Chapter XXX.
How when a man has grown cold through pride he wants to
be put to rule other people.
And
when a man whom pride has
mastered has fallen through these stages of descent, he shudders at the
discipline of the cœnobium, and—as if the companionship of
the brethren hindered his perfection, and the sins of others impeded
and interfered with his advance in patience and humility—he longs
to take up is abode in a solitary cell; else is eager to build a
monastery and gather together some others to teach and instruct, as if
he would do good to many more people, and make himself from being a bad
disciple a still worse master. For when through this pride of heart a
man has fallen into this most dangerous and injurious coldness, he can
neither be a real monk nor a man of the world, and what is worse,
promises to himself to gain perfection by means of this wretched state
and manner of life of his.