CAPITAL SINS. — Pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth are called capital sins or capital vices, according as they are considered as a habit or propensity (vice) or as a single act (actual sin). Before becoming a vice they are sinful acts: repetition creates the habit, that is, the vice.
These capital sins are so called not because, as sins, they are the most serious—for often they do not exceed venial guilt—but because they are the origin and guide of many other sins. Just as the word “head” is used metaphorically to indicate one who presides and guides, so metaphorically these sins are the cause and guide of other sins (*Sum. Theol.*, 1a-2ae, q. 84). This causality, however, is neither physical nor moral but only impulsive and occasional, particularly, according to the Angelic Doctor, on account of the end: that is, one who is dominated by a capital sin is capable of committing any sin or crime whatever, merely to satisfy his vicious passion.
I. THE SEVENFOLD NUMBER
In Sacred Scripture the various vices are frequently mentioned, either singly or in groups, but these are unsystematic enumerations. Some foundation for a logical classification may be found in the following texts: Ecclus. 10:15; 1 Tim. 6:9–10; 1 John 2:16. Indeed, the earliest writers who attempted a classification placed pride as the first universal source, basing themselves on Ecclesiasticus (10:15). After pride they enumerated the other seven vices: vainglory, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth, giving the number eight, which prevails in the East (see below). In the West, however, after St. Gregory the Great (*Moralia*, XXXI, 45; *PL* 76, 620), the sevenfold number is commonly accepted, although with some discussion (cf., for example, in opposition: St. Isidore of Seville, *Differentiarum*, II, no. 161 ff.; *PL* 83, 96 ff.; Alcuin, *Liber de virtutibus et vitiis*, 27–34; *PL* 101, 653–736). Moreover, even in the East there were authors who adhered, for one reason or another, to the number seven (John Climacus, *Scala paradisi*, 30; *PG* 88, 948–1164; St. Maximus, *Quaestiones ad Thalassium*, prol.; *PG* 90, 255). St. Thomas observes (*Sum. Theol.*, 1a-2ae, q. 84, a. 4) that the number seven corresponds to the seven fundamental vicious tendencies of man. Man disorderly desires four kinds of goods and shuns three other goods because evil is conjoined with them. The first good desired is of a spiritual order: his own excellence, honor, and glory, which when desired inordinately cause pride and vainglory. The second good is that of the body, which is twofold: a) the preservation of the individual: and the inordinate use of food and drink is the cause of the vice of gluttony; b) the preservation of the species: and the inordinate use of the senses is the cause of lust. The fourth good is wealth, to which attachment, not guided by right reason, gives rise to avarice. There are then the three goods from which man shuns inordinately: a) his own spiritual good, which he neglects because of the labor involved; in this lies sloth; b) the good of another, which he avoids or resents inasmuch as it is a reminder of our own excellence: this is envy; c) again the good of another, which he avoids and impels him to vengeance; this causes anger (*Sum. Theol.*, loc. cit.).II. MALICE OF THE CAPITAL SINS
It always consists in a disorder by which one desires or shuns some good. It does not surpass the malice of other sins; on the contrary, there are much graver sins: hatred of God, blasphemy, for example. Often the capital sin does not reach the gravity of grave or mortal guilt; ordinarily, indeed, the sins of gluttony and anger are venial. Nor is it a venial sin to procure moderate pleasure in the use of food and drink, since these were willed by the Author of nature for the purpose of initiating their use so as to preserve the individual; disorder, and therefore sin, lies in abuse through excess.
Viviers, Diocese of — Portal of the Cathedral (12th cent.).
III. REMEDIES AGAINST THE CAPITAL SINS
Man is bound to fight against vices and to avoid sins. He who knowingly and willingly fosters evil propensities and habits runs the proximate danger of sinning gravely, and the will to remain in such proximate danger is in itself a grave sin. General remedies against all capital sins are prayer, frequent use of Penance and the Eucharist, and a moderate practice of Christian mortification. Special remedies proper to each capital sin are, in the light of faith, the deformity of that particular vice—for example, the turpitude of avarice, which makes a man the slave of wealth so unreasonably as even to deprive himself of the necessities of life and to withhold aid due to his neighbor in certain circumstances. A most efficacious remedy is the imitation of Our Lord, striving to practice acts of the virtues contrary to each capital sin: humility against pride; generosity and almsgiving against avarice; the exercise of temperance against gluttony, etc. For the treatment of the individual sins and capital vices, see the respective articles.Bibl.: Sum. 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