Publisher's description:
Despite its non-Christian origins, the scheme of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) found wide acceptance in medieval theology, philosophy, and religious literature. The present study is the first to investigate the history of the four virtues in the Latin Middle Ages from patristic times to the late fourteenth century. It examines the position of the cardinal virtues between religious and secularized conceptions of morality and attempts to reveal some distinctly Christian aspects of medieval virtue theory notwithstanding its manifest indebtedness to ancient ethics. Exploring learned and popularizing sources alike, including much unedited material, this study covers a broad spectrum of moral debate during ten centuries of Western intellectual history.

Table of contents:
Introduction
1. Patristic Era and Early Middle Ages (c. 400-c. 1100)
Christianizing the Cardinal Virtues: The Three Great Fathers of the West
Christianized Cardinal Virtues: The Early Middle Ages
Conclusion
2. The Twelfth Century
The Renewal of Moral Thought
Classicizing Tendencies
Early Moral Theology
Religious Moral Thought
Parisian Theology: Peter Lombard and After
Conclusion
3. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Moral Discourse: Aristotle and Beyond
The Cardinal Virtues: Text and Context
Saving the Fourfold Scheme
Cardinal Virtues and Secular Ethics
Conclusion
4. Fallen Man in Search of Virtue
Virtue and the Fall
The Cardinal Virtues and the Vices
Upsetting Aristotle
Conclusion
Conclusion
Appendix I
I.1. Prudence and the Moral Virtues according to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
I.2. The Subdivisions of the Cardinal Virtues according to Some Classical and Medieval Writings
I.3. The Classification of the Moral Virtues according to Giles of Rome, Gerald of Odo, and John Buridan
Appendix II: Some Unedited Medieval Texts on the Cardinal Virtues
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
Index of Ancient and Medieval Names and Anonymous Works