A list with a built-in problem
The title names five qualities: wisdom, justice, temperance, fortitude and prudence. The standard medieval list of cardinal virtues, however, had four. The usual four are prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. So the first thing to explain is where the fifth name comes from and why it does not usually appear as a separate item.
The short answer is that wisdom and prudence were closely related, and in much of the classical and Christian tradition they were treated as the same virtue under different names, or as two levels of the same quality. A careful reader should therefore be cautious about any source that presents five cardinal virtues as the official medieval teaching.
Where the four came from
The idea of a small set of principal virtues goes back to ancient Greek philosophy. Plato’s Republic describes four qualities of a good person and a good city: wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. Aristotle gave a more detailed account of the virtues, and Roman writers such as Cicero adapted the Greek scheme in Latin, using terms like prudentia, iustitia, temperantia and fortitudo.
Christian authors took this inheritance over. Ambrose of Milan, in the later 300s, is traditionally credited with calling the four virtues cardinal, from the Latin word for a hinge: other virtues were thought to “hinge” on them. Augustine and later writers developed the scheme, and by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the four were a standard teaching tool.
Wisdom and prudence
The confusion largely comes from translation. The Greek word often rendered as “wisdom” in Plato (sophia, or sometimes phronesis) had overlapping meanings. Latin writers used sapientia for wisdom and prudentia for practical good judgment. They were not identical.
Medieval authors usually drew a distinction along these lines:
- Wisdom (sapientia) concerned knowing the highest things, ultimately God. It was sometimes classed among the gifts of the Holy Spirit and as an intellectual virtue, distinct from the moral virtues.
- Prudence (prudentia) was practical wisdom: the ability to deliberate well about what to do in a specific situation and to choose the right means to a good end.
Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, treated prudence as a cardinal virtue and as the one that guides the other three, since one cannot act justly or bravely without judging correctly what the situation calls for. He placed wisdom in a different category. So where a list names both, it is combining the Greek-influenced heading “wisdom” with the Latin heading “prudence” or distinguishing speculative from practical knowledge. Neither reading gives a separate, fifth cardinal virtue in the mainstream scheme.
Where five-virtue lists come from
Why do some modern web pages and popular books list five? A few explanations are plausible, though none is certain:
- Some writers add wisdom to the four to emphasize intellectual excellence.
- Compilers sometimes mix the cardinal virtues with the theological virtues, or with later lists of seven.
- Medieval authors produced many lists of virtues for different teaching purposes, and not all of them matched the standard scheme.
- Modern summaries sometimes merge terms from translation without checking the older sources.
Because medieval moral writing was often compiled for sermons, school texts and manuals, small variations were common. It would be wrong to say that no medieval source ever listed five qualities, but the tradition most closely associated with the cardinal virtues was a group of four.
What each virtue was for
Even in a list with the “wrong” count, the content is recognizable:
- Prudence or wisdom was the capacity to see what is good and to judge well.
- Justice was giving each person what is due, including God, a duty central to rulers and judges.
- Temperance meant moderating appetites for food, drink and pleasure.
- Fortitude was steadfastness in danger and difficulty, the courage to endure and to act.
Medieval writers used these as a checklist for good character, especially in advice for rulers. Moral treatises for princes often stressed prudence and justice as the foundations of good government, which is a theme tied to medieval kingship.
Pagan roots, Christian additions
Because the four were inherited from non-Christian philosophers, Christian authors had to decide how they fit with faith. The standard solution was to add three theological virtues from Saint Paul, faith, hope and charity, which were thought to be given by God and to direct the soul toward God. The cardinal virtues could be practiced naturally, but they were thought to be perfected by grace. The relationship between the two sets is covered more fully in the general background to the cardinal virtues.
Cautions for readers
When you meet a list of five cardinal virtues, check its source. If the list includes both wisdom and prudence, it is probably a modern or popular variation, a paraphrase of Greek terms, or a list that treats wisdom as a higher intellectual virtue above the four. The medieval teaching, as far as the major authorities go, is best summarized as four principal moral virtues, with wisdom and prudence closely linked, and with faith, hope and charity added on a different level.