27
where it became a voice, and from the beak emerged the words which I had longed to hear and which are now inscribed upon my heart.
30
“That part of me which in a mortal eagle sees and endures the sun, ” it said to me, “I want you now to fix your gaze upon.
33
Of all the fire-souls which give me form the ones that give the eye within my head its brilliant lustre are the worthiest.
36
He at the center as the pupil’s spark wrote songs inspired by the Holy Spirit and once conveyed the ark from town to town,
39
and now he knows the value of his psalms so far as his own gifts contributed, for his bliss is commensurate to it.
42
Of those five souls that form my eyebrow’s arch the one who shines the closest to my beak consoled the widow who had lost her son,
45
and now he knows from living this sweet life, and having lived its opposite, how dear it costs a man to fail to follow Christ.
48
He who comes next on the same curving line along the upper arch of which I speak delayed his death by his true penitence,
51
and now he knows that God’s eternal laws are not changed when a worthy prayer from earth delays today’s events until tomorrow.
54
The next light went to Greece bearing the laws and me to let the Shepherd take his place— his good intentions bore the worst of fruits;
57
37-39. King David, whose psalms were inspired by the Holy Spirit, had the ark of the covenant moved to Jerusalem (2 Kings 6:2-17; cf. also Purgatory X, 55-64). He forms the pupil of the eagle’s eye.
44-48. The “one who shines” is the Roman emperor Trajan (who lived in Christian times but was a pagan at his death). He was said to have granted a widow’s request for compensation for the death of her son.
49-54. Hezekiah, king of Judah, when told of his impending death, prayed that God remember his faithful service, and he was rewarded with fifteen more years of life (see 2 Kings 20:1-6).
55-60. The emperor Constantine, who occupies the highest point on the arch of the eagle’s eyebrow, moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, thereby leaving Rome to the popes.
and now he knows that all the evil sprung from his good action does not harm his soul, though, thereby, all the world has been destroyed.
60
And at the down sweep of the arch you see that William, mourned for by the land which now deplores the fact that Charles and Frederick live;
63
and now he knows how much is loved in Heaven a righteous king, and splendidly he makes this clear to all through his effulgence here.
66
Who in your erring world would have believed that Ripheus of Troy was here, the fifth in this half-circle made of holy lights?
69
And now he knows much more about God’s grace than anyone on earth and sees more deeply, though even his eye cannot probe God’s depths. ”
72
Then like the lark that soars in spacious skies, singing at first, then silent, satisfied, rapt by the last sweet notes of its own song,
75
so seemed the emblem satisfied with that reflection of God’s pleasure, by Whose will all things become that which they truly are.
78
Though my perplexity must have shown through, as color shows clear through a piece of glass, I could no longer bear to hide my doubt—
81
it burst forth from my lips: “How can this be?”— such was the pressure of its weight—at which I saw a festival of flashing lights.
84
61-62. These lines refer to William II, “the Good, ” king of Naples and Sicily (1166-1189), a just ruler whose death was mourned by his people.
63. Charles and Frederick were the kings of Naples and Sicily, respectively. (See Paradise XIX, 127-135, where they arc reproached.)
68. Ripheus of Troy was one of several Trojan heroes who fell during the sack of Troy and whom Virgil points out as “foremost in justice and zealous for the right” (Aeneid II, 426-427). The presence of this relatively obscure pagan in Paradise is a further proof of the incomprehensible nature of Divine Justice.
And then, its eye more radiant than ever, the blessed emblem answered me at once rather than keep me wondering in suspense:
87
“I see that you believe these things are true because I say them, but you see not how; thus, though they are believed, their truth is hid.
90
You do as one who apprehends a thing by name, but cannot see its quiddity unless someone explains it for his sake.
93
Regnum celorum suffers violence gladly from fervent love, from vibrant hope —only these powers can defeat God’s will:
96
not in the way one man conquers another, for That will wills its own defeat, and so defeated it defeats through its own mercy.
99
The first soul of the eyebrow and the fifth cause you to wonder as you see this realm of the angelic host adorned with them.
102
They did not leave their bodies, as you think, as pagans, but as Christians with firm faith in feet that suffered and in feet that would.
105
One came from Hell (where there is no return to righteous will) back to his flesh and bones, and this was the reward for living hope;
108
the living hope that fortified the prayer made unto God that he be brought to life so that his will might be set free to choose.
111
94. The kingdom of heaven willingly endures the assault of love or of hope. Either of these has the power to “defeat God’s will” (96), which allows itself to be defeated (“for That will wills its own defeat, ” 98).
106-108. The one who “came from Hell” is Trajan, whose soul had been in Limbo. “Righteous will” (107) was not enough to lift the soul of Trajan out of Limbo: he needed God’s sanctifying grace for his salvation, a grace that is granted only to the living.
This glorious soul, having regained the flesh in which it dwelt but a short space of time, believed in Him Who had the power to save;
114
and his belief kindled in him such fire of the true love that at his second death he was allowed to join our festival.
117
The other soul, by means of grace that wells up from a spring so deep that no man’s eye has ever plumbed the bottom of its source,
120
devoted all his love to righteousness, and God, with grace on grace, opened his eyes to our redemption and he saw the light,
123
and he believed in this; from that time on he could not bear the stench of pagan creed, and warned all its perverse practitioners.
126
He was baptized more than a thousand years before baptism was—and those three ladies you saw at the right wheel were his baptism.
129
Predestination! Oh, how deeply hid your roots are from the vision of all those who cannot see the Primal Cause entire!
132
You men who live on earth, be slow to judge, for even we who see God face to face still do not know the list of His elect,
135
but we find this defect of ours a joy, since in this good perfected is our good; for whatsoever God wills we will too. ”
138
118. The “other soul” is Ripheus.
122-123. God bestowed special grace on Ripheus, enabling him by means of implicit faith, comparable to that which God had given those who were harrowed from Hell, to believe in Christ before His coming.
128. The “three ladies” are the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Thus, with these words did the supernal sign administer to me sweet medicine to remedy the shortness of my sight.
141
And as a good lute-player will accord his quivering strings to a go
od singer’s voice making his song all the more beautiful,
144
so, as the eagle spoke, I can recall seeing the holy lights of those two souls (as if two blinking eyes were synchronized)
147
quiver in perfect timing with the words.
CANTO XXI
BEATRICE AND THE Pilgrim have now reached the sphere of Saturn, and Beatrice tells him that she cannot smile here; her beauty is now so great that if it were to shine forth in her smile, the Pilgrim’s mortal eyes could not withstand it. Countless lights descend and circle about a golden ladder rising up beyond his sight. A soul approaches; the Pilgrim asks why it has come to him and why there is no music in this sphere. The soul explains: there is no music here for the same reason that Beatrice does not smile; and he has simply come to welcome him as a gesture of love. In an attempt to understand the nature of predestination the Pilgrim insists on asking why it was he and not another who was chosen to welcome him. The soul whirls about, and then it says that not even the highest order of angels could answer that question, and that the Pilgrim should warn mankind, once he has returned to earth, not to presume to know more than the Blest themselves can understand. Humbled, the Pilgrim only asks who the soul was on earth. He identifies himself as Peter Damian, and, after describing his simple life as a contemplative, with bitter sarcasm he criticizes the self-indulgence of the present-day leaders of the Church. At his final words the other lights descend and group around him, raising such a strange and thunderous shout that the Pilgrim is completely overwhelmed.
By now I had my eyes fixed once again upon my lady’s face, and with my eyes, my mind, which was oblivious of all else.
3
She was not smiling, but, “Were I to smile, ” she said to me, “what Semele became you would become, burned to a heap of ashes:
6
my beauty, as you have already seen, becomes more radiant with every step of the eternal palace that we climb,
9
and if it were not tempered, such effulgence would strike your sight the way a bolt of lightning shatters the leafy branches of a tree.
12
We have ascended to the Seventh Light which underneath the Lion’s blazing breast sheds down its radiance mingled with his might.
15
Now back your eyes with an attentive mind; make of them perfect mirrors for the shape that in this mirror shall appear to you. ”
18
If one could understand with what delight my eyes were feeding on that blessed face when I, at her command, turned them away,
21
then he would know how much joy it gave me to be obedient to my heavenly guide, were he to weigh one joy against the other.
24
Within the crystal which still bears the name, as it goes round the world, of that dear king under whose rule all evil was extinct,
27
5-6. At the instigation of Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno, Semele asked to see Jupiter, her lover, in his full splendor. The god’s radiance was so great that Semele was burned to ashes (Metamorphoses III, 253-315).
26-27. The king was Saturn, the father of Jupiter, who was said to have ruled during a Golden Age of peace and harmony.
I saw—color of gold as it reflects the sun—a ladder gleaming in the sky, stretching beyond the reaches of my sight.
30
And I saw coming down the golden rungs so many splendors that I thought the heavens were pouring out the light of every star.
33
As crows, obedient to instinctive ways, will flock together at the break of day to warm their frigid feathers in the sky,
36
some flying far away not to return, some coming back to where they started from, some staying where they were, wheeling about,
39
just such a rush of movement happened here, with all that sparkling having flocked as one, and then alighted on a chosen rung.
42
A splendor from the sparkling nearest us became so bright that I said to myself, “I see the love for me with which you glow,
45
but she, who teaches me the how and when to speak and not to speak, keeps still, so I, against my will, do well not asking now. ”
48
Then she who saw my silence in the sight of Him whose vision can behold all things said to me: “Satisfy your deep desire. ”
51
“I know I am not worthy in myself to have an answer from you, ” I began, “but for the sake of her who gives me leave
54
to speak, O blessed life, hidden within your happiness, I pray you, let me know, what is it made you come so close to me,
57
and tell me why Heaven’s sweet symphony is silent here in this sphere while below in all the rest its pious strains resound. ”
60
29. The ladder is a symbol of contemplation.
“Your hearing is but mortal like your sight, ” he said. “There is no singing here just as there is no smile on Beatrice’s face.
63
Only to welcome you with words and light with which my soul is mantled do I come this far down on the sacred ladder’s steps;
66
nor was it greater love that prompted me: as much and even more love burns above— you see it in the flaming lights up there.
69
But that deep charity which urges us to serve the wisdom governing the world assigns each soul his task, as you can see. ”
72
“O holy lamp, ” I said, “I clearly see how in this court a love entirely free gladly obeys Eternal Providence;
75
what I find hard to understand is this: why you alone among your fellow souls have been predestined for this special task. ”
78
I had not finished speaking when the light just like a millstone at full speed began to spin around its inner luminance;
81
and then the love that was inside it said: “A ray of God’s light focuses on me and penetrates the light enwombing me,
84
whose force once joined to that of my own sight lifts me above myself until I see the Primal Source from which such might is milked.
87
From this derives the joy with which I burn; the clearness of my flame will ever match my clarity of spiritual vision.
90
Yet even heaven’s most illumined soul, that Seraph who sees God with keenest eye, could not explain what you have asked to know.
93
70. The “deep charity” is God’s love.
The truth you seek to fathom lies so deep in the abyss of the eternal law, it is cut off from every creature’s sight.
96
And tell the mortal world when you return what I told you, so that no man presume to try to reach a goal as high as this.
99
The mind that shines here smolders down on earth; how, then, can it accomplish down below what it cannot even once it reaches heaven?”
102
I put aside that question which his words had so proscribed me from and only dared, with humble voice, to ask him who he was.
105
“Between two shores of Italy, not far from your own birthplace, rise great crags so high that thunder sounds from far below their peaks;
108
they form a humpback ridge called Catria below which stands a holy hermitage once dedicated to God’s praise alone. ”
111
Thus he began his third address to me, and then went on to say: “There I became so steadfast in God’s service that I lived
114
on nothing but plain foods in olive oil, suffering gladly heat and cold all year, content in only thoughts contemplative.
117
That cloister once produced for all these heavens harvests of souls, but now it is so barren, and soon its decadence must be exposed.
120
There I was known as Peter Damia
n— Peter the Sinner in Our Lady’s house that lies along the Adriatic shore.
123
109. Monte Catria is in the Apennines on the border of Umbria and the Marches.
110. The “holy hermitage” is the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana.
121-123. Peter Damian was known also as “Peter the Sinner in Our Lady’s house, ” that is, in the monastery of Santa Maria in Porto near Ravenna.
Little of mortal life remained to me when I was called and forced to wear the Hat which seems to pass only from bad to worse.
126
Lean and barefooted Cephas came, and came the mighty vessel of the Holy Spirit, both taking food wherever it was offered.
129
Your modern pastors need all kinds of help: one here, one there, to lead, to prop and hold up their behinds—they are so full of food;
132
their flowing cloaks cover the horse they ride: two beasts beneath one hide appear to move! O Heaven’s Patience, what you must endure!”
135
As he spoke these last words, I saw more flames descending, whirling rung to rung, and they grew lovelier with every whirl they made.
138
Around this light they came to rest, and then, in one voice all those lights let out a cry the sound of which no one on earth has heard—
141
nor could I hear their words for all the thunder.
CANTO XXII
THE PILGRIM, STUNNED by the deafening shout at the close of the last canto, turns for comfort to Beatrice. Like a mother consoling her child, she tells him to remember that he is in Heaven where everything is done for the good; had he understood the words that he heard shouted, he would know the just vengeance that is to befall the corrupt clergy in his own lifetime. The bright light of another soul, St. Benedict, now approaches and speaks. After the saint gives a brief account of his life, the Pilgrim asks the saint if it would be possible to see him without his veil of light. St. Benedict explains that this will be possible only in the highest of heavens where there is perfection and all desires are satisfied.
St. Benedict hoped that his order would climb the ladder that reaches this highest heaven, but men no longer climb and the monastic orders have relaxed their original spiritual discipline. Having said this the saint, together with his companions, rises in the form of a whirlwind up the ladder, and the Pilgrim and his guide swiftly follow them up into the next heaven: the sphere of the fixed stars. There they enter the constellation of Gemini, the sign under which the Poet was bom. In order to put the world in its proper perspective Beatrice suggests that the Pilgrim look back down through the seven celestial spheres. He sees the earth and smiles at its puny insignificance. Then turning to Beatrice, he fixes his eyes on her great beauty.