QUARTUS GRADUS: DE IACTANTIA
The Swelling of Vanity
Vanity is likened to a swelling bladder that must burst open, and the monk full of foolish joy can no longer contain himself but must speak or break.
But once vanity starts to grow and the bladder begins to swell, it's necessary that the wind be belched out through a larger opening, the fold loosened — or it'll burst somewhere. So it is with the monk: when foolish joy overflows and he can't contain it through laughter or gestures, he bursts into the words of Elihu: 'My belly is like new wine without a vent — it bursts the new wineskins.'✦ He'll either speak — or burst. He's full of talk, and the spirit of his own womb constrains him.
The Show-Off in Conversation
The vainglorious monk hungers for an audience, parades his knowledge, interrupts others, and dominates every exchange.
He hungers and thirsts for listeners — people before whom he can parade his vanities, pour out everything he feels, and make known what sort of man he is and how great. Once an opportunity for speaking is found — if the conversation turns to learning — out come the old and new alike; opinions fly, and bombastic words resound. He jumps ahead of the questioner; he answers someone who hasn't even asked. He asks the question himself, he answers it himself, and he cuts off his companion's unfinished words.
The Bell That Cannot Silence Him
Even when the bell interrupts, the boastful monk complains and seeks to resume talking — not to edify but to be recognized for what he knows.
But when the bell is struck, the conversation has to be interrupted, and he complains that the hour is long and the break is short; he asks for permission to go back to stories after the hour, not to build anyone up, but to show off his knowledge. He can build up, but he doesn't intend to build up. He doesn't care about teaching you or learning from you what he doesn't know, but about being recognized for what he does know.
Boasting in the Language of Virtue
When spiritual topics arise, the monk parades visions, fasting, and prayer — arguing copiously about virtue while the Lord's words about the abundance of the heart expose his emptiness.
And if the topic turns to religious life, immediately visions and dreams are brought forward. Then he praises fasting, commends vigils, and above all extols prayer; about patience, about humility, or about particular virtues he argues most copiously — but most vainly — so that if you were to hear him, you'd naturally say that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and that a good person brings forth good things from their own good treasure.✦
Frivolous Talk and the Summons to Flee
In trivial matters the practiced person is most talkative, stirring even sober minds to laughter, and so boasting is recognized in all excessive speech — the fourth step is named, and the reader is urged to flee it and advance to the fifth.
When conversation turns to frivolous things, the more practiced a person is in them, the more talkative they're found to be. If you were to hear it, you'd say his mouth is a stream of vanity, a river of buffoonery, so much so that laughter stirs up even serious and sober minds into frivolity. And to gather it all up in a word: in excessive talk, boasting is well known. In this you have the fourth step, both described and named. Flee the thing, and hold to the name. With this same caution, now approach the fifth step, which I call singularity.
Read the original Latin
At postquam vanitas crescere et vesica grossescere coeperit necesse est ut ampliori foramine, laxato sinu, ventositas eructuetur; aliquin rumpetur. Sic monachus, inepta redundante laetitia, dum risu vel signis eam aperire non sufficit, in Heliu verba prorumpit: En venter meus quasi mustum absque spiraculo, quod lagunculas novas dirumpit. Aut loquetur ergo, aut rumpetur. Plenus est enim sermonibus, et coarctat eum spiritus uteri sui. Esurit et sitit auditores, quibus suas iactitet vanitates, quibus omne quod sentit effundat, quibus qualis et quantus sit innotescat. Inventa autem occasione loquendi, si de litteris sermo exoritur, vetera proferuntur et nova; volant sententiae, verba resonant ampullosa. Praevenit interrogantem, non quaerenti respondet. Ipse quaerit, ipse solvit, et verba collocutoris imperfecta praecidit.
Cum autem, pulsato signo, necesse est interrumpi colloquium, horam longam, breve queritur intervallum; quaerit licentiam ut ad fabulas revertatur post horam, non ut quempiam aedificet, sed ut scientiam iactet. Aedificare potest, sed non aedificare intendit. Non curat te docere vel a te docere ipse quod nescit, sed ut scire sciatur quod scit.
Quod si de religione agitur, statim visiones et somnia proferuntur. Deinde laudat ieiunia, commendat vigilias, super omnia orationes exaltat; de patientia, de humilitate, aut de singulis virtutibus plenissime, sed vanissime disputat, ut tu scilicet, si audieris, dicas quod ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, et quia bonus homo de bono thesauro suo profert bona.
Si ad ludicra sermo convertitur, in his quanto assuetior, tanto loquacior invenitur. Dicas, si audias, rivum vanitatis, fluvium esse scurrilitatis os eius, ita ut severos quoque et graves animos in levitatem concitet risus. Et ut totum in brevi colligam in multiloquio nota iactantiam. In hoc habes quartum gradum et descriptum et nominatum. Fuge rem, et tene nomen. Hac eadem cautela iam accede ad quintum, quem nomino singularitatem.
Scripture echoes
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
Humility is climbed one day at a time
Take the next step each morning with a free daily devotional in Chosen Portion.
Bernard frames humility as a ladder climbed by small repeated acts; Chosen Portion turns that into practice with one daily devotional step at a time.
- A daily 10-minute portion focused on one virtue at a time
- Re-take the 12-step self-check monthly and see real movement
- Historic texts like Bernard's, one readable portion per day