# Aristocracy as a habit of deference

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P032](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P032/#char=0,56): "Aristocracy is not an institution: aristocracy is a sin;"

The second sentence supplies a deliberately unusual definition of the first: 'aristocracy' here names an inclination to admire power and inflate social importance. Chesterton shifts attention from a constitutional arrangement to the dispositions that sustain it. On this reading, abolishing titles would not by itself abolish aristocracy; its temptation can reappear wherever people defer to prominence. This is an interpretation of the paragraph's definition, not a historical claim that aristocratic institutions do not exist.

A close biblical comparison is James 2:1–9. In the King James Version (first published 1611), the congregation seats a splendidly dressed rich visitor comfortably while humiliating a poor visitor. Verse 9 calls such partiality sin. James therefore locates the fault in an ordinary social encounter, before any question of a political constitution. Chesterton neither quotes James nor names the epistle here, so this is a theological parallel rather than an established allusion. [James 2:1–9, KJV](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%202%3A1-9&version=KJV).

Aquinas gives the distinction greater precision in *Summa theologiae* II–II, question 63, articles 1 and 3: selecting someone because of wealth rather than relevant qualifications violates distributive justice, but honoring a public office can remain legitimate even when its occupant is personally bad. His account distinguishes respect for a function from admiration for wealth as such. That distinction helps explain why Chesterton's target can be habitual worship of power without making every form of rank intrinsically sinful. The comparison is with a thirteenth-century work, inspected in the English Dominican translation's second revised edition (1920), and does not establish Chesterton's dependence on it. [Aquinas, II–II, q. 63](https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3063.htm).

## Sources

- [James 2:1–9, King James Version](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%202%3A1-9&version=KJV), Verses 1–4 and 8–9; KJV first published 1611; Bible Gateway electronic text
- [Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II–II, question 63: Respect of persons](https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3063.htm), Articles 1 and 3, responses; English Dominican translation, second revised edition, 1920, New Advent transcription

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