On the Twelve Abuses of the World, with extracts from On the Soul and its Origin and On the Divination of Demons against the Pagans

of which fatherland no one becomes a possessor except he who is secure from the contention of the earth.

¶ The eighth degree of abuse is: The proud pauper.

The eighth degree of abuse is the proud pauper, who, having nothing, is puffed up with pride, when on the contrary, by the Apostle Paul, we are commanded not to be wise in the things of the world with pride. What, therefore, can be more foolish than that a man who, through lowest misery, as if cast down on the earth and the most extreme and humble, ought to have yielded, should instead raise his mind, swollen with the tumor of proud arrogance, against God? Through which vice those fell who were established on the highest peak of heaven. Why, therefore, does he wish to be proud as if he were powerful on the earth, he who ought to have appeared humble before all men? But lest they have sorrow concerning their poverty, let them consider how they are accepted by God. For He Himself says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." For by a just dispensation, the Merciful One commits to them the kingdom of heaven, from whom He has taken away the participation in earthly kingdoms among mortals, so that he who provides absolutely nothing on earth may appear rich in the seat of heaven. Therefore, it must be guarded against by the poor, lest through destitution and necessity they lose the kingdom of earth, and through the imprudence of their mind they also lose the kingdom of heaven. For when they have received the necessary poverty by God's dispensation, it depends upon their own judgment whether they are "poor in spirit." For the kingdom of heaven is not promised to just any poor people, but only to those in whom the humility of the soul accompanies the poverty of their belongings. For a humble pauper is called "poor in spirit," who, even when he is seen as such externally, never elevates himself into pride. Since, for the sake of seeking the kingdom of heaven, the humility of the mind is worth more than the temporal poverty of present riches. Even the humble man who possesses riches can be called "poor in spirit"; the proud, however, having nothing, are without doubt to be deprived of the blessing of poverty, of whom the Holy Scripture speaks thus: "And he who is rich, though he has nothing, is as a poor man with many riches."