Turning to the Eight Principal Faults

Now, with the help of God, this fifth book of ours is to be brought out. After the four books composed on the customs of the monasteries, we now propose, strengthened by God through your prayers, to take up the struggle against the eight principal faults. They are: first, gluttony, or the pleasures of the palate; second, sexual immorality; third, greed, which means avarice, or, as it may more properly be called, the love of money; fourth, anger; fifth, dejection; sixth, acedia, which is heaviness or weariness of heart; seventh, kenodoxia, which means foolish or empty glory; eighth, pride. In entering on this difficult task we need your prayers more than ever, most blessed Pope Castor. We need them so that we may be able, first, to investigate the nature of these faults worthily in every point, however trifling or hidden or obscure; next, to explain their causes clearly enough; and third, to set out fittingly the cures and remedies for them. [a]