De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae
Christ's Two Natures and the Knowledge of Suffering
Christ possesses two natures—one eternal and one temporal—so that he both always knew all things and came to know suffering in a time-bound, fleshly way.
Since you can see, then, that Christ in one person has two natures — one by which he always existed, the other by which he began to exist — and that according to his eternal being he has always known all things, but according to his temporal nature he experienced many things in a time-bound way, why do you hesitate to admit that just as he began to exist in the flesh at a point in time, so too he began to know the sufferings of the flesh, at least in that mode of knowing that the weakness of the flesh allows?12
The First Humans' Ruinous Knowledge
Adam and Eve would have been wiser and happier never to have possessed the particular knowledge they gained, since they could attain it only through folly and wretchedness.
That particular kind of knowledge the first-formed humans would have been wiser and happier not to know, since they could not have reached it except foolishly and wretchedly.
God's Merciful Pursuit of the Fallen
God, moved by pity for his own work, descended mercifully into human misery to experience in himself what humanity would justly suffer, not from curiosity but from wonderful love, in order to set the wretched free.
But God, their maker, seeking what had perished, took pity on his own work and pursued it, himself mercifully descending to where they had fallen in their misery. He chose to experience in himself what they, by acting against him, would justly suffer — not from a similar curiosity, but from a wonderful love: not so that he would remain wretched among the wretched, but so that, having become merciful, he would set the wretched free.3
The Twofold Mercy of God
God became merciful not only with his eternal mercy but also with the mercy discovered through the misery of the Incarnation, and both mercies were necessary for our salvation, though the incarnate mercy was the more fitting for us.
He became, I say, merciful — not with the mercy he had from all eternity while remaining in his blessedness, but with the mercy he discovered through the mediation of misery, in our own condition. Moreover, the work of mercy he began through that eternal mercy, he completed through this mercy of the Incarnation — not because that mercy alone could not have perfected those he intended, but because for us it could not suffice without this one. Both were indeed necessary, but this mercy was the more fitting one for us.
The Inexpressible Design of Divine Love
God's compassion is inexpressible, for it was not forestalled by suffering but endures alongside his impassibility, a mercy unknown to us until it reached us.
O the inexpressible design of divine love! When would we ever notice that compassion of his, unknown to us, which was not forestalled by suffering but endures alongside his impassibility?
Mercy's Threefold Rescue from the Pit of Misery
Only mercy that knows no misery could reach the soul whose very mother is misery, drawing her to herself and drawing her out from the pit and the mire of filth.
And yet, if that mercy which knows no misery had not gone ahead, it would never have reached this soul — whose very mother is misery. If it had not reached her, it would not have drawn her to itself; and if it had not drawn her to itself, it would not have drawn her out. But from where did He draw her, if not from the pit of misery and from the mire of filth?✦
The Multiplication of Mercy
God did not abandon his eternal mercy but grafted the incarnate mercy onto it, multiplying his mercy as the psalm declares: 'You will save humans and beasts, O Lord, how you have multiplied your mercy, O God.'
And yet he did not abandon that mercy, but grafted this one in; he did not replace it, but multiplied it, as it is written: 'You will save humans and beasts, O Lord, how you have multiplied your mercy, O God.'✦45
Read the original Latin
Cum igitur videas Christum in una quidem persona duas habere naturas, unam qua semper fuit, alteram qua esse coepit, et secundum sempiternum quidem suum esse, semper omnia nosse, secundum temporale vero, multa temporaliter expertum fuisse, cur fateri dubitas, ut esse ex tepore coepit in carne, sic carnis quoque miserias scire coepisse, illo dumtaxat modo cognitionis, quem docet defectio carnis?
Quod utique genus scientiae Protoplasti sapientius feliciusque nescirent, quando ad attingere nisi stulte misereque non poterant. Sed plasmator eorum Deus requirens quod perierat, opus suum miseratus prosecutus est, descendens et ipse misericorditer, quo illi ceciderant miserabiliter. Voluit experiri in se, quos illi faciendo contra se merito paterentur, non simili quidem curiositate, sed mirabili caritate: non ut miser cum miseris remaneret, sed ut misericors factus miseros liberaret.
Factus, inquam, misericors, non illa misericordia, quam felix manens habuit ab aeterno, sed quam mediante miseria reperit in habitu nostro. Porro pietatis opus, quod per illam coepit, in ista perfecit: non quos sola illa non posset perficere, sed quia nobis non potuit absque ista sufficere. Utraque siquidem necessaria, sed nobis haec magis congrua fuit.
O ineffabilis pietatis excogitatio! Quando illam adverteremus incognitam nobis compassionem, que non passione praeventa, cum impassibilitate perdurat?
Attamen si illa quae miseriam nescit, misericordia non praecessisset, ad hanc, cuius miseria mater est, non accessisset. Si non accessisset, non attraxisset; si non attraxisset, non extraxisset. Unde autem extraxit, nisi de lacu miseriae et de luto faecis?
Nec illam tamen misericordiam deseruit, sed hanc inseruit; non mutavit, sed multiplicavit, sicut scriptum est: Homines et iumenta salvabis, Domine, quemadmodum multiplicasti misericordiam tuam, Deus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.39.3 — I was mute in silence; I held back from good, and my pain was stirred up.
- ↩Ps.35.6-Ps.35.7 — Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD pursue them. Ps.35.7 — For without cause they have hidden for me the pit of their net; without cause they have dug a pit for my life.
Notes
- 1 ↩ex tepore: the Latin tepor ('warmth, tepidness') is rare here and may be a corruption for tempore ('time'). The translation follows the likely intended sense 'out of a point of time' — i.e., from a definite moment — which fits the parallel between beginning to exist and beginning to know. If the reading is sound, the sense could be 'out of a tepid/warm state,' but this is contextually unlikely.
- 2 ↩The passage distinguishes Christ's two natures (divine and human) within one person, a Christological point central to the chapter's argument about humility: the Son of God chose to take on the limitations of flesh, including limited human knowledge of suffering.
- 3 ↩The contrast between curiositas and caritas frames the Incarnation as an act of love, not of speculative inquiry. The parallel structure non ut…sed ut is rendered to preserve the purpose-clause contrast.
- 4 ↩inseruit rendered 'grafted' (sense uncertain: 'inserted' or 'grafted'); the metaphor suggests mercy was added in, not substituted.
- 5 ↩Quoted span: Homines et iumenta salvabis, Domine, quemadmodum multiplicasti misericordiam tuam, Deus — candidate allusion to Psalm 35:6–7 (Vulgate 36:7–8); final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses check.
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
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