Dove si dimostra donde la superbia nasce
The Roots of Pride
Pride originates in self-love and the assertion of one's own will against God, a rebellion that began with the fall of the angels and continues to corrupt the world.
The second thing we need to address regarding pride is its origin. The wise say it arises primarily from self-love—or rather, which amounts to the same thing, from a person’s own will, through which they are pleased with themselves and, by asserting that will, contradict the will of God.1 So Saint Augustine, in the book of the City of God, says that the proud are called people who please themselves—that is to say, that they take pleasure according to their own will: and this greatly displeases God, to whom proper will rightfully belongs.2 So, whoever follows their own will takes from God what is rightfully His and sins through pride, just as the first angel and the first human did. Pride was born in the highest place, the empyrean heaven, from the noble and high lineage of the angelic nature. Finding no other creature of its rank to marry, given its haughty condition, it illegitimately married its own father, from whom it had been born. And because that was done against His will, the supreme prince God took it so ill that He drove both of them out of heaven, banishing them from His whole realm, never able to return there; and He made them dwell forever in the dark and sorrowful kingdom of hell—where not legitimate sons but illegitimate daughters were begotten, and the mother, together with them, ranges shamelessly through the whole world by the will of the incestuous father, and they draw every person, of whatever condition and state, who lets himself be drawn: some with shameless looks, some with dishonest appearances, some with eager pleasure, and some with lavish promises, under the name of legitimate marriage, into their abominable adultery, from which has been born and continually is born that adulterous generation of cruel and dissolute vices that has already corrupted and ruined the whole world.3
The Deception of Goodness
Pride often arises from the misuse of natural gifts, worldly fortune, and even spiritual graces when they are attributed to oneself rather than to God.
Pride also arises in a person from the gifts of grace.4 Natural gifts are found either in the body, in the soul, or are common to both. In the body, such as health, strength, cheerfulness, beauty, nobility, freedom; being skillful and shrewd, well-mannered, merry, a fine speaker, handsome, well-complexioned, pleasing, honorable, striking, and well adorned. The natural goods of the soul are: a noble mind with a subtle intellect, a good memory, a natural disposition and aptitude for the virtues, for the sciences, and for the arts; good sense, foresight, discretion, prudence, shrewdness, and sound judgment; knowing how to choose well and take the better course; a good imagination, a keen power of grasping things, a strong power of recollection, a firm power of retaining what is learned; being diligent and studious.5 Goods of fortune are external things that are not in a person's power and can be lost regardless of whether one wants them to be: such as riches, luxuries, rank, dignity, fame, honor, human favor, and worldly glory.6 The goods of grace are: the grace of God, along with charity, humility, and the other virtues; wisdom with the gift of prophecy, of tongues, and of working miracles, together with the other gifts of the Holy Spirit.7 From all these goods pride often springs; for when a person feels he has some goodness, and does not humbly recognize it as coming from God—from whom every good comes—he lifts himself up in pride over it, attributing that goodness to his own virtue and his own merit, boasting of it, thinking he ought to be revered and honored for it, and growing proud over it in many other ways: as is shown in the following chapter.✦ So, as Saint Augustine says in substance in the Rule: Pride has this difference from the other vices, that the other vices make a person do evil deeds, and from evil deeds they are fed and born; but pride is born even from good works and from the good, and makes them perish. This could be proven by many fine examples and sayings from Holy Scripture and the holy doctors, as shown in our Latin book for learned readers; more will be said on this later. Let this suffice for the instruction of those who cannot read, so that they may recognize this vice and sin, guard against it, know how to avoid it, and if they have offended in this way, confess it clearly and distinctly.
Read the original Latin
La seconda cosa che bisogna dire della superbia, si dond’ella nasce. E dicono i savi ch’ ella nasce principalmente dall’amore propio, o vero (ch’ è una medesima cosa) dalla propia volontà dell’uomo, secondo la quale l’uomo piace a sé stesso, e la quale, stanziando, contraddice alla volontà di Dio. Onde santo Agostino, nel libro della Città di Dio, dice ch’ e’ superbi s’appellano a sé medesimi piacenti; cioè a dire che si compiacciono secondo la loro propia volontà: la quale cosa molto dispiace a Dio, al quale si conviene la propria volontà. Onde che adempie la propria volontà, toglie a Dio quello ch’è suo propio, e pecca per superbia; come fece il primo Angelo e ’l primo uomo. Onde la superbia nacque in quello altissimo luogo del cielo empireo, e di quello nobile e alto lignaggio della angelica natura; e non trovando niun’altra creatura a suo paraggio, alla quale, per sua condizione altiera maritare si potesse, al padre suo, del quale era nata, non ligittimamente si maritò. La qual cosa, però che fu fatta contro a suo volere, tanto ebbe per male il sommo principe Iddio, che l’uno e l’altro cacciò di cielo, isbandeggiandoli di tutto il suo reame, sanza mai potervi ritornare; e fecegli abitanti sanza termine nello scuro e doloroso regno dello ’nferno: dove non legittimi figliuoli ma figliuole inlegittime ingenerate, la madre insieme con loro per tutto il mondo, di volere dello incestuoso padre, svergognatamente discorrendo, traggono ogni uomo, di qualunche condizione e stato sia, che trarre si lasci, quali cogl’impudichi sguardi, quali con disonesti sembianti, quali con disideroso diletto e quali colle promesse larghe, sotto nome di ligittimo matrimonio, al loro abbominevole adultèro, del quale è nata e continovamente nasce quella generazione adultera de’ crudeli e scostumati vizi, che tutto il mondo ha già corrotto e guasto. Nasce ancora la superbia nell’uomo da’ beni della grazia. Beni naturali sono o nel corpo o nell’anima, o comune all’uno e all’altro.
Nel corpo sì com’è sanità, fortezza, allegrezza, bellezza, nobilità, libertà, essere destro e accorto, bene costumato, giocondo, bello parlatore, avvenente, bene complessionato, piacente, orrevole, appariscente e adorno. Beni naturali dell’anima sono: nobile ingegno collo intelletto sottile, buona memoria, naturale disposizione e attitudine alle vertudi, alle scienze, all’arti; senno, avvedimento, discrezione, prudenza, solerzia, buono giudicio; sapere bene eleggere e prendere il migliore partito, buona immaginativa, buona apprensiva, buona riminiscenzia, buona ritenitiva, essere sollecito e studioso. Beni della fortuna sono le cose che sono fuori di noi, che non sono in podestà dell’uomo, e possonsi perdere, o voglia altri o no: come sono le ricchezze, le delizie, gli stati,le degnitadi, la fama, l’onore, la grazia umana, la gloria mondana. I beni della grazia sono: la grazia di Dio, colla carità, coll’umiltà e coll’atre virtudi; la sapienza col dono della profezia, delle lingue, del fare miracoli, cogli altri doni dello Spirito Santo. Di tutti questi beni nasce spesse volte la superbia; chè l’uomo sentendosi avere alcuna bontade, e non riconoscendola da Dio umilmente, dal quale è ogni bene, se ne leva in superbia, imputando quella cotale bontade alla sua propia virtude e a suo merito, vantandosene, riputando di dovere esserne riverito e onorato, e in molti altri modi insuperbendone: come si mostra nel seguente capitolo. Onde, come dice santo Agostino in sentenzia nella Regola: La superbia ha questa differenza dagli altri vizi che gli altri vizi fanno fare le male operazioni, e delle male operazioni si notricano e nascono; ma la superbia nasce eziandio delle buone opere e del bene, e fàlle perire. E questo si potrebbe provare per molti e belli essempli e detti della santa Scrittura e de’ santi dottori; come si dimostra in questo nostro libro fatto in latino per le persone litterate, e ancora più innanzi se ne dirà. Qui basti quello che si dice per ammaestramento di coloro che non sanno lettera, acciò che conoscano il vizio e ’l peccato, e acciò che se ne guardino e che se ne sappiano guardare; e avendoci offeso, bene distintamente confessare.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jas.1.17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Notes
- 1 ↩stanziando rendered as 'by asserting itself' (medieval sense: resolve/decree/set oneself); could also be 'by determining for itself' or 'by taking its stand'.
- 2 ↩al quale si conviene la propria volontà: rendered as God's sole rightful claim to absolute self-will (own/proper will belongs to Him); alternative reading: right will is what is due/fitting toward God.
- 3 ↩l'uno e l'altro = both parties of the illegitimate union (pride and the father from whom it was born); kept as 'both of them'.
- 4 ↩Source reads da' beni della grazia, but the next sentences begin cataloguing natural goods (body/soul), then fortune, then grace goods in 1.3.2; possible truncation or odd order in the witness. Translated as written.
- 5 ↩Medieval faculty terms (immaginativa, apprensiva, riminiscenzia, ritenitiva) are rendered as distinct mental powers in plain English rather than technical scholastic labels.
- 6 ↩"grazia umana" is human favor/goodwill, not divine grace; rendered as "human favor" to keep the distinction from goods of grace.
- 7 ↩Source "coll’atre virtudi" read as "coll’altre virtudi" ("with the other virtues").
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