Chapter IX.
On the origin and distinction of the capital sins.
Next we must descend to the origin of sins in particular: among which some are capital, some penal, some final or irremissible, as if first, middle, and last.
Concerning the origin of the capital sins, this is to be held in summary: that 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 what is written: The beginning of all sin is pride: a twofold root, namely fear wrongly humbling and love wrongly inflaming: a threefold fuel, according to the three things that are in the world, namely the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life; and a sevenfold head, namely pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. Among which the five preceding are spiritual sins, while the last two are carnal.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, since mortal sin is an actual departure from the First Principle, and departure from the First Principle cannot occur except through contempt of Him, either in Himself or in His commandment, and contempt of the First Principle is pride: it is therefore necessary that every mortal fault or offense take its beginning from pride.
But because no one despises the Supreme Principle, or His commandment in itself, except by reason of something else that he either wishes to acquire or fears to lose: hence it is necessary that every actual sin draw its origin from a twofold root, namely fear and love; which are roots of evils, though not equally primary.
For every fear has its origin from love: for no one fears to lose something unless he loves to have it; and therefore fear is nourished by those things by which love too is nourished. Now disordered love regards a changeable good: and since that is threefold: interior, namely excellence: exterior, money: inferior, carnal wantonness: hence it is necessary that there be three radical fuels of actual sins, which were touched upon above, toward which when the soul is carried in a disordered manner, all actual sins arise.
And because this happens according to a sevenfold manner, therefore there are seven capital sins, from which the universality of vices is generated. For our will is either disordered because it desires what is not to be desired, or because it shuns what is not to be shunned.
If one desires what is not to be desired, namely a good as of now, or a changeable or apparent good: it is either interior, and thus it is private excellence, which pride loves; or it is exterior, and thus it is sufficiency, which avarice loves; or inferior, and thus either delectable because it serves the conservation of the individual, and thus it is nourishment, which is delectable according to taste and is desired by gluttony; or because it serves the conservation of the species, and thus it is sexual union, which is delectable according to touch and is desired by lust.
If, however, the will is disordered because it flees what is not to be fled, this can occur in three ways, according to the threefold mode of fleeing. For it either 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 wrath; or according to the instinct of the concupiscible power, and thus it is sloth. Whence, because there are four principal objects of desire and three powers according to whose instinct there is flight, therefore the capital sins are seven in number.
Furthermore, because the perception of a desirable thing is accompanied by delight, while the perception of a thing to be fled is accompanied by pain, it follows that four have joined to them joy, while the other three have joined to them sorrow and suffering; yet all are called capital because they are principal disorders and principles that in their own way give rise to many other disorders. Whence, although some of these principally regard flight, they nevertheless also have their own delights. For envy wishes to possess a private good without a companion, and thus integrally; wrath without an adversary, and thus imperturbably; sloth without any labor, and thus indefatigably. And because they do not easily obtain this, they therefore drag with them a great army of vices for attaining those things which they desire, or for avoiding those things which they reject, in respect of which they are called capital sins, as it were heads, from which very many others flow.