MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE ...

Finally, we should note that Bernard’s steps of pride are arranged according to
one further tripartite pattern, namely the threefold vice of 1 John 2:16, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Though the abbot does not render this
structuring principle explicit, it will become clear to us though a careful study of his steps
and their relationships: his first six steps concern curiosity, or the lust of the eyes; his
next four steps concern ambition, or the pride of life; and his final two steps concern
concupiscence, or the lust of the flesh.
The First Step of Pride: Curiosity
For Bernard, the beginning of all sin is pride and the beginning of all pride is
curiosity. As one of the abbot’s first modern readers, Barton R.V. Mills, observed,
Bernard evidently attaches great significance to this first step for his treatment of
curiositas is nearly as long as his treatment of the remaining eleven steps combined. 169
Commenting on Mills’ observation, Étienne Gilson argued that, for Bernard, curiosity
means “to be preoccupied with any kind of knowledge whatever which has no bearing on
oneself from the standpoint of salvation” and that “If St. Bernard allots to this first degree
of pride as much space as he gives to all the rest, that is precisely because, just as the
Nosce teipsum gives birth to all the other degrees of humility up to the highest, so does
curiosity engender all the remaining degrees of pride, down to the lowest.” 170
169 “Bernard considers the first degree of pride to be curiosity, to the description of which he allots
nearly as much space as he gives to that of the eleven other degrees. He evidently attaches to it the greatest
importance as being the starting point of the downward grade.” Mills, “Introduction,” The Twelve Degrees
of Humility and Pride, xiv. See also Basil Pennington, “Introduction,” The Steps of Humility and Pride, 13.
170 Gilson, The Mystical Theology of Saint Bernard, 156. For further reasons why Bernard may
have devoted such extraordinary attention to this first step of pride, see Pennington, “Introduction,” The
Steps of Humility and Pride, 13-14.
112