Words for All Seasons No. 3

Accidie:
Sloth, torpor.
Etym: blogspot can't interpret the non-qwerty letters. I shall solve this problem eventually. Look it up if you like: it goes all the way back to the Greek.

"After the synne of Envye and of Ire, now wol I speken of the synne of Accidie. For Envye blyndeth the herte of a man, and Ire troubleth a man, and Accidie maketh hym hevy, thoghtful, and wraw. / Envye and Ire maken bitternesse in herte, which bitternesse is mooder of Accidie, and bynymeth [takes away from] hym the love of alle goodnesse. Thanne is Accidie the angwissh of troubled herte; and Seint Augustyn seith, "It is anoy of goodnesse and ioye of harm." / Certes, this is a dampnable synne; for it dooth wrong to Jhesu Crist, in as muche as it bynymeth the service that men oghte doon to Crist with alle diligence, as seith Salomon. / But Accidie dooth no swich diligence. He dooth alle thyng with anoy, and with wrawnesse, slaknesse, and excusacioun, and with ydelnesse, and unlust; for which the book seith, "Acursed be he that dooth the service of God necligently."...
Agayns this roten-herted synne of Accidie and Slouthe shold men exercise hemself [themselves] to doon goode werkes, and manly and vertuously cacchen corage well to doon, thynkynge that oure Lord Jhesu Crist quiteth [rewards] every good deede, be it never so lite. Usage of labour is a greet thyng, for it maketh, as seith Seint Bernard, the laborer to have stronge armes and harde synwes; and slouthe maketh hem feble and tendre. / Thanne comth drede to bigynne to werke anye goode werkes. For certes, he that is enclyned to synne, hym thynketh it is so greet an emprise for to undertake to doon werkes of goodnesse, / and casteth in his herte that the circumstaunces of goodnesse been so grevouse and so chargeaunt for to suffre, that he dar nat undertake to do werkes of goodnesse, as seith Seint Gregorie....
Agayns this horrible synne of Accidie, and the branches of the same, ther is a vertu that is called fortitudo or strengthe, that is an affeccioun thurgh which a man despiseth anoyouse thinges. / This vertu is so myghty and so vigerous that it dar withstonde myghtily and wisely kepen hymself fro perils that been wikked, and wrastle agayn the assautes of the devel. / For it enhaunceth and enforceth the soule, right as Accidie abateth it and maketh it fieble. For this fortitudo may endure by long suffraunce the travailles that been covenable [fitting/allowed]....
Eke ther been mo speciale remedies against Accidie in diverse werkes, and in consideracioun of the peynes of helle and of the joyes of hevene, and in the trust of the grace of the Holy Goost, that wole yeve hym myght to perfourne his goode entente."
Excerpts of lines 676-738 of the Parson's Tale from Geoffrey Chaucer, The Poetical Works of Chaucer, ed. F.N. Robinson (London: Oxford UP, [no publication date given]), pp. 296-99.

No apologies for mis-spellings.