uld have you to be without
solicitude": thirdly, as a holocaust whereby a man offers himself and
his possessions wholly to God; and in corresponding manner the
religious state is constituted by these three vows.

First, as regards the practice of perfection a man is required to
remove from himself whatever may hinder his affections from tending
wholly to God, for it is in this that the perfection of charity
consists. Such hindrances are of three kinds. First, the attachment
to external goods, which is removed by the vow of poverty; secondly,
the concupiscence of sensible pleasures, chief among which are
venereal pleasures, and these are removed by the vow of continence;
thirdly, the inordinateness of the human will, and this is removed by
the vow of obedience. In like manner the disquiet of worldly
solicitude is aroused in man in reference especially to three things.
First, as regards the dispensing of external things, and this
solicitude is removed from man by the vow of poverty; secondly, as
regards the control of wife and children, which is cut away by the
vow of continence; thirdly, as regards the disposal of one's own
actions, which is eliminated by the vow of obedience, whereby a man
commits himself to the disposal of another.

Again, "a holocaust is the offering to God of all that one has,"
according to Gregory (Hom. xx in Ezech.). Now man has a threefold
good, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. i, 8). First, the good of
external things, which he wholly offers to God by the vow of
voluntary poverty: secondly, the good of his own body, and this good
he offers to God especially by the vow of continence, whereby he
renounces the greatest bodily pleasures. The third is the good of the
soul, which man wholly offers to God by the vow of obedience, whereby
he offers God his own will by which he makes use of all the powers
and habits of the soul. Therefore the religious state is fittingly
constituted by the three vows.

Reply Obj. 1: As stated above (A. 1), the end whereunto the religious
vow is directed is the perfection of charity, since all the interior
acts of virtue belong to charity as to their mother, according to 1
Cor. 13:4, "Charity is patient, is kind," etc. Hence the interior
acts of virtue, for instance humility, patience, and so forth, do not
come under the religious vow, but this is directed to them as its end.

Reply Obj. 2: All other religious observances are directed to the
three aforesaid princi