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Capital Vices and Virtues
By Peace | March 1, 2006
The seven capital vices or seven deadly sins suggest a classification of vices and were enumerated by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. The Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions them as “capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great.”
“Capital” here means that these sins stand at the head (Latin caput) of the other sins which proceed from them, e.g., theft proceeding from avarice and adultery from lust.
These vices are pride, envy, avarice, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth. The opposite of these vices are the following virtues: meekness, humility, generosity, tolerance, chastity, moderation, and zeal (meaning enthusiastic devotion to a good cause or an ideal). These virtues are not exactly equivalent to the Seven Cardinal or Theological Virtues mentioned above. Instead these capital vices and virtues can be considered the “building blocks” that rule human behaviour. Both are acquired and reinforced by practice and the exercise of one induces or facilitates the others.
Ranked in order of severity as per Dante’s Divine Comedy (in the Purgatorio), the seven deadly vices are:
- Pride or Vanity — an excessive love of self (holding self out of proper position toward God or fellows; Dante’s definition was “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor”). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, pride is referred to as superbia.
- Avarice (covetousness, Greed ) — a desire to possess more than one has need or use for (or, according to Dante, “excessive love of money and power”). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, avarice is referred to as avaritia.
- Lust — excessive sexual desire. Dante’s criterion was “lust detracts from true love”. In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, lust is referred to as luxuria.
- Wrath or Anger — feelings of hatred, revenge or even denial, as well as punitive desires outside of justice (Dante’s description was “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite”). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, wrath is referred to as ira.
- Gluttony — overindulgence in food, drink or intoxicants, or misplaced desire of food as a pleasure for its sensuality (”excessive love of pleasure” was Dante’s rendering). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony is referred to as gula.
- Envy or jealousy ; resentment of others for their possessions (Dante: “Love of one’s own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs”). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, envy is referred to as invidia.
- Sloth or Laziness; idleness and wastefulness of time allotted. Laziness is condemned because others have to work harder and useful work can not get done. (also accidie, acedia)
Several of these vices interlink, and various attempts at causal hierarchy have been made. For example, pride (love of self out of proportion) is implied in gluttony (the over-consumption or waste of food), as well as sloth, envy, and most of the others.
Each sin is a particular way of failing to love God with all one’s resources and to love fellows as much as self. The Scholastic theologians developed schema of attribute and substance of will to explain these sins.
The 4th century Egyptian monk Evagrius Ponticus defined the sins as deadly “passions,” and in Eastern Orthodoxy, still these impulses are characterized as being “Deadly Passions” rather than sins. Instead, the sins are considered to invite or entertain these passions. In the official Catechism of the Catholic Church published in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, these seven vices are considered moral transgression for Christians and the virtues should complement the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes as the basis for any true Morality.
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