23. Furthermore, no virtue is perfect unless, when it can, it issues forth into outward action; but the outward action corresponding to interior abasement is the exterior vilification of oneself: therefore no one possesses in himself the virtue of perfect humility unless he wills to show himself outwardly as vile and abject, when the place and time present themselves.
24. Furthermore, the virtue of perfect humility reforms what the vice of pride has deformed; but pride disorders cognition through presumption, affection through arrogance, speech through boasting, and bearing through ostentation and insolence: therefore no one has perfect humility unless he has the contraries of these in thought, affection, speech, and bearing.
25. Furthermore, perfect virtue distances not only from vices, but also from the kindling of vices: but the display of interior goods and exterior honor are kindling of pride: therefore perfect humility distances from these. But to be distanced from honor is to approach vileness and ignominy: therefore etc.
On the contrary 1.: "Virtue is a habit of the mind consonant with reason in the mode of nature"; but nature naturally desires to be advanced and not cast down: therefore self-abasement is against the dictate of nature: therefore it is not a work of perfect humility.
2. Furthermore, "virtue is the order of love," as is said in the book On the Morals of the Church; but when a greater one subjects himself to an inferior, there is disorder and perversion of order: therefore it is not a work of virtue.
3. Furthermore, virtue consists in the mean; but he who abases himself approaches the extreme: therefore he departs from the act of perfect virtue.
4. Furthermore, every virtue has truth as its foundation: for where truth is lacking, virtue cannot exist: but a just and perfect man, regarding himself as more vile than others, when he thinks such a thing, judges falsely: therefore if such a thought is repugnant to truth, it must be repugnant to virtue.
5. Furthermore, he who vilifies the work vilifies the maker; but man is the work of God: therefore he who vilifies himself vilifies God. But to vilify God is not of perfect virtue, but a fault: therefore etc.
6. Furthermore, among all creatures man is the noblest creature, therefore most to be honored and esteemed in the whole universe of things: therefore he who vilifies himself disorders the universe.
7. Furthermore, to vilify another is a sin: but a man is bound to love himself just as his neighbor: therefore he who renders himself contemptible acts against the order of charity.
8. Furthermore, when another considers you vile, he sins: therefore if you will that another regard you as vile, you will that another sin: but this is a disordered will: therefore etc.
9. Furthermore, the soul is the image of God, therefore it is naturally born to be conformed to him; but God is supremely good, wise, and exalted: therefore the appetite for excellence belongs to the reformation of the image of our mind: therefore on the contrary the appetite for self-abasement is not a work of virtue.
10. Furthermore, there are three desirable things, namely the good, the true, and the arduous; but no virtue or appetite of virtue consists in desiring the contrary of the true or the good: therefore neither in desiring the contrary of the arduous. But self-abasement is of this kind: wherefore etc.
11. Furthermore, every virtue and act of virtue has its exemplar in God; but self-abasement has no exemplar in God, because God in no way abases himself.
12. Likewise, every virtue renders a man conformed to the state of glory, inasmuch as "it is the disposition of the perfect toward the best"; but self-abasement directly opposes glorification: therefore, etc.
13. Likewise, an objection is raised against exterior humiliation: because it is a sign of the interior; but it is pride to profess in word that one is humble; therefore it is pride to display this very thing by a sign.
14. Likewise, you who display humility by a sign either consider yourself humble or not: if so, then you attribute to yourself a noble virtue, therefore you are proud; if not, then since your outward bearing shows you to be humble, you carry one thing in your mind and display another by your sign: therefore you are a hypocrite.
15. Likewise, every part that does not befit its whole is unseemly; but these singularities of habits seem to disfigure the good ecclesiastical state: therefore this does not pertain to perfect virtue or Christian perfection.
CONCLUSION.
The foundation of all Christian perfection is humility, whose act is the interior and exterior abasement of oneself.
Solution: For the understanding of the aforesaid, it must be noted that the summit of all Christian perfection consists in humility, whose act is exterior and interior abasement of oneself. For the summit of all Christian perfection revolves around three things, namely around grace, justice, and wisdom, according to which three things Christ is said to be the way, the truth, and the life. For the gift of grace provides the way to the truth of justice, in which consists the exercise of action; the truth of justice leads to the taste of wisdom, in which consists the consolation of contemplation; when these have been perfectly attained, one ascends to the summit of evangelical perfection, which Christ Jesus taught by word and example, who specially professed himself the master of humility, in Matthew 11: Learn from me, etc. For humility is the gateway of wisdom, the foundation of justice, and the dwelling place of grace.
It is the gateway of wisdom: because wisdom is "the knowledge of the highest and first causes," not only by way of speculative and intellectual knowledge, but also of savoring and experiential knowledge. Since therefore all things whatsoever that have been made flow from one principle and have been produced from nothing, he is truly wise who truthfully recognizes his own and others' nothingness and the sublimity of the first principle. Whence Augustine prays in the second book of the Soliloquies: "May I know you, may I know myself." But no one arrives at full knowledge of God except through true and right knowledge of oneself; nor does he rightly know himself who does not attend to his own nothingness; for he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself, as the Apostle says in the last chapter of Galatians; but to know one's own nothingness is to humble oneself: therefore humility is the gateway of wisdom.
And this the Wise Man says in Proverbs eleven: Where there is humility, there is also wisdom; this is also what Wisdom Himself says in Matthew eleven: You have revealed these things to little ones etc.: on which Bernard, in On the Steps of Humility: "It appears that the truth which is hidden from the proud is revealed to the humble. Humility, moreover, is the virtue by which a man, through true knowledge of himself, becomes worthless in his own eyes: and this befits those who, having disposed ascents in their heart, advance from step to step until they reach the summit of humility, in which, as if placed in Sion, they behold the truth." And a little later: "He who commanded humility leads to truth"; whence also the ladder of Jacob, "what else does it suggest to us, except that in the summit of humility consists the knowledge of truth?" And a little later: "Good is the way of humility, by which truth is found, charity is acquired, the fruits of wisdom are partaken of."
It is also the foundation of justice. For it belongs to justice to "render to each one what is his own," both to God and to oneself and to one's neighbor. But to God is principally owed honor and reverence; and humility especially disposes one to render this, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus three: How great is the power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble. Since, therefore, the beginning of all justice is the worship and honor of God, and this is rendered to God by the humble: hence it is that the root and foundation of all justice is humility.
Whence on that passage in Matthew three: Thus it becomes us to fulfill; the Gloss: "that is, all humility, which is all justice." And Gregory in a Homily: "In the other things which you do, hold humility as the root of good work. For even if any works be present, they are nevertheless nothing unless they are seasoned with humility: for a wondrous action accompanied by pride does not elevate but weighs down. For he who gathers virtues without humility carries dust into the wind: and whence he is perceived to see, thence he is the more grievously blinded." The same: "Whatever you build grows entirely toward ruin, if before the mass of the structure you do not lay the foundations of humility."