Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth. I learned the list when I was taught my Catechism, along with the seven Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, Matrimony) and the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost (Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord).

There were seven of everything. I can still see with astonishing clarity Father Krembs walking up and down between the tables of children, booming out the list of sins in his enormous voice. We were very young and accepted the lists as given, committing them to memory.

Only years later did questions arise. Why isn't murder on the list of sins? Surely rape is worse than sloth. I learned them in that order, but I've seen other orders - always of those same sins, and always pride is first. Why?

Then, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison I took a course in Early English Literature, taught by Jerome Taylor. And for the first time, the workings of the medieval mind were opened to me.

The first thing anybody living in the Middle Ages wanted was order, or at least a reason why there wasn't order. It was a time of disorder and uncertainty, following a time of even greater disorder. Original Sin, it was believed, was the cause of all the evil in the world; Adam had abandoned his proper Liege Lord and had sworn fealty to the Devil. Jesus Christ had healed the breach, but Satan wasn't giving up his claim so easily. He was forever trying to turn man away from his true Lord and to obliterate the signs of the absolutely perfect universe created at the beginning of time. Lists of things in that perfect number, Seven; the Bestiaries; all of the works of the theologians were an attempt to see the order they knew was there.

The original list of the Seven Deadly Sins (they were deadly to the soul) was: Pride, Envy, Anger, Covetousness, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lechery.

It may be helpful to note two things before breaking the list down. First, it was believed (and is believed by some still) that sin is not a thing but a lack-of-something. "Evil is a thing lacking in a quality," said Prof. Taylor. Saint Augustine thought so; C. S. Lewis thought so. Second, language has changed so that some words in the list appear to mean today something not quite what they meant to the originators.

The first deadly sin is Pride. It does not mean self-respect, it means "selfdom." It means "looking out for Number One" to the extent that the wants and needs of anyone else become secondary. This sin is listed first in all lists because it makes all other sins possible. You would not steal someone's wallet unless you were convinced that your need was greater than the trouble you would put the owner to.

Pride leads to Envy: why does he have all the luck? and to joy at another's trouble: probably serves him right.

Anger may be explained as fierce resentment of another's joy. A sort of generalized How-dare-they fury that somebody else is having fun and leaving out Number One.

Covetousness is simple: I want that. (My father's people are very fundamentalist believers and have a charming way of avoiding covetousness. One may say, "I wish I had your hat, and you had a better.")

Falling into all or any of the foregoing sins can lead to (spiritual) Sloth. Who wants to go to church on Sunday and be reminded of how one is going wrong? How can one pray for forgiveness when one is utterly lacking in repentance?

Gluttony refers not merely to food. It means becoming a gourmet about all worldly things. Having given up on the promised things of the next world, one may well become very involved and appreciative of the things of this one.

Gluttony can lead to Lechery, or what we would call luxury, not lust. Being perfectly comfortable at all times in all ways is living a life of luxury, and, since it is all one has, life can get very hard for the servants or the wife or the children or on anyone threatening the perfection of one's lifestyle.

What is an article like this doing in a sciences publication? Well, first, Theology was as much a science as any other study. The lists were as carefully thought out and ordered and subject to such proofs as possible, jsut like any scientist's theory. They were considered as firm and immutable as the ordering of the seasons or of the Cosmos.

And second, I am married to the publisher of this magazine, and I don't like to think about the argument we might have if I sent it to some other publisher. it might be Envy - it might be Covetousness - but it would rank somewhere on the list of Seven.

First published in Scientiae Draconis 6, April XIV