Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 35

(Admonition 18.) The humble are to be admonished in one way, the haughty in another. To the former it is to be suggested how true is that excellence which they hold in hope; to the latter it is to be intimated how null is that temporal glory which, even while embracing it, they do not hold. Let the humble hear how eternal are the things they long for, how transitory the things they despise; let the haughty hear how transitory are the things they court, how eternal the things they lose. Let the humble hear from the teaching voice of Truth: 'Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted' (Luke 18:14); let the haughty hear: 'Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled' (ibid.). Let the humble hear: 'Humility goes before glory'; let the haughty hear: 'Before ruin the spirit is exalted' (Prov. 15:33; 16:18). Let the humble hear:

'To whom shall I look, but to the humble and quiet, and to him who trembles at my words?' (Isa. 66:2); let the haughty hear: 'Why is earth and ashes proud?' (Sir. 10:9). Let the humble hear: God regards the lowly; let the haughty hear: 'And the lofty he knows from afar' (Ps. 138:6). Let the humble hear that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matt. 20:28); let the haughty hear that the beginning of all sin is pride (Sir. 10:15). Let the humble hear that our Redeemer humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8); let the haughty hear what is written concerning their head: 'He is king over all the sons of pride' (Job 41:25).

The occasion of our perdition, therefore, was the pride of the devil, and the means of our redemption was found to be the humility of God. For our enemy, though created among all things, willed to appear exalted above all things; but our Redeemer, remaining great above all things, deigned to become little among all things. Let it be said, then, to the humble, that while they cast themselves down, they ascend to the likeness of God; let it be said to the haughty, that while they lift themselves up, they fall into the imitation of the apostate angel. What, then, is more abject than haughtiness, which, while it stretches itself above itself, is removed far from the height of true loftiness? And what is more sublime than humility, which, while it presses itself down to the depths, joins itself to its Maker who remains above the summits?

There is, however, another matter which ought to be cautiously weighed in them, because often certain people are deceived by an appearance of humility, while certain others are misled by ignorance of their own haughtiness. For very often, in some who seem to themselves humble, there is joined a fear such as ought not to be shown to men; while very often a free assertion of voice is wont to accompany the haughty. And when certain vices ought to be rebuked, the former keep silent out of fear, and yet reckon that they are silent out of humility; the latter speak through the impatience of haughtiness, and yet believe that they speak through the liberty of uprightness. In the former, that they may not rebuke perverse things, the fault of timidity oppresses them under the appearance of humility;

the latter the unbridledness of their swelling impels, under the image of liberty, to rebuke what they ought not, or more than they ought. Hence the haughty are to be admonished not to be more free than is fitting; and the humble are to be admonished not to be more submissive than is expedient, lest either the former turn the defence of justice into an exercise of pride, or the latter, while striving to be subject to men more than is necessary, be compelled even to venerate their vices. But it must be considered that we often correct the haughty more usefully if we mingle with their reproofs certain soothing praises. For either other good qualities which are in them are to be brought forward, or at least those which they could have had, if they do not have them, are to be mentioned;

and then at last those evils which displease us are to be cut away, when the good things which please, being premised, have first made their mind favourable to hearing. For unbroken horses too we first touch with a gentle hand, that afterwards we may more fully subdue them even by the lash. And to the bitter cup of medicines the sweetness of honey is joined, lest that which will be profitable for health be perceived as harsh bitterness in the very tasting; while the taste is beguiled by the sweetness, the deadly humour is drained away by the bitterness. So then the very openings of our invective against the haughty are to be tempered, mingled with praise, so that while they admit the favours which they love, they may also receive the corrections which they hate.

Moreover, we can often better persuade the haughty of useful things if we say that their advancement will profit us rather than them, if we request that their improvement be bestowed upon us rather than upon themselves. For haughtiness is easily bent toward the good, if its being bound up therewith is believed to profit others also. Hence Moses, who, God ruling over him, pursued the journey of the desert with a pillar of bronze as guide, when he wished to lead his kinsman Hobab away from the practice of paganism and to subject him to the dominion of Almighty God, said: 'We are setting out for the place which the Lord will give us; come with us, that we may do you good, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.' And when he had answered him: 'I will not go with you, but will return to my own land in which I was born'; he at once added:

'Do not leave us; for you know in what places we ought to pitch our camp through the desert, and you shall be our guide' (Num. 10:29ff.). Nor indeed did ignorance of the way straiten the mind of Moses, whom the knowledge of the Godhead had opened out to prophetic science, before whom the pillar went outwardly, whom familiar speech inwardly instructed by diligent converse with God concerning all things. But clearly the provident man, speaking to a haughty hearer, sought a comfort that he might give one; he asked for a guide on the way, that he himself might have been able to become a guide unto life. He thus acted so that the proud hearer might become the more devoted to the voice persuading him toward better things, the more he was thought necessary;

and whence he believed himself to precede his exhorter, thence he might bow himself down under the words of the one exhorting.