The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

  And I: “The proof that shows the truth to me is in the works that followed. Never has nature heated and forged such iron in its smithy.”

  And I was answered: “Tell me how you know there were such works. What seeks to prove itself—it only and nothing more—swears it was so.”

  “If the whole world became Christian without the aid of the miraculous, that is a miracle a hundred times greater than the rest,” I said,

  “for poor and hungry, by faith alone upborne, you entered the field and sowed there the good plant that was a vine once, and is now a thorn.”

  This said, that high and holy choir let ring “Te Deum laudamus!” sounding through the spheres such melody as the souls of heaven sing.

  And that Baron, who, examining my belief from branch to branch, had drawn me out already to where we were approaching the last leaf,

  began again: “The grace whose loving good had pledged itself to your mind, has moved your mouth, up to this point, to open as it should.

  I approve what has emerged thus far, but now it is time you should explain what you believe, and from what source it comes to you, and how.”

  “O holy Father, spirit that now can see what faith once held so firmly that you were prompter than younger feet to the tomb in Galilee,”

  my answer ran, “you wish me to expound the form of my own promptness to believe, and you ask what reasons for it I have found.

  And I reply: I believe in one God, loved, desired by all creation, sole, eternal, who moves the turning Heavens, Himself unmoved.

  And for this faith I have the evidences not only of physics and of metaphysics, but of the truth that rains down on my senses

  through Moses, the prophets, the psalms, through the Evangel, and through you and what you wrote when the Ardent Spirit made you the foster father of God’s People.

  And I believe in three Persons; this Trinity, an essence Triune and Single, in whose being is and are conjoin to eternity.

  That this profound and sacred nature is real the teachings of the evangels, in many places, have stamped on the wax of my mind like a living seal.

  This is the beginning, the spark shot free that gnaws and widens into living flame, and, like a star in Heaven, shines in me.”

  As a master who is pleased by what he hears embraces his servant as soon as he has spoken, rejoicing in the happy news he bears;

  so, that glorious apostolic blaze at whose command I had spoken heard me out, and blessing me in a glad chant of praise,

  danced three times round me there in the eighth great rim, such pleasure had my speaking given him.

  NOTES

  1-9. PRAYER OF BEATRICE TO THE TRIUMPHANT HOSTS. Now that Christ and Mary have returned to highest heaven, the triumphant spirits are gathered around St. Peter (an allegory of Peter’s role as Christ’s vicar following the Resurrection). As usual, Beatrice asks the spirits to grant Dante’s still unspoken wish. The tone of her prayer is clear enough, but its ellipses and metaphoric shifts require some agility of the reader:

  What Dante is burning for is, of course, the revelation on which these spirits feed, forever replete (the Feast of the Lamb of God). God’s grace has given him a foretaste of that feast while he is yet in the flesh: not, so to speak, a seat at Heaven’s table but some of the scraps from it.

  In recognition of the immensity and worthiness of Dante’s wish, therefore, Beatrice asks these spirits to bless his thirst to know (“bedew him from your plenty”). Dew as a blessing and a refreshment is a well-established metaphor. Beatrice carries it a step further (relating it to the scraps of Heaven’s table) by pointing out that the elect drink forever (their thirst forever sated) the waters of that Font (the Presence of God) for which the man thirsts (who would be gratified by so much as a drop from the waters of that illimitable spring).

  10-18. It is a little difficult to visualize the dance of the triumphant souls. Dante says they formed into a sphere with fixed poles and compares them to clockwork. But Dante often uses “sphere” and “wheel” interchangeably. It is reasonable, therefore, to visualize the souls as forming into a great wheel of substantial depth (perhaps another millstone) that revolves around a fixed axis (“fixed poles”). The image of clockwork suggests (and the action of the next two Cantos verifies) that the wheel is above Dante and broadside to him.

  Within that vertical wheel the souls dance in circles to express the joy they feel in being able to give joy to Dante and Beatrice. So rapidly do they spin their circles that they appear only as wheels of light. Like clockwork—i.e., many motions contained within one master motion—the individual wheels spin at various rates. Since the speed with which each soul circles indicates the degree of bliss it feels, and knowing Dante’s inclination to set things forth in exact gradations, it seems well to think of each wheel as being produced by the circling of a single soul rather than by a group of souls dancing in a ring.

  19. one . . . the loveliest of them all: The radiance of St. Peter.

  22. three times: It would be all but impossible for Dante to use the number three without intending the Trinity.

  23-24. I have not the power, etc.: Dante is not only unable to express, but he cannot even reimagine the blessed beauty of Peter’s song.

  25. my pen leaps: Cf. XXIII, 62.

  27. the folds of Heaven’s draperies are too bright: To indicate the folds of a drapery, a painter must shadow the recesses of the cloth while highlighting the raised surfaces. But the inner radiance of heavenly things is such that the folds shine as bright as the surfaces, or, perhaps, Dante means to say more brightly.

  Or in another, or in a complementary sense: A painter can depict the folds of draperies only when subtleties of color are available to him, and human speech and human imagination are too gross to portray the subtleties of Heaven.

  31. that Fire of Love: St. Peter. Note that he has already descended from the great wheel, so prompt are the souls of Heaven to give joy.

  39. See Matthew, xiv, 28 ff.

  44. he will the better praise it: To men, on his return to Earth.

  46. bachelor: As in “bachelor of arts,” i.e., a candidate for a learned degree.

  48. for defending, not deciding: The candidate marshals and evaluates the evidence which he submits to the master. Only the master decides. The relation is essentially that of lawyer and judge.

  51. such an examiner: St. Peter. and such profession: Of the Christian faith.

  52-147. THE EXAMINATION OF FAITH. It may seem a spectacular action for Dante to be examined on his catechism by St. Peter himself (in the next two Cantos he is further examined by St. James as the Apostle of Hope and by St. John as the Apostle of Love), yet, properly understood, the conception is a sublime one. For in a final sense every man of the faith must answer to nothing less than the Apostolic Creed, making himself worthy to be examined by the true source. As, allegorically, all values must be derived from the supreme test of values.

  The examination is divided into six parts:

  52-81. WHAT IS FAITH? The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews (which Dante attributes to St. Paul) provides the source of the first answer (XI, 1): “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” substance: In Scholastic terminology “what exists in itself.” But Aquinas had set forth that “No quality is a substance; but faith is a quality.” Faith, therefore, could not be a substance. Dante circumvents this difficulty, perhaps more ingeniously than persuasively, by rendering the “substantia” of Hebrews as “that which stands under” (sub and stare). argument: The means whereby the intellect reaches toward the inherent truth of things. It is necessary but limited, as reason is limited. quiddity: See XX, 92. The companion term “quality” signifies the likeness of a thing to something else, “quiddity” signifying the way in which a thing is like itself.

  59. captain of the first rank: St. Peter. Dante calls him “l’alto primipilo,“ literally, “the chief fighter in the first rank” according to the classifications of the Roman
army. Such is St. Peter’s rank in the militia of Christ.

  62. of your dear brother: St. Paul.

  79-81. through mortal teaching: As distinct from Heavenly revelation. Could all men grasp that much as firmly as Dante has done, the fine-spun arguments of the sophists would find no audience on earth, for none would pay attention to them.

  82-87. THE POSSESSION OF FAITH. Such was the breath of that love’s ecstasy: Below this height of Heaven Dante had been content with such phrases as “so spoke that radiance.” But the conversations of high Heaven will not answer to the terms that describe human discourse. Dante is conversing not with a man but with a breath that issues from a radiance. this coinage: The golden coinage of faith by which man purchases Heaven. weight: Faith as argument. content: Faith as substance.

  Peter then asks if Dante has faith: “Have you this coinage in your purse?” (I could find no rhyme for “purse” and had to settle for “in your possession.”) Dante affirms that he does indeed have it, so bright (clear) and so round (not worn down by usage nor clipped or shaved by subterfuge) that he is left in no doubt of the mint impression (i.e., there is no uncertainty about his faith).

  89-96. THE SOURCES OF FAITH. Dante affirms that his faith comes to him from the word of God as set forth in the Testaments (“the Sacred Scrolls, both New and Old”). this dear gem: Faith.

  97-102. THE PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF FAITH. Dante affirms that he knows the divine truth of Scripture by the proof of the works (the miracles) that followed from them. these propositions: The Testaments. A metaphoric extension of the preceding terminology of logic. works that followed: Miracles. Nothing in nature (here conceived as a smithy) could bring such works into being.

  103-114. HOW DO WE KNOW THE MIRACLES DESCRIBED IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS ACTUALLY OCCURRED? Scripture, says St. Peter, seeks to prove itself as the word of God by asserting the existence of miracles. But if one has not actually observed a miracle, he has only Scripture’s own word for it. How then can he be sure of the truth of miracles?

  With the sort of ingenuity that characterizes Scholastic argument at times, Dante delivers his final and (to him) most telling argument: had the miracles reported by Scripture not taken place, one would have to assert an even greater miracle to explain how Christianity had spread through “the whole world” without divine intercession. St. Augustine had used the same argument as proof of the truth of Scripture.

  At Dante’s words the redeemed souls break into a hymn of praise.

  what seeks to prove itself: Scripture. field: Battlefield. As God’s Captain of the first rank Peter entered the field of pagan Rome and sowed there the good seed of faith. that was a vine . . . now a thorn: Another denunciation of papal corruption. Peter had planted the Lord’s vineyard (the Church) but corruption has left only a barren thicket choked by thorns.

  115-147. IN WHAT DOES A CHRISTIAN HAVE FAITH? “That Baron” (St. Peter) asks in what Dante believes and from what source he derives it and how he derives it. Dante affirms his belief in a single triune and everlasting God, and declares that he is persuaded to believe by physical, metaphysical, and scriptural proofs.

  124-125. now can see what faith once held so firmly: The Triumph of Christ, a matter of faith during his mortal life, a fact forever before his eyes in Heaven.

  125-126. you were prompter than younger feet: See John, xx, 3-10. St. John was the first to approach the tomb of Christ, but Peter was the first to enter it and the first to believe in the resurrection. The greater promptness indicates the greater zeal, and thus the greater triumph of the heavenly soul.

  128. form: In Scholastic terminology, the same as the Platonic Form, the idea of the thing, which is independent of particular instances, as, for example, the “form” of Justice would exist noumenally, if only in God’s mind, even if no single instance of Justice could be found on earth. Contingency is that which comes into being as an instance of form, the form itself being eternal.

  130-132. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. loved, desired: See I, 77. sole: Not plural as believed by the pagans and by various heretical sects. eternal: Without beginning or end, contrary to the heresy that ascribed a beginning to God and, hence, duration. moves . . . Himself unmoved: against the heresy that God was moved (affected) by things, Dante asserts his unchangeability, for God is perfect and any change (motion) in Him would have to be away from perfection.

  136-138. Moses, the prophets, the psalms: I.e., the Old Testament. the Evangel and through you: The New Testament, commonly divided into the Evangelical and Apostolic books. you: The Italian is the plural form “voi.” The reference, therefore, is to all the apostles. people: In mercy’s heavenly name, the reader is requested to avert his eyes as he passes this rhyme.

  143. the teachings of the evangels in many places: Among various New Testament passages that assert the Unity of the Trinity, see Matthew, xxviii, 19, and John, v, 19 ff.

  154. danced three times round me: Dante implies no proud boast in being so honored by St. Peter. Peter would rejoice in the same way over any soul that has shown Dante’s zeal and faith.

  Canto XXV

  THE EIGHTH SPHERE: THE FIXED STARS

  St. James

  The Examination of Hope

  St. John the Apostle

  DANTE, blessed by St. John himself as a reward for his labors and his hope, declares that if his poem may serve to soften his sentence of exile from Florence, he will return to his baptismal font at San Giovanni and there place on his own head the poet’s laurel wreath. Such is one of the great hopes of his poem, and on that note ST. JAMES, the Apostle of Hope, shows himself.

  Beatrice begs James to conduct the EXAMINATION OF HOPE and she herself, in answer to the first question, testifies to Dante’s POSSESSION OF HOPE. Dante then replies on THE NATURE OF HOPE, on the CONTENT OF HIS HOPE, and on the SOURCES OF HOPE.

  The examination triumphantly concluded, a cry in praise of the grace of hope rings through Paradise, and thereupon ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE appears. Dante stares into John’s radiance hoping to see the lineaments of his mortal body. The voice of John, the Apostle of Love (caritas) calls to him that what he seeks is not there, and when Dante looks away he discovers he has been BLINDED BY THE RADIANCE OF LOVE.

  If ever it comes to pass that the sacred song, to which both heaven and earth so set their hand that I grew lean with laboring years long,

  wins over the cruelty that exiles me from the sweet sheepfold where I slept, a lamb, and to the raiding wolves an enemy;

  with a changed voice and with my fleece full grown I shall return to my baptismal font, a poet, and there assume the laurel crown;

  for there I entered the faith that lets us grow into God’s recognition; and for that faith Peter, as I have said, circled my brow.

  Thereafter another radiance came forth from the same sphere out of whose joy had come the first flower of Christ’s vicarage on earth.

  And my lady, filled with ecstasy and aglow, cried to me: “Look! Look there! It is the baron for whom men throng to Galicia there below!”

  At times, on earth, I have seen a mating dove alight by another, and each turn to each, circling and murmuring to express their love;

  exactly so, within the eighth great sphere, one glorious great lord greeted the other, praising the diet that regales them there.

  Those glories, having greeted and been greeted, turned and stood before me, still and silent, so bright I turned my eyes away defeated.

  And Beatrice said, smiling her blessedness: “Illustrious being in whose chronicle is written our celestial court’s largesse,

  let hope, I pray, be sounded at this height. How often you personified that grace when Jesus gave His chosen three more light!”

  “Lift up your head, look up and do not fear, for all that rises from the mortal world must ripen in our rays from sphere to sphere.”

  So spoke the second flame to comfort me; and I raised my eyes to the mountains that before had borne them down by their weight of majesty.

  “Since
of His grace Our Lord and Emperor calls and bids you come while still in mortal flesh among His counts in His most secret halls;

  that you, the truth of this great court made clear, may make the stronger, in yourself and others, the hope that makes men love the good down there,

  say what it is, what power helped you to climb, and how you bear its flowering in your mind.” —So spoke the second flame a second time.

  And that devout sweet spirit that had led the feathers of my wings in that high flight anticipated my reply, and said:

  “Church Militant, as is written in the Sun whose ray lights all our hosts, does not possess a single child richer in hope—not one.

  It was for that he was allowed to come from Egypt to behold Jerusalem before his warring years had reached their sum.

  The other two points—raised not that you may know but that he may report how great a pleasure hope is to you, when he returns below—