That it is mykil maistrie sothfastli to love men in charité and hate here synne.
The Mastery of True Charity
The author distinguishes between external religious acts and the true, grace-filled mastery of loving one's neighbor while hating their sin.
It’s no great feat to keep vigil and fast until your head aches and your body grows weak, nor to travel to Rome or Jerusalem barefoot, nor to rush about preaching as if you meant to convert everyone; and it’s no great feat to build churches and chapels, feed the poor, or found hospitals. But it is a great feat for a person to know how to love their fellow Christian in charity, and wisely hate that person’s sin while still loving the person.1 For though it's true that all these deeds already named are good in themselves, still they are common to good men and women and also to the bad, because anyone can do them if they want to and have the means; and so I count it no mastery to do what anyone can do. But to love one’s fellow Christian in charity and hate their sin—no one can do that except for good people, who receive it as a gift from God rather than through their own labor, as Saint Paul says: The love of God is poured out in your hearts through the Spirit who has been given to you (Romans 5:5).✦2 Love and charity are poured out and spread in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to you; and because of this, it is all the more precious and all the more rare to come by.3
Read the original Latin
It is no maistrie for to wake and faste til thyn heed wirke and thi bodi waike, ne for to goo to Rome and to Jerusalem upon thi bare feet, ne for to stirte aboute and preche as thou woldest turne alle men bi thi prechynge; ne it is noo maistrie for to make chirches and chapeles, for to feede pore men and make hospitales. But it is a greet maistrie for a man to kunne love his even Cristene in charité, and viseli hate the synne of him and love the man. For though it be soo that alle thise deedis toforeseide aren goode in hemsilf, neverthelees thei aren comone to gode men and women and also to badde, for eche man mai doo hem yif he wolde and hadde wherof, and forthi for to doo that ech man mai doo, I holde no maistrie. But for to love his even Cristene in charité and hate his synne, mai there no man doo but gode men oonli, whiche have it of the gift of God and not of her owene travaile, as Seynt Poule seith: Caritas dei diffusa est in cordibus vestris per spiritum, qui datus est vobis (Romans 5:5). Love and charité is sched and spred in youre hertis bi the Hooli Goost, whiche is gyven to you, and therfore it is the more precious and the more deynté for to come bi.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.5.5 — And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Notes
- 1 ↩ME 'charité' is the theological virtue; 'viseli' = wisely/skillfully (not merely intensely).
- 2 ↩Hilton's Latin cites Romans 5:5 with second-person forms (vestris/vobis); standard Vulgate uses first person (nostris/nobis). Rendered to match Hilton's citation, not a modern critical text.
- 3 ↩ME 'deynté' = choice, precious, hard-won delicacy; rendered as 'rare' to keep the sense that charity is costly/select to obtain, not merely pleasant.
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