Thomas Aquinas offers a diverse field of insight into his thoughts on human conscience in different scenarios. Aquinas defines conscience as applying principles of human nature to determine the morality of our actions. Thomas Aquinas uses his definition and opinion on human conscience to answer multiple questions that concern where one’s conscience has authority over others or other things. Thomas Aquinas strategically uses a scholastic approach to strengthen his arguments and convince the reader his arguments are true. In Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings Thomas Aquinas makes a strong argument that human beings are indeed bound by their conscience, are bound by erroneous conscience found to be morally wrong, and that human beings are more…show more content… Although a bishop is a high-ranking official member of the Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas still argues that his conscience has authority over a bishop’s moral or ethical commands. Aquinas writes that the “divine command binds against the command of the prelate”, so “the binding force of conscience will be greater than the binding force of the prelate’s command” (237). Because one’s conscience is informed by divine knowledge from God, it is superior to the command of the bishop. However, a correct conscience and an erroneous conscience also bind differently when facing the commands of a bishop in indifferent matters. If one’s conscience is correct and properly informed, it “absolutely and perfectly obliges against the command of the prelate” because a correct conscience binds in every single scenario. On the other hand, an erroneous conscience “binds against the command of the prelate in matters of indifference in a certain respect and imperfectly” because one “sins more if he does not do what his conscience dictates” (237). Even though the bishop may command something that technically conforms to moral standards, an erroneous conscience still binds against the command of the bishop because the one who errs believes his conscience to be true. Thus, a correct conscience and erroneous conscience bind more than the command of a bishop, but an erroneous conscience binds in a more accidental way. Aquinas continues to respond to potential opposing arguments which support that conscience does not bind against the command of a bishop in indifferent matters to make his own argument stronger. For example, Aquinas does not agree that “one is held to obey the command of the prelate rather than conscience” because a religious subject is “held to keep his vow” to obey a bishop. Aquinas does not argue that we should not respect bishops, but argues that one cannot
