The first head of the beast of hell is pride; the second is envy; the third, wrath; the fourth, sloth, which one calls in book-lore, indolence; the fifth, itching—in book-lore, avarice, or covetousness; the sixth, gluttony; the seventh, lechery, or luxury. Of these seven heads comes every kind of sin, and therefore they are called capital sins, because they are the head of all evil and of all sins, and the beginning of all evil, be they deadly, be they venial. Then each of the same seven divides into many divisions, and first we will talk of the sin of pride, because that was the first sin and the beginning of all evil. For pride first broke fellowship and order, when Lightbearer (Lucifer) the angel, because of his great beauty and his great wit, would be above the other angels, and would make himself equal to God, who had made him so fair and so good, and therefore he fell from heaven and became a devil, both he and all his fellowship. All the proud, who fellowship and order of men destroy and break, are like him, when they will be above others, and be more famed and praised than any other that are more worthy.
THE MIGHT OF PRIDE.
This sin of pride is too dreadful, for it (she) blinds men, so that they themselves neither know nor see; it is a very strong and a very special aid to the devil, whereby he beguiles the high men, and the fair, and the rich, and the wise, and the hardy, and the honourable, and generally every manner of folk, but especially the great lords, so that they themselves neither know nor see their misdeeds, nor their follies, nor their faults (read wytes); then is it the most perilous sickness of (all) others. Forsooth he is in great peril, to whom every remedy turns into venom, as do teaching and chastisement to the proud. For the more one reproves and blames and chastises him the more angry he is and the more weary he becomes.
Pride is the devil’s own daughter, who has a great share in his nature. Pride wars against God because of His goodness, and God throws down pride and wars against it. Pride is king of wicked habits. It (she) is the lion that devours all. Pride destroys all the goodness and all the graces and all the good works that are in man. For pride makes of alms sin, and of virtues vices, and by good works, whereby one should buy heaven, it makes us win hell.
This sin is the first that assails the knight our Lord, (and) whom it is the last to leave, for when He hath all other evils overcome, then pride assails Him the more strongly.
HOW ONE SHALL DIVIDE THE SEVEN BOUGHS OF PRIDE.
This sin divides and spreads into so many parts that one can scarcely reckon them. But seven principal divisions there are, which are as seven boughs, which go out, and are born of a wicked root.
The first bough, then, of pride is untruth; the second, contempt; the third, overweening, which we call presumption; the fourth, over-boldness, which we call ambition; the fifth, vainglory; the sixth, hypocrisy; the seventh, wicked dread. To these seven divisions belong all the sins that are born of pride. But each of these seven boughs has many small twigs.
The first bough of pride, which is untruth, divides itself into three little boughs, whereof the first is bad, the second worse, the third worst of all. The one is crime, the second madness, the third apostasy. Crime generally is in every sin, for no sin is without crime, and so begin all sins by crime. But the crime that we speak of here specially, which comes of pride, is a kind of untruth, is a vice, that is called in book-lore ingratitude; that is, forgetfulness of God and of His gifts, that one thanks Him not as one should do, nor yields Him thanks for His gifts that He hath given us.
Forsooth, he is indeed a villain and untrue towards his Lord, who hath done him all good, and he does not thank Him, but forgets, and yields Him evil for good, and villainy for courtesy. The same villainy doth man to God when he bethinks him not of the gifts that God hath given him, and gives him always, and thanks Him not, but rather often opposes Him in that which he uses wickedly and against God’s will.