DUODECIMUS GRADUS: DE CONSUETUDINE PECCANDI
The Spiral of Unchecked Sin
When God's judgment does not fall on the first shameful acts, pleasure is eagerly repeated, reason is lulled to sleep, and the sinner descends into such depths of vice that he forgets God and uses every faculty for evil.
And after the first shameful acts go unpunished by God's terrible judgment, the pleasure once tasted is eagerly sought again, and once repeated, it entices with flattery.12 When concupiscence revives, reason is lulled to sleep, and habit binds fast.3 The wretch is dragged down into the depths of evil, handed over as a captive to the tyranny of vices, so that, swallowed up in the abyss of carnal desires, forgetting his own reason and the fear of God, the fool says in his heart: There is no God.✦45 Now he uses his desires indifferently in place of what is lawful; now his mind, his hands, or his feet are not restrained from thinking about, carrying out, or pursuing what is forbidden. But whatever enters his heart, his mouth, or his grasp, he plots it, chatters about it, and carries it out — a malevolent, babbling criminal.678
The Just, the Wavering, and the Impious
The just person runs toward life by good habit without strain, while the impious rush toward death unrestrained by reason or fear, and those in between are trapped between the dread of hell and the pull of old habit.
In the same way that someone who has climbed all these steps with an eager heart, and without strain, runs toward life because of a good habit — that's the just person — so the impious person, having descended those same steps by means of a bad practice, hurries toward death, not steering themselves by reason and not holding back with the bridle of fear. Those in the middle are caught where they are, worn down and hemmed in — now by the dread of hell's torment, now by their old habit holding them back — and whether descending or ascending, they struggle.
Love's Eagerness and Sin's Numbness
Only the highest and the weakest run without hindrance—one hastening toward life by love, the other toward death by craving—and the twelfth step of pride is the habit of sinning by which the fear of God is lost.
Only the highest and the weakest move forward without hindrance and without toil. One hastens toward death, the other toward life — one more eager, the other more inclined by its own bent.9 Love makes one of them eager; craving makes the other prone to fall.10 In one there is love; in the other, a numbness that does not feel its own toil.11 In the one, finally, perfect love; in the other, complete iniquity — and iniquity casts out fear.12 To the one, truth gives certainty; to the other, blindness gives a false security.13 The twelfth step, then, can be called the habit of sinning, by which the fear of God is lost and contempt is incurred.
Read the original Latin
Et postquam terribili Dei iudicio prima flagitia impunitas sequitur, experta voluptas libenter repetitur, repetita blanditur. Concupiscentia reviviscente, sopitur ratio, ligat consuetudo. Trahitur miser in profundum malorum, traditur captivus tyrannidi vitiorum, ita ut carnalium voragine desideriorum absorptus, suae rationis divinique timoris oblitus, dicat insipiens in corde suo: Non est Deus. Iam indifferenter libitis pro licitis utitur, iam ab illicitis cogitandis, patrandis, investigandis animus, manus vel pedes non prohibentur; sed quidquid in cor, in buccam, ad manum venerit, machinatur, garrit, et operatur, malevolus, vaniloquus, facinorosus.
Quemadmodum denique ascensis his omnibus gradibus, corde iam alacri et absque labore pro bona consuetudine iustus currit ad vitam, sic descensis impius eisdem, pro malo usu non se ratione gubernans, non timoris freno retentans, intrepidus festinat ad mortem. Medii sunt quo fatigantur, angustiantur, quo nunc metu cruciati gehennae, nunc pristina retardati consuetudine, descendendo vel ascendendo laborant.
Supremus tantum et infirmus currunt absque impedimento et absque labore. Ad mortem hic, ad vitam ille festinat; alter alacrior, alter proclivior. Illum alacrem caritas, hunc proclivem cupiditas facit. In altero amor, in altero stupor laborem non sentit. In illo denique perfecta caritas, in isto consummata iniquitas foras mittit timorem. Illi veritas, huic caecitas dat securitatem. Potest ergo duodecimus gradus appellari consuetudo peccandi, qua Dei metus amittitur, contemptus incurritur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.13.1;Ps.15.1 — To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Ps.15.1 — A Psalm of David. LORD, who may sojourn in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Notes
- 1 ↩Et rendered as 'and' to preserve the additive link to the preceding chapter's argument.
- 2 ↩flagitia rendered 'shameful acts' rather than 'crimes' or 'scandals' to capture the moral-disgrace sense in a monastic context.
- 3 ↩sopitur rendered 'lulled to sleep' to capture the passive, drowsy weakening of reason.
- 4 ↩ita ut rendered 'so that' to preserve the result-clause force.
- 5 ↩The fool says in his heart: There is no God — echoes Psalm 14:1 (Vulgate) / Psalm 13:1 (Hebrew numbering). Candidate allusion pending Moses resolution.
- 6 ↩sed rendered 'but' to preserve the adversative force contrasting the lack of restraint with the active pursuit of evil.
- 7 ↩libitis pro licitis rendered 'desires in place of what is lawful' to capture the substitution of mere appetite for genuine permission.
- 8 ↩vaniloquus rendered 'babbling' to capture the empty, boastful speech; facinorosus as 'criminal' for grave wrongdoing.
- 9 ↩The Latin is tightly compressed: 'alter alacrior, alter proclivior' leaves the comparative force partly implicit. 'Proclivior' carries the sense of an ingrained bent or predisposition, not merely a passing inclination.
- 10 ↩'Caritas' is rendered 'love' per default policy; in this theological-virtue context 'charity' is also defensible. 'Cupiditas' is rendered 'craving' to capture its disordered, appetite-driven force.
- 11 ↩'Stupor' here connotes a spiritual insensibility or dullness rather than mere surprise. Rendered 'numbness' to capture the moral and spiritual deadening the author intends.
- 12 ↩'Perfecta caritas ... foras mittit timorem' strongly echoes 1 John 4:18, 'perfect love casts out fear.' Final scriptural resolution belongs to a later stage.
- 13 ↩The Latin is extremely compressed: 'Illi veritas, huic caecitas dat securitatum.' The verb 'dat' governs both clauses, and 'veritas' and 'caecitas' function as agents. Rendered to make that double agency explicit.
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