The Divine Comedy

  The next, from whom your eyes return to me,

  is the glory of a soul in whose grave thoughts

  death seemed to be arriving all too slowly:

  it is the flame, eternally elated,

  of Siger, who along the Street of Straws

  syllogized truths for which he would be hated.”

  Then as a clock tower calls us from above

  when the Bride of God rises to sing her matins

  to the Sweet Spouse, that she may earn his love,

  with one part pulling and another thrusting,

  tin-tin, so glad a chime the faithful soul

  swells with the joy of love almost to bursting—

  just so, I saw that wheel of glories start

  and chime from voice to voice in harmonies

  so sweetly joined, so true from part to part

  that none can know the like till he go free

  where joy begets itself eternally.

  NOTES

  1-3. The idea of Trinity will hardly be contained in a footnote, but note the essence of Dante’s doctrine. The Father is the Creator. The Son is Wisdom—the Word of God. Together, they eternally breathe forth the Third Essence of Love, the Holy Ghost. Note, therefore, that it is forever being born.

  7-27. THE PERFECTION OF THE CREATION. Dante summons the reader to ponder the perfection of God’s creation as exemplified by the point of the vernal equinox. It is at this point that the Sun’s ecliptic crosses the celestial equator into the northern hemisphere. The two great circles intersect at an angle of 23° 27’.

  These two circles are the “one motion and another.” (The Sun is now at the vernal equinox.) The apparent equatorial (or diurnal) motion is from east to west. The apparent order in which the signs of the zodiac appear along the ecliptic is from west to east. It follows, therefore, that the influences of the planets, following the zodiacal path, vary from north to south of the equator (see below, note to 32-33), striking the earth variously but in a fixed progression that is part of God’s inscrutable plan. Were the courses of the equator and the ecliptic to run parallel, or were the angles between them to change, the influences of the spheres would be weakened, and earth that stands ever in need of those influences (“earth that calls to them”) would lose the full good of their powers.

  This is the mystical foretaste Dante offers the reader, bidding him to stay at table and feed himself (i.e., study God’s ways) while Dante pursues his demanding theme.

  31. as I have implied: In lines 8-9 ff., where he said the sun was at the vernal equinox, at which point it must be in Aries.

  32-33. those spirals: The path of the Sun seems to be a spiral (as may be noted when it is drawn on a globe) from the Tropic of Capricorn (the southern limit of the sun’s motion) to the Tropic of Cancer (the northern limit). These Tropics are the latitudes 23° 27’ south and north respectively (the same angle at which the ecliptic crosses the equator). As the apparent spiral of the sun’s course brings it toward the Tropic of Cancer, we see it rise earlier every day.

  43-45. Though genius, art, and usage stored my mind: None of these resources of human understanding (reason) can make visible what faith alone can find.

  48. as much as any eye has known of light: Dante (following Aristotle) sets the sun as the maximum of light the human eye can see and, therefore, the human mind can imagine. The sun-surpassing radiance of Heaven is, therefore, beyond human imagination.

  49. the fourth family: The Fourth Sphere of the Blest.

  51. how He breathes forth and engenders: Once more of the mystery of the Trinity. Through all Eternity God is conceived as creating the Son, in union with whom He eternally breathes forth the Holy Ghost.

  52-54. the Sun of Angels: God. this physical one: The Sun. As the Sun lights man, so God lights the angels.

  55-63. Note the allegorical possibilities. At the bidding of Beatrice (Revealed Truth) the man turns his mind so utterly to God that he forgets her until her joy in his absorption draws him back from single-minded devotion to an awareness of other (and necessarily lesser) things.

  64. transcendent: Transcending the light of the sun.

  67. Latona’s daughter: The Moon. See Purgatorio, XX, 130-132, note. In vaporous air the Moon seems girdled with light. Dante’s figure conceives the vapors as weaving the thread (of light) that makes her glowing girdle.

  72. that they cannot be taken from the kingdom: In one sense, no description can take the idea of them from heaven to mortal imagination. In a second, they are treasures Heaven reserves to itself because man is unworthy and incapable of them.

  74-75. must learn . . . from the tidings of the tongueless: i.e., not at all. Every human tongue is mute to speak the treasures of Heaven. One must go there himself (i.e., undertake the purification that leads to celestial sensibilities).

  82-87. The speaker is Aquinas (see 97-99, note) and he has just announced nothing less than Dante’s salvation.

  89-90. no freer to act than water: Would not be acting according to his nature. The nature of the Celestial Soul is caritas and only an impediment outside itself can prevent it from giving love freely.

  91-92. what flowering plants: What souls. are woven into this garland: Are in this company of souls that wreathe Beatrice round.

  95. Dominic: St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. He will be discussed at length in XII, 34 ff.

  97-99. Thomas Aquinas: Aquinas (1227-1274), known as the “Doctor Angelicus,” was author of the “Summa Theologica” (a principal source of Dante’s learning), founder of Thomistic philosophy, and perhaps the most learned of Catholic theologians. He was not canonized until 1323, two years after Dante’s death. Dante, therefore, was writing of Thomas, not of St. Thomas. As befits the modes of Heaven, Thomas does not mention his own name till he has identified the spirit on his right, a brother Dominican and his teacher. Albert: Albertus Magnus (circa 1200-1280), the “Doctor Universalis” who, with Aquinas, reestablished Aristotelian learning in Western thought. He was teaching in Cologne in 1248 when Aquinas went there to be his student. Albertus was canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1931.

  100. to know the rest: Of the encircling souls.

  103. Gratian: Or Gratianus. Twelfth-century scholar. It is for his “Decretum Gratiani” that Aquinas credits him with correlating and harmonizing civil and ecclesiastical law (the “one court and another”).

  107. the good Peter: Petrus Lombardus. Born early in the twelfth century, Bishop of Paris 1159, died 1160. Called “Magister Sententiarum” because of his “Sententiarum Libri IV,” a compilation of scriptures and texts of the church fathers. In a sense, he did for doctrine what Gratianus did for canon law, and Dante typically puts the two side by side. like the poor widow: In his preface to “Sententiarum” Peter modestly compares himself to the poor widow in Luke, xxi, 1-4 who gave her two mites (all she had) to the treasury of the church.

  109-114. The fifth light: Solomon. so magnificent a love: As expressed in the “Song of Songs” which was thought to be the wedding hymn of the Church and God. men hunger for any news: Of Solomon’s final fate. I Kings, xi, 1-9 records the sins of Solomon’s age and theologians of Dante’s time debated whether he had been saved or damned. if truth be true: If Scripture (which is truth) be true. Hence: it certainly is true. no mortal ever rose to equal this one: Dante says, literally, “no second [equal] has risen.” Adam, of course, knew God directly, and Christ was man-and-God. Both, therefore, surpassed Solomon. But Christ may be said to have descended and Adam to have issued from God, whereby they did not “rise.” Whether or not Dante had these thoughts in mind, his words echo I Kings, iii, 12: “that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arrive like unto thee.” The exact phrasing of this line is important for it will be referred to several times in the next three Cantos.

  115. whose flame: The soul of Dionysus the Areopagite, converted by St. Paul (Acts, xvii, 34) and wrongly believed in Dante’s time to be the author of “The Celestial Hi
erarchy.”

  119. the defender of the Christian Age: Dante may intend here Paulus Orosius, fifth-century Spanish priest whose Historiarum Adversus Paganos defended the effect of Christianity upon the Roman Empire. Or he may intend Marius Victorinus, fourth-century Roman, who became a Christian theologian, and whose example was believed to have contributed to the conversion of St. Augustine.

  123. what spirit shines in the eighth blaze: Boethius. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was born in Rome circa 470, studied in Greece, became consul of Theodoric the Ostrogoth in 510, later to be imprisoned by Theodoric in Pavia on charges of treason and magic, and executed in 524. His “De Consolatione Philosophiae,” written in prison, is a work of pagan dignity that defends the joys of the good life without reference to any eternal reward. Despite its essential paganism, its influence upon the Middle Ages (and upon Dante) was enormous, among other reasons, as a source of late classical learning. In time the death of Boethius came to be thought of as a martyrdom. His remains were formally moved to a tomb in Pavia’s Cieldauro (Church of St. Peter) in the eighth century, and though never canonized, he grew to be locally revered as St. Severinus.

  130. Isidore: Of Seville (circa 560-636). Became Archbishop of Seville circa 600. Canonized St. Isidore, 1598. Designated a Doctor of the Church, 1722. His major work, “Etymologiae,” was highly prized as an encyclopedia of medieval learning.

  131. Bede: The Venerable Bede (circa 673-735). English Bible scholar and historian. The title of Venerable (the three orders of holiness are venerable, blessed, and saint, in mounting order) was conferred in the ninth century. Pope Leo declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1899.

  131. Richard: Richard of St. Victor. Twelfth-century English mystic and theologian. Birthdate unknown; died circa 1173. He was called the Great Contemplater after one of his treatises, “De Contemplatione.”

  133. from whom your eyes return to me: Thus completing the round of the twelve doctors.

  135. death seemed to be arriving all too slowly: In his eagerness to be done with the vanity of this world and to begin the eternal life.

  137. Siger: Siger of Brabant. Born circa 1226. An outstanding Averroist philosopher, he taught philosophy at the University of Paris (which was then on la rue de Feurre or Street of Straws) and was cited for heresy in 1277 before the Grand Inquisitor of France (hence, “the truths for which he would be hated”). He fled to Orvieto to appeal his case to the Papal Court but was stabbed to death (circa 1283) by his secretary, probably in a mad fit.

  140-141. the Bride of God: The Church. the Sweet Spouse: Christ.

  Canto XI

  THE FOURTH SPHERE: THE SUN

  Doctors of the Church

  The First Garland of Souls:

  Aquinas

  Praise of St. Francis

  Degeneracy of Dominicans

  THE SPIRITS complete their song and their joyous dance and once more gather around Dante and Beatrice.

  Aquinas reads Dante’s mind and speaks to make clear several points about which Dante was in doubt. He explains that Providence sent two equal princes to guide the Church, St. Dominic, the wise law-giver, being one, and St. Francis, the ardent soul, being the other. Aquinas was himself a Dominican. To demonstrate the harmony of Heaven’s gift and the unity of the Dominicans and Franciscans, Aquinas proceeds to pronounce a PRAISE OF THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS. His account finished, he returns to the theme of the unity of the Dominicans and Franciscans, and proceeds to illustrate it further by himself lamenting the DEGENERACY OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER.

  O senseless strivings of the mortal round!

  how worthless is that exercise of reason

  that makes you beat your wings into the ground!

  One man was giving himself to law, and one

  to aphorisms; one sought sinecures,

  and one to rule by force or sly persuasion;

  one planned his business, one his robberies;

  one, tangled in the pleasure of the flesh,

  wore himself out, and one lounged at his ease;

  while I, of all such vanities relieved

  and high in Heaven with my Beatrice,

  arose to glory, gloriously received.

  —When each had danced his circuit and come back

  to the same point of the circle, all stood still,

  like votive candles glowing in a rack.

  And I saw the splendor of the blazing ray

  that had already spoken to me, smile,

  and smiling, quicken; and I heard it say:

  “Just as I take my shining from on high,

  so, as I look into the Primal Source,

  I see which way your thoughts have turned, and why.

  You are uncertain, and would have me find

  open and level words in which to speak

  what I expressed too steeply for your mind

  when I said ‘leads to where all plenty is,’

  and ‘no mortal ever rose to equal this one.’

  And it is well to be exact in this.

  The Providence that governs all mankind

  with wisdom so profound that any creature

  who seeks to plumb it might as well be blind,

  in order that the Bride seek her glad good

  in the Sweet Groom who, crying from on high,

  took her in marriage with His blessed blood,

  sent her two Princes, one on either side

  that she might be secure within herself,

  and thereby be more faithfully His Bride.

  One, in his love, shone like the seraphim.

  The other, in his wisdom, walked the earth

  bathed in the splendor of the cherubim.

  I shall speak of only one, though to extol

  one or the other is to speak of both

  in that their works led to a single goal.

  Between the Tupino and the little race

  sprung from the hill blessèd Ubaldo chose,

  a fertile slope spreads up the mountain’s face.

  Perugia breathes its heat and cold from there

  through Porta Sole, and Nocera and Gualdo

  behind it mourn the heavy yoke they bear.

  From it, at that point where the mountainside

  grows least abrupt, a sun rose to the world

  as this one does at times from Ganges’ tide.

  Therefore, let no man speaking of that place

  call it Ascesi—‘I have risen’—but rather,

  Oriente—so to speak with proper grace.

  Nor was he yet far distant from his birth

  when the first comfort of his glorious powers

  began to make its warmth felt on the earth:

  a boy yet, for that lady who, like death

  knocks on no door that opens to her gladly,

  he had to battle his own father’s wrath.

  With all his soul he married her before

  the diocesan court et coram patre;

  and day by day he grew to love her more.

  Bereft of her First Groom, she had had to stand

  more than eleven centuries, scorned, obscure;

  and, till he came, no man had asked her hand:

  none, at the news that she had stood beside

  the bed of Amyclas and heard, unruffled,

  the voice by which the world was terrified;

  and none, at word of her fierce constancy,

  so great, that even when Mary stayed below,

  she climbed the Cross to share Christ’s agony.

  But lest I seem obscure, speaking this way,

  take Francis and Poverty to be those lovers.

  That, in plain words, is what I meant to say.

  Their harmony and tender exultation

  gave rise in love, and awe, and tender glances

  to holy thoughts in blissful meditation.

  The venerable Bernard, seeing them so,

  kicked off his shoes, and toward so great a peace

  ran, and running, seemed to go
too slow.

  O wealth unknown! O plenitude untried!

  Egidius went unshod. Unshod, Sylvester

  followed the groom. For so it pleased the bride!

  Thenceforth this father and this happy lord

  moved with his wife and with his family,

  already bound round by the humble cord.

  He did not grieve because he had been born

  the son of Bernardone; he did not care

  that he went in rags, a figure of passing scorn.

  He went with regal dignity to reveal

  his stern intentions to Pope Innocent,

  from whom his order first received the seal.

  Then as more souls began to follow him

  in poverty—whose wonder-working life

  were better sung among the seraphim—

  Honorius, moved by the Eternal Breath,

  placed on the holy will of this chief shepherd

  a second crown and everflowering wreath.

  Then, with a martyr’s passion, he went forth

  and in the presence of the haughty Sultan

  he preached Christ and his brotherhood on earth;