Studies in Dante Volume 2; Scripture and Classical Authors in Dante (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...and even necessary connexion of each sin with the next in their list, though the order itself and the reasons given for it may be entirely different. (5) Lastly, so far as any principles are given for the order adopted, Cassian says (a) that the last two are external or bodily; and the other six, internal or mental; also (b) that these six arise naturally in order one from the other, ' concatenatione connexa sunt ita ut prioris exuberantia sequenti efficiatur exordium' (p. 395, Coll. v. 10 init.), and that the eradication of any one implies also that of those which follow from it, yet that the first and second differ in being intensified by the removal of the others. Also, though the eighth arises out of the seventh, they both stand apart in this respect from the first six1. 1 Op. cit. p. 396. It should be noted that I have again altered the language of Cassian to suit the numbers in the Table. 2. S. Gregory the Great. The next authority to be quoted is S. Gregory the Great (d. 604). In his Moralia or Commentary on Job, bk. xxxi. ch. 45, 87, torn. i. p. 1035, he lays it down that Pride, or Superbia, is 'dux exercitus diaboli, ' 'the general of the devil's army'; 'radix cuncti mali'; 'vitiorum regina'; and that its first offspring, 'primae soboles, ' are the 'septem principalia vitia, ' which he proceeds to enumerate (see Table, col. 2) in the order, Vainglory, Envy, Anger, Gloominess (Tristitia), Avarice, Gluttony, Lust. S. Gregory quotes (as most writers on this subject do) the well-known passage in Ecclus. x. 15, 'Initium omnis peccati est superbia, ' 'Pride is the beginning of sin' (E. V. v. 13). So says Chaucer--'Pride is the general rote of all harmes.' It will be noted that Gregory distinguishes the generic term Pride (Superbia) from the specific vi