Sole Question: What sloth is, and what its object is

ACEDIA is a Greek word, ἀκηδία, which signifies carelessness, or negligence. Then also a certain sadness that aggravates and oppresses the soul, so that it brings forth that carelessness. Now that sadness can be either of sense, or of the will. Here it is taken for the sadness of the will, bringing forth carelessness in the good work.

Now this can be described, from D. Thom. art. 1. and D. Bonavent. p. 1. Centil. sect. 21. and in Diaeta, tit. 2. cap. 7. and in the Declaratione terminorum Theologiae, where Latius also describes its daughters in the speculo animae, cap. 3.: Acedia is the sadness of the will concerning a good, in some measure divine and ours, esteemed as an evil of one's own, on account of the difficulty joined to obtaining it, bringing forth in consequence carelessness and torpor in salutary works.

From these you have, first, that Acedia is a sin, since it is sadness about good. Hence you will find this tepidity rebuked in Scripture, Proverb 8. How long, sluggard, wilt thou sleep? Then: The sluggard wills, and wills not. Ecclesiast. 6. Subject thy shoulder, and bear it, that is, spiritual discipline, and be not grieved with its bands. Matth. 3. Every tree that doth not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down, etc. Therefore at Matth. 25. and Lucae 19. the servant is gravely punished, because he hid the talent dug in the earth, as the S. Doct. shows in the speculo animae, cap. 3., where he also observes that that lukewarm one is to be vomited forth, Apoc. 3.; and on 8. Lucae, him who puts the lamp under a bushel. See many Fathers in D. Bonavent. lib. 2. Pharetrae, cap. 10.

You HAVE secondly, that this sin is opposed to the virtue of Charity: for it is contrary to its joy, as S. Bonav. teaches, p. 1 Centiloq. loc. cit.

You HAVE thirdly, that it is mortal of its genus, if it be about a good divinely commanded, etc., as D. Thom. notes, art. 3. ad secundum. And D. Bonav. in the Speculo animae, cap. 3. and lib. 3. Compendy Theol. cap. 25. But if it be about a good not commanded, it is venial.

You HAVE fourthly, that this is a capital vice; for, as the Philosopher says, 8. Eth. cap. 6.: No one can long remain in sadness without delight: So much so that those who are vexed with sadness do something else, that they may seek pleasure. Thus it is named by D. Gregory, 21. Moral. cap. 17. in D. Bonav. in the speculo animae, cap. 3.

The REMEDY of acedia Cassianus assigns, lib. 10. de Institut. Coenobiorum, cap. ultimo. And Climacus grad. 21. in D. Bonav. de pugna spirituali, cap. 7. Bernardus serm. 3. de Ascensione: resist gravely, and undertake and pursue the work strenuously. D. Bonav. loc. cit. Diaetae assigns a variety of occupations, never idling, but working variously, now praying, now reading, now singing. See D. Bonav. de pugna spirituali, loco citato.

From these you will understand many definitions of acedia, related by D. Bonav. p. 1. Centil. sect. 1. The first from D. August.: Acedia is weariness of the internal good. The second from Richard: It is tepor of the soul, neglecting to begin the good. The third from Damascene, lib. 1. de fide, cap. 14.: It is an aggravating sadness. The fourth from many Masters: Acedia is diffidence about one's own powers and the help of God for fulfilling arduous things, or commandments.

From these S. Bonaventure elicits that Acedia is essentially indeed opposed to the joy of charity; but not insofar as diffidence is opposed to Hope, inasmuch as it is weariness of the internal good, from which pusillanimity is generated: It is opposed to Fortitude: Inasmuch as it esteems all things difficult, even the easier; It is opposed to Charity, which makes all things easy.

Now, since Acedia is a capital vice, it has many sons and daughters. The first is malice, which is the will, impatient of burden, scheming evil against him whom it esteems to be inflicting that burden on it. The second is rancor, which is the will, embittered by the impotence of repelling the burden, manifesting by an external sign the bitterness shut up within. The third is pusillanimity, which is the will immoderately fearing the burden in undertaking things to be done, or immoderately diffiding in its own powers. The fourth is despair, which is the will, oppressed by burden, diffiding in the help for acting, or in the divine remuneration on account of the sustaining of the burden, which is diffiding in the fulfilling of the commandments. The fifth is Torpor, which is the will succumbing to the burden, tepid or sluggish toward the completion of things undertaken: The sixth is the wandering of the mind about illicit things, which is the will, destitute of internal joy, seeking rest or consolation in illicit exterior things.

ACCORDING to Isidorus, lib. in Deuter. cap. 16., some are daughters of sadness; others of acedia; for he himself calls sadness the will, inasmuch as it turns itself away from a grave duty.

But he calls acedia the will, inasmuch as it converts itself to undue rest. He says first: From sadness go out rancor, pusillanimity, bitterness, despair; From acedia arise otiosity, somnolency, importunity, disquietude of mind, instability of body, curiosity. S. Bonav. has all these loc. cit. p. 1. Centiloquii.

In the Diaeta tit. primo, cap. 7. he names fifteen daughters of acedia, and they are: Tepiditas, mollicies, somnolentia, otiositas, dilatio, tarditas, negligentia, imperfectio, remissio, dissolutio, ignavia, indolentia, tristitia, taedium vitae, desperatio. He says these vices were expressed by the fifteen cubits by which the water ascended above the mountains in the deluge, Genes. 7.; thus they submerge and suffocate the acedious within these vices.

¶ There the S. Doctor has most illustrious things against Acedia for sermons, which it would be too prolix to transcribe here.

He heaps up very many Scriptures for it in the Bibliis pauperum, cap. 117.

But the S. Doctor teaches in the confessional, cap. 2. particula 5., how the penitent is to be interrogated about Acedia: Whether through weariness he omitted that good, even though commanded: Whether in doing evil he began to take joy: Whether he deterred others from the good by mocking, etc. See the S. Doctor himself, discussing all the daughters of Acedia, distinguished by thoughts, words, and deeds.