**CRUELTY** — “Cruelty is the atrocity of the spirit in inflicting punishments” (Seneca, *De Clem.*, 4). The term cruel comes from *crudus*, meaning one who has fierce customs. St Thomas likewise derives the term from *cruditas*, harshness, and notes that just as raw foods have an unpleasant and harsh taste, so cruelty implies harshness of spirit. Judged externally, in comparison with the sufferer, cruelty is a lack of justice insofar as it exceeds in inflicting punishments that are due in themselves but not to that degree. Considered instead as a disposition of the spirit in the one who commits it, cruelty is an act against clemency, a virtue annexed to temperance and characterized by a gentleness of spirit that tends to mitigate punishments.
CRUDELTA
BIBL.: St Thomas, *Summa Theologiae*, 2-2, q. 139, arts. 1–2.