotaging of King Oenomaus’ chariot, with the help of the king's servant, Myrtilus.
This resulted in King Oenomaus’s death. Later, the servant Myrtilus,
who was in love with Hippodamia, was killed by Pelops because Pelops had
promised Myrtilus the right to take Hippodamia's virginity in exchange
for his help in sabotaging the king's chariot. As Myrtilus died, he
cursed Pelops and his line, further adding to the curse on the House of
Atreus.
King Atreus, the son of Pelops and the namesake of the Atreidies, would later be killed by his nephew, Aegisthus. Before his death, Atreus had two sons, King Agamemnon of Mycenae and King Menelaus of Sparta. King Menelaus's wife, Helen of Sparta, would leave him for Prince Paris of Troy, thus beginning the Trojan War. However, prior to their sailing off for the war, Agamemnon had angered the goddess Artemis
by killing one of her sacred deer. As Agamemnon prepared to sail to
Troy to avenge his brother's shame, Artemis stilled the winds so that
the Greek fleet could not sail. The seerCalchas told Agamemnon that if he wanted to appease Artemis and sail to Troy, he would have to sacrifice the most precious thing in his possession. Agamemnon sent word home for his daughter Iphigenia
to come to him so that he may sacrifice her, framing it to her that she
was to be married to Achilles. Iphigenia, honored by her father's
asking her to join him in the war, complied. Agamemnon sacrificed his
daughter and went off to war.
Clytemnestra,
the wife of Agamemnon and mother to Iphigenia, was so enraged by her
husband's actions that when he returned victorious from Troy, she
trapped him in a robe with no opening for his head whilst he was bathing
and stabbed him to death as he thrashed about. Orestes,
the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was torn between his duty toward
avenging his father's death and his sparing his mother. However. after
praying to Apollo for consultation, Apollo advised him to kill his
mother. Orestes killed his mother and wandered the land, ridden with
guilt. Because of the noble act of avenging his father's at the expense
of his own soul and reluctance to kill his mother, Orestes was forgiven
by the gods, thus ending the curse of the House of Atreus.
Witchcraft
The term witchcraft is not well-defined but, at least within factions, the belief in family curses persists. In paganism,
the common belief is that curses passed down through family may present
itself through personal misfortune, such as addiction and poverty.
Another includes karmic debt, a concept suggesting that actions in
one's own past life--especially negative ones--carry on with them
through reincarnation.
Through personal self improvement and reflection on not only one's
past, but their lineage, one may free themselves from a curse.
Skeptical views
Modern skeptics deny that curses of any nature, including family curses, even exist, even if some fervently believe in them.
Modern Western attitudes to personal individuality and to individual achievement do not always sit well with notions of inherited sin.
Psychologists and philosophers tend to portray persistent human failings as part of human nature, rather than using "original sin" metaphors.
Historical examples
Nathaniel Hawthorne felt that his family was cursed because of the actions of two of his ancestors, John Hathorne and his father William. William Hathorne was a judge who earned a reputation for cruelly persecuting Quakers, and in 1662, he ordered the public whipping of Ann Coleman. John Hathorne was one of the leading judges in the Salem witch trials.
He is not known to have repented for his actions. So great were
Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings of guilt, he re-spelled his last name Hathorne to Hawthorne.
The House of Grimaldi is said to have been cursed for their conquest of the Rock of Monaco, although stories differ as to how they were cursed.
Family curses in fiction
As he lies dying, in Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet
Mercutio says, "A plague o' both your houses", blaming both the
Capulets and Montagues. As the play progresses, his words prove
prophetic.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, it was thought that the Baskerville family had a legendary family curse, of a giant black hound, "... a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon."
In the 2007 South Korean psychological-supernatural suspense horror film Someone Behind You,
a young woman named Ga-In (Yoon-Jin-seo) sees families and friends
slaughtering and attacking one another and realizes that she is followed
by an inexplicable curse causing those around her to get rid of her.
Despite all of this she is constantly reminded by an eerie student never
to trust her family, her friends, or even herself. Ga-In has
hallucinations of those who would attempt to attack her, then sees a
disturbing vision of a monstrous being warning her that the bloodshed
will intensify. The film was also released in America retitled as Voices.
