the most grievous of
sins.

Obj. 2: Further, "The greater evil is opposed to the greater good,"
as the Philosopher asserts (Ethic. viii, 10). Now humility to which
pride is opposed is not the greatest of virtues, as stated above (Q.
61, A. 5). Therefore the vices that are opposed to greater virtues,
such as unbelief, despair, hatred of God, murder, and so forth, are
more grievous sins than pride.

Obj. 3: Further, the greater evil is not punished by a lesser evil.
But pride is sometimes punished by other sins according to Rom. 1:28,
where it is stated that on account of their pride of heart, men of
science were delivered "to a reprobate sense, to do those things
which are not convenient." Therefore pride is not the most grievous
of sins.

_On the contrary,_ A gloss on Ps. 118:51, "The proud did
iniquitously," says: "The greatest sin in man is pride."

_I answer that,_ Two things are to be observed in sin, conversion to
a mutable good, and this is the material part of sin; and aversion
from the immutable good, and this gives sin its formal aspect and
complement. Now on the part of the conversion, there is no reason for
pride being the greatest of sins, because uplifting which pride
covets inordinately, is not essentially most incompatible with the
good of virtue. But on the part of the aversion, pride has extreme
gravity, because in other sins man turns away from God, either
through ignorance or through weakness, or through desire for any
other good whatever; whereas pride denotes aversion from God simply
through being unwilling to be subject to God and His rule. Hence
Boethius [*Cf. Cassian, de Caenob. Inst. xii, 7] says that "while all
vices flee from God, pride alone withstands God"; for which reason it
is specially stated (James 4:6) that "God resisteth the proud."
Wherefore aversion from God and His commandments, which is a
consequence as it were in other sins, belongs to pride by its very
nature, for its act is the contempt of God. And since that which
belongs to a thing by its nature is always of greater weight than
that which belongs to it through something else, it follows that
pride is the most grievous of sins by its genus, because it exceeds
in aversion which is the formal complement of sin.

Reply Obj. 1: A sin is difficult to avoid in two ways. First, on
account of the violence of its onslaught; thus anger is violent in
its onslaught on account of its impetuosity; and "still more
difficult is it