Catholic Candle note: The article immediately below is part six of the study of the Choleric temperament.  The first five parts can be found here:

1.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36:  About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

2.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

3.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38 — About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

4.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

5.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #40: Temperaments – Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat – Part V: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/12/30/lesson-40-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-v/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #41 – About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: a Choleric’s Spiritual Combat — Part VI

Note: When referring to a person with a choleric temperament in this article we simply will refer to him as a choleric.

As we continue our study of the choleric temperament, we examine some aspects of anger more closely because anger is one of the most prominent features of the choleric temperament (and unreasonable anger is one of its greatest dangers).

In this present lesson, we will look more at what anger does to the body and the role that reason plays in anger.  This present examination of anger focuses on signs which a person can use to detect anger in himself.  We will see the importance of using these signs when we see (in a future article) what a great danger excess anger can be for a choleric.

What Does Anger Do to the Body?

St. Thomas explains that there is a bodily transmutation that occurs in the passions of the soul.  This transmutation is in proportion to the movement of appetite, that is, the desire.  He says that every appetite tends with greater force to repel that which is contrary to it.  Here is how he explains this concept with regards to the passion of anger:

Since the appetitive movement of anger is caused by some injury inflicted, as by a contrary that is present; it follows that the appetite tends with great force to repel the injury by the desire of vengeance; and hence ensures great vehemence and impetuosity in the movement of anger.   And because the movement of anger is not one of recoil, which corresponds to the action of cold, but one of prosecution, which corresponds to the action of heat, the result is that the movement of anger produces fervor of the blood and vital spirits around the heart, which is the instrument of the soul’s passions.  And hence it is that, on account of the heart being so disturbed by anger, those chiefly who are angry betray signs of it in their outer members.  For, as St. Gregory says [ De Moralis volume 30] the heart that is inflamed with the stings of its own anger beats quick, the body trembles, the tongue stammers, the countenance takes fire, the eyes grow fierce, they that are well-known are not recognized.  With the mouth indeed he shapes a sound, but the understanding knows not what it says.[1] 

How is reason involved with the passion of anger?

There are two aspects of the relationship of reason and anger that we will address at this time: 1) How anger requires an act of reason, and 2) how the heat of anger counteracts the proper use of the reason.

1) How anger requires an act of reason

In our last Lesson (#40), we discussed St. Thomas’s statement: “Anger is the desire to hurt another for the purpose of just vengeance.”  This just vengeance is as a repayment for an injury done.  There are a variety of types of injuries which we pointed out also in Lesson #40.  Reason is used in determining that an injury was done and what is proper to do about the injury.

St. Thomas explains for us how reason is involved in the passion of anger.  First, St.  Thomas quotes Aristotle saying, “Anger listens to reason somewhat,”[2] and afterward tells us the following:

Anger is a desire for vengeance.  However, vengeance implies a comparison between the punishment to be inflicted and the hurt done; wherefore the Philosopher says in Ethics Bk. 7 ch.6 #1149b1, that anger, as if it had drawn the inference that it ought to quarrel with such a person, is therefore immediately exasperated. However, to compare and to draw an inference is an act of reason.  Therefore, anger, in a fashion, requires an act of reason.[3]

Even though the passions are connected to our bodies in what is called the sensitive appetite or desire, St. Thomas makes it clear that our reason is certainly also involved in what we do with our passions, including anger.  He explains in these words:

The movement of the appetitive power may follow an act of reason in two ways.  In the first way, it follows the reason in so far as the reason commands: and thus the will follows reason, wherefore it is called the rational appetite.  In another way, it follows reason in so far as the reason denounces, and thus anger follows reason.  For the Philosopher says (De Problematibus section 28; probl. 3) that anger follows reason, not in obedience to reason’s command, but as a result of reason’s denouncing the injury.  Because the sensitive appetite is subject to the reason, not immediately but through the will.

We must keep in mind another aspect of anger, and that is, the second point given just above.

2) How the heat of anger counteracts the proper use of the reason.

St. Thomas relates what St. Gregory says in his De Moralis that anger “withdraws the light of understanding, since it [anger] confounds the mind by stirring it [the mind] thoroughly”.[4]

St. Thomas delves into the topic further as follows:

Although the mind or reason makes no use of a bodily organ in its proper act, yet, since it needs certain sensitive powers for the execution of its act, the acts of which powers are hindered when the body is disturbed, it follows of necessity that any disturbance in the body hinders even the judgment of reason; as is clear in the case of drunkenness or sleep. However, it has been stated (A. 2) that anger, above all, causes a bodily disturbance in the region of the heart, so much as to effect even the outward members. Consequently, of all the passions, anger is the most manifest obstacle to the judgment of reason, according to Ps. 30:10: “My eye is troubled with wrath.”[5]

St. Thomas adds:

“The beginning of anger is in the reason, as regards the appetitive movement, which is the formal element of anger.  But the passion of anger forestalls the perfect judgment of reason, as though it listened but imperfectly to reason, on account of the commotion of the heat urging to instant action, which commotion is the material element of anger.  In this respect it hinders the judgment of reason.[6]

St. Thomas gives us an additional explanation about reason being hindered by anger.  He begins by quoting St. Gregory as saying, “when anger does not vent itself outwardly by the lips, inwardly it burns the more fiercely.”[7]

Then St. Thomas continues as follows:

As stated above (A. 3; Q. 46, A. 4), anger both follows an act of reason, and hinders the reason: and in both respects it may cause taciturnity [that is, being uncommunicative by speech].  On the part of the reason, when the judgment of reason prevails so far, that although it does not curb the appetite in its inordinate desire for vengeance, yet it curbs the tongue from unbridled speech. Wherefore Gregory says (Moral. v, 30): Sometimes when the mind is disturbed, anger, as if in judgment, commands silence.  On the part of the impediment to reason because, as stated above (A. 2), the disturbance of anger reaches to the outward members, and chiefly to those members which reflect more distinctly the emotions of the heart, such as the eyes, face, and tongue; wherefore, as observed above (A. 2), the tongue stammers, the countenance takes fire, the eyes grow fierce.  Consequently, anger may cause such a disturbance, that the tongue is altogether deprived of speech; and taciturnity is the result.[8]

This is an ideal time to turn our attention to our next points of investigation.    In our next lesson we will look at the dangers that may occur if one does not watch his anger closely and/or does not confirm if his anger is just.

Catholic Candle note: The article immediately below is part five of the study of the Choleric temperament.  The first four parts can be found here:

1.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #36:  About the Temperaments – Beginning our Study of the Choleric Temperament: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/08/27/lesson-35-about-the-temperaments-the-choleric-temperament/

2.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #37: About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/09/26/lesson-37-about-the-temperaments-continuation-of-the-choleric-temperament/

3.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #38 — About the Temperaments – Continuing our Study of the Choleric Temperament – Their Spiritual Combat: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/10/24/lesson-38-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat/

4.    Mary’s School of Sanctity – Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/11/26/lesson-39-temperaments-choleric-temperament-their-spiritual-combat-part-iv/

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #40 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study the Choleric Temperament: Their Spiritual Combat – Part V

Note: When referring to a person with a choleric temperament in this article we simply will label him as a choleric.

In our last lesson we explained in general the passion of anger.  We saw that anger is caused by a concurrence of several passions so that anger involves a hope of vengeance (whether just or unjust).  We included the following lists of points which will need to be discussed in order to better understand anger as a passion and to see how crucial it is for anyone to be well aware of the proper use of anger.   

·         What does anger do and how does it move the soul to action?

·         What role does reason play in the use of anger?

·         How does justice fit in with the use of anger?

·         If anger can be unjust, and if can lead to many dangers; what are these possible dangers?

·         How should one fight his feelings of unjust anger?

Because cholerics are very prone to anger, they have a special need for caution regarding their anger.  Hence, it is so important that they have a good comprehension of the passion of anger.

So let us begin by giving some background information on anger and how it works in the soul.

What motivates anger?

St. Thomas Aquinas explains that anger arises in connection with something we suffer or that we perceive that we suffer. Here is his explanation:

Anger is the desire to hurt another for the purpose of just vengeance.  However, unless some injury has been done, there is no question of vengeance; nor does any injury provoke one to vengeance, but only that which is done to the person who seeks vengeance; for just as everything naturally seeks its own good, so does it [everything] naturally repel its own evil. But injury done by anyone does not affect a man unless in some way it be something done against him.  Consequently, the motive of a man’s anger is always something done against him.[1]

This anger as a result of something done to us can include something done to others as St. Thomas shows here:

If we are angry with those who harm others, and seek to be avenged on them, it is because those who are injured belong in some way to us: either by some kinship or friendship, or at least because of the nature we have in common.[2]

In addition to harm done to ourselves and/or others, we can also take offense if something we love is despised by another, as St. Thomas explains here:

When we take a very great interest in a thing, we look upon it as our own good; so that if anyone despise it, it seems as though we ourselves were despised and injured.[3]

St. Thomas also tells us about a concept that seems paradoxical but is nonetheless true.  He puts forth the objection as follows and then answers it:

Objection #4: Further, he that holds his tongue when another insults him, provokes him to greater anger, as Chrysostom observes (Hom. xxii, in Ep. ad Rom.)[4]. But by holding his tongue he does the other no harm.  Therefore, a man is not always provoked to anger by something done against him.

Reply #4: Silence provokes the insulter to anger when he thinks it is due to contempt, as though his anger were slighted and a slight is an action.[5]

Of course, when we are insulted, Our Lord would not want us to retaliate but to imitate Him by being meek.  He was insulted many times and did not open His Mouth.  So if someone takes offense because we silently take an insult, we need not worry about that person’s attitude.  We have an obligation to set a good example whether other people like it or not.

St. Thomas explains how the main cause of anger is someone slighting us or showing us contempt.  He quotes Aristotle saying that anger is “a desire, with sorrow, for vengeance, on account of a seeming slight done unbecomingly.”[6]

 St. Thomas explains being slighted as a motivation for anger as follows:

All the causes of anger are reduced to slight. For slight is of three kinds, as stated in [Aristotle’s work] Rhetoric Bk.2; ch.2, #1378a31 viz., contempt,   despiteful treatment, i.e., hindering one from doing one’s will, and insolence; and all motives of anger are reduced to these three.  Two reasons may be assigned for this.  First, because anger seeks another’s hurt as being a means of just vengeance, wherefore it seeks vengeance in so far as it seems just.  However, just vengeance is taken only for that which is done unjustly; hence, that which provokes anger is always something considered in the light of an injustice.

Wherefore the Philosopher says (Rhetoric Bk.2, ch. 3 #1380b16) that men are not angry if they think they have wronged someone and are suffering justly on that account; because there is no anger at what is just.  However, injury is done to another in three ways: namely, through ignorance, through passion, and through choice.  Then, most of all, a man does an injustice, when he does an injury from choice, on purpose, or from deliberate malice, as stated in Ethics Bk. 5, ch. 8 #1135b24 &1136a4.  Wherefore we are most of all angry with those who, in our opinion, have hurt us on purpose.  For if we think that someone has done us an injury through ignorance or through passion, either we are not angry with them at all, or very much less, since to do anything through ignorance or through passion takes away from the notion of injury, and to a certain extent calls for mercy and forgiveness.  Those, on the other hand, who commit an injury on purpose, seem to sin from contempt; wherefore we are angry with them most of all.  Hence, the Philosopher says (Rhetoric Bk.2, ch. 3 #1380a34) that we are either not angry at all, or not very angry with those who have acted through anger, because they do not seem to have acted slightingly.

The second reason is because a slight is opposed to a man’s excellence because men think little of things that are not worth much ado (Rhetoric Bk. 2, ch. 2 #1378b13). However, we seek for some kind of excellence from all our goods.  Consequently whatever injury is inflicted on us, in so far as it is derogatory to our excellence, seems to savor of a slight.[7]

St. Thomas tells us about various forms of being slighted, such as, being forgotten by others; that others should rejoice in our misfortunes; that they [others] should make known our evils; being hindered from doing as we like. He explains these in details as follows:

Each of those causes amounts to some kind of slight.  Thus, forgetfulness is a clear sign of slight esteem, for the more we think of a thing the more is it fixed in our memory.  Again, if a man does not hesitate by his remarks to give pain to another, this seems to show that he thinks little of him: and those too who show signs of hilarity when another is in misfortune, seem to care little about his good or evil.  Again, he that hinders another from carrying out his will, without deriving thereby any profit to himself, seems not to care much for his friendship. Consequently, all those things, in so far as they are signs of contempt, provoke anger.[8]

St. Thomas continues his treatment of the causes of anger still further in this section of the Summa.  One additional note we need to take from St. Thomas is his comment on the fact that, when a man excels in some aspect, e.g., he is wealthy or wise, he can be angered easily.  The reason he gives for this is:

However, it is evident that the more excellent a man is, the more unjust is a slight offered him in the matter in which he excels.  Consequently, those who excel in any matter, are most of all angry, if they be slighted in that matter; for instance, a wealthy man in his riches, or an orator in his eloquence, and so forth.[9]

On the other hand, St. Thomas explains that those who suffer from a lack of excellence in some way also become easily angered.  His comment follows:

Secondly, the cause of anger, in the man who is angry, may be considered on the part of the disposition produced in him by the motive aforesaid. However, it is evident that nothing moves a man to anger except a hurt that grieves him, while whatever savors of defect is above all a cause of grief since men who suffer from some defect are more easily hurt.  And this is why men who are weak, or subject to some other defect, are more easily angered, since they are more easily grieved.[10]

There is a connection we should briefly mention here between anger and humility.   One’s excellence – real or perceived – must be accompanied by humility.  Otherwise, a person would be greatly tempted to think he is better than he really is and he would fall into anger if others do not recognize his excellence.  Likewise, if someone has a defect which he could make efforts to overcome and he does not try to improve, he could also fall into anger if anyone attributes his defects to his refusal to make the necessary efforts.

A Preview…

In our next lesson we will look more at what anger does to the body and the role that reason plays in anger.

Mary’s School of Sanctity

Lesson #39 About the Temperaments – Continuing Our Study of the Choleric Temperament – That Temperament’s Spiritual Combat – Part IV

Note: In this article, when referring to a person with a choleric temperament, we simply call him a “choleric”.

In our last lesson we addressed the choleric’s type of pride.  We saw how pride is one of the main propensities that a choleric must be aware of in himself so he can be on guard against it.  His pride tends to drive him quickly to extremes.  One of the most dangerous things that his pride sparks in him is anger.   In this lesson we will delve into how anger, which is a natural human passion, is especially a problem area for the choleric.

Anger – a Natural Dispositional Inclination for the Choleric

St. Thomas Aquinas explains in his Summa Theologica[1] how the choleric temperament is prone to anger.  First of all, St. Thomas explains the causes of anger.  Anger is an irascible passion in man.

St. Thomas discusses the causes of the passion of anger.  He tells us that passions can be caused in two ways: 1) on the part of the objects of what a man desires; and 2) on the part of the subject who does the action of desiring.  In what we are studying now in these lessons, the subject is man.

We must remember that man is a rational animal and when it comes to the objects of what a man desires, we find that man seeks certain things because he is, by nature, an animal.  Thus, he seeks the bodily pleasures which are necessary to preserve not only his own life, but also those pleasures which are meant to be used to propagate the species of man.  So St. Thomas explains that if we consider man simply as an animal, then bodily desires are stronger than anger.

On the other hand, St. Thomas tells us that when considering man as a rational being, then anger is more natural to man than his bodily desires, in so far as anger follows reason more than desire does.  St. Thomas says, “It is natural to everything to rise up against things contrary and hurtful.”  (In a future lesson, we will discuss reason’s role in anger.)

St. Thomas shows how the temperament is another cause of anger, in the following words:

[I]f we consider the nature of the individual, in respect to his particular temperament, thus anger is more natural than desire; for the reason that anger is prone to ensue from the natural tendency to anger, more than desire, or any other passion is to ensue from a natural tendency to desire, which tendencies result from a man’s individual temperament.  Because disposition to anger is due to a bilious temperament; and of all the humors, the bile moves quickest; for it is like fire.  Consequently, he that is temperamentally disposed to anger is sooner incensed with anger than he that is inflamed with desire; and for this reason, the Philosopher[2] says (Ethics Bk. 7; ch. 6 #1126b30) that a disposition to anger is more liable to be transmitted from parent to child, than a disposition to desire [i.e., bodily desires].[3]

So let us set up a plan of study about this inclination that the choleric has.  We have all heard of just anger.  Our Lord used this when He kicked the money changers out of the Temple.  Yet, unfortunately more often we see that anger is not used justly. Therefore, it is very important to understand anger and to moderate this passion.  In order to learn how to use anger properly, we need to see the following:

·         Basically, what does anger do insofar as how it moves the soul into action?

·         What role does reason play in the use of anger?

·         How does justice fit in with the use of anger?

·         If anger is unjust, it can lead to many dangers.  What are these dangers?

·         How can one rid himself of feelings of unjust anger?

Understanding Anger as a Passion

St. Thomas explains to us that anger is a special passion because anger is caused by a concurrence of several passions, “because the movement of anger does not arise except on account of some pain inflicted, and unless there be desire and hope of revenge: for, as the Philosopher says in Rhetoric Bk. 2 ch. 2 #1378a31, ‘the angry man hopes to punish; since he craves for revenge as being possible.’”[4]

St. Thomas, quoting St. Augustine, tells us, “Anger craves for revenge,” and revenge belongs to justice.  Hence, anger is something good.  Furthermore, St. Thomas says that “Anger is always accompanied by hope, wherefore it causes pleasure, as the Philosopher says (Rhetoric Bk. 2; ch. 2 #1378b1).  But the object of hope and of pleasure is a good.  Therefore, good is also the object of anger.”[5]

A little after thins explanation, St. Thomas teaches how man can desire both good and evil either simply by following and adhering to the good or recoiling from evil, or man can desire in a more complex way by desiring some good or evil being in another or done to another, and either seeking this deed or recoiling from this deed.

St. Thomas then continues:

This is evident in the case of love and hatred: for we love someone, in so far as we wish some good to be in him; and we hate someone, in so far as we wish some evil to be in him.  It is the same with anger; for when a man is angry, he wishes to be avenged on someone.  Hence, the movement of anger has a twofold tendency: viz., 1) to vengeance itself, which it desires and hopes for as being a good, wherefore it takes pleasure in it; and 2) to the person on whom it seeks vengeance, as to something contrary and hurtful, which bears the character of evil.

We must, however, observe a twofold difference in this respect, between anger on the one side, and hatred and love on the other. The first difference is that anger always regards two objects: whereas love and hatred sometimes regard but one object, as when a man is said to love wine or something of the kind, or to hate it. The second difference is that both the objects of love are good: since the lover wishes good to someone, as to something agreeable to himself: while both the objects of hatred bear the character of evil: for the man who hates, wishes evil to someone, as to something disagreeable to him.  Whereas anger regards one object under the aspect of evil, viz., the noxious person, on whom it seeks to be avenged.  Consequently, it is a passion somewhat made up of contrary passions.[6]

Because, anger is driven by the hope of revenge, we can see how great care must be taken when one is using anger because we are obliged in conscience make sure our anger is just.

 A Preview …

In our next lesson we will pick up with the bullets points given above and continue our investigation of the importance of using our reason when dealing with all aspects of anger.  In this way, we will be better acquainted with one of the major challenges the choleric has in dealing with the weaknesses of his temperament.