How did St. Benedict and his monks measure their own humility and pride? Discover the 12 degrees of humility and the 12 degrees of pride to guide your own spiritual life!
12 Degrees of Humility
12. A permanent attitude of bodily, and spiritual prostration.
11. The speech of a monk should be short, sensible and in a subdued tone.
10. Abstinence from frequent and light laughter.
9. Reticence, until asked for his opinion.
8. Observance of the general rule of the monastery.
7. Belief in and declaration of one’s inferiority to others.
6. Admission and acknowledgment of one’s own unworthiness and uselessness.
5. Confession of sins.
4. Patient endurance of hardship and severity in a spirit of obedience.
3. Obedient submission to superiors.
2. Forbearance to press personal desire.
1. Constant abstinence from sin for fear of God.
These degrees of humility are set out in an ascending scale. The first two stages must be passed outside the monastic cloister. He who has so risen may thus in the third degree, make his submission to his superior.
12 Degrees of Pride
1. Curiosity, when a man allows his sight and other senses to stray after things which do not concern him.
2. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk unseasonably joyous and sad.
3. Silly merriment, exhibited in too frequent laughter.
4. Conceit, expressed in much talking.
5. Eccentricity—attaching exaggerated importance to one’s own conduct.
6. Self-assertion—holding oneself to be more pious than others.
7. Presumption—readiness to undertake anything.
8. Defence of wrong-doing.
9. Unreal confession—detected when severe penance is imposed.
10. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren.
11. Liberty to sin.
12. Habitual transgression.
The two last named downward steps cannot be taken inside the cloister. The first six denote disregard for the brethren, the four following disrespect for authority, the two that remain contempt for God.
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Foundations of Western Monasticism which is available from TAN Books.
