The Seven Deadly Sins in Medieval Culture
Brynn Alexandra Frantz
Sympathy for the Devil – Section 1
Professor McCall
March 14, 2016 From the works of Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian, and Gregory the Great, medieval Christendom came to accept certain sins as headings under which all evil actions and tendencies could be ranged. First created as a list of eight, then eventually reduced to seven, the academic tradition of standardized sins dominated religion for centuries. From the deserts of Egypt to the heart of the Roman Catholic church, the Seven Deadly Sins effected medieval culture in result of the first crusades and later the Bubonic Plague, creating a hegemony of ethical and moral thought which therefore influenced the understanding of sin, religious teachings, literary works for centuries to follow.
Where Did the Seven Deadly Sins Originate?
Evagrius Ponticus, a Christian monk in the fifth century AD, wrote “Eight Logismoi” in which a list of eight deadly thoughts were explained and evaluated. Describing in his list of gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, wrath, sloth, vainglory, and pride, he aimed for a life directed toward moral perfection.1 Evagrius created the system as an inventory for the monks, to diagnose and practice in their everyday lives and to keep the evil thoughts away from the soul.2 John Cassian then brought the schema from Egypt to nascent Latin monasticism of Gaul, in which then was then brought into Rome for Gregory the Great (540-604 AD).3 In his religious doctrine, “principalia vitia”, Gregory the Great modified the series, changing sadness to sloth and combining vainglory and pride, to create the list of the seven deadly vices which commonly overrode the pervious categorization of eight. Gregory the Great’s list of seven vices drew more
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Bloomfield, Morton W. The Seven Deadly Sins; an Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature. East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1952, 85.
Newhauser, Richard. In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005, x.
Ibid., viii
attention to its religious followers than Cassian’s or Ponticus’s simply because seven, rather than
eight, is considered a holy number in the bible. It its still unknown as to why Evagrius created such a specific list of sins or where he originally derived the sins from because the specific list is not directly mentioned in the Bible, but it can be confidently said that his works influenced religion and practice more than most authors have ever sought to achieve.
Why did the vices become indoctrinated by the Roman Catholic Church?
On the turn of the thirteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church came under scrutiny by the public as a result of the repeated losses of the crusades against Muslims and other religions. As a result, the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 AD was called into order. Amongst the wide variety of religious doctrine discussed, canon XXI was written, thereby requiring all priests to preach the Seven Deadly Sins together with other catechetical set pieces: the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and more.4 In addition, all Christians were to confess and complete the seven sacraments, including penance, on a yearly basis. However, laity often were unaware of their sins, thereby disallowing guilt to be recognized and therefore confession could not properly take place. As a result, the Church created an academic tradition to preach on the Seven Deadly Sins and their consequences during mass, thus creating the reemergence of the capital vices in popular culture during the Medieval Era. Model sermons were created for priests as a result of the Fourth Lateran Council; these outlines referenced specific to groupings of seven in the Bible which provided allegorical explications, directed to uneducated laity.5 Additional biblical imagery linked to the Seven Deadly Sins because of the number seven can be observed
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4. Wenzel, Siegfried. "Preaching the Seven Deadly Sins." In In In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages, 1.
5. Ibid., 12
in: Naaman’s washing seven times to heal his leprosy (2 Kings 5:10) , seven seals of the book opened by the Lamb (Rev 5:1), and Samson’s seven locks that Delilah cut off (Judg 16:19).6
Beyond these, natural objects were frequently interpreted as sin or evil, then translated into memorable groups of seven, such as: weekdays, kinds of bread, poisonous animals, or types of fever. Siegfried Wenzel speculates in his Essay “Preaching the Seven Deadly Sins” that some preachers were able to the “traditional commonplace” and without giving up tradition, illuminated the list of vices based on what they know about human psychology, placing the sins into common circumstances that their audience could observe everyday.7 As Meinolf Schumacher states in his essay on vices in medieval culture, “Perhaps already for mnemonic reasons – the numerical organization of the vices into groups of eight or seven, along with a tendency toward allegorization, becomes apparent early on…”8 These references to everyday items can be observed as a direct result of uneducated religious persons. The majority of the population in that particular time period received no form of schooling, and without simplification of complicated themes, the sermons preached would have no effect. But by presenting the list of vices as evil, demonic acts, laity were able to understand and fear the heptad. Though each sin was seen as evil, not every sin held equal weight. By the time of Augustine, pride was recognized by many Christian thinkers as the most significant and deadliest of all sins.9
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6. Newhauser, Richard, and Susan J. Ridyard. Sin in Medieval and Early Modern Culture: The Tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins. Woodbridge, England: York Medieval Press, 2012, 301.
7. Delumeau, Jean. Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.
8. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins,
9. Delumeau, Sin and Fear, 12.
For example, Walter Hiton’s description of sin says, “[T]he murky image of sin which is ugly to look upon, its head pride, its breast… is envy, by which death came into the world; its arms wrath its belly gluttony, its members, lechery; and its feet, accidie… which is not the image of Jesus but liker image of the devil.” 10 Therefore suggesting that not only do the seven vices directly embody the devil, but is headed by pride. This notion can also be explained by a verse in the Bible at Sirach 10:15, where pride is designated at the “beginning of all sin”. This conclusion that pride most closely resembles Satan can be drawn from the story of Lucifers fall from heaven. For Satan, the most perfect archangel, God’s best creation, sinned by his “heart was proud because of your beauty” and because of that he was thrown from the heavens (Ezekiel 28:17). Therefore, not only did the list of vices see effect laity’s ability to comprehend sin it also influenced their perception of evil and Satan.
Why did the Seven Deadly Sins become associated with demons?
The peak of sermons which preached about the seven deadly sins peaked around the end of the thirteenth century; however, literature and works of art remained and even increased in popularity throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth century.11 To explain why the list of vices remained steadfast in popular culture can be explained in part by the Black Plague during the fourteenth century. Although the Roman Catholic Church had succeeded in the later crusades, the Church was once again placed under doubt due to the seemingly inexplicable nature of the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe. Therefore, shifting the blame from the individual to perhaps
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10. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins, 12.
11. Ibid., 181.
a demon which was out of the individual’s control, seemed fitting. In reference to Evagrius’s works, the monk believed that evil thoughts and desires were the evil spirits’ way into the soul, and the first step toward actual sin.12 Likewise, certain biblical texts would lend support the monastic theories of demonic assault, such as Jesus’s casting out of the seven “demons” from Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2). This view of sin and theories of demonic suggestion, allows for balance of personal responsibility and external temptation.13 Apart from direct biblical references, plays, poems, essays, and other works of art became the foreground for the discussion of demons and the Seven Deadly Sins. The first text to directly link the list of vices to particular demons can be found in “The Lanterne of Light”. Written by an anonymous author in 1409, this classification system would be the pioneer in associating a demon who tempted people by means paired with the sin.13 Then, a century and a half later, Peter Binsfeld wrote “A Classification of Demons” which also paired demons with the Seven Deadly Sins, but changed four of the seven demons associated based off of his own religious studies and beliefs.14 Although “A Classification of Demons” was written after “The Lanterne of Light” and mirrored the majority of its works, Binsfeld’s work became a handbook in addressing demons and their associations with sin.15 Consequently, many plays , poems and essays thereafter mirrored his works. In Bertolt of Regensburg’s religious reflection, the theologian wrote: “Some demons are… uglier than others. For some demons tempt one to be proud, others to greed; some tempt one to sin, others to another.” 16
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12.Newhauser, Richard. In the Garden of Evil, xii.
13. Ibid.
14. Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. New York: Facts On File, 2009, 28.
15. Wenzel, Siegfried. "Preaching the Seven Deadly Sins." In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages, 10.
16. Newhauser, Richard. In the Garden of Evil, vii.
Further instances taken from literature can be observed in the anonymous poem Des Teufels Netz from the early fifteenth century, in which the author describes seven minions of the devil which include the seven capital vices. These seven figures are depicted with “traditional attributes of demons”, which haul a large fishing net, playing their instruments, which the devil draws on all minions into himself with the net he has cast. 17 However, these plays and religious texts, although popular in their times, had minimal impact compared to Dante Alighieri’s famous work, The Divine Comedy. In the first section of the epic poem, Inferno, Dante develops a structure of a Hell which strongly correlate with the seven vices.18 However, contrary to the popular notion that pride reserved the worse punishment, Dante writes that violence and wrath reserve the innermost levels of Hell. Four levels, II, III, IV, and V, are reserved for the Lustful, Gluttons, Greedy, and the Angry and Sullen, directly mirroring a majority of the seven vices.19 Although committing violence, Dante writes, results in the placement in the deepest layer of Hell, violence can be seen as a secondary act which is fostered by greed or wrath. Therefore, through this epic, the notion that evil, Hell, and Satan all are directly connected with the Seven Deadly Sins. Overall, the association with demonic being and the vices can be traced back to Evagrius’s notion that evil thoughts are a struggle between external temptations and moral reserve, to the search for explanation of tragedy during the Black Death which was attributed to demonic figures imposing ill will, the Seven Deadly Sins remained a prominent cornerstone to religious writings and works.
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17. Wenzel. "Preaching the Seven Deadly Sins.”, 8.
18. Belliotti, Raymond A. Dante's Deadly Sins: Moral Philosophy in Hell. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2011.
19. Ibid.
Conclusively, the Seven Deadly Sins originated keep ones mind away from devilish thoughts, reemerged in attempt to help understand and avoid sin, and persisted over time in works of art to describe and portray the devil in everyday life. Which thereby presided in literary religious works, poems, and plays which dominated popular culture.
Bibliography
Belliotti, Raymond A. Dante's Deadly Sins: Moral Philosophy in Hell. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Bloomfield, Morton W. The Seven Deadly Sins; an Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature. East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1952.
Delumeau, Jean. Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Guiley, Rosemary. The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
McLachlan, Sean. "The Death of Paganism: How the Roman Empire Converted to Christianity – Gadling." Gadling. 2010.
Newhauser, Richard. In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005.
Newhauser, Richard, and Susan J. Ridyard. Sin in Medieval and Early Modern Culture: The Tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins. Woodbridge, England: York Medieval Press, 2012.
Rasmussen, Tarald. "Hell Disarmed? The Function of Hell in Reformation Spirituality." Numen 56 (23): 366-84. JSTOR.
Schimmel, Solomon. The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Schumacher, Meinolf. "Catalogues of Demons as Catalogues of Vices in Medieval German Literature." In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages, translated by Edward Potter, 276-90.
Wenzel, Siegfried. "Preaching the Seven Deadly Sins." In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Culture in the Middle Ages.
Wenzel, Siegfried. "The Seven Deadly Sins: Some Problems of Research." Speculum 43, no. 1 (1968): 1-22.
HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, with the Apocryphal/ Deuterocanonical Books. Harold W. Attridge et al., eds. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. ISBN: 0060786841.
"The Lanterne of Light | Robbins Library Digital Projects." The Lanterne of Light | Robbins Library Digital Projects. 1996.