Hou men schullen don that wanten the feelynge of mekenes in affeccioun, not dredynge
Cultivating Humility in the Will
When emotional humility is absent, one must persist in the humble will and endure the flesh's resistance until grace transforms the will into affection.
Too much of it.1 Nevertheless, if you can't feel this humility in your heart with affection as you'd like, do what you can: humble yourself in will by your reason, believing that it should be as I say, even though you don't feel it. Because of this, consider yourself even more of a wretch, since you cannot truly perceive yourself as you really are.2 And if you do so, even though your flesh rises against it and will not assent to your will, don't be too afraid; instead you must then bear and endure the false feeling of your flesh as a pain. And then you must despise and reprove that feeling, and break down that rising of your heart, as though you'd be well content to be trodden and kicked under everyone's feet as a cast-off thing.3 In this way, by the grace of Jesus Christ and through a devout contemplation of His humanity and humility, you'll greatly quiet the stirrings of pride, and the virtue of humility—which began only in your will—will be transformed into a heartfelt affection.4
Humility as the Foundation of Contemplation
Humility is the indispensable prerequisite for the contemplative life, without which all other spiritual efforts lead only to a greater fall.
Without this virtue, whether in a true will or in feeling, whoever sets out to serve God in the contemplative life will stumble like a blind person and will never come to it. The higher he climbs through physical penance and other virtues without this, the lower he falls. For as Gregory says, anyone who cannot perfectly despise himself has never yet found the humble wisdom of our Lord Jesus.5
Read the original Latin
over mykil therof.
Neverthelees, yif thou mai not fele this mekenesse in thyn herte with affeccion as thu woldest, do as thou may: meke thisilf in wille bi thi resoun, trowynge that it schulde be so as I seie, though thou fele it not. And in that holde thee a more wrecche, that thou may not feele sothfastli as thou art. And yif thu doo so, though thi fleisch rise thereagen and wole not assente to thi wille, be not to mykil adraad, but thu schalt bere thanne and suffre the fals feelynge of thi fleisch as a peyne. And thou schalt thanne dispise and repreve that feelynge, and breke doun that risynge of thyn herte, as though thou woldest be wel paide for to be troden and spurnyd undir every mannys feet as a thynge whiche is outcast. And so bi grace of Jhesu Crist thorugh devoute biholdynge on His manhede and His mekenesse schalt thu mykil abate the stirynge of pride, and the vertu of mekenesse that was first in the nakid wille schal be turnyd into feelynge of affeccion. Withoutin which vertu, either in a trewe wil or in felynge, whoso disposeth hym for to serve God in lif contemplatif, as the blynde he schal stumble and nevere schal he come therto. The highere he clymbeth bi bodili penaunce and othere vertues and hath not this, the lowere he falleth. For as Gregor seith, he that cannot perfightli dispice hymsilf, he fond yit nevere the meke wisdom of oure Lord Jhesu.
Notes
- 1 ↩The supplied section is only the ME fragment 'over mykil therof.' Rendered as the natural sense 'too much of it / overmuch of that'; neighboring §§ suggest it may be a cut-off or mis-segmented unit rather than a full sentence.
- 2 ↩sothfastli as thou art: true self-knowledge in Hilton's sense—feeling oneself as one really is before God, not mere mood or self-image.
- 3 ↩wel paide: well pleased/content (not paid wages); spurnyd: kicked/spurned underfoot.
- 4 ↩nakid wille: bare/naked will—rational consent without yet the felt affective grace of humility.
- 5 ↩Attributed to Gregory (Gregor); likely patristic sententia (e.g. Moralia), not a biblical quote. Candidate for later source resolution.
Scala Perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent