SEPTIMUS GRADUS: DE PRAESUMPTIONE
The Presumptuous Man in Community
The presumptuous monk exalts himself above others, seizes the first place, disrupts settled arrangements, judges what he did not establish, resents superiors who do not promote him, and scorns humble tasks as beneath his imagined dignity.
Someone who thinks he is better than others — why would he not also presume more about himself than about them? He takes the first seat in gatherings and the first word in discussions; he shows up uninvited, pushes in unasked, rearranges what has already been settled, and redoes what has already been done. Whatever he himself has not done or decided, he judges as neither rightly done nor well ordered. He judges those who are already judging and prejudges those who are about to. And if, when the time comes, he is not promoted to prior, he judges his abbot either envious or deceived. But if some lesser obedience is laid on him, he is indignant and scorns it, convinced he should not be occupied with lesser things — he, who feels himself fit for greater ones.
The Danger of Hasty Action
One who acts so rashly cannot avoid error, yet correction belongs rightly to the superior.
But someone who is so quick to act — how can it be possible that he will never at some point go wrong? It falls to the superior, however, to correct the one who errs.
The Heart That Will Not Confess
Because the presumptuous man neither believes himself at fault nor tolerates blame, his fault grows rather than being healed, and if correction turns his heart to malice, he has fallen into the eighth step of pride—the defense of sins.
But how will he confess his fault in any way at all, when he neither believes himself to be at fault nor tolerates being thought blameworthy? Because of this, when fault is laid to his charge, it grows rather than being cut away. So if, when he has been corrected, you see his heart turn aside into words of malice, know that he has fallen into the eighth step, which is called the defense of sins.
Read the original Latin
Qui enim alios se praecellere putat, quomodo plus de se quam de aliis non praesumat? Primus in conventibus residet, in consiliis primus respondet; non vocatus accedit, non iussus se intromittit; reordinat ordinata, reficit facta. Quidquid ipse non fecerit aut ordinaverit, nec recte factum, nec pulchre aestimat ordinatum. Iudicat iudicantes, praeiudicat iudicaturis. Si, cum tempus advenerit, non promoveatur ad prioratum, suum abbatem aut invidum iudicat, aut deceptum. Quod si mediocris ei aliqua oboedientia iniuncta fuerit, indignatur, aspernatur, arbitrans se non esse minoribus occupandum, qui se ad maiora sentit idoneum.
Sed qui sic promptulus possibile est eum aliquando non errare. Ad praelatum autem pertinet errantem arguere. Sed quodmodo culpam sum confitebitur, qui nec esse putat, nec putari culpabilis patitur? Propter ea cum ei culpa imputatur, crescit, non amputatur. Si ergo, cum argutus fuerit, declinare cor eius videris in verba malitiae, in octavum gradum, qui dicitur defensio peccatorum, noveris corruisse.
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