Caput XXX. De avaritia
The Insatiable Plague of Avarice
Avarice is defined as an insatiable desire for riches that only grows the more it possesses, like an unquenchable thirst.
Avarice is an excessive desire for riches—acquiring them, having them, or holding onto them—an insatiable plague. Just as a person with dropsy finds that the more he drinks, the more his thirst increases, so it is with avarice: the more it has, the more it desires to have. And since there is no limit for it in having, there will be no limit for it in desiring.
The Cruel Fruits of Avarice
Avarice produces a catalogue of grave sins and stands in direct opposition to mercy and compassion for the poor.
Its kinds are envy, theft, robbery, murder, lies, perjury, plunder, violence, restlessness, unjust judgments, contempt for the truth, forgetfulness of future blessedness, and hardness of heart. It sets itself against mercy, against alms to the poor, and against all compassion for the wretched.
The Remedy: Fear of God and Works of Mercy
Avarice is overcome through the fear of God, brotherly love, mercy, alms, and hope in future blessedness.
It is conquered through the fear of God, and through brotherly love, and through works of mercy, and through alms to the poor, and through the hope of future blessedness, while the false riches of this age are conquered by the true riches of future blessedness.1
Read the original Latin
Avaritia est nimia divitiarum acquirendi, habendi, vel tenendi cupiditas, quae pestis inexplebilis est. Sicut hydropicus, qui quanto plus bibit, tanto plus illi sitis accrescit: sic avaritia quanto magis habet, tanto plus habere desiderat. Et dum modus non est illi in habendo, modus illi non erit in desiderando. Cujus genera sunt invidia, furta, latrocinia, homicidia, mendacia, perjuria, rapinae, violentiae, inquietudo, injusta judicia, contemptus veritatis, futurae beatitudinis oblivio, obduratio cordis. Quae fit contraria misericordiae, eleemosynis in pauperes, et toti pietati in miseros. Quae vincitur per timorem Dei, et per fraternam charitatem, et per opera misericordiae, et per eleemosynas in pauperes, et per spem futurae beatitudinis, dum falsae hujus saeculi divitiae futurae beatitudinis veris divitiis vincuntur.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'futurae beatitudinis veris divitiis' is syntactically ambiguous; it is rendered here as 'the true riches of future blessedness' (taking 'futurae beatitudinis' with 'veris divitiis'), which aligns with the preceding hope and contrasts the false riches of this age.
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