chastity, threw themselves into a river,
and so ended their lives, and their martyrdom is honored in the
Catholic Church with most solemn veneration." Therefore martyrdom is
not an act of virtue.

Obj. 3: Further, it is praiseworthy to offer oneself to do an act of
virtue. But it is not praiseworthy to court martyrdom, rather would
it seem to be presumptuous and rash. Therefore martyrdom is not an
act of virtue.

_On the contrary,_ The reward of beatitude is not due save to acts of
virtue. Now it is due to martyrdom, since it is written (Matt. 5:10):
"Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Therefore martyrdom is an act of
virtue.

_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 123, AA. 1, 3), it belongs to
virtue to safeguard man in the good of reason. Now the good of reason
consists in the truth as its proper object, and in justice as its
proper effect, as shown above (Q. 109, AA. 1, 2; Q. 123, A. 12). And
martyrdom consists essentially in standing firmly to truth and
justice against the assaults of persecution. Hence it is evident that
martyrdom is an act of virtue.

Reply Obj. 1: Some have said that in the case of the Innocents the
use of their free will was miraculously accelerated, so that they
suffered martyrdom even voluntarily. Since, however, Scripture
contains no proof of this, it is better to say that these babes in
being slain obtained by God's grace the glory of martyrdom which
others acquire by their own will. For the shedding of one's blood for
Christ's sake takes the place of Baptism. Wherefore just as in the
case of baptized children the merit of Christ is conducive to the
acquisition of glory through the baptismal grace, so in those who
were slain for Christ's sake the merit of Christ's martyrdom is
conducive to the acquisition of the martyr's palm. Hence Augustine
says in a sermon on the Epiphany (De Diversis lxvi), as though he
were addressing them: "A man that does not believe that children are
benefited by the baptism of Christ will doubt of your being crowned
in suffering for Christ. You were not old enough to believe in
Christ's future sufferings, but you had a body wherein you could
endure suffering of Christ Who was to suffer."

Reply Obj. 2: Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i) that "possibly the
Church was induced by certain credible witnesses of Divine authority
thus to honor the memory of those holy women [*Cf. Q. 64, A. 1, ad
2]."

Reply