Vainglory

Glory, in the present use of the term, means praise that is given to excellence displayed. Such praise may be from many persons, or from few, or from one, or even from oneself. Now, glory can be vain in three ways: (a) when it is praise for something unworthy; (b) when it is praise given by unworthypersons; (c) when it is praise unrelated to God directly, or indirectly as contributing to the spiritual good of man. For any ofthese reasons, glory is called vainglory. Vainglory ismanifestly an inordinateness, and is therefore a sin.

Magnanimity refers to honors, and glory is an effect of honor; thus true glory falls into the field of magnanimity. Therefore vainglory, the opposite of true glory, is an evil opposed to magnanimity.

It is possible for vainglory to be a serious sin, but,for the most part, it is a venial sin. In itself, it is not necessarily opposed to charity. When, accidentally, it is brought into conflict with charity, it is a mortal sin.

Vainglory is not mentioned in the list of capital sins. Yet St. Gregory (Moral. xxxi) names it with pride. He says that pride is the greatest vice and is found in all sins, but thatvainglory is an immediate offspring of pride, and should be named as one of the capital sins.

St. Gregory further says that vainglory, as a capital sin, gives direct rise to disobedience, boastfulness, hypocrisy,contention, obstinacy, discord, and the craze for what is new. These vices, St. Gregory calls “the daughters ofvainglory.”