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These Catholics wanted to add the word "alone" to James?

That was strictly Luther's idea.

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"What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?"
—James 2:14

And no, the Catholics you cite did not hold Luther's view regarding "faith alone." They understood that "faith without works is dead." They understoood that faith/works are two sides of the same coin.

Ironically, your citation from St. Augustine exemplifies this understanding:

Although it can be said that God’s commandments pertain to faith alone, if it is not dead [faith], but rather understood as that live faith, which works through love”

Love = caritas = charity

(Did you read the citations that you cut and pasted from the internet? I can google stuff too, you know).

The quote from St. Thomas is obviously separating faith from the 613 precepts of the Torah, such as the prohibition against eating port, etc.:

Therefore the hope of justification is not found in them, but in faith alone, Rom 3:28: We consider a human being to be justified by faith, without the works of the law

The Catholic position has always been salvation by grace alone.

These Catholics wanted to add the word "alone" to James?

If you read the citations, the complaint was 'alone' to Romans 3:28, James has no such thing.

And no, the Catholics you cite did not hold Luther's view regarding "faith alone." They understood that "faith without works is dead." They understoood that faith/works are two sides of the same coin.

As opposed to the citations. I don't hold that they held to 'faith alone', just that they did indeed cite it as such. I'm stuck between believing an anonymous poster on the net, or my lying eyes. I can only report what they wrote.

understood as that live faith, which works through love”

As any true Protestant will attest. But the works avail nothing for salvation, but indicate only that the faith is alive, a saving faith.

The Catholic position has always been salvation by grace alone.

And indeed it is, through faith as the Apostle Paul writes over and over.

To which the Catholic church has added extra requirements to that belief through faith in the redemptive work of Christ in order to merit salvation, in opposition to the clear words of the Lord and Apostolic teachings.