A Capital Vice
Sloth (Acedia)
St. Thomas treats it at II-II, q. 35. See also every passage on the topic page.
What It Is
Each line is one thing said. Authors named first use those words. Those after “in nearly the same words” say the same thing differently; point at a name to see their words.
| “sadness concerning spiritual good” | Prümmer n. 433; Merkelbach I, n. 511In nearly the same words: St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 2; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 327; McHugh-Callan n. 1320; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 2; Billuart On hatred of God and of the neighbor;…, n. 7 |
| The divine good as it is ours: “not in itself, but insofar as it is internal to us” | Merkelbach I, n. 512In nearly the same words: Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 327; McHugh-Callan n. 1320; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 2; Billuart On hatred of God and of the neighbor;…, n. 7 |
| Because of the labor: “on account of the difficulty experienced in acquiring and using them” | Prümmer n. 565In nearly the same words: Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 2; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Wouters n. 327; Merkelbach I, n. 512 |
| From St. John Damascene: “an oppressive sorrow, which, to wit, so weighs upon man's mind, that he wants to do nothing” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 1In nearly the same words: Merkelbach I, n. 949; Prümmer n. 565; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 8 |
| As some define it: “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 1In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 565; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 8 |
| In the will, not the senses: “Sloth is a sadness of the will” | McHugh-Callan n. 1320In nearly the same words: Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 1 |
| The Greek name: “which signifies carelessness, or negligence” | Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 1 |
| Other masters, in St. Bonaventure: “Acedia is diffidence about one's own powers and the help of God for fulfilling arduous things, or commandments” | Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 8 |
| Sabetti-Barrett's stricter sense: “torpor of mind and weakness of will, from which distaste for spiritual things flows because of the labor and trouble attached to them” | Sabetti-Barrett n. 145 |
What It Is Not
| Sorrow at the labor of any virtue, sloth in the general sense: “belongs, not to any special vice, but to every vice” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 2In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 433; Merkelbach I, n. 512; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 327; McHugh-Callan n. 1320; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Sabetti-Barrett n. 145; Billuart On hatred of God and of the neighbor;…, n. 7 |
| Bodily weariness: “Natural sloth is weariness or sadness concerning bodily labor on account of its difficulty” | Noldin n. 350In nearly the same words: Vermeersch n. 487; McHugh-Callan n. 1320 |
| Mere laziness: “sloth differs from laziness or idleness” | McHugh-Callan n. 1320 |
| Sorrow at what is only counseled: “if a man is sorry because someone forces him to do acts of virtue that he is not bound to do, this is not a sin of sloth” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 3, ad 2In nearly the same words: Noldin n. 350; McHugh-Callan n. 1323 |
| Not humility: “but if a man contemns the good things he has received from God, this, far from being a proof of humility, shows him to be ungrateful” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 1, ad 3In nearly the same words: McHugh-Callan n. 1320 |
| Not hatred of God or envy: “Sloth thus differs from hatred of God, which is a sadness over God’s own goodness; and from envy, which is a sadness over the good of the neighbor” | McHugh-Callan n. 1320 |
| Weariness in one's state: “Take care lest you confuse with mortal sloth the rather dangerous indeed, but of itself not mortal, weariness concerning a priesthood undertaken or a religious life entered” | Vermeersch n. 487 |
The Opposed Virtue
| “the proper effect of charity is joy in God” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 3In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 433; Merkelbach I, n. 949; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 328; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; McHugh-Callan n. 1320; Bontempi On Sloth, n. 1 |
| Against the third commandment: “Sloth is opposed to the precept about hallowing the Sabbath day” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 3, ad 1In nearly the same words: McHugh-Callan n. 1322 |
| Prümmer, of the broader sloth: “it is opposed to the precept of loving God with the whole heart” | Prümmer n. 434 |
| St. Bonaventure, in Bontempi, by its effects: “It is opposed to Fortitude” | Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 9 |
See Charity, and what the capital vices feed.
Its Gravity
| In the strict sense: “sloth is a mortal sin in respect of its genus” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 3In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 434; Merkelbach I, n. 950; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 328; McHugh-Callan n. 1322; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 5; Billuart On hatred of God and of the neighbor;…, n. 8 |
| Yet venial: “it is a venial sin on account of the imperfection of the act” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 3In nearly the same words: Merkelbach I, n. 950; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 328; McHugh-Callan n. 1323 |
| Or from its matter: “when it is concerned with goods not necessary for salvation” | Merkelbach I, n. 950In nearly the same words: Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 5; McHugh-Callan n. 1323 |
| How often: “this worst sloth is not committed so frequently” | Noldin n. 350In nearly the same words: McHugh-Callan n. 1322 |
| In the broad sense, the authors differ: “Sloth, taken in the broad sense, is sin per se venial, but disposing proximately to mortal sin” | Marc n. 372 |
| Prümmer holds the broader sloth mortal from its genus too: “is a mortal sin from its genus” | Prümmer n. 434 |
| Others make it grave when a grave duty is left undone: “becomes mortal when for that reason a grave affirmative or negative precept is violated” | Vermeersch n. 487In nearly the same words: Marc n. 372; Sabetti-Barrett n. 145; Merkelbach I, n. 950; Noldin n. 350 |
| Where it leads: “This acedia leads to tepidity, and tepidity leads to ruin” | Prümmer n. 434 |
The Daughters of Sloth
The headings are St. Thomas's.
| Avoidance of the end | |
|---|---|
| despair | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2; Merkelbach I, n. 513; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 329; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487 |
| Avoidance of the means | |
| faint-heartedness | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Merkelbach I, n. 513; Wouters n. 329; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10 |
| sluggishness about the commandments | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Merkelbach I, n. 513; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 329; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Sabetti-Barrett n. 145 |
| The struggle against spiritual goods | |
| spite | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Merkelbach I, n. 513; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 329; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10 |
| malice | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2; Merkelbach I, n. 513; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Wouters n. 329In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Noldin n. 350; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10 |
| Recourse to other pleasures | |
| wandering after unlawful things | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 2In nearly the same words: Prümmer n. 435; Merkelbach I, n. 513; Noldin n. 350; Wouters n. 329; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch n. 487; Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 10; McHugh-Callan n. 1324; Sabetti-Barrett n. 145 |
| Others also named | |
| Isidore's, which St. Thomas reduces to St. Gregory's: idleness, drowsiness, uneasiness of the mind, restlessness of the body, instability, loquacity, curiosity | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 4, ad 3In nearly the same words: Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 12; Vermeersch n. 487; McHugh-Callan n. 1324 |
| nausea in prayer | Sabetti-Barrett n. 145 |
| Fifteen, after St. Bonaventure: Tepiditas, mollicies, somnolentia, otiositas, dilatio, tarditas, negligentia, imperfectio, remissio, dissolutio, ignavia, indolentia, tristitia, taedium vitae, desperatio | Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 13 |
The Remedies
The fuller lists are the manuals'. Where an author has no list, the entries are what that author says in passing, gathered from wherever it is said.
The headings are Merkelbach's: “whether on the part of the mind or on the part of work” (Pastoral, Q. V). Prümmer, Wouters and Marc give theirs without this division.
| On the part of the mind | |
|---|---|
| “the more we think about spiritual goods, the more pleasing they become to us, and forthwith sloth dies away” | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35, a. 1, ad 4In nearly the same words: McHugh-Callan n. 1325 |
| “Frequent thought concerning the necessity of doing good and of laboring strenuously for salvation” | Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V |
| “frequent and serious consideration of the very great evils which follow from acedia and laziness” | Prümmer n. 436In nearly the same words: Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V; Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V |
| “what Christ and His saints have done” | Wouters n. 330In nearly the same words: Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V |
| On the part of work | |
| “resist gravely, and undertake and pursue the work strenuously” | Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and, n. 7In nearly the same words: Wouters n. 330; McHugh-Callan n. 1325 |
| “frequent confession” | Marc n. 367In nearly the same words: Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V |
| “daily examination of conscience” | Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. VIn nearly the same words: St. Alphonsus True Spouse, ch. VI |
| “pious readings and meditations” | Marc n. 372; Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. VIn nearly the same words: Spirago MEDITATION. |
| “especially spiritual Exercises to be made in total retreat” | Marc n. 372In nearly the same words: Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V; Wouters n. 330 |
| “the establishment of a useful and laborious life according to a predefined order” | Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. VIn nearly the same words: Bontempi Sole Question: What sloth is, and what i, n. 7 |
| “a fervent purpose often renewed” | Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. VIn nearly the same words: St. Alphonsus True Spouse, ch. VI |
| “diligent fulfillment of the duties of one's state” | Merkelbach Pastoral, Q. V |
| “She should endeavor to search out her defects, particularly her predominant failing.” | St. Alphonsus True Spouse, ch. VI |
| “One of the most necessary resolutions is to remove as much as possible the occasions of our defects.” | St. Alphonsus True Spouse, ch. VI |
Where Each Author Treats It
| Among the capital sins | Prümmer nn. 433-436; Merkelbach nn. 511-514; Noldin n. 350; Wouters nn. 327-330; Marc n. 372; Vermeersch nn. 487-488; Sabetti-Barrett n. 145 |
| Under charity, against its joy | St. Thomas II-II, q. 35; Prümmer II, n. 565; Merkelbach I, nn. 949-950; McHugh-Callan nn. 1320-1325; Bontempi On sloth |