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

Asserting Self-Will Against Superiors: From Praesumptio to Rebellio
In the four steps of pride which follow the monk’s arrogantia, Bernard continues
to trace implicitly the parallel between Lucifer’s pride and that of the monk. As was
noted above, for Bernard, Satan’s self-deception and false understanding of his fellow
creatures eventually led him to assert his self-will against the will of God, and to despise
the rightful rule of his only superior, Christ the Most High. In the seventh to tenth steps
of pride, likewise, Bernard shows how the proud monk’s developing self-deception
moves him to despise not only his brothers, but also his monastic superiors to whom, in
Benedict’s words, he owes “all obedience out of love for Christ.” 214 For Bernard, the link
between these steps and those preceding is clear: how can the monk who has come to
regard himself as holier than all condescend to be instructed, or worse corrected, by
anyone else? Thus, in the seventh step of pride, praesumptio, the monk, like Satan,
judges himself worthy to rule over his brethren and so presumes to usurp his superiors’
rightful authority over the community. Though he is not asked, he involves himself in
their decisions, even going so far as to countermand their orders and rearrange all their
arrangements, for he “thinks that whatever he himself has not done or ordered is neither
rightly done nor properly ordered.” 215 If his abbot does not recognize his manifest
wisdom and promote him to the rank of prior, he is certain that this is due to the abbot’s
envy or else the machinations of his jealous brethren. Though Benedict’s sixth step of
humility requires him to embrace even the most humble tasks with docile obedience, the
maiori.”
214 RB 7.34: “Tertius humilitatis gradus est ut quis pro Dei amore omni oboedientia se subdat
215 Hum 44 (III, 50): “Quidquid ipse non fecerit aut ordinaverit, nec recte factum, nec pulchre
aestimat ordinatum.”
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