Caput XXVII. De octo vitiis principalibus, et primo de superbia
The Roots of All Vice
The author introduces the eight principal vices as the roots from which all sins grow and explains his purpose in examining them.
There are eight principal or original vices underlying all sins, from which, like roots, every kind of vice sprouts up—whether of a corrupted mind or of an unchaste body. We have decided to say a few things about these vices, and about the roots from which the branches of a corrupt growth seem to spring, so that each person may know that once the roots are torn out, the branches can be cut away more easily.
Pride, the Queen of Evils
Pride is identified as the first and chief vice, rooted in contempt of God, self-exaltation over others, and stubborn refusal to obey.
The first vice is spiritual pride, of which it is said: 'The beginning of all sin is pride' (Eccl 10:15).✦ It is the queen of all evils, through which the angels fell from heaven, and it arises from contempt for God's commandments. It also arises when the mind is puffed up by good works and considers itself better than others, while in the very respect in which it thinks itself better, it is actually worse than they are. Pride also arises through stubbornness, when people look down on obeying their elders.
The Bitter Harvest of Pride
Pride produces a wide range of sins in every area of life — from heresy and contention to reckless speech, irrational sorrow, and falsehood.
From pride itself is born all disobedience, all presumption, and all stubbornness, contentions, heresies, arrogance; in speech, loud outbursts; in silence, bitterness; in joy, a lofty and excessive laughter; in composure, an irrational sadness; in answering, rancor; in conversation, falsehood. Words burst out everywhere without any weight of heart; there is audacity in inflicting insults, and faint-heartedness in enduring them.
The Remedy of True Humility
True humility overcomes all the evils of pride by receiving God's word with a lowly heart, holding it in memory, and carrying it out willingly.
True humility will easily overcome all these evils in the servant of God. True humility, as we have said, means hearing the word of truth with a lowly heart, holding it in memory, and carrying it out willingly.
Read the original Latin
Octo sunt vitia principalia vel originalia omnium vitiorum, ex quibus quasi radicibus omnia corruptae mentis vel incasti corporis diversarum vitia pullulant iniquitatum. De quibus pauca dicere ratum duximus, vel ex quibus radicibus qui rami vitiosae germinationis crescere videantur; ut sciat unusquisque radicibus exstirpatis, facilius ramos praecidere posse. Primum vitium est spirituale, superbia, de qua dicitur: Initium omnis peccati superbia (Eccl. X, 15), quae regina est omnium malorum, per quam angeli ceciderunt de coelo, quae fit ex contemptu mandatorum Dei. Fit etiam, quando attollitur mens de bonis operibus, et se meliorem aestimat aliis, dum in eo ipse pejor aliis est, quo se meliorem putat. Fit etiam per contumaciam superbia, quando despiciunt homines senioribus obedire suis. Ex ipsa vero nascitur omnis inobedientia, et omnis praesumptio, et omnis pertinacia, contentiones, haereses, arrogantia, In loquela clamor, in taciturnitate amaritudo, excelsus et effusus in laetitia risus, irrationabilis in serenitate tristitia, in responsione rancor, falsitas in sermone. Verba passim sine ulla cordis gravitate erumpentia, audacia ad contumelias irrogandas, ad tolerandas pusillanimitas.
Quae omnia mala vera humilitas famuli Dei perfacile vincere poterit. Humilitas vera est, ut diximus, veritatis sermonem humiliter audire, memoriter retinere, voluntarie perficere.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.10.15 — The toil of the fools wearies them, for they do not know how to go to the city.
On Virtues and Vices (De virtutibus et vitiis) companion
Read the plan one portion at a time — delivered daily
The Chosen Portion app serves each day's Alcuin chapter as a morning devotional, free.
Alcuin designed this book for daily use by a layman with no spare time, and Chosen Portion restores that use: one chapter-length portion per morning until the mirror is complete.
- All 30 days of the plan delivered automatically — no bookmark-keeping or lost PDFs
- Each chapter arrives as a 3-5 minute modern-readable portion with its Scripture references linked
- When day 30 ends, keep going: dozens more royal-house devotional works in the same format