the seeds were already being sown of the " Infidelity
of the Renaissance." Preachers put forward their
own inventions, or discuss unsuitable and unessential
matters, to which the culpable ignorance of their
flock responds ; and, instead of solemnly and re-
verently preaching the sacred truths of Christ's
word, they go to preach with jokes and foolery, and
are perfectly content if the congregation laugh
loudly. But the Devil, nestling in the merry
preacher's cowl, enjoys the joke most of all, and is
doubtless especially moved to hilarity at the scan-
dalous abuses of spurious indulgences, the making
profit out of the faithful by pretending to grant
indulgences and pardons for which these monks
had no papal bulls or licenses. Of course the poet's
sarcasm is not directed against indulgences them-
selves, for the episode of Casella and other passages
in the Purgator^io show that he held the Catholic
doctrine on the subject, but only against trafficking
in them and pretending to grant them without the
Pope's license, senza conio. It is to fully appreciate
the fun of this deception that the diabolical bird
nestles in the pardoner's cowl.
After this digression, Beatrice turns again to her
doctrine of the Angels, since two more points remain
for Dante's consideration ; their number, and their
manifestation of the infinite power of their Creator.
Their number, as revealed by Daniel, passes human
conception ; his " thousand thousands and ten thou-
sand times ten thousand " indicate a number beyond
the expression of human figures. And yet, in this
immense number of splendours of the divine light,
the divine light is diversely communicated to each : ā
238
THE CRYSTALLINE HEAVEN
La prima luce, che tutta la raia,
Per tanti modi in essa si recepe,
Quanti son gli splendori a clie s'appaia.
Onde, perocchfe all'atto che concepe
Segue I'aflfetto, d'amor la dolcezza
Diversamente in essa ferve e tepe.
Vedi I'eccelso omai, e la larghezza
Dell'etemo valor, poscia che tanti
Speculi fatti s'ha, in che si spezza,
Uno manendo in se, come davanti.
Par. xxix. 136.^
Not only is every Angel of this almost infinite num-
ber different from any other in its reception of
divine light and in its burning love, but not two are
of the same species. According to Thomist philo-
sophy, in things incorruptible there is only one
indi\'idual of each single species, and the species is
sufficiently conserved in one. Even in each order
each Angel is of a different rank. It is impossible
that there should be two Angels of one species, just
as we cannot talk of several separate whitenesses or
more than one humanity {Smnma, I. q. 50, a. 4). St.
Thomas declares that all the Angels differ in species
according to the different grades of intellectual
nature ; the perfection of the angelic nature reqiiires
multiplication of species, but not multiplication of
individuals in one species.
* The primal light, that all irradiates it.
By modes as many is received therein,
As are the splendours wherewith it is mated.
Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive
The affection followeth, of love the sweetness
Therein diverse!}- fervid is or tepid.
The height behold now and the amplitude
Of the eternal power, since it hath made
Itself so nianj' mirrors, where 'tis broken.
One in itself remaining as before.
Longfellow.
239
CHAPTER VI
THE EMPYREAN
B
"O Alta Qiiies, Siiblimis Requies, iibi omne quod
humanitus moveri solet motum omnern amittit, ubi
omnis qui tunc est motus divinitus fit, et in Deum
transit ! " ā Eichard of St. Victor, De Exterminatione
Mali.
" Non est equidem quod me magis delectet, sed
nee est quod terreat magis, quam de gloria Virginis
Mariae habere sermonem." ā St. Bernard, De Assump-
tione.
AS stars from the sky at the approach of dawn,
so do the angelic circles vanish gradually from
Dante's gaze ; and as the brightest star is the last to be
lost to view, so now the Seraphim, the brightest and
divinest circle, is the last to disappear. For, in a way,
the brightest sensible signs are stars in man's intel-
lectual darkness, and the Sun of Truth itself is about
to dawn upon Dante in the Heaven of Heavens.
These circles of flame and that indivisible Point of
surpassing light are merely sensible signs of the
supreme vision, and gradually die away in the full
sunHght of absolute Truth. Although to enable
Dante to have an idea of its relation to the angelic
Hierarchies, this Point had seemed surrounded by
them, yet it is a sign of that which is not circumscribed
and circumscribes all things : ā
Non circonscritto e tutto circonscrive.
Then follows a final eulogy of the transcendent
loveliness of Beatrice, as her singer nears the end of
243
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
his pilgrimage and poem. All his former words of
her, brought together into one hymn of praise, would
not suffice him now : ā
La bellezza ch' io vidi si trasmoda
Non pur di la da noi, ma certo io credo
Che solo il suo Fattor tutta la goda.
Par. XXX. 19.*
For, in the literal sense, Beatrice is about to return
to her throne in the Empyrean, and no mortal can
adequately express the glory of a blessed spirit high
in Paradise, since it is derived from the vision of God ;
and, in the allegorical sense, of the beauty and the
truth of the loftiest doctrines of Theology concerning
Paradise and the Divinity, God Himself alone can
have full knowledge and perfect understanding. The
mere remembrance of her sweet smile dazzles the
memory as the sun does a weak sight. The same
thought occurs in that second Canzone of the Convivio
which Casella had sung to Dante on the shore of
Purgatory : ā
Cose appariscon nello suo aspetto,
Che mostran de' piacer del Paradiso;
Dico negli occhi e nel suo dolce riso,
Che le vi reca amor com' a suo loco.
Elle soverchian Io nostro intelletto,
Come raggio di sole un frale viso.^
* Not only does the beauty I beheld
Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe
Its Maker only may enjoy it all.
Longfellow.
Dante's words, di Id da noi, imply a complete transcending of
our earthly conditions and comprehension.
^ " Things appear in her countenance which make manifest the
blessedness of Paradise ; I say in her eyes and in her sweet smile,
for Love brings them there, as to his own place. They overwhelm
our intellect, as the sun's ray does a weak vision." This refers,
however, not to Beatrice, but to the mystic Lady Philosophy.
Cf. Conv. iii. 15.
244
THE EMPYREAN
The perfect picture of ideal womanhood, commenced
in the Vita Nuova, is completed, and will admit of no
more finish or perfection. It remains for the artist
but to set the seal and signature upon it, as he will
do in his lyrical farewell in the next Canto.
They have reached the Empyrean, the Heaven of
the last and perfect happiness of man, the true home
of Angels and saints; issued from the last material
sphere into the Heaven that is pure light : ā
Luce intellettual plena d'amore,
Amor di vero ben pien di letizia,
Letizia che trascende ogni dolzore.
Par. XXX. 40.^
Cornoldi has pointed out that Beatrice in these three
lines indicates the three grades of felicity according
to scholastic philosophy : intellectual light, that is,
to behold God with the intellect ; love which is con-
sequent upon the vision ; joy which arises from the
possession of the Supreme Good, and which therefore
in itself comprehends all joy. Joy, says St. Thomas,
is properly the crown and complement of happiness ;
it is caused by the fact of desire resting in attained
good.
Dante's eyes are at first dazzled. He is again
blinded for a time, and his blinding is expressed
in words recalling those used of the conversion of
St. Paul:ā
Come subito lampo che discetti
Gli spirit! visivi, si che priva
Deir atto I'occbio di piu forti obbietti ;
Cosi mi circonfulse luce viva,
E lasciommi fasciato di tal velo
Del suo fulgor, cbe nulla m'appariva.
* " Light intellectual full of love, love of true good full of joy,
joy that transcendeth all sweetness."
245
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Sempre I'Amor che queta questo cielo
Accoglie in se con si fatta salute,
Per far disposto a sua fiamma il candelo.
Non fur piu tosto dentro a me venute
Queste parole brevi, ch' io compresi
Me sormontar di sopra a mia virtute ;
E di novella vista mi raccesi
Tale, che nulla luce e tanto mera,
Clie gli occhi miei non si fosser difesi.
Par. XXX. 46.'
It is difficult at this point to separate the essential
from the moral Paradise, since one is the reward of
the other ; and in this blindness, followed by a new
celestial sight and new faculties for comprehending
the essence of things spiritual, there seems a certain
analogy to the passage from mortal life to immor-
tality, even if it is not taken as an actual allegory of
death itself. In the nine lower heavens, from the
greatest of which he has just issued, the poet has
contemplated as much of the glory of God and of the
nature of the Divinity as is permitted to any living
being ; and now he is to represent the reward to
' Even as a sudden lightning that disperses
The visual spirits, so that it deprives
The ej-e of impress from the strongest objects;
Thus round about me flashed a living light.
And left me swathed around with such a veil
Of its effulgence, that I nothing saw.
" Ever the Love which quieteth this heaven
Welcomes into itself with such salute,
To make the candle ready for its flame."
No sooner had within me these brief words
An entrance found, than I perceived myself
To be uplifted over my own power.
And I with vision new rekindled me.
Such that no light whatever is so pure
But that mine eyes were fortified against it.
Longfellow.
In lines 52, 53, Witte reads : Sempre Vamore, che quieta il cielo,
Accoglie in sd cosi fatta salute.
246
THE EMPYREAN
which such contemplation leads. Since no living
being can see God, something must intervene ana-
logous to the separation of the soul from the body,
to give probability to the close of the vision.^ Per-
haps, however, it should rather be regarded as de-
rived, like so many other points in the Paradiso,
from the teachings of Richard of St. Victor, concern-
ing the state of ecstatic contemplation, ā the highest
to which man can attain. This contemplation in the
ecstatic condition is found by that great mystic repre-
sented by the type of Benjamin, for whose life Rachel
died : ^ " Rachel dies when Benjamin is born, because
when the mind of man is rapt above itself it tran-
scends all bounds of human reasoning. For when,
elevated above itself and rapt in ecstasy, it beholds
the light of the Divinity, all human reason yields.
What is the death of Rachel but the failing of
reason ? " It is possibly in correspondence with this
teaching of Richard of St. Victor, that Dante is
blinded to enable him to ascend to this celestial
contemplation : for, before the vision dies away, he
is to see by divine light those spiritual things which
the blessed in Paradise behold with immediate in-
tuition. This momentary blindness of Dante, this
temporary death of his eyesight to give birth to thes
final vision of Paradise, clearly corresponds to the
death of Rachel to give birth to Benjamin. He does
not, however, at once attain to this final vision. His
eyes are straightway kindled afresh with new and
perfect sight, and there follows the first vision of the
Empyrean. This is still symbolical, still merely a
* V. Barelli, VAllegoria della Divina Commedia.
2 Benjamin Minor, 73 ; also 85, 86. Cf. Vaughan, St. Thomas
of Aguin, Yol. I. 256. There was a quaint English translation of
the Benjamin Minor printed in 1521.
247
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
foreshadowing preface of the truth, although a much
nearer approximation to that final truth than any of
the former visions have been.
E vidi lume in forma di riviera
Fulvido di fulgore, intra due rive
Dipinte di mirabil primavera.
Di tal fiumana uscian faville vive,
E d'ogni parte si mettean nei fiori,
Quasi rubin che oro circonscrive.
Poi, come inebriate dagli odori,
Riprofondavan se nel miro gurge,
E s'una entrava, un' altra n'uscia fuori.
Par. XXX. 61.'
The wondrous flowers on the two banks are the
blessed of the Old and New Testaments, the living
sparks the Angels, all irrigated by the river of divine
grace. The river, descending from a sublime and
infinite height, is usually supposed to symbolise the
effusion of the divine grace upon all creatures, flow-
ing down from the source of light. " The stream of
the river maketli the city of God joyful : the Most
High hath sanctified His own tabernacle." Accord-
ing to another interpretation (Perez), this river sym-
bolises the course of the ages, ordained and directed
to the glory of the Word and the triumph of His
elect ; but the former explanation is to be preferred.
St. Bernard writes, "The Cherubim, drinking of the
fountain of wisdom from the mouth of the Most
* And light I saw in fashion of a river
Fulvid with its effulgence, 'twixt two banks
Depicted with an admirable Spring.
Out of this river issued living sparks,
And on all sides sank down into the flowers,
Like unto rubies that are set in gold ;
And then, as if inebriate with the odours,
They plunged again into the wondrous torrent,
And as one entered issued forth another.
Longfellow.
248
THE EMPYREAN
High, pour out the streams of knowledge upon all
His citizens, and this perhaps is what the Psalmist
meant by the stream of the river making the city
of God joyful." ^ Of this stream Dante, a new co-
operator in the work of the Cherubim, must drink, if
he would fully see this vision of God which he has
to relate, to diffuse His knowledge on earth as the
Cherubim in Heaven. It is a shadowy preface of the
truth ; these things are not of themselves unintelli-
gible, but they are signs of spiritual substances which
the poet's soul is not yet elevated and strengthened
to behold intellectually with immediate intuition.
At the bidding of Beatrice, Dante drinks with his
eyes of this river, and sees it now as a circular ocean
of light : ā
Di sua lunghezza divenuta tonda.'
This probably symbolises the return of the outpour-
ing of God's grace to Him, as to the first source and
ultimate end. Another interpretation (Perez) sup-
poses that by the river becoming round is signified
the sea of Eternity, into Avhich the rivers of the ages
flow ; but on the whole the former interpretation is,
as before, to be preferred. It is the light of glory
which proceeds from the Divine Essence to Dante's
eyes, the action of which had been explained to him
by St. Peter Damian in Canto xxi. By it the saints
and Angels, as it were, drop their masks and appear
to Dante in the form in which he sees them through-
out what remains of the vision. Most significant is
the triple repetition of the lo vidi ā " I saw " ā at this
critical point of the vision, recalling the Crista which
the poet will rhyme only with itself : ā
' De Consider atione, v. 4.
^ Out of its length to be transformed to round. ā Longfellow.
249
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Cosi mi si cambiaro in maggior feste
Li fiori e le faville. si ch'io vidi
Ambo le corti del ciel manifeste.
isi^lendor di Dio, per cu'io vidi
L'alto trionfo del regno verace,
Dammi virtu, a dir com'io lo vidi.
Par. XXX. 94.^
It is by the lumen glorice that he beholds this final
vision : ā
Lnme e lassu, clie visibile face
Lo Creatore a quella creatura,
Che solo in lui vedere ha la sua pace.
Par. XXX. 100.2
This faculty of seeing God does not pertain to any
created intellect, according to its own nature ; but by
the lumen glorice the rational creature is made like to
God, deiformis, and rendered capable of union with
Him and immediate intuition of the Di\dne Essence.
" In Thy light shall we see light," says the Psalmist.
By the light of glory, in order that it may see God in
His Essence, the Divine Essence itself becomes the
intelligible form of the Intellect.^
This ocean of divine grace is reflected from the
light which comes from God, and from which the
heaven of First Movement, the Primum Mobile, re-
ceives all its vitality and virtue for the government
^ Thus into greater pomp were changed for me
The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw
Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest.
splendour of God ! by means of which I saw
The lofty triumph of the realm veracious,
Give me the power to say how it I saw !
Longfellow.
^ There is a light above, which visible
Makes the Creator unto every creature,
Who only in beholding Him has peace.
Ibid.
' Cf. Summa, I. q. 12, a. 5.
250
THE EMPYREAN
of the Universe. In this sea from which they receive
glory and beatitude the saints of Paradise are mir-
rored, as the grass and flowers on a hill-side in a
limpid stream at its foot ; just as Rachel in Dante's
dream at the close of the Purgatorio gazed ever into
the mirror to see her fair eyes, and Leah adorned
herself with flowers in preparation for this end.
" Flowers," says St. Bernard, " are noted for their
beauty, their sweet fragrance, and their hope of
fruit; a threefold grace"; nor are the images of
flowers under which the saints had first appeared to
Dante lost, but all are united in one most perfect
flower, ā the emblem of Her who is most perfect and
glorious of all : ā
La rosa sempiterna,
Che si dilata, digrada, e redole
Odor di lode al sol che sempre verna.
Par. XXX. 124.^
The whole of this allegrezza is taken in by Dante's
sight in spite of its vastness, nor is their felicity
increased or diminished by nearness or farness from
the centre : ā
Presso e lontano li, nfe pon ne leva,
Che dove Dio senza mezzo governa,
La legge natural nulla rileva.
Par. :s.xx. 121.2
Beatrice's office of guide has almost ended. Her
function was to lead man in Dante's person to blessed-
^ The Rose eternal,
That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odour
Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun.
Longfellow.
^ There near and far nor add nor take awaj-;
For there where God immediately doth govern,
The natural law in naught is relevant.
Ibid.
251
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
ness of life eternal, according to the things that have
been revealed ; to blessedness of life eternal which
consists in the fruition of God's countenance, to which
man of his natural powers cannot rise, if he be not
aided by the divine light. She has brought Dante
to this blessedness, he has just received this divine
light. Now she leads him into the golden centre
of the Rose. The seats in this vast convent of white
stoles are nearly all full, but among the empty thrones
is one prepared for the Emperor Henry VII. : ā
In quel gran seggio, a clie tu gli occlii tieni,
Per la corona che gia v'e su posta,
Prima che tu a queste nozze ceni,
Sedera Talma, che fia giu Agosta,
Dell'alto Enrico, ch'a drizzare Italia
Verra in prima ch'ella sia disposta.
La cieca cupidigia, che vi am.malia,
Simili fatti v'ha al fantolino,
Che muor di fame e caccia via la balia.
Par. XXX. 133.1
It will be remembered that Henry of Luxemburg
died on August 24th, 1313, while Dante was to live
until the 14th of September, 1321, the feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross. Dante is inflexibly severe
upon the Italian resistance to the Emperor's efforts,
but Benvenuto, after explaining how Dante rebukes
' "On that great throne whereon thiiie eyes are fixed
For the crown's sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast
Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augusttis
On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
To redress Italy ere she be ready.
Blind covetousness, that casts its spell upon you,
Has made you like unto the little child
Who dies of hunger and drives ofif the nurse."
Longfellow.
I follow Witte and Dr. Moore in calling the Emperor Enrico
instead of Arrigo.
252
THE EMPYREAN
the Italians for rejecting the help and remedy offered
at times by Church or Empire, carefully remarks :
" Nevertheless, whatever our author may say, I know
not of any useful thing that either French or Germans
do in Italy, save only public and private plundering."
Although the work of Theology has been done, the
ideal spiritual authority has one final lesson to utter,
and it takes the form of a terrible warning to those
who have usurped her place upon the chariot of the
Bride, as had been shown in figure in the Earthly
Paradise : ā
E fia prefetto nel foro divino
Allora tal, clie palese e coperto
Non andera con lui per un cammino.
Ma poco poi sara da Dio sofferto
Nel santo offizio : ch'ei sara detruso
Li dove Simon mago 6 per suo merto,
E fara quel d'Anagna andar piu giuso.
Par. XXX. 142.*
Boniface VIII. and Clement V. are regarded by
Dante as the men who have usurped and degraded
the place on the chariot which Beatrice, the heavenly
wisdom which should be joined to the ecclesiastical
authority purified from the abuses and corruptions
of the fourteenth century, should hold. For Dante,
beholding the beatitude which God has prepared for
men, must naturally pass in thought to those ideal
* " And in the sacred forum then shall be
A Prefect such, that openly or covert
On the same road he vpill not walk with him.
But long of God he will not be endui-ed
In holy office ; he shall be thrust down
Where Simon Magus is for his deserts,
And make him of Alagna lower go ! "
Longfellow.
In the final line Witte reads esser piu giuso, and Dr. Moore
entrar piu giuso.
253
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
guides, the Emperor and the Pope, that the ineffable
Providence has appointed to guide man to happiness
and bhss, and judge how each is fuliiUing his lofty
mission. The Emperor Henry will strive his utmost
to do his part, and perish in the heroic attempt, but
Boniface and Clement have fallen short and are not
leading man rightly to this beatitude. This terrible
denunciation of the Pontiffs in question are the last
words that Beatrice utters in the sacred poem. With
them the task of the allegorical spiritual guide is
ended, and the veil of allegory will now be dropped
from the glorified woman.
254
II
THE last three Cantos of the Paradiso are on a
somewhat different footmg to the rest of the
poem. They are the anagogical completion of the
whole work, resting upon and crowning the literal
sense and the allegory as delight sits upon activity.
Here the literal, the allegorical, and the anagogical
meet, and are almost undistinguishably blended. In
the seven spheres of the planets there have been
shown to Dante, and the poet has represented to his
readers, the various lives in which man may use his
free will in God's service and so merit reward from
His justice, culminating in the life of contemplation,
figui^ed in the blessed spirits of the sphere of Saturn.
Then by this same contemplation, ever under the
guidance of the theological teaching of the Church,
he has seen, in the eighth sphere and in the ninth
heaven, anticipatory visions of the glory and of the
nature of God and His saints ; and now, after his
blindness and illumination by the lumen glorice, he
can soar aloft by a wondrous foretaste and antici-
pation into the Paradise to which the soul attains
after death. He is now in that state of ecstasy
which, in the teaching of Richard of St. Victor, comes
to man in the highest stages of contemplation, in
which " without any veils of creatures, non per specu-
lum in cenigrnate, but in its pure simplicity, the soul
gazes upon Truth." In this new life of ecstatic
255
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
contemplation, Dante beholds the glory and bliss
of the saints and Angels in the snow-white Rose of
Paradise.
In forma dunque di Candida rosa
Mi si mostrava la milizia santa,
Che nel suo sangue Cristo fece sposa.
Ma I'altra, che volando vede e canta
La gloria di Colui che la innamora,
E la bonta che la fece cotanta,
Si come scliiera d'api, die s'infiora
Una fiata, ed una si ritorna
La dove il suo lavoro s'insapora,
Nel gran fior discendeva, che s'adorna
Di tante foglie, e quindi risaliva
La dove 11 suo amor sempre soggiorna.
Le facce tutte avean di fiamma viva,
E I'ali d'oro ; e I'altro tanto bianco,
Che nulla neve a quel termine arriva.
fPar. xxxi. 1.^
In the ceremony of blessing the Golden Rose, it is
said to be an emblem of Christ, the flower of the
field and the lily of the valley, and a sign of the
joy of the Church triumphant and militant in Him
(Hettinger). The Rose is also an emblem of His
^ In fashion then as of a snow-white rose
Displayed itself to me the saintly host,
Whom Christ in His own blood had made His bride;