The 8 Deadly Sins

The Capital Sins, Thomas Aquinas points out, are not relevant because of their specific magnitude or severity, but because countless vices arise from them. Furthermore, he announces that the Deadly Sins are ultimately a natural tendency of the fallen human being, and therefore, remarkably difficult to resist.

By the way, the Seven Deadly Sins were not always Seven. There were others, with greater or lesser impact and popularity, that were replaced, superimposed and even absorbed by other vices, in such a way that a multiple sinner in one century could become an occasional sinner in another, and perhaps a holy ascetic. Beyond these variations driven by fashion and a certain spiritual snobbery, until the arrival of Gregory the Great, the Deadly Sins were Eight, around which others of a more regional nature orbited.

Evagrius Ponticus (345-399), a monk of ample enlightenment in sinful matters, gave an account of the Eight Vices or Eight Evil Spirits, sources of every unworthy act or thought, and separated them into two categories. Curiously, one of these Deadly Sins is Sadness, that is, a kind of hopelessness or boredom in relation to worldly affairs.

The Four Concupiscible Vices are: Gastrimargia: gluttony and drunkenness. Philaguria: . Porneia. Xenodoxy

The Four Irascible Vices are: Orge. Lupe. Acedia. Uperèphania.

The Eight Deadly Sins were updated by John Cassian (360-435) in the 5th century. In his work De instit. cænob, he spreads some news, among them, arrogance.

Columban of Lexehuil (540-615) and Alcuin of York (735-804) accepted Cassian’s announcements, among other things, because they explained the sinful origin of diabolical acts, especially acts of pride, until then, spiritually unimpeachable. In the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great (540-604), like many other pontiffs, decided to modify the list of Capital Sins considering that sadness is, after all, a form of laziness. In this way the Eight Deadly Sins became the Seven that are currently in force. Furthermore, each sin was assigned a diabolical sponsor, that is, a demon particularly interested in stimulating it.

Lust. Laziness . Gluttony. Gonna . Envy . Greed. Pride

Over time, the Deadly Sins began to be denounced by any unsuspecting layman, when they were originally created to mark monastic behavior, and their powers changed radically. This mutation answers statistical questions. Taken in their original form, the Deadly Sins are rather innocent, and even a fundamental part of Western thought and attitudes towards life.

Let’s see how our troubled ancestors sinned, or what they thought in relation to each Deadly Sin.

Lust obsessive thoughts regarding sex. Uncontrollable desire.

Gluttony any excess, beyond the obvious, such as food and drink, fell under its definition. In The Divine Comedy, Dante places these sinners in Purgatory, forced to stand between two trees and unable to reach the juicy fruits hanging from their branches.

Greed: applies only to the excessive acquisition of material wealth, as long as the desire does not correspond to a noble institution, such as the Catholic Church.

Sloth originally referred to the inability to accept one’s own existence, indulging in leisure as a way of life.

Anger, feeling of uncontrolled hatred.

Envy, excessive desire for other people’s things.

Arrogant overvaluation of the importance of the individual.

If each Capital Sin is sponsored by a demon, we must reason that these, except in exceptional cases, have completely won; making those vices condemnable for the monk in seclusion a legitimate way of life for modern man; perhaps because every Capital Sin hides an ineradicable part of human nature; such as reason, logic, and the need to think and resolve matters for oneself, instincts that, if we follow Catholic doctrine, come from none other than Lucifer, the eternal rebel.

Biblical myths. I Philology.

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