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Objection 1: It would seem that drunkenness is the gravest of sins.
For Chrysostom says (Hom. lviii in Matth.) that "nothing gains
the devil's favor so much as drunkenness and lust, the mother of all
the vices." And it is written in the Decretals (Dist. xxxv,
can. Ante omnia): "Drunkenness, more than anything else, is to
be avoided by the clergy, for it foments and fosters all the vices."
Objection 2: Further, from the very fact that a thing excludes the
good of reason, it is a sin. Now this is especially the effect of
drunkenness. Therefore drunkenness is the greatest of sins.
Objection 3: Further, the gravity of a sin is shown by the gravity
of its punishment. Now seemingly drunkenness is punished most
severely; for Ambrose says [De Elia et de Jejunio v] that "there
would be no slavery, were there no drunkards." Therefore drunkenness
is the greatest of sins.
On the contrary, According to Gregory (Moral. xxxiii, 12),
spiritual vices are greater than carnal vices. Now drunkenness is one
of the carnal vices. Therefore it is not the greatest of sins.
I answer that, A thing is said to be evil because it removes a good.
Wherefore the greater the good removed by an evil, the graver the
evil. Now it is evident that a Divine good is greater than a human
good. Wherefore the sins that are directly against God are graver
than the sin of drunkenness, which is directly opposed to the good of
human reason.
Reply to Objection 1: Man is most prone to sins of intemperance,
because such like concupiscences and pleasures are connatural to us,
and for this reason these sins are said to find greatest favor with the
devil, not for being graver than other sins, but because they occur
more frequently among men.
Reply to Objection 2: The good of reason is hindered in two ways:
in one way by that which is contrary to reason, in another by that
which takes away the use of reason. Now that which is contrary to
reason has more the character of an evil, than that which takes away
the use of reason for a time, since the use of reason, which is taken
away by drunkenness, may be either good or evil, whereas the goods of
virtue, which are taken away by things that are contrary to reason,
are always good.
Reply to Objection 3: Drunkenness was the occasional cause of
slavery, in so far as Cham brought the curse of slavery on to his
descendants, for having laughed at his father when the latter was made
drunk. But slavery was not the direct punishment of drunkenness.
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