De quattuor gradibus.

The Five Steps of the Just Life

Hugh lays out five ascending steps—reading, meditation, prayer, action, and contemplation—by which the life of the just is trained and raised toward perfection.

There are four ways the life of the just is now being trained, and, as if by certain steps, is raised toward future perfection: namely, reading or teaching, meditation, prayer, and action. A fifth step then follows, contemplation, in which, as if by the fruit of the preceding steps, the future reward of good work is even now tasted ahead of time in this life. This is why the Psalmist, when he was speaking about the judgments of God and commending them, immediately added: In keeping them, there is great reward. Of these five steps, the first step, that is, reading, belongs to beginners; the highest, that is, contemplation, belongs to the perfect. And as for the middle steps, the more of them anyone climbs, the more perfect they will become. For example: the first, reading, gives understanding; the second, meditation, provides counsel; the third, prayer, asks; the fourth, action, searches; the fifth, contemplation, finds. So if you read and have understanding and now know what must be done, that is a beginning of good, but it is still not enough for you; you are not yet perfect. Climb, therefore, into the stronghold of counsel, and meditate on how you may be able to carry out what you have learned must be done.

From Counsel to Cooperation with Grace

Because human counsel is weak, one must rise to prayer and then to good works, cooperating with God's grace so that what is willed may bear fruit in action.

Many people have knowledge, but few know how they ought to know. Again, since human counsel is weak and ineffective without divine help, lift yourself up to prayer and seek his aid—without which you can do no good—so that his grace, which illumined you by going before, may also direct your steps into the way of peace by following after, and may bring what is still only in your will to the effect of good operation.^✦^✦¹ Then it remains for you to gird yourself for good work, so that by working you may deserve to receive what you ask for in prayer. God wants to work with you. You aren't forced, but you are helped. If you are alone, you accomplish nothing; if God works alone, you merit nothing. Let God work, therefore, so that you are able; and you work too, so that you may merit something. Good operation is the way by which one goes to life.

The Path, Its Labor, and Its Reward

The spiritual journey is a path toward life that rewards courage with the present taste of God's sweetness, so that what prayer seeks contemplation finds.

Whoever runs this path seeks life. Take courage and act with strength. This path has its own reward. Whenever we're worn out by its labors, we're illuminated by the grace of a heavenly regard, as we taste and see that the Lord is sweet.² And so it comes about, as was said above, that what prayer seeks, contemplation finds.

Always Ascending, Sometimes Returning

Perfection belongs to those who keep ascending, yet because of life's instability one often returns to lower steps, always directing every movement toward the chief purpose.

So you can see how, through these steps, perfection meets those who are climbing upward, so that anyone who has stayed behind cannot be perfect. So our aim should always be to keep climbing; but since the changeability of our life is so great that we can't stay in the same place, we're often forced to look back at what's passed, and, so as not to lose the ground we stand on, we sometimes go over again what we've already been through.³ For example: the person who is vigorous in action prays so as not to fall away; the one who persists in prayer takes care not to slip up in praying; the one who sometimes trusts his own judgment less seeks guidance in reading.⁴ And so it happens that, although we always have the will to climb upward, necessity sometimes forces us to come back down — yet in such a way that our aim rests in willing, not in necessity.⁵ What we climb toward is purpose; what we come back down for is on account of purpose. So this shouldn't be the chief thing, but that should be.

Read the original Latin

Quattuor sunt in quibus nunc exercetur vita iustorum et, quasi per quosdam gradus ad futuram perfectionem sublevatur, videlicet lectio sive doctrina, meditatio, oratio, et operatio. quinta deinde sequitur, contemplatio, in qua, quasi quodam praecedentium fructu, in hac vita etiam quae sit boni operis merces futura praegustatur. unde Psalmista, cum de iudiciis Dei loqueretur, commendans ea statim subiunxit: In custodiendis illis retributio est multa. de his quinque gradibus primus gradus, id est, lectio, incipientium est, supremus, id est, contemplatio, perfectorum. et de mediis quidem quanto plures quis ascenderit, tanto perfectior erit. verbi gratia: prima, lectio, intelligentiam dat; secunda, meditatio, consilium praestat; tertia, oratio petit; quarta, operatio quaerit; quinta, contemplatio invenit. si ergo legis et intelligentiam habes et nosti iam quid faciendum sit, initium boni est, sed adhuc tibi non sufficit, nondum perfectus es. scande itaque in arcem consilii, et meditare qualiter implere valeas quod faciendum esse didicisti.

multi enim scientiam habent, sed pauci sunt qui noverunt qualiter scire oporteat. rursus, quoniam consilium hominis sine divino auxilio infirmum est et inefficax, ad orationem erigere, et eius adiutorium pete, sine quo nullum potes facere bonum, ut videlicet ipsius gratia, quae praeveniendo te illuminavit, subsequendo etiam pedes tuos dirigat in viam pacis, et quod in sola adhuc voluntate est ad effectum perducat bonae operationis. deinde restat tibi, ut ad bonum opus accingaris, ut quod orando petis operando accipere merearis. tecum operari vult Deus. non cogeris, sed iuvaris. si solus tu, nil perficis, si solus Deus operatur, nil mereris. operetur ergo Deus ut possis; opereris et tu, ut aliquid merearis. via est operatio bona qua itur ad vitam.

qui viam hanc currit, vitam quaerit. confortare et viriliter age. habet haec via praemium suum. quoties eius laboribus fatigati, superni respectus gratia illustramur, gustantes et videntes quoniam suavis est Dominus. sicque fit quod supradictum est, quod oratio quaerit, contemplatio invenit.

Vides igitur quomodo per hos gradus ascendentibus perfectio occurrit, ut qui infra remanserit perfectus esse non possit. propositum ergo nobis debet esse semper ascendere, sed, quoniam tanta est mutabilitas vitae nostrae, ut in eodem stare non possimus, cogimur saepe ad transacta respicere, et, ne amittamus illud in quo sumus, repetimus quandoque quod transivimus. verbi gratia: qui in opere strenuus est, orat ne deficiat; qui precibus insistit, ne orando offendat, meditatur quid orandum sit; et qui aliquando in proprio consilio minus confidit, lectionem consulit. et sic evenit, ut, cum ascendere semper nobis sit voluntas, descendere tamen aliquando nos cogat necessitas, ita tamen ut in voluntate non necessitate propositum nostrum consistat. quod ascendimus propositum est, quod descendimus propter propositum. non hoc ergo, sed illud principale esse debet.

Scripture echoes

↩John.15.5 — I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.
↩Luke.1.79;Isa.59.8 — to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Isa.59.8 — The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have made crooked for themselves; whoever walks in them does not know peace.

Notes

1 ↩The Latin 'qualiter scire oporteat' in the previous sentence and 'praeveniendo... subsequendo' here reflect the Augustinian theology of grace: grace must precede (illumine) and follow (direct) any human willing or acting for it to bear fruit.
2 ↩The clause 'superni respectus gratia' is rendered 'by the grace of a heavenly regard' as the most plausible reading, but the syntax is compressed and the exact sense of 'respectus' here is uncertain; it may also carry the force of 'by the favor of heavenly providence.'
3 ↩mutabilitas vitae nostrae: Hugh of St. Victor's characteristic theme of life's instability as a condition that shapes spiritual effort; rendered 'changeability of our life' to preserve the philosophical sense.
4 ↩quid orandum sit: gerundive construction rendered 'what must be prayed' — i.e., what is to be prayed for or what prayer requires. The sense is that the active person reflects on the content and purpose of prayer.
5 ↩cum...tamen: concessive construction rendered 'although...yet' to capture the tension between the ever-present will to ascend and the occasional compulsion to descend.

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