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The Origin of the Concept of the Seven Cardinal Sins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Morton W. Bloomfield
Morton W. Bloomfield
Affiliation:
University of Akron
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Extract

Since the work of Zielinski and Gothein in the early years of this century, it has been clear that the medieval and modern Catholic teaching of the seven cardinal sins, sometimes called the deadly sins, had a Hellenistic astrological origin. The details of that provenance, however, are still vague, and it is my purpose to add some further information tending to clarify the complex problems of origins. The material here presented will strengthen what must be a nebulous, though very probable, hypothesis. The problem, however, is not so much to show the exact origin of the concept, as it is to refute certain misleading orthodox theories of origin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , April 1941 , pp. 121 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1941

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References

1 See ‘Hermes und die Hermetik’, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, VIII (1905), 321 ff.; ‘Marginalien’, II, Philologus, LXIV (1905), 21 and ‘Die sieben Todsünden”, Süddeutsche Monatshefte, Zweiter Jahrgang, Zweiter Band (1905), 437–442 (a popular exposition).

2 AR., X (1907), 416–484.

3 Both had taken up a suggestion of R. Reitzenstein made in his Poimandres, Leipzig, 1904, p. 232, note 2, that a form of the Soul Journey was the root of the Catholic seven cardinal sins. See below, reference No. 3. Bouché-Leclerq, A., L'Astrologie Grecque, Paris, 1899, p. 324Google Scholar, note 1, had earlier mentioned a possible astrological origin for the concept, without giving any details. He made the remark while discussing the Hellenistic division of the body into seven internal members and seven external organs. See, also, Boll, F., ‘Die Lebensalter’, Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum, Geschichte und deutsche Literatur, XXXI (1913), pp. 89–154Google Scholar, esp. pp. 118 ff.

4 See Murray, G., Five Stages of Greek Religion, Oxford, 1925, pp. 179–180Google Scholar and Halliday, W. R., The Pagan Background of Early Christianity, London, 1925, p. 226Google Scholar.

5 For a complete study of this belief see Bousset, W., ‘Die Himmelreise der Seele’, AR., IV (1901), 136–169Google Scholar; 229–273. See, also, Cumont, F., After Life in Roman Paganism, New Haven, 1922, pp. 148 ff.Google Scholar, Kraeling, C. H., Anthropos and Son of Man (Columbia University Oriental Studies XXI), New York, 1927, 189, 129 ffGoogle Scholar. et passim, and Schürer, E.‘Die siebentägige Woche im Gebrauche der christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte’, ZNW, VI (1905), 63 ffGoogle Scholar. and esp. 65 n. 1.

6 I use the word “gnostic” for convenience rather than with any precise meaning. See, e.g., Hippolytus, The Refutation of all Heresies, trans. J. H. MacMahon (Ante-Nicene Christian Library VI), Edinburgh, 1911, I, p. 134 (Book V, §§ 1 ff.), and Albrecht Dieterich, Abraxas, Leipzig, 1891, pp. 45 ff.

7 For modern Greek survivals of τελώνια and a brief history of the word, see K. Dieterich, ‘Hellenistische Volksreligion und byzantinisch-neugriechischer Volksglaube’, ΑΓΓΕΛОΣ, I (1925), 17 ff. See also W. W. Hyde, Greek Religion and Its Survivals, Boston, 1923, p. 162, Krumbacher, K., Mittelgriechische Sprichwörter, Munich, 1893, pp. 170–171Google Scholar and Doughty, C. M., Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge, 1888, I, 259Google Scholar (for a modern Arabic survival).

The ancient Mandaeans also used the Soul Journey in religious rites, a usage which has survived into modern times, see Drower, E. S., The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Oxford, 1937, pp. 197 ffGoogle Scholar. The Mandaean version is very close to the ancestor of our concept. See, also, ibid., pp. 365–366, 256 and 307–308.

8 See, e.g., K. Dieterich, op. cit., p. 17. For the Ishtar story, see Bruno Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien, Heidelberg, 1925, II, pp. 183 ff.

9 Das iranische Erlösungsmysterium, Bonn, 1921. Bousset also believes in a Persian origin.

10 See Charles, R. H., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Oxford, 1913, II, 282 ff.Google Scholar

11 There is here almost a complete correspondence with the Church doctrine, especially with that of Gregory the Great who reduced the number of sins to seven from the original eight. If we place laudis amore first, we even get his order. The actual terms, however, are not always the same.

12 On the question of the date of the Hermetic writings, see Scott, op. cit., Oxford, 1924–36, I, 9.

13 The number twelve is based upon a supposed connection with the signs of the Zodiac. Competing with the conception of seven evil planetary spirits was a similar zodiacal arrangement. Twelve, however, did not prevail. It was Egyptian in origin, as opposed to the Persian or Babylonian seven. See W. Scott, op. cit., II, 384 ff., R. Reitzenstein, op. cit., pp. 157 ff. and K. Dieterich, op. cit., pp. 5, 6 and 16.

14 Ed. Thilo and Hagen II (1884), 98. Servius' list, as far as it goes, corresponds closely to the Christian one.

15 Das Lehrstück den sieben Hauptsünden (Biblische und Kirchenhistorische Studien), Munich, 1893, is the best general treatment of the history of our concept, although the author is unaware of the astrological theory of origin. Zöckler has also treated the subject more briefly in both Die Tugendlehre des Christentums, Gütersloh, 1904 and Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaften in encyklopädischer Darstellung, Nördlingen, 1885–1886, III, 114 ff. et passim.

16 Some of the allusions were suggested to me by a reading of Louise Dudley's The Egyptian Elements in the Legend of the Body and Soul, Baltimore, 1911. The author uses the references for a different purpose.

17 Professor A. D. Nock, in a letter to me, suggests that there is little in the following selections to suggest a Soul Journey of any kind, and that the demons can be explained by the “really well attested Iranian concept that the soul after death is met by a supernatural being impersonating its good or evil deeds and respectively appearing as a fair young maiden or an old hag.” Without denying the possibility of this influence, it seems to me that, taken in conjunction with quotations 3 and 5 above and Bousset's parallels, some kind of Soul Journey is at the basis of the concept. We could hardly expect Christian writers to use pagan concepts without some cutting, and the planetary associations were especially frowned on. The use of words like τελώνια and ἄρχοντες also seem to support my position. There is no doubt that the evidence is not as strong as one would wish. On the church's attitude to astrology, see Wedel, T. O., The Mediaeval Attitude Toward Astrology (Yale Studies in English LX), New Haven, 1920Google Scholar, and L. C. F. J. de Vreese, Augustinus en de Astrologie, Maastricht, 1933.

18 Homily V in Psalmum XXXVI (Migne, PG., 12, 1366).

19 Cf. Exod. Homil. VIII, 46 where Origen uses Luke XI as the basis of his contention that the sins are devils.

20 Migne, PG., 77, 1074–75.

21 Mason, A. J., Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian (Translations of Christian Literature, Series I, Greek Texts), London, 1921, p. 274Google Scholar. For the original, see Migne, PG., 34, 777.

22 Migne, PG., 34, 223–226.

23 Migne, PL., 73, 374–375.

24 Or. XVI, PG., 40, 1143. Cf. von Zezschwitz, C. H. G., System der christlichkirchlichen Katechetik, Leipzig, 1863, II, 209 ff.Google Scholar

25 See Budge, E. A. Wallis, Coptic Homilies, London, 1910, p. 214Google Scholar, Miscellaneous Coptic Texts, London, 1915, pp. 726–727 and 733Google Scholar, Coptic Apocrypha, London, 1913, pp. 185–186Google Scholar and Coptic Martyrdoms, London, 1914, pp. 340 and 421Google Scholar. Also see the Apocryphal Life of Joseph the Carpenter, ed. Robinson, F., Coptic Apocryphal Gospels (Texts and Studies IV, 2, Cambridge [1896]), pp. 130 ff.Google Scholar, esp. pp. 139 ff.

26 The Church was not completely successful in purging the seven cardinal sins of their astrological origin, for surprisingly enough, beginning in the fourteenth century, the planets are linked to the sins more distinctly than ever before in Christian literature. In fact, the best examples come from this time. Where the association existed in the interval, unless it be an accidental rewelding or in Arabic astrological lore, I cannot guess. M. Gothein suggests it existed in the interval among the folk along with black magic and unreported in literature. See, e.g., the Miracle-Morality Mary Magdalen (EETS. e.s. 70 and 71, pp. 53–136), the Elizabethan Lyly's The Woman in the Moon, and ‘Templum Domini’, 11. 569 ff., printed in Cornelius, R. D., The Figurative Castle, Bryn Mawr, 1930, pp. 106–107.Google Scholar

27 See 2 Corinthians XII, 2 ff., Ephesians VI, 11–17, IV, 8, etc.

28 As Zöckler, op. cit., and Schiwietz, S., Das morgenländische Mönchtum, Mainz, II, 1913, 72 ff. do.Google Scholar

29 As in the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, ed. Vacant, Mangenot and Amann, Tome II, Deuxième Partie, 168a.

30 The deadly sins were those sins which the rabbis and early Church Fathers felt led to damnation. They are usually based on the ten commandments. There are numerous references to them in Jewish and Christian writings of the age, but they must not be confused with the cardinal or chief sins at this early date. See e.g., Acts XV, 20, 2 Timothy III, 2 ff., Matthew XV, 19 and 1 John V, 16 (the theoretical point of departure for the Fathers on the subject). Zöckler gives numerous references to the deadly sins in the Fathers, although he does not make the distinction as I do. For Jewish references, see the Rabbah, Midrash on Ecclesiastes, Rabbah, Midrash, trans. Freedman and Simon, London, 1939, VIII, pp. 40 and 84 and 85Google Scholar, The Book of Jubilees, VII, 20–21, ed. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Oxford, 1913, II, 24Google Scholar and Büchler, A., Studies in Sin and Atonement (Jews' College Publications No. 11 (1928)), LondonGoogle Scholar, and Moore, G. F., Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era, Cambridge, Mass., 1932, II, 248.Google Scholar

31 For convenience in comparing, I here add Evagrius' list which was somewhat modified by later theologians. As found in his Περì τῶν ὀκτὼ λογισµῶν πρòς Ἀνατόλιον, (Migne, PG., 40, 1271 ff.), it runs: γαστριμαργία (gula), πορνεία (luxuria), ϕιλαργυρία (avaritia), λύπη (tristitia), ὀργή (ira), ἀκηδία (acedia), κενοδοξία (vana gloria) and ὑπερηϕανία (superbia).