The Capital Sins
The capital sins take their name from the Latin word caput, “the head”: they are the heads from which the other faults spring, each begetting a train of sins that obey it. Capital does not mean mortal: these seven names designate sources, not degrees of gravity, and each can produce light or grave faults according to the matter and the consent. The list took shape little by little. In the fourth century Evagrius Ponticus, a monk of the Egyptian desert, identified eight evil thoughts (in Greek logismoi) that assail the soul of the solitary; John Cassian carried this doctrine of the eight vices into the West; Saint Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, reduced it to seven: he merged vainglory into pride and sadness into acedia, joined envy to the list, and held pride to be the root and queen from which all the others proceed. This is the form the Church has received and handed down. Scripture, for its part, draws up wider catalogues: Paul lists the works of the flesh, where several of these roots mingle with other disorders, “the works of the flesh are obvious: … hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy…” Galatians 5:19-21; the seven capital sins are not that list, but the fruit of a discernment that traces each disorder back to its source. Saint John, for his part, gathers all the covetousness of the world into three roots: “all that is in the world, the craving of the flesh, the craving of the eyes, and the pride of riches, does not come from the Father, but from the world.” 1 John 2:16 To each root answers the virtue that heals it. Tradition sorts them into spiritual sins, pride, envy, anger, greed and acedia, and carnal sins, gluttony and lust. The carnal strike more openly and bring more shame, yet the spiritual are graver: they proceed from a more deliberate refusal of God, while the flesh draws chiefly by the force of instinct.
Pride
Pride is the disordered desire for one’s own greatness, which sets the self where God ought to be. It is the root and the queen of all the others: “The beginning of pride is to move away from the Lord and to turn one’s heart from the One who made him.” Sirach 10:12 From it come vainglory, contempt of others, revolt against God. Humility heals it, giving God the first place and receiving everything from him.
Greed
Greed is the disordered attachment to riches, where the heart treats a good as an end and binds itself to it. “the love of money is a root of all evils.” 1 Timothy 6:10 It begets hardness, fraud, the forgetting of the poor. Generosity heals it, holding goods with an open hand and ordering them to the good.
Envy
Envy is the sadness before the good of another, felt as a diminishing of oneself. It differs from jealousy, which fears to lose a good one possesses, whereas envy grieves at a good another possesses; the two lie close together, and it is this movement that handed Christ over The Greek of the Gospel here is phthonos (φθόνος), which names envy itself; older Latin and French render it “jealousy,” but it is envy, that grief before another’s good, which handed Christ over.: “For he knew that it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over.” Matthew 27:18 It begets slander, joy at another’s misfortune, hatred. Fraternal charity heals it, rejoicing in the good of one’s neighbour as in one’s own.
Anger
Anger is the disordered desire for vengeance, when resentment prevails over justice. “everyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court.” Matthew 5:22 It begets quarrels, insults, violence. Meekness heals it, keeping mastery of oneself and leaving justice to God.
Lust
Lust is the disordered desire for the pleasures of the body, sought for their own sake. “Flee immorality… Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 It blinds the judgment and enslaves the will. Chastity heals it, ordering desire to the gift of self in love.
Gluttony
Gluttony is the disordered use of food and drink, sought without measure. “Do not join the drinkers of wine, the gluttons who gorge on meat.” Proverbs 23:20 It weighs down the spirit and chains it to the body. Temperance heals it, receiving the goods of the body with measure and thanksgiving.
Sloth
Sloth, or acedia (from the Greek akedia, “lack of care”), is the sadness before spiritual good, the distaste for the effort it asks. The desert monks called it the “noonday demon,” after the psalm that dreads “the scourge that lays waste at noon.” Psalm 91:6 It cools prayer and lets one slide toward the lukewarmness God rejects: “because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16 Fervour heals it, the love that sets back to work and perseveres.
The combat
Each of these inclinations can be overcome. The grace of Christ and the practice of the contrary virtues disarm them one after another, for the good drives out the evil opposed to it: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 As charity grows, their roots wither, and man recovers the freedom of the children of God.