Breviloquium

Consequently, one must descend to the origin of sins in particular; among which some are capital, some penal, some final or irremissible, as it were the first, middle, and last¹.

Concerning the origin of capital sins, this in sum is to be held: of actual sins there is one beginning, a twofold root, a threefold fuel, and a sevenfold head or capital sin.

There is one beginning, namely pride, according to which it is written²: The beginning of all sin is pride; a twofold root, namely fear that wrongly humbles and love that wrongly inflames; a threefold fuel, according to the three things that are in the world, namely concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life; but a sevenfold head, namely pride, envy, anger, accidie, avarice, gluttony, and lust. Among these, the five preceding are spiritual sins, but the last two are carnal.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, since mortal sin is an actual departure³ from the first principle; but to depart from the first principle cannot be except through contempt of it, either in itself or in its precept; and contempt of the first principle is pride: it must therefore be that every mortal fault or offense takes its beginning from pride.

Since, however, no one despises the highest principle or its precept in itself, except because he either wants to acquire something else from it or fears to lose something: hence it is that every actual sin must derive its origin from a twofold root, namely fear and love; which roots are roots of evils, although not equally first.

For every fear has its origin in love; no one fears losing something unless because he loves having it⁴; and therefore fear must be nourished by the things by which love is nourished. But disordered love is with respect to mutable good; and since this is threefold—interior, namely excellence; exterior, namely money; inferior, the wantonness of the flesh⁵—hence it is that there must be three radical fuels of actual sins, touched on above, toward which, while the soul is borne inordinately, all actual sins arise.

And because this is done according to a sevenfold mode, therefore there are seven capital sins, from which the universality of vices is generated. For our will is disordered either because it desires what is not to be desired, or because it flees what is not to be fled. If because it desires what is not to be desired, namely a present good, whether mutable or apparent; either it is interior, and thus it is private excellence, which pride loves; or it is exterior, and thus it is sufficiency, which avarice loves; or it is inferior, and thus either delectable, because it is for the preservation of the individual, and thus it is food, which is delectable according to taste and is desired by gluttony; or because it is for the preservation of the species, and thus it is coitus, which is delectable according to touch and is desired by lust. — But if the will is disordered because it flees what is not to be fled, this can be in three ways, according to a threefold mode of fleeing. For either it flees according to the perverse instinct of the rational power, and thus it is envy; or according to the instinct of the irascible power, and thus it is anger; or according to the instinct of the concupiscible power, and thus it is accidie. Hence, because there are four principal desirable things and three powers according to whose instinct there is flight⁶, therefore there are only seven capital sins.

Again, because the perception of a desirable thing is accompanied by delight, while the perception of a thing to be fled is accompanied by pain; hence it is that four have joy conjoined to them, while the other three have sadness and punishment attached; nevertheless all are called capital, because they are principal disorders and, in their own way, principles of many other disorders, exerting influence. Hence, although some of these principally concern flight, they too have their own desirable objects. For envy wants to possess the private good without a companion, and thus completely; anger without opposition, and thus undisturbedly; accidie without any labor, and thus tirelessly. And because they do not easily attain this⁷, they drag along with them a great army of vices in order to attain the things they seek or to avoid those they reject; with respect to these they are called capital sins, as heads from which very many others flow.