ABSTRACT

Between the biblical image and the idea of idleness constructed by the Christian moralists and by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century legislators as a vice socially, economically, morally and religiously pernicious, the notion of sloth or, more technically, acedia acquired special connotations which are worth recalling. Although strictly connected with monastic life, these connotations may have insinuated themselves in the common, popular image of acedia as sheer pigritia and left a trace in the definition of idleness also as restlessness; both pigritia and pervagatio are prerogatives of all vagrant professions. Other traits of acedia start to appear in the fifth century in the work of Cassian, who introduced the idea of sloth to the different setting of the western monasteries, where life for the monk was no longer an experience of isolation but implied activities which responded to the needs of the community. From acedia, Cassian says, are born 'idleness, somnolence, rudeness, restlessness, wandering about, instability of mind and body, chattering, inquisitiveness'.