Contents List of Abbreviations ix Part One: Introduction Chapter One: Bernard and Pseudo-Bernard 3 Chapter Two: The Meditationes piisimae 19 Chapter Three: The Teaching of the Meditationes : Theory 37 Chapter Four: The Teaching of the Meditationes : Practice 55 Chapter Five: The English Translations 71 Part Two: The Translation Most Devout Meditations On the Knowledge of the Human Condition Chapter One: On Human Dignity 89 Chapter Two: On Human Misery, the Horror of Death, and the Severity of the Supreme Judge 95 Chapter Three: Of the Dignity of the Soul and the Baseness of the Body 101 Chapter Four: Of the Reward of the Heavenly Homeland 109 Chapter Five: On the Daily Examination of Oneself 116 Chapter Six: On the Need to Be Attentive at the Time of Prayer 119 Chapter Seven: On Guarding the Heart and Zeal in Prayer 126 Chapter Eight: On the Hatred of Carelessness or Negligence in Prayer 128 Chapter Nine: On the Unstable Nature of the Human Heart 130 Chapter Ten: On the Dislike of Being Corrected, and of Being Accused of One's Failures and Faults 135 Chapter Eleven: On Conscience, Which Accompanies Us Everywhere and Continually Goads Us 141 Chapter Twelve: Of the Three Enemies of Humankind: The Flesh, the World, and the Devil 142 Chapter Thirteen: On the Attacks of These Three Aforesaid Enemies 146 Chapter Fourteen: On the Desire for Our Heavenly Homeland and on Its Supreme Happiness 148 Chapter Fifteen: On the Nature and Feelings of the Old Self, and Its Mortification and Transformation through Christ 150 Index of Classical, Patristic, and Medieval Sources 155 Index of Names and Subjects in Part One 159.