CAPUT XLVI. Quis, vel qualis sit ordinatus pudor
The Foundation of True Shame
True shame must be rooted in hatred of sin, not merely in fear of disgrace, for even the twisted possess a disordered shame.
First learn to hate sin, and then you'll begin to be truly ashamed of it. If you truly hate it, you'll more quickly blush for it. That shame is recognized as true which hatred of the vices both goes before and goes with.1 Otherwise, if you're caught in sin and, once caught, are covered with shame, I don't believe you're blushing for the fault, but for the disgrace. For that kind of shamefacedness doesn't spring so much from the sin itself as from damage to reputation. So you have nothing to boast of, as if you had brought forth Dinah.2 Even twisted people, of course, have a sense of shamefacedness—but if only it were good, if only it were rightly ordered! For if they had a good one, they might not be twisted at all.
Shame Misplaced
Examples show how human shame is often misdirected toward humility, poverty, or grammatical errors rather than toward sin and pride.
For if they were perfectly ashamed of sin, they wouldn't commit it so easily. What kind of shame do you think it is to blush at poverty, to blush at humility? They aren't ashamed to blush at what the heavenly Teacher wasn't ashamed to come down from heaven to teach: "Learn from me," he says, "for I am gentle and humble of heart." But these people, on the contrary, hate humility more than they pursue it, and they are far more ashamed of a dirty garment than of a dirty mind. How many people there are today who would be more ashamed of making a grammatical blunder in speech against Priscian's rule than of telling a lie in their talk against Christ's rule.3 But why talk about people like that, who often even boast of their crimes, when even those who seem spiritual don't easily overcome this kind of shame?4 Often, while they serve their neighbors' good in the work of preaching, and while they happen to argue against pride, they themselves often grow proud—and from that it is clear they can discuss pride with subtle skill.5 And if by chance while speaking—as often happens—they lengthened a short accent, they would perhaps be more ashamed of a fault of speech than of the fault of pride.6
Not the True Dinah
The author concludes that such misplaced shame is not the true modesty signified by Dinah.
Believe me: don't think this is that true shamefacedness we should understand through Dinah.
Read the original Latin
Disce prius peccatum odisse, et tunc illud incipies veraciter erubescere. Si veraciter odis, erubescis citius illud. Ille pudor verus esse cognosciutr, quem vitiorum odium praecedit et comitatur. Alioquin, si in peccato deprehenderis et deprehensus pudore confunderis, non te credo erubescere culpam, sed infamiam. Non enim verecundia talis descendit tam ab ipso peccato quam de famae detrimento. Non est ergo unde glorieris quasi Dinam genueris. Habent utique etiam homines perversi verecundiam, sed utinam bonam, utinam ordinatam! Nam utique si bonam haberent, perversi forsitan non essent.
Peccatum etenim si perfecte erubescerent, non tam facile committerent. Qualis putas pudor est erubescere paupertatem, erubescere humilitatem? Illud non pudet eos erubescere ad quod docendum non puduit coelestem magistrum de coelo descendere: Discite a me, inquit, quia mitis sum, et humilis corde. At isti econtra magis abominantes quam sectantes humilitatem, multo amplius erubescunt habere sordidam vestem quam sordidam mentem. Quam multi hodie sunt, quos magis puderet in oratione fecisse barbarismum contra regulam Prisciani, quam protulisse mendacium in suo sermone contra regulam Christi. Sed quid haec de istis loquimur qui saepe sua etiam crimina jactant, quandoquidem illi etiam qui spirituales videntur, hunc pudorem haud facile superant? Saepe dum in praedicationis officio proximorum utilitati deserviunt, dum forte contra superbiam disputant, contingit eos saepe superbire, unde constat eos contra superbiam subtiliter disserere. Et si forte inter loquendum (quod fieri solet) brevem accentum producerent, magis eos fortassis puderet de vitio orationis, quam de vitio elationis.
Crede mihi non est credendum hanc esse illam verecundiam quam intelligere debemus per Dinam.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reading cognosciutr is almost certainly a corruption of cognoscitur; translated on that corrected sense.
- 2 ↩Dinam continues the work's allegory: Dinah stands for rightly ordered shamefacedness (verecundia ordinata), not merely social embarrassment.
- 3 ↩oratione here is parallel to sermone and to barbarismum contra regulam Prisciani (Priscian the grammarian), so speech/usage rather than prayer.
- 4 ↩hunc pudorem points back to the disordered worldly shame just described (shame at poverty, humility, outer appearance), not to true shame for sin.
- 5 ↩The final clause is ironic: falling into pride while disputing against it shows their mastery is of subtle discourse, not of humility.
- 6 ↩brevem accentum producerent = lengthening a short accent (a technical fault of pronunciation/prosody). vitio orationis = fault of speech; vitio elationis = fault of elation/pride.
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