xiii in Matth.]: "Gluttony turned Adam out of
Paradise, gluttony it was that drew down the deluge at the time of
Noah." According to Ezech. 16:49, "This was the iniquity of Sodom,
thy sister . . . fulness of bread," etc. Therefore the sin of
gluttony is the greatest of all.

Obj. 2: Further, in every genus the cause is the most powerful. Now
gluttony is apparently the cause of other sins, for a gloss on Ps.
135:10, "Who smote Egypt with their first-born," says: "Lust,
concupiscence, pride are the first-born of gluttony." Therefore
gluttony is the greatest of sins.

Obj. 3: Further, man should love himself in the first place after
God, as stated above (Q. 25, A. 4). Now man, by the vice of gluttony,
inflicts an injury on himself: for it is written (Ecclus. 37:34): "By
surfeiting many have perished." Therefore gluttony is the greatest of
sins, at least excepting those that are against God.

_On the contrary,_ The sins of the flesh, among which gluttony is
reckoned, are less culpable according to Gregory (Moral. xxxiii).

_I answer that,_ The gravity of a sin may be measured in three ways.
First and foremost it depends on the matter in which the sin is
committed: and in this way sins committed in connection with Divine
things are the greatest. From this point of view gluttony is not the
greatest sin, for it is about matters connected with the nourishment
of the body. Secondly, the gravity of a sin depends on the person who
sins, and from this point of view the sin of gluttony is diminished
rather than aggravated, both on account of the necessity of taking
food, and on account of the difficulty of proper discretion and
moderation in such matters. Thirdly, from the point of view of the
result that follows, and in this way gluttony has a certain gravity,
inasmuch as certain sins are occasioned thereby.

Reply Obj. 1: These punishments are to be referred to the vices that
resulted from gluttony, or to the root from which gluttony sprang,
rather than to gluttony itself. For the first man was expelled from
Paradise on account of pride, from which he went on to an act of
gluttony: while the deluge and the punishment of the people of Sodom
were inflicted for sins occasioned by gluttony.

Reply Obj. 2: This objection argues from the standpoint of the sins
that result from gluttony. Nor is a cause necessarily more powerful,
unless it be a direct cause: and gluttony is not the direct cause but
the accidental cause, as it were,