Article 4 — Whether sloth should be accounted a capital vice?

Objection 1: It would seem that sloth ought not to be accounted a capital vice. For a capital vice is one that moves a man to sinful acts, as stated above (Q. 34, A. 5). Now sloth does not move one to action, but on the contrary withdraws one from it. Therefore it should not be accounted a capital sin.

Obj. 2: Further, a capital sin is one to which daughters are assigned. Now Gregory (Moral. xxxi, 45) assigns six daughters to sloth, viz. malice, spite, faint-heartedness, despair, sluggishness in regard to the commandments, wandering of the mind after unlawful things. Now these do not seem in reality to arise from sloth. For spite is, seemingly the same as hatred, which arises from envy, as stated above (Q. 34, A. 6); malice is a genus which contains all vices, and, in like manner, a wandering of the mind after unlawful things is to be found in every vice; sluggishness about the commandments seems to be the same as sloth, while faint-heartedness and despair may arise from any sin. Therefore sloth is not rightly accounted a capital sin.

Obj. 3: Further, Isidore distinguishes the vice of sloth from the vice of sorrow, saying (De Summo Bono ii, 37) that insofar as a man shirks his duty because it is distasteful and burdensome, it is sorrow, and insofar as he is inclined to undue repose, it is sloth: and of sorrow he says that it gives rise to spite, faint-heartedness, bitterness, despair, whereas he states that from sloth seven things arise, viz. idleness, drowsiness, uneasiness of the mind, restlessness of the body, instability, loquacity, curiosity. Therefore it seems that either Gregory or Isidore has wrongly assigned sloth as a capital sin together with its daughters.

On the contrary, The same Gregory (Moral. xxxi, 45) states that sloth is a capital sin, and has the daughters aforesaid.

I answer that, As stated above (I-II, Q. 84, AA. 3, 4), a capital vice is one which easily gives rise to others as being their final cause. Now just as we do many things on account of pleasure, both in order to obtain it, and through being moved to do something under the impulse of pleasure, so again we do many things on account of sorrow, either that we may avoid it, or through being exasperated into doing something under pressure thereof. Wherefore, since sloth is a kind of sorrow, as stated above (A. 2; I-II, Q. 85, A. 8), it is fittingly reckoned a capital sin.

Reply Obj. 1: Sloth by weighing on the mind, hinders us from doing things that cause sorrow: nevertheless it induces the mind to do certain things, either because they are in harmony with sorrow, such as weeping, or because they are a means of avoiding sorrow.

Reply Obj. 2: Gregory fittingly assigns the daughters of sloth. For since, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. viii, 5, 6) no man can be a long time in company with what is painful and unpleasant, it follows that something arises from sorrow in two ways: first, that man shuns whatever causes sorrow; second, that he passes to other things that give him pleasure: thus those who find no joy in spiritual pleasures, have recourse to pleasures of the body, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. x, 6). Now in the avoidance of sorrow the order observed is that man at first flies from unpleasant objects, and second he even struggles against such things as cause sorrow. Now spiritual goods which are the object of the sorrow of sloth, are both end and means. Avoidance of the end is the result of despair, while avoidance of those goods which are the means to the end, in matters of difficulty which come under the counsels, is the effect of faint-heartedness, and in matters of common righteousness, is the effect of sluggishness about the commandments. The struggle against spiritual goods that cause sorrow is sometimes with men who lead others to spiritual goods, and this is called spite; and sometimes it extends to the spiritual goods themselves, when a man goes so far as to detest them, and this is properly called malice. Insofar as a man has recourse to external objects of pleasure, the daughter of sloth is called wandering after unlawful things. From this it is clear how to reply to the objections against each of the daughters: for malice does not denote here that which is generic to all vices, but must be understood as explained. Nor is spite taken as synonymous with hatred, but for a kind of indignation, as stated above: and the same applies to the others.

Reply Obj. 3: This distinction between sorrow and sloth is also given by Cassian (De Instit. Coenob. x, 1). But Gregory more fittingly (Moral. xxxi, 45) calls sloth a kind of sorrow, because, as stated above (A. 2), sorrow is not a distinct vice, insofar as a man shirks a distasteful and burdensome work, or sorrows on account of any other cause whatever, but only insofar as he is sorry on account of the Divine good, which sorrow belongs essentially to sloth; since sloth seeks undue rest insofar as it spurns the Divine good. Moreover the things which Isidore reckons to arise from sloth and sorrow, are reduced to those mentioned by Gregory: for bitterness which Isidore states to be the result of sorrow, is an effect of spite. Idleness and drowsiness are reduced to sluggishness about the precepts: for some are idle and omit them altogether, while others are drowsy and fulfill them with negligence. All the other five which he reckons as effects of sloth, belong to the wandering of the mind after unlawful things. This tendency to wander, if it reside in the mind itself that is desirous of rushing after various things without rhyme or reason, is called uneasiness of the mind, but if it pertains to the imaginative power, it is called curiosity; if it affect the speech it is called loquacity; and insofar as it affects a body that changes place, it is called restlessness of the body, when, to wit, a man shows the unsteadiness of his mind, by the inordinate movements of members of his body; while if it causes the body to move from one place to another, it is called instability; or instability may denote changeableness of purpose.