De superbia vitae, ac primo de vanitate.
The Pride of Life and Its Two Faces
The chapter opens by identifying the pride of life as the third branch of the harmful root described by the Apostle, then narrows the discussion to its two principal forms: the love of empty praise and the lust for domination.
There remains a third branch of the harmful root, which the holy Apostle named the pride of life.✦ Since this pride has many forms, our present question concerns only two of them. The first is that it pours in a love of empty praise; the second, that it implants a lust for domination.
The Anguish Born of Vanity
The author probes the deep interior suffering that flows from vanity, tracing how the soul's flattering self-image collapses when contradicted by others' judgment, leaving the mind consumed by sorrow.
From these two sources, then — how great a labor arises, how great an anguish of soul — who could easily say? How often am I shaken when plainly corrected or insulted, confused by any whisper of criticism or slander — or, what is more grievous, consumed by the plague of sorrow! If I want to trace the causes of this struggle more precisely, I find the root of vanity lurking deep in the recesses of the soul itself. Through it, the mind, presuming great things of itself, paints a flattering self-portrait, deluded into thinking it deserves not merely to escape rebuke or correction, but to be praised and honored by everyone. Or certainly, when the mind has been infected with the venom of this abominable disease and has fashioned itself holy in the eyes of others — and here is the remarkable thing — the moment it perceives that others disagree with its self-flattery, it is cheated of the glory and joy it had placed, through a false opinion, in others' estimation, and so it must be eaten away by the stings of sorrow.
The Craving for First Place
The chapter closes by showing how the same disease of vanity drives the soul to seek every outward mark of precedence—the first seat, the first greeting, the first voice—finding delight in their possession and torment in their loss.
From this same wretched disease come the craving for the first seat of honor, the first greeting, the first voice in council, the first place in assembly. All these things delight us as much when offered or obtained as they disturb us when refused or taken away.
Read the original Latin
Restat noxiae radicis tertius ramus, quem superbiam vitae sanctus Apostolus nominavit. Cujus cum multa sint genera, ad praesentem quaestionem de duobus pertinet disputare. Et primum quidem est, quod amorem vanae laudis infundit, secundum libidinem inserit dominandi. Ex his ergo quantus oriatur labor, quanta mentis angustia, quis facile dixerit? Quoties plane correctus vel injuriatus conturbor, vel qualibet detractione vel oblocutione confundor; aut, quod est lugubrius, tristitiae peste consumor, si velim laboris hujus causas expressius indagare, invenio in ipsis animae recessibus radicem vanitatis altius latitantem, qua animus magna de se praesumens, talem se delusus depingit; qui non modo non corripi, vel objurgari, sed insuper laudari ab omnibus et honorari debuerit. Vel certe, cum mente veneno hujus nefandae pestis infecta, in aliorum existimatione sanctum se finxerit, et mirandum, statim ut a sua vanitate alios dissentire perspexerit, gloria sua gaudioque frustratus, quod videlicet in aliorum aestimatione falsa opinione locaverat, necesse est tristitiae stimulis corrodatur. Ex hoc quoque pessimo morbo primae cathedrae, salutationes primae, prima vox in conciliis, primae in conventu sedes appetuntur: quae omnia, quantum oblata vel acquisita delectant, tantum negata vel ablata conturbant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1John.2.16 — For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group