Main menu














Search Go

 Create account
 Log in
Personal tools



Contents
 hide


(Top)


History
Toggle History subsection
o
Greco-Roman antecedents

o
Origin of the currently recognized seven deadly sins


Historical and modern definitions, views, and associations
Toggle Historical and modern definitions, views, and associations subsection
o
Lust
 o
Gluttony

o
Greed

o
Sloth

o
Wrath

o
Envy

o
Pride


Historical sins
Toggle Historical sins subsection
o
Acedia

o
Vainglory


Christian seven virtues


Confession patterns


In art
Toggle In art subsection
o
Dante's Purgatorio

o
Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Parson's Tale"

o
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Prints of the Seven Deadly Sins

o
William Langland's Piers Plowman
 o
The Seven Deadly Sins

o
Paul Cadmus' The Seven Deadly Sins


See also


References


Further reading


External links

Seven deadly sins

68 languages

 Article
 Talk
 Read
 Edit
 View history
Tools













From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Seven deadly sins (disambiguation) and Deadly Sins (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Mortal sin.

This article or section should specify the language of its non-English content,

using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for
phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code.
 Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. See
why. (December 2021)

Hieronymus Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things

The Holy Spirit and the Seven Deadly Sins. Folio from Walters manuscript W.171 (15th century)

Part of a series on

Catholic philosophy
    

Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham

show

Ethics

show

Metaphysics

show

Schools

show

Philosophers

  Catholicism portal
  Philosophy portal

 v
 t
 e

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a

grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings.[1] Although they are not
directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things God is said to
dislike in the Book of Proverbs. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if
they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2] According to the standard list, they
are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven
capital virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one's
natural faculties or passions (for example, gluttony abuses one's desire to eat).
This classification originated with the Desert Fathers, especially Evagrius Ponticus.
[3]
 Evagrius' pupil John Cassian with his book The Institutes brought the classification to
Europe,[4] where it became fundamental to Catholic confessional practices as
documented in penitential manuals, sermons such as "The Parson's Tale" from
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and artworks such as Dante's Purgatory where the
penitents of Mount Purgatory are grouped and penanced according to their worst sin.
Church teaching especially focused on pride, which was thought to be the root of all sin
since it turns the soul away from God; and also on greed or covetousness. Both of
these were to undercut other sins.
The seven deadly sins are discussed in treatises and depicted in paintings and
sculpture decorations on Catholic churches as well as older textbooks. [1] The seven
deadly sins, along with the sins against the Holy Ghost and the sins that cry to Heaven
for vengeance, are taught especially in Western Christian traditions as things to be
deplored.[5]

History[edit]
Greco-Roman antecedents[edit]
The seven deadly sins as we know them had pre-Christian Greek and Roman
precedents. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics lists several excellences or virtues. Aristotle
argues that each positive quality represents a golden mean between two extremes,
each of which is a vice. Courage, for example, is the virtue of facing fear and danger;
excess courage is recklessness, while deficient courage is cowardice. Aristotle lists
several virtues, such as courage, temperance or self-control, generosity, greatness of
soul or magnanimity, measured anger, friendship, and wit or charm.
Roman writers such as Horace extolled virtues, and they listed and warned against
vices. His first epistles say that "to flee vice is the beginning of virtue and to have got rid
of folly is the beginning of wisdom."[6]
An allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an
animal (clockwise: toad = avarice; snake = envy; lion = wrath; snail = sloth; pig = gluttony; goat =
lust; peacock = pride).

Origin of the currently recognized seven deadly sins[edit]

The modern concept of the seven deadly sins is linked to the monastic tradition of early
Christian Egypt, which was itself influenced by the neoplatonist teachings of the school
of Alexandria.
In the platonic tradition, the human being is composed of three components: the body,
the soul, and the mind. Each component has its own primary function: appetite or desire
(epithymia), feeling (thymos), and mind (nous). For each of these functions, the
Egyptian monks identified three "thoughts" or logismoi that lead to disorders.
These "evil thoughts" can be categorized as follows: [7]

 physical (thoughts produced by the nutritive, sexual, and acquisitive appetites)

 emotional (thoughts produced by depressive, irascible, or dismissive moods)
 mental (thoughts produced by jealous/envious, boastful, or hubristic states of mind)
The fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus reduced the nine logismoi to eight, as
follows:[8][9]

1. Γαστριμαργία (gastrimargia) gluttony
2. Πορνεία (porneia) prostitution, fornication
3. Φιλαργυρία (philargyria) avarice (greed)
4. Λύπη (lypē) sadness, rendered in the Philokalia as envy, sadness at another's
good fortune
5. Ὀργή (orgē) wrath
6. Ἀκηδία (akēdia) acedia, rendered in the Philokalia as dejection
7. Κενοδοξία (kenodoxia) boasting
8. Ὑπερηφανία (hyperēphania) pride, sometimes rendered as self-
overestimation, arrogance, or grandiosity[10]
Evagrius's list was translated into the Latin of Western Christianity in many writings
of John Cassian,[11][12] thus becoming part of the Western tradition's
spiritual pietas or Catholic devotions as follows:[7]

1. Gula (gluttony)
2. Luxuria/Fornicatio (lust, fornication)
3. Avaritia (avarice/greed)
4. Tristitia (sorrow/despair/despondency)
5. Ira (wrath)
6. Acedia (sloth)
7. Vanagloria (vainglory)
8. Superbia (pride, hubris)
In AD 590, Pope Gregory I revised the list to form a more common list. [13] Gregory
combined tristitia with acedia and vanagloria with superbia, adding envy, which
is invidia in Latin.[14][15] Gregory's list became the standard list of sins. Thomas
Aquinas uses and defends Gregory's list in his Summa Theologica, although he calls
them the "capital sins" because they are the head and form of all the others. [16] Christian
denominations, such as the Anglican Communion,[17] Lutheran Church,[18] and Methodist
Church,[19][20] still retain this list, and modern evangelists such as Billy Graham have
explicated the seven deadly sins.[21]

Historical and modern definitions, views, and

associations[edit]
Most of the seven deadly sins are defined by Dante Alighieri (c. 1264–1321) as
perverse or corrupt versions of love; lust, gluttony, and greed are all excessive or
disordered love of good things; and wrath, envy, and pride are perverted love directed
toward others' harm. The sole exception is sloth, which is a deficiency of love. [22] In the
seven deadly sins are seven ways of eternal death.[23] Pride is often thought to be the
father and promoter of all the other sins.
Lust[edit]
Main article: Lust

Paolo and Francesca, whom Dante's Inferno describes as damned for fornication. (Ingres, 1819)

Lust or lechery (Latin: luxuria "carnal") is intense longing. It is usually thought of as

intense or unbridled sexual desire,[24] which may lead
to fornication (including adultery), rape, bestiality, and other sinful and sexual acts;
oftentimes, however, it could also mean other forms of unbridled desire, such as for
money, or power. Henry Edward Manning explains that the impurity of lust transforms
one into "a slave of the devil".[23]
Dante defined lust as the disordered love for individuals. [25] It is generally thought to be
the least serious capital sin,[22][26] as it is an abuse of a faculty that humans share with
animals and sins of the flesh are less grievous than spiritual sins. [27] In
Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful thoughts
and feelings. Unforgiven souls guilty of lust are also eternally blown about in restless
hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self-control of their lustful passions in
earthly life and as shown in Dante's Inferno.[28]
Gluttony[edit]
Main article: Gluttony

Still life: Excess (Albert Anker, 1896)

Gluttony (Latin: gula) is the overindulgence and overconsumption of anything to the

point of waste. The word derives from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or
swallow.[29] One reason for its condemnation is that gorging the prosperous may leave
the needy hungry.[30]
Medieval church leaders such as Thomas Aquinas took a more expansive view of
gluttony,[30] arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals and
over-indulgence in delicacies and costly foods.[31] Aquinas also listed five forms of
gluttony:

 Laute – eating too expensively

 Studiose – eating too daintily
 Nimis – eating too much
 Praepropere – eating too soon
 Ardenter – eating too eagerly
Ardenter is often considered the most serious of these, since it is a passion for a mere
earthly pleasure, which can make the committer eat impulsively or even reduce the
goals of life to mere eating and drinking; for example, Esau sold his birthright for a mess
of pottage with a "profane person ... who, for a morsel of meat sold his birthright" and
later stated that "he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully, with
tears".[32]
Greed[edit]
Main article: Greed
The Worship of  Mammon (1909) by Evelyn De Morgan.

Greed (Latin: avaritia), also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness, is a sin of

desire like lust and gluttony. However, greed (as seen by the Church) is applied to an
artificial, rapacious desire as well as the pursuit of material possessions. Thomas
Aquinas wrote: "Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man
condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the
penitents are bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated
excessively on earthly thoughts. Hoarding of materials or objects, theft, and robbery,
especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority, are all actions
that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one attempts
to purchase or sell sacraments, including Holy Orders and, therefore, positions of
authority in the Church hierarchy.[citation needed]
In the words of Henry Edward, avarice "plunges a man deep into the mire of this world,
so that he makes it to be his god".[23]
As defined outside Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or
possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.[33] Like pride, it
can lead to evil.[2]
Sloth[edit]
Main article: Sloth (deadly sin)
Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (1624) by Abraham Bloemaert, Walters Art Museum

Sloth (Latin: tristitia, or acedia "without care") refers to a peculiar jumble of notions,

dating from antiquity and including mental, spiritual, pathological, and physical states.
[34]
 It may be defined as absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion. [35]
In his Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as "sorrow about
spiritual good".[2]
The scope of sloth is wide.[34] Spiritually, acedia first referred to an affliction attending
religious persons, especially monks, wherein they became indifferent to their duties and
obligations to God. Mentally, acedia has a number of distinctive components; the most
important of these is affectlessness, a lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind-
state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish
mentation. Physically, acedia is fundamentally associated with a cessation of motion
and an indifference to work; it finds expression in laziness, idleness, and indolence.[34]
Sloth includes ceasing to utilize the seven gifts of grace given by the Holy
Spirit (Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, Fortitude, and Fear of the
Lord); such disregard may lead to the slowing of spiritual progress towards eternal life,
the neglect of manifold duties of charity towards the neighbor, and animosity towards
those who love God.[23]
Sloth has also been defined as a failure to do things that one should do. By this
definition, evil exists when "good" people fail to act.
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) wrote in Present Discontents (II. 78): "No man, who is not
inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported,
desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and
united Cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
Unlike the other seven deadly sins, which are sins of committing immorality, sloth is a
sin of omitting responsibilities. It may arise from any of the other capital vices; for
example, a son may omit his duty to his father through anger. The state and habit of
sloth is a mortal sin, while the habit of the soul tending towards the last mortal state of
sloth is not mortal in and of itself except under certain circumstances. [23]
Emotionally, and cognitively, the evil of acedia finds expression in a lack of any feeling
for the world, for the people in it, or for the self. Acedia takes form as an alienation of
the sentient self first from the world and then from itself. The most profound versions of
this condition are found in a withdrawal from all forms of participation in or care for
others or oneself, but a lesser yet more noisome element was also noted by
theologians. Gregory the Great asserted that, "from tristitia, there arise malice, rancour,
cowardice, [and] despair". Chaucer also dealt with this attribute of acedia, counting the
characteristics of the sin to include despair, somnolence, idleness, tardiness,
negligence, indolence, and wrawnesse, the last variously translated as "anger" or better
as "peevishness". For Chaucer, human's sin consists of languishing and holding back,
refusing to undertake works of goodness because, he/she tells him/herself, the
circumstances surrounding the establishment of good are too grievous and too difficult
to suffer. Acedia in Chaucer's view is thus the enemy of every source and motive for
work.[36]
Sloth subverts the livelihood of the body, taking no care for its day-to-day provisions,
and slows down the mind, halting its attention to matters of great importance. Sloth
hinders the man in his righteous undertakings and thus becomes a terrible source of
human's undoing.[36]
In his Purgatorio, Dante portrayed the penance for acedia as running continuously at
top speed. He describes acedia as the "failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's
mind and all one's soul". To him, it was the "middle sin", the only one characterised by
an absence or insufficiency of love.[37]
Wrath[edit]
Main article: Wrath

Wrath, by Jacques de l'Ange

Wrath (ira) can be defined as uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred.

Wrath often reveals itself in the wish to seek vengeance. [38] In its purest form, wrath
presents with injury, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for
centuries. Wrath may persist long after the person who did another grievous wrong dies.
Feelings of wrath can manifest in different ways, including impatience, hateful
misanthropy, revenge, and self-destructive behavior, such as drug abuse, or suicide.[original
research?]

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the neutral act of anger becomes
the sin of wrath when it is directed against an innocent person, when it is unduly strong
or long-lasting, or when it desires excessive punishment. "If anger reaches the point of a
deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a
mortal sin." (CCC 2302) Hatred is the sin of desiring that someone else may suffer
misfortune or evil and is a mortal sin when one desires grave harm (CCC 2302–03).
People feel angry when they sense that they or someone they care about has been
offended, when they are certain about the nature and cause of the angering event,
when they are certain someone else is responsible, and when they feel that they can
still influence the situation or cope with it.[39]
In her introduction to Purgatory, Dorothy L. Sayers describes wrath as "love
of justice perverted to revenge and spite".[38] In accordance with Henry Edward, angry
people are "slaves to themselves".[23]
Envy[edit]
Main article: Envy

Cain killing Abel (c. 1600) by Bartolomeo Manfredi

Envy (invidia) is characterized by an insatiable desire like greed and lust. It can be
described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of
someone else. It comes from vainglory[40] and severs a man from his neighbor.[23]
Malicious envy is similar to jealousy in that they both feel discontent towards someone's
traits, status, abilities, or rewards. A difference is that the envious also desire the entity
and covet it. Envy can be directly related to the Ten Commandments, specifically,
"Neither shall you covet ... anything that belongs to your neighbour"—a statement that
may also be related to greed. Dante defined envy as "a desire to deprive other men of
theirs". In Dante's Purgatory, the punishment for the envious is to have their eyes sewn
shut with wire because they gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the struggle aroused by envy has three stages:
during the first stage, the envious person attempts to lower another's reputation; in the
middle stage, the envious person receives either "joy at another's misfortune" (if he
succeeds in defaming the other person) or "grief at another's prosperity" (if he fails); and
the third stage is hatred because "sorrow causes hatred". [41]
Envy is said to be the motivation behind Cain murdering his brother Abel, as Cain
envied Abel because God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's.
Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness, [42]
[page  needed]
 bringing sorrow to committers of envy, while giving them the urge to inflict pain
upon others.
According to the most widely accepted views, only pride weighs down the soul more
than envy among the capital sins. Like pride, envy has been associated directly with the
devil, for Wisdom 2:24 states: "the envy of the devil brought death to the world". [40]
Pride[edit]
Main article: Pride

Building the Tower of Babel was, for Dante, an example of pride. Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Pride (superbia), also known as hubris (from Ancient Greek ὕβρις) or futility. It is

considered the original and worst of the seven deadly sins on almost every list, the most
demonic.[43] It is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins. Pride is the
opposite of humility.[44][45]
Pride is identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, putting one's own desires, urges,
wants, and whims before the welfare of others. Dante's definition of pride was "love of
self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor".
In more pathological cases, it is an irrational belief that one is essentially better,
superior, or more important than others, despising their merits, and excessively
admiring oneself as godlike, refusing to acknowledge one's limits, faults, or wrongs.
What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, line 203.

Pride has been labeled the father of all sins and has been deemed the devil's most
essential trait. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that pride is the "anti-God" state,
the position in which the ego and the self are directly opposed to God: "Unchastity,
anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through
Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete
anti-God state of mind."[46] Pride is understood to sever the spirit from God, as well as
His life-and-grace-giving Presence.[23]
One can be prideful for different reasons. Author Ichabod Spencer states that "spiritual
pride is the worst kind of pride, if not worst snare of the devil. The heart is particularly
deceitful on this one thing."[47] Jonathan Edwards said: "remember that pride is the worst
viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul's peace and sweet
communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was and lies lowest in the
foundation of Satan's whole building and is the most difficultly rooted out and is the most
hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of
religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility." [48]
In Ancient Athens, hubris was considered one of the greatest vices: an insolent
contempt, a violent urge to aggrandize oneself by shaming others. This sense of hubris
could also characterize rape.[49] Aristotle defined hubris as shaming a victim merely for
the shamer's own gratification rather than any revenge or material interest. [50][51][52] The
word's connotation changed somewhat over time, with some additional emphasis
towards a gross overestimation of one's abilities.
According to the biblical book of Sirach, the heart of a proud man is "like a partridge in
its cage acting as a decoy; like a spy he watches for your weaknesses. He changes
good things into evil, he lays his traps. Just as a spark sets coals on fire, the wicked
man prepares his snares in order to draw blood. Beware of the wicked man for he is
planning evil. He might dishonor you forever." Chapters 10 and 11 advise about pride,
hubris, and the proper dispensation of honor:
Do not store up resentment against your neighbor, no matter what his offence; do
nothing in a fit of anger. Pride is odious to both God and man; injustice is abhorrent to
both of them.... Do not reprehend anyone unless you have been first fully informed,
consider the case first and thereafter make your reproach. Do not reply before you have
listened; do not meddle in the disputes of sinners. My child, do not undertake too many
activities. If you keep adding to them, you will not be without reproach; if you run after
them, you will not succeed nor will you ever be free, although you try to escape.

— Sirach, 10:6–31 and 11:1–10

In Jacob Bidermann's medieval miracle play Cenodoxus, pride is the deadliest of the
seven deadly sins and leads directly to the damnation of the eponymous Parisian
doctor. In Dante's Divine Comedy, the penitents are burdened with stone slabs on their
necks to keep their heads bowed.
Benjamin Franklin said "In reality there is, perhaps no one of our natural passions so
hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one
pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see
it, perhaps, often in this history. For even if I could conceive that I had completely
overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." [53] Joseph Addison wrote: "There
is no passion that steals into the heart more imperceptibly and covers itself under more
disguises than pride."[54]
The modern use of pride may be summed up in the biblical proverb, "Pride goeth before
destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (abbreviated "Pride goes before a
fall", Proverbs 16:18). The "pride that blinds" causes foolish actions against common
sense.[55] In political analysis, "hubris" is often used to describe how leaders with great
power over many years become more and more irrationally self-confident and
contemptuous of advice, leading them to act impulsively. [55] Ian Kershaw's biography
of Adolf Hitler titles its first volume Hubris[56] describing Hitler's early life and rise to
power; while the second volume Nemesis[57] analyzes Hitler's command in the Second
World War leading to his defeat and suicide. The term has recently been used by Peter
Beinart (2010) and David Owen (2012).

Historical sins[edit]
Acedia[edit]
Main article: Acedia

Acedia mosaic, Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Acedia (Latin, acedia "without care"[34]) (from Greek ἀκηδία) is the neglect to take care of
something that one should do. It is translated to apathetic listlessness; depression
without joy. It is related to melancholy; acedia describes the behaviour
and melancholy suggests the emotion producing it. In early Christian thought, the lack
of joy was regarded as a willful refusal to enjoy the goodness of God. By contrast,
apathy was considered a refusal to help others in times of need.
Acēdia is the negative form of the Greek term κηδεία (Kēdeia), which has a more
restricted usage. 'Kēdeia' refers specifically to spousal love and respect for the dead.
[58]
 The positive term 'kēdeia' thus indicates love for one's family, even through death. It
also indicates love for those outside one's immediate family, specifically forming a new
family with one's "beloved". Seen in this way, acēdia indicates a rejection of familial
love. Nonetheless, the meaning of acēdia is far more broad, signifying indifference to
everything one experiences.
Pope Gregory combined this with tristitia into sloth for his list. When Thomas
Aquinas described acedia in his interpretation of the list, he described it as an
"uneasiness of the mind", being a progenitor for lesser sins such as restlessness and
instability. Dante refined this definition further, describing acedia as the "failure to love
God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul". To him, it was the "middle
sin", the only one characterised by an absence or insufficiency of love. [59]
Acedia is currently defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as spiritual sloth,
believing spiritual tasks to be too difficult. In the fourth century, Christian monks
believed that acedia was primarily caused by a state of melancholia that caused
spiritual detachment instead of laziness.[60]
Detail of Pride from The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things by Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500

Vainglory[edit]
Main article: Vanity

Vainglory (Latin, vanagloria) is unjustified boasting. Pope Gregory viewed it as a form of

pride, so he folded vainglory into pride for his listing of sins.[14] According to Aquinas, it is
the progenitor of envy.[40]
The Latin term gloria roughly means boasting, although its English cognate glory has
come to have an exclusively positive meaning. Historically, the term vain roughly
meant futile (a meaning retained in the modern expression "in vain"), but had come to
have the strong narcissistic undertones by the fourteenth century which it still retains
today.[61] As a result of these semantic changes, vainglory has become a rarely used
word in itself and is now commonly interpreted as referring to vanity (in its modern
narcissistic sense).[citation needed]

Christian seven virtues[edit]

With Christianity, historic Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church and
Protestant churches,[62] including the Lutheran Church,[63] recognize seven virtues, which
correspond inversely to each of the seven deadly sins.

Vice Latin Italian Virtue Latin Italian

Lust Luxuria Lussuria Chastity Castitas Castità

Glutton Temperanz
Gula Gola Temperance Moderatio
y a
 Vice Latin Italian Virtue Latin Italian

Charity (or,
Greed Avaritia Avarizia Caritas (Liberalitas) Generosità
sometimes, Generosity)

Sloth Acedia Accidia Diligence Industria Diligenza

Wrath Ira Ira Patience Patientia Pazienza

Envy Invidia Invidia Gratitude (or Kindness) Gratia (Humanitas) Gratitudine

Superbi
Pride Superbia Humility Humilitas Umiltà
a

Confession patterns[edit]
Confession is the act of admitting the commission of a deadly sin to a priest who, in
turn, will forgive the person in the name (in the person) of Christ, give a penance to
make up for the sin's offence (partially), and advise the person on what they should do
afterwards.[tone]
According to a 2009 study by the Jesuit scholar Fr. Roberto Busa, the most common
deadly sin confessed by men is lust and the most common deadly sin confessed by
women is pride.[64] It was unclear whether these differences were due to the actual
number of transgressions committed by each sex or whether differing views on what
"counts" or should be confessed caused the observed pattern. [65]

In art[edit]
Dante's Purgatorio[edit]
The second book of Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy is structured around the
seven deadly sins. The most serious sins are found at the lowest level and are the
irrational sins linked to the intelligent aspect, such as pride and envy. Abusing one's
passions with wrath or a lack of passion as with sloth also weighs down the soul but not
as much as the abuse of one's rational faculty. Abusing one's desires to have one's
physical wants met via greed, gluttony, or lust abuses a faculty that humans share with
animals. This is still an abuse that weighs down the soul, but it does not weigh it down
like other abuses. Thus, the top levels of the Mountain of Purgatory have the top listed
sins, while the lowest levels have the more serious sins of wrath, envy and pride. [43]
 1. luxuria / Lust[66][67][68]
2. gula / Gluttony
3. avaritia / Greed
4. acedia / Sloth
5. ira / Wrath
6. invidia / Envy
7. superbia / Pride
Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Parson's Tale"[edit]
The last tale of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales "The Parson's Tale" is not a tale but a
sermon that the parson gives against the seven deadly sins. This sermon brings
together many common ideas and images about the seven deadly sins. The tale and
Dante's work both show how the seven deadly sins were used for confessional
purposes or as a way to identify, repent of, and find forgiveness for one's sins. [69][70]
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Prints of the Seven Deadly Sins[edit]
The Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder created a series of prints showing each of the
seven deadly sins. Each print features a central, labeled image that represents the sin.
Around the figure are images that show the distortions, degenerations, and destructions
caused by the sin.[71] Many of these images come from contemporary Dutch aphorisms. [72]
William Langland's Piers Plowman[edit]
The seven sins are personified and they give a confession to the personification of
Repentance in William Langland's Piers Plowman. Only pride is represented by a
woman, while the others all represented by male characters.
The Seven Deadly Sins[edit]
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Seven Deadly Sins satirized capitalism and its
painful abuses as its central character, the victim of a split personality, travels to seven
different cities in search of money for her family. In each city, she encounters one of the
seven deadly sins, but those sins ironically reverse one's expectations. When the
character goes to Los Angeles, for example, she is outraged by injustice, but is told that
wrath against capitalism is a sin that she must avoi. [citation needed]
Paul Cadmus' The Seven Deadly Sins[edit]
Between 1945 and 1949, the American painter Paul Cadmus created a series of vivid,
powerful, and gruesome paintings of each of the seven deadly sins. [73]

See also[edit]
 Arishadvargas in Hinduism
 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
 Cardinal virtues
 Christian ethics
 Enneagram of Personality
  Eternal sin
 Five poisons in Buddhism
 Five Thieves in Sikhism
 Knightly Virtues
 Nafs and Tazkiah in Islam
 The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits
 Seven Social Sins
 Sufism in Islam
 The Seven Sins of Memory
 The Seven Deadly Sins of Modern Times
 Ten Commandments
 Theological virtues
 Three Poisons in Buddhism
 Tree of virtues
 Seven (1995 film)

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Tucker, Shawn (2015).  The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook.
Cascade. ISBN 978-1625647184.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Aquinas, Thomas (20 August 2013).  Summa Theologica (All Complete &
Unabridged 3 Parts + Supplement & Appendix + interactive links and annotations). e-
artnow. ISBN 9788074842924.
3. ^ Evagrius (2006).  Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus translated by Robert E.
Sinkewicz. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199297088.
4. ^ Cassian, John (2000). The Institutes. Newman Press of the Paulist
Press. ISBN 0809105225.
5. ^ Gaume, Jean (1883).  The Catechism of Perseverance; Or, An Historical, Dogmatical,
Moral, Liturgical, Apologetical, Philosophical and Social Exposition of Religion. M.H. Gill &
Son. p.  871. Q. What are the capital sins? A. The capital sins are mortal sins of their own
nature and the sources of many other sins. They are seven in number: pride, covetousness,
lust, gluttony, envy, anger and sloth. ... Q. What other sins ought we to fear most? A. The
other sins that we ought to fear most are sins against the Holy Ghost and sins that cry to
Heaven for vengeance.
6. ^ Tilby, Angela (23 April 2013).  The Seven Deadly Sins: Their origin in the spiritual teaching
of Evagrius the Hermit. SPCK.  ISBN  9780281062997.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b Refoule, F. (1967) "Evagrius Ponticus," In New Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol.
5, pp. 644f, Staff of Catholic University of America, Eds., New York: McGraw-Hill.
8. ^ Evagrio Pontico, Gli Otto Spiriti Malvagi, trans., Felice Comello, Pratiche Editrice, Parma,
1990, p.11-12.
9. ^ Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 22 June
2006.  ISBN  9780199297085.
10. ^ In the translation of the Philokalia by Palmer, Ware and Sherrard.
11. ^ "NPNF-211. Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian - Christian Classics Ethereal
Library". www.ccel.org.
12. ^ Cassian, St John (3 January 2000). The Institutes (First ed.). New York: Newman Press of
the Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809105229.
13. ^ "For pride is the root of all evil, of which it is said, as Scripture bears witness; Pride is the
beginning of all sin. [Ecclus. 10, 1] But seven principal vices, as its first progeny, spring
doubtless from this poisonous root, namely, vain glory, envy, anger, melancholy, avarice,
gluttony, lust." Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, book XXXI
14. ^ Jump up to:a b DelCogliano, Mark (18 November 2014). Gregory the Great: Moral
Reflections on the Book of Job, Volume 1. Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879071493.
15. ^ Tucker, Shawn R. (24 February 2015).  The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook.
Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.
16. ^ "SUMMA THEOLOGICA: The cause of sin, in respect of one sin being the cause of another
Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 84; I-II,84,3)".  www.newadvent.org. Retrieved  4 December  2015.
17. ^ Armentrout, Don S. (1 January 2000). An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-
Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Church Publishing, Inc. p.  479. ISBN 9780898697018.
18. ^ Lessing, Reed (25 August 2002). "Mighty Menacin' Midianites". The Lutheran Hour.
Retrieved 26 March  2017.
19. ^ Speidel, Royal.  "What Would a United Methodist Jesus Do?". UCM. Retrieved  26
March  2017. Thirdly, the United Methodist Jesus reminds us to confess our sins. How long
has it been since you have heard reference to the seven deadly sins: pride, gluttony, sloth,
lust, greed, envy and anger?
20. ^ "Life Of A Disciple In The World 7- Seven Deadly Sins: Lust". United Methodist
YouthWorker Movement. Retrieved 26 March  2017.
21. ^ The American Lutheran, Volumes 39-40. American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. 1956.
p. 332.  The world-renowned Evangelist, Billy Graham, presents in this volume an excellent
analysis of the seven deadly sins which he enumerates as pride, anger, envy, impurity,
gluttony, avarice and slothfulness.
22. ^ Jump up to:a b Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, pp. 65–67 (Penguin, 1955).
23. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Manning, Henry Edward. Sin and Its consequences.
24. ^ "Definition of LUST".  www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved  4 May 2016.
25. ^ Dante, Hell (1975) p. 101; Dante, Purgatory (1971) p. 67 and p. 202
26. ^ Pyle, Eric (31 December 2014). William Blake's Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy: A
Study of the Engravings, Pencil Sketches and Watercolors.
McFarland.  ISBN  9781476617022.
27. ^ Aquinas, St Thomas (1 January 2013). Summa Theologica, Volume 4 (Part III, First
Section). Cosimo.  ISBN  9781602065604.
28. ^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on Canto V, p. 101–102
29. ^ "Latin Definition for: gluttio, gluttire, -, - (ID: 21567) - Latin Dictionary and Grammar
Resources - Latdict".  latin-dictionary.net. Retrieved  2022-10-10.
30. ^ Jump up to:a b Okholm, Dennis. "Rx for Gluttony". Christianity Today, Vol. 44, No. 10, 11
September 2000, p.62
31. ^ "Gluttony".  Catholic Encyclopedia.
32. ^ Gen 25:30
33. ^ "greed".  American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language  (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. 2016. Retrieved  4 February  2019  – via The Free Dictionary.
34. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Lyman, Stanford (1989). The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil.
p. 5. ISBN 0-930390-81-4.
35. ^ "the definition of sloth". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 3 May  2016.
36. ^ Jump up to:a b Lyman, Stanford.  The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil. pp.  6–7.
37. ^ McCarron, Bill; Knoke, Paul (2002),  "From Gent to Gentil: Jed Tewksbury and the Function
of Literary Allusion in A Place to Come To", Robert Penn Warren Studies, 2  (1)
38. ^ Jump up to:a b Landau, Ronnie (30 October 2010).  The Seven deadly Sins: A
companion.  ISBN  978-1-4457-3227-5.
39. ^ International Handbook of Anger. p. 290
40. ^ Jump up to:a b c Aquinas, St Thomas (1 January 2013).  Summa Theologica, Volume 3 (Part
II, Second Section). Cosimo, Inc.  ISBN  9781602065581.
41. ^ "Summa Theologica: Treatise on The Theological Virtues (QQ[1] – 46): Question. 36 – Of
Envy (four articles)". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
42. ^ Russell, Bertrand (1930).  The Conquest of Happiness. New York: H. Liverwright. p.  86.
43. ^ Jump up to:a b Climacus, John.  The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Translation by Colm Luibheid
and Norman Russell. pp. 62–63.
44. ^ "Humility vs Pride And Why The Difference Should Matter To You | Jeremie
Kubicek".  jeremiekubicek.com. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
45. ^ Acquaviva, Gary J. (2000).  Values, Violence and Our Future. Rodopi.  ISBN  9042005599.
46. ^ Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, ISBN 978-0-06-065292-0
47. ^ Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers. 1895. p.  485.
48. ^ Claghorn, George. To Deborah Hatheway, Letters and Personal Writings (Works of
Jonathan Edwards Online Vol. 16).
49. ^ "hubris - Definition & Examples". Britannica.com.
50. ^ Aristotle. Rhetoric. p.  1378b.
51. ^ Cohen, David (1995).  Law, Violence and Community in Classical Athens. Cambridge
University Press. p. 145.  ISBN  0521388376. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
52. ^ Ludwig, Paul W. (2002). Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory.
Cambridge University Press. p. 178.  ISBN  1139434179. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
53. ^ Franklin, Benjamin.  The Autobiography.
54. ^ Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers. 1895. p.  484.
55. ^ Jump up to:a b Hollow, Matthew (2014).  "The 1920 Farrow's Bank Failure: A Case of
Managerial Hubris".  Journal of Management History. Durham University.  20  (2): 164–
178.  doi:10.1108/JMH-11-2012-0071. Retrieved  1 October  2014.
56. ^ Kershaw, Ian (1998).  Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company.  ISBN  978-0-393-04671-7. OCLC  50149322.
57. ^ Kershaw, Ian (2000).  Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company.  ISBN  978-0-393-04994-7. OCLC  45234118.
58. ^ Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised by Sir Henry
Stuart Jones and Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940.
59. ^ McCarron, Bill; Knoke, Paul (2002),  "From Gent to Gentil: Jed Tewksbury and the Function
of Literary Allusion in A Place to Come To", Robert Penn Warren Studies, 2  (1)
60. ^ "Before Sloth Meant Laziness, It Was the Spiritual Sin of Acedia". Atlas Obscura. 14 July
2017. Retrieved  27 November  2017.
61. ^ Oxford English dictionary
62. ^ Young, David (1893). The Origin and History of Methodism in Wales and the Borders. C.H.
Kelly. p.  14. For nearly a hundred years after the Reformation, excepting in cathedrals,
churches and chapels, there were no Bibles in Wales. The first book printed in the Welsh
language was published in 1546, by Sir John Price of The Priory, Becon and contained a
translation of the Psalms, the Gospels as appointed to be read in the churches, the Lord's
Prayer, the Ten Commandments, a Calendar and the Seven Virtues of the Church. Sir John
was a layman, a sturdy Protestant and a man of considerable influence and ability.
63. ^ Spicer, Andrew (5 December 2016).  Lutheran Churches in Early Modern Europe. Taylor &
Francis. p. 478.  ISBN  9781351921169.  The Lutheran emblem of a rose was painted in a
sequence on the ceiling, while a decoratively carved pulpit included the Christo-centric
symbol of a vulnerating pelican. The interior changed to a degree in the 1690s when Philip
Tideman produced a series of grisaille paintings depicted the Seven Virtues (which hang from
the gallery behind the pulpit), as well as decorating the wing doors of the organ.
64. ^ "Two sexes 'sin in different ways'".  BBC News. 18 February 2009. Retrieved  24 July 2010.
65. ^ Morning Edition (20 February 2009). "True Confessions: Men And Women Sin Differently".
Npr.org. Retrieved  24 July 2010.
66. ^ Godsall-Myers, Jean E. (2003).  Speaking in the medieval world. Brill. p. 27.  ISBN  90-04-
12955-3.
67. ^ Katherine Ludwig, Jansen (2001).  The making of the Magdalen: preaching and popular
devotion in the later Middle Ages. Princeton University Press. p.  168. ISBN 0-691-08987-6.
68. ^ Vossler, Karl; Spingarn, Joel Elias (1929). Mediæval Culture: The religious, philosophic and
ethico-political background of the "Divine Comedy". University of Michigan: Constable &
company. p. 246.
69. ^ "The Canterbury Tales".  CliffsNotes. Retrieved 30 June  2017.
70. ^ "Dante's Inferno and Saint Augustine's Confessions". h2g2. Retrieved  30 June 2017.
71. ^ Orenstein, Nadine M., ed. (1 September 2001). Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Prints and
Drawings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780300090147.
 72. ^ Klein, H. Arthur (1 January 1963).  Graphic Work of Peter Bruegel, the Elder: Reproducing
64 Engravings and a Woodcut After Designs By Peter Bruegel the Elder  (1st Edition / 1st
Printing  ed.). Dover Publications.
73. ^ "Paul Cadmus | The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride".  www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 4
December 2015.

Further reading[edit]
 Cassian, John (1885). "The Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults."  . Ante-Nicene
Christian Library, Volume XI. Translated by Philip Schaff. T. & T. Clark in Edinburgh.
 de la Puente, Lius (1852). "On Pride and Vainglory"  . Meditations On The Mysteries
Of Our Holy Faith. Richarson and Son.
 Schumacher, Meinolf [de] (2005): "Catalogues of Demons as Catalogues of Vices in
Medieval German Literature: 'Des Teufels Netz' and the Alexander Romance by
Ulrich von Etzenbach." In In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle
Ages. Edited by Richard Newhauser, pp. 277–290. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies.
 The Divine Comedy ("Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso"), by Dante Alighieri
 The Concept of Sin, by Josef Pieper
 The Traveller's Guide to Hell, by Michael Pauls & Dana Facaros
 Sacred Origins of Profound Things, by Charles Panati
 The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
 The Seven Deadly Sins Series, Oxford University Press (7 vols.)
 Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly
Sins and Their Remedies, (Grand Rapids: BrazosPress, 2009)
 Solomon Schimmel, The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian and Classical
Reflections on Human Psychology, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)
 "Doctor Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe
 Slater S.J., Thomas (1925). "Book 4: On Sin (Pride)"  . A manual of moral theology
for English-speaking countries. Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd.
 Tucker, Shawn. The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook, (Eugene, OR:
Cascade Press, 2015)

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Seven Deadly Sins.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Seven deadly sins.

 Catholic Catechism on Sin

 Medieval mural depictions – in parish churches of England (online catalog, Anne
Marshall, Open University)
 Stranger, An Allegorical Tale of the Seven Deadly Sins, ISBN 9781311073846
 hide

e
Seven deadly sins

 Lust

 Gluttony

 Envy

 Greed

 Sloth

 Pride

 Wrath

 Evagrius Ponticus
categorizing  John Cassian
escribing the  Pope Gregory I
sins  Dante Alighieri

 Peter Binsfeld

t and culture  Divine Comedy 

o Inferno

o Purgatorio

 The Keys to the Kingdom (book series)

 The Seven Deadly Sins (1585 play)

 The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (painting)

 The Seven Deadly Sins (1933 ballet)

 The Seven Deadly Sins (1952 film)

 The Seven Deadly Sins (1962 film)

 The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975)

 Seven (1995 film)

 Fullmetal Alchemist (manga series)

 Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime)

 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009 anime)

 The Seven Deadly Sins (manga series)

 The Seven Deadly Sins of Modern Times (painting)

  Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World (light novel series)

 Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World (2016 anime)

 Four Last Things (video game)

 Graveyard Keeper (2018 video game)

 Shazam! (comic book) (Seven Deadly Enemies of Man • Shazam! (2019 film))

 Seven Heavenly Virtues

 Seven Social Sins

 Sin 
Related
o Christian views on sin

 Christian views on the Old Covenant

 Hamartiology

  Catholicism portal

show

e
Seven virtues in Christian ethics

 Spain

 France
Authority control:  BnF data
National   Germany
 Israel

 United States
Categories: 

 Seven deadly sins

 Catholic doctrines
 Christian terminology
 Cultural lists
 This page was last edited on 26 May 2023, at 19:43 (UTC).
 Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
 Privacy policy

 About Wikipedia
  Disclaimers

 Contact Wikipedia

 Mobile view

 Developers

 Statistics

 Cookie statement

Toggle limited content width

Close

You can toggle between a fixed width and full width by clicking this button.