Do we find lists of vices in the writings of the early Church?

In addition to vices mentioned in the Holy Bible, there is a list of vices in The Didache ,⁸²³ which likely dates from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century.

St. Evagrius Ponticus compiled his famous list of eight vices:⁸²⁴ gluttony, lust, greed, sadness, anger, despondency (acedia), vainglory, and pride. These can be divided into three groups:

First : Vices related to material things, namely gluttony, carnal lust, and avarice or greed.

Second : Vices that concern the intrinsic personality, namely sadness or depression, anger, and listlessness or despondency.

Third : Vices that concern reliance on the ego, namely vainglory and pride.

The first group arises from the misuse of instinctive lusts, where a person does not control his eating, drinking, bodily lust, or love of money.

The second group arises from a lack of control of the movements of one’s emotions.

821 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 2.1 (NPNF II/7:8) amended.

822 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 2.3 (NPNF II/7:8) amended.

823

“The Didache” in Early Christian Writings , trans., Maxwell Staniforth and Andrew Louth (Penguin, 1987) 5: p. 193.

824 Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), trans., Robert E. Sinkewicz., ed. Gillian Clark and Andrew Louth (Oxford University Press, 2003): pp. 60–64, 74–90.

The third group arises from reliance on the ego, which makes one fall prey to seeking vainglory, and pride or haughtiness.

Evagrius’ disciple, St. John Cassian , adopts the same concept but with a slight difference in the order of the vices that highlights the relationship between sadness and despondency. Thus, he lists anger after greed.⁸²⁵

Pope Gregory the Great singles out pride as the mother of all other vices and therefore removes if from the list, omits sadness by subsuming it under despondency, and adds envy to the list of vices. Thus, he produced the list of the “Seven Deadly Sins,”⁸²⁶ which are closely associated with the West in the Middle Ages. These are:

• a. Vainglory.

• b. Envy.

• c. Anger.

• d. Dejection.

• e. Avarice.

• f. Gluttony.

• g. Lust.

St. John Climacus , does not insist on any particular classification, holding that by nature, sin knows no order, and therefore cannot be precisely classified. He mentions seven vices, but does not include envy:⁸²⁷

• a. Gluttony.

• b. Lust.

• c. Greed.

• d. Sadness.

• e. Anger.

• f. Vainglory

• g. Pride.

825 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 5.2 (NPNF II/11:339).

826

Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job in Three Volumes 31.87–91 (LFHCC 31:489–493).

827 St. John Climacus: Ladder of Divine Ascent , trans., Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell (Paulist Press,

1982) 8–17: p. 146–193.

We can compare the lists of vices in the writings of Saints Evagrius, John Cassian, and John Climacus: