SEXTUS GRADUS: DE ARROGANTIA
The Arrogant Heart
The proud soul mistakes others' praise for truth, clings to reputation over genuine devotion, and arrogantly claims holiness as its own merit, thereby ascending the sixth step of arrogance and preparing for the seventh.
He believes what he hears, praises what he does, and pays no attention to what he's really aiming at. He forgets his true intention while clinging to the opinion others hold of him. And whoever believes more about himself than about others in every other matter, yet believes more about others than about himself regarding himself alone — so that he no longer prefers his own religious devotion merely in word or by the outward show of works, but in the deepest chamber of his heart believes with full conviction that he is holier than everyone else; and whatever praise he has recognized directed at himself, he arrogantly ascribes to his own merits, not to the ignorance or goodwill of the one praising him.12 And so, after singularity, arrogance has rightly claimed the sixth step for itself.3 After this presumption comes the stage in which the seventh step is established.
Read the original Latin
Credit quod audit, laudat quod agit, et quid intendat non attendit. Obliviscitur intentionem, dum amplectitur opinionem. Quique de omni alia re plus sibi credit quam aliis, de se solo plus aliis credit quam sibi, ut iam non verbotenus aut sola operum ostentatione suam praeferat religionem, sed intimo cordis credat affectu se omnibus sanctiorem; et quidquid de se laudatum agnoverit, non ignorantiae aut benevolentiae laudatoris, se suis meritis arroganter ascribit. Unde post singularitatem, sextum sibi gradum iure arrogantia vindicavit. Post hanc praesumptio invenitur, in qua septimus gradus constituitur.
Notes
- 1 ↩verbotenus (token 21) is a rare form; rendered as 'merely in word' following the candidate gloss 'verbally only.'
- 2 ↩agnoverit (token 42) is morphologically ambiguous between future perfect indicative ('he will have recognized') and perfect subjunctive ('he has recognized'); the perfect subjunctive reading fits the result-clause context and is rendered accordingly.
- 3 ↩arrogantia (token 7) is ambiguous between ablative of means ('by arrogance') and nominative subject ('arrogance'); the nominative reading is chosen, making arrogance the subject that claims the step.
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