Tuesday, August 17, 2010

1a 2ae q48 a2: Whether anger above all causes fervor in the heart? Yes.

Fervor irae est cum amaritudine, ad consumendum, quia tendit ad punitionem contrarii: unde assimilatur calori ignis et cholerae, et propter hoc Damascenus dicit quod "procedit ex evaporatione fellis, et fellea nominatur".

The fervor of anger has a certain bitterness with a tendency to destroy, because it seeks to be avenged on the contrary evil: whence it is likened to the heat of fire and of the bile, and for this reason Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii, 16) that it "results from an exhalation of the bile whence it takes its name chole."