Dante has it only by faith that he cannot penetrate
into this mystery. Peter Damian in the seventh
sphere had told him that although the lumen gloriae
enables the saints and Angels to see the Divine Essence,
yet not the highest of the Seraphim nor the purest of
the saints can penetrate with intellectual sight into
the abyss of Divine Predestination. So far he has had
only faith to satisfy him as to the truth of this state-
ment ; but now that he himself has been enlightened
by that lumen gloriae, he finds by proper experience
and intuition that these limits are prescribed to all
created intellect ; and thus his desire is satisfied — he
is at length convinced.
Now, in final preparation for the vision of the
Divine Essence, comes the poet's third and most per-
fect vision of Mary, of this the supreme of created
things as the final stepping-stone to the vision of the
Creator. St. Thomas, in discussing the question
whether God could create things better than He
actually has, says that there are three things which
have a certain extrinsic excellence from their relation
to God Himself, and in this way nothing could be
created better than them : the Humanity of Christ,
inasmuch as it is united to God, beatitude because it
is the fruition of God, and the Blessed Virgin because
she is the Mother of God. Therefore this third vision
of her is the prelude to the vision of the Divinity.
From Beatrice to Mary, from Mary to God, such are
the spiritual steps of Dante's ascent.
Biguarda omai nella faccia ch'a Cristo
Piu si somiglia, che la sua cliiarezza
Sola ti puo disporre a veder Cristo.
Par. xxxii. 85.^
* "Look now on the face that is most like to Christ, for only its
271
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
It is perhaps another thought suggested by Richard
of St. Victor : Nee solujn per ecwi lux gratiae in
tei^ris, sed etiam visio Dei animabus data est in caelis.
Dante turns therefore to her again, and sees her
surrounded by the Angels, with Gabriel —
lunanioi'ato si, che par dl foco,^
hovering on outstretched wings before her, and all
the court of Heaven responding to his Ave Maria.
This vision is the most ineffable and the most like to
God that has yet greeted his eyes in Paradise. Again
he has recourse to St. Bernard : —
alia dottriua
Di colui, ch' abbelliva di Maria
Come del sole stella mattutina.
Par. xxxli. 106.^
And St. Bernard's answer, where he speaks of the
surpassing excellence of this Angel, his exceeding
haldezza and leggiadria, who was chosen by God to
announce to Mary the message of the Incarnation,
does indeed closely correspond to his own dottrina in
the first of his four homilies De Laudihus Virginis
Matris, where he interi)rets the name Gabriel as
" strength of God " {fortitudo Dei), and points out how
this Archangel was found to be of such great excel-
lence among Angels as to be deemed worthy of such
a name and such an embassy.
St. Bernard has now but little further instruction
to give Dante as to the order of the celestial Rose.
brightness can dispose thee to see Clirist." Richard of St. Victor
says, " not only through Mary is the light of grace given on earth,
but even the vision of God given to souls in heaven " {In Cantica
Canticorum Explication 39). In Inferno ii. Mary had recommended
Dante to Lucia, the type of Grace Illuminating.
' So enamoured that he seems of fire.
' To the doctrine of him, who drew light from Mary as the
morning star from the sun.
272
THE EMPYREAN
It has been already seen how, by making the gloiy
of the blessed take this form of a Rose, which is also
the emblem of Mary, the poet to some extent iden-
tifies her glory and triumph with that of the whole
Church Triumphant. It has been well said that the
poet has by this means impressed the form and name
of the Bel Fiore upon all the saints of Paradise. The
same writer (Capri in Omaggio a Dante) points out
that the arrangement of this Rose of the blessed
forms a kind of glorious mantle, sweeping down from
where the Madonna is enthroned and embracing all
the leaves of the sacred Flower ; he regards it as
based upon the text in the Psalms, " Astitit regina
a dextris tuis in vestitu deaurato, circumdata varie-
tate." 1
That Mary was the type of the universal Church
was a doctrine usual with Catholic theologians. We
seem, however, to have here at least a trace of a
further piece of symbolism peculiar to Dante. The
analogies between the earthly Rome and the celestial
Rome are evident, since the saints in patria are —
Senza fine, civi
Di quella Eoma onde Cristo e Eomano,^
and at every turn in the Paradiso such Roman refer-
ences are obviously introduced. But, for Dante,
Rome is not only the seat of the Church, but also
of the Empire, and thus the great saints in the
Empyrean are —
i gran j)atrici
Di questo imperio giustissimo e pio.^
^ So the Vulgate (Ps. xliv. 10). The English Bible has, '• Upon
thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir " (Ps. xlv. 9).
^ For evermore citizens of that Kome of which Christ is Koman.
Pitrg. xxxii. 101.
3 The great patricians of this most just and pious Empire. Par.
xxxii. 116.
273 T
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Nor is it unintentional that the word Augusta should
here be applied to Mary {Par. xxxii. 119), even as the
title augusto had been given to the Emperor Henry
VII. {Par. XXX. 136). This view, that Dante to the
doctrine of his Church's theologians that makes the
Blessed Virgin the type of the universal Church has
added a peculiar symbolism of his own connected with
the universal Empire, is strikingly confirmed by a
well-known and beautiful passage in Book IV. of the
Convivio, where the poet strives to show that Rome
was ordained by God to be the seat of the universal
Empire : — -
'* When the immeasurable Divine Goodness willed
to reconform to Itself the human creature, which by
the sin of the prevarication of the first man was
severed from God and deformed, it was decreed in
that most high and most united Divine Consistory of
the Trinity, that the Son of God should descend to
earth to effect this concord. And inasmuch as at His
coming into the world, it was fitting that not only
heaven but earth should be in its best disposition ;
and the best disposition of the earth is when it is
a Monarchy, that is, when it all has one Prince ;
therefore by Divine Providence that people and that
city were ordained who should accomplish this, that
is, the glorious Rome. And inasmuch as the hostelry,
wherein the celestial King should enter, must needs
be most clean and most pure, there was ordained
a most holy progeny, of which after many merits
should be born one woman most excellent of all the
others, who should be the chamber of the Son of
God ; and this progeny is that of David, from whom
was born the glory {baldezza) and the honour of the
human generation, to wit, Mary. And therefore is it
274
THE EMPYREAN
written in Isaiah, ' a rod shall spring out of the root
of Jesse and a flower shall spring up from his root ' ;
and Jesse was the father of the above-said David.
And this was all in one and the same time that
David was born and Rome was born, that is, that
Aeneas came from Troy into Italy, which was the
origin of the most noble Roman city, as the scrip-
tures bear witness. Whereby the divine election of
the Roman Empire is most manifest, through the
birth of the Holy City, which was contemporaneous
with the root of the progeny of Mary." ^
Perhaps therefore, in this celestial Rome of eternal
felicity and harmony, Dante would see in its most
glorious Queen two types united, the Church and the
Empire ; the two ideals of his religious and poHtical
faith figured in Her who had taken pity upon him as
he wandered lost and guideless in the dark wood,
and who has been described by an illustrious Dante
scholar as la motrice di tutta la visione Dantesca.
Indeed, throughout the final scene of the Paradiso,
there are many reminiscences of the opening scene
of the Inferno. Nearest to Mary, on the right and
left, are Adam and St. Peter ; beside them are Moses
and St. John the Evangelist, and oi)posite sit St.
Anne and St. Lucy : Lucia die mosse la tua donna,
Quando chinavi a ruinar le ciglia.^ Thus the three
donne benedeffe of the second Canto of the Inferno
have been at length seen in their glory, Beatrice
seated with the ancient Rachel as Virgil had said.
^ Com: iv. 5. Cf . St. Bcrricard on the " starry gloiT " o^ IMary's
generation, in his sermon for the Sunday within the Octave of the
Assviraption.
' Lucia who moved thy lady, when to rush downwards thou
didst bend thy brows. Par. xxxii. 137.
275
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
And just as, in Dante's farewell to Beatrice, the
terrible experience from which she delivered him is
mentioned, so the nostra procella of Paradiso xxxi. 30
recalls the acqua perigliosa of Inferno i. 24, the poet
now praying God to succour those who are in the
same plight as he was then. Thus also, in the
wonder of the barbarians at the splendour of Rome,
and in the exquisite description of the x^ilgrim from
Croatia at the sight of the Veronica, there are very
likely reminiscences of the Jubilee, which in Dante's
poetic fiction was the epoch of his conversion to God,
as allegorically signified in the first two cantos of the
Inferno.
Quale e colui, clie forse di Croazia
Viene a veder la Veronica nostra,
Clie per I'antica fama non si sazia,
Ma dice nel pensier, fin clie si niostra :
Signer niio Gesu Cristo, Die verace,
Or fu si f atta la sembianza vostra ?
Par. xxxi. 103.'
^ •' Even as he, who perchance from Croatia cometh to see our
Yei'onica, who because of its ancient fame is not satiated, but
saith in his thought, as long as it is sho\vn : My Lord Jesus
Christ, very God, now was your semblance like unto this ? "
Giovanni Yillani (viii. 36), writing of the Jubilee of 1300, says :
" And for the consolation of the Christian pilgrims, every Friday
or solemn feast day, the Veronica of Christ on the Cloth was shown
in St. Peter's." In the Vita Kuova (§ 41) we read that certain
pilgrims passed through Florence, in quel tempo che molta gente
va per vedere quella imagine benedetta, la quale Gesii Cristo lascib
a noi per esempio delta sua bellissi7na fgura, la quale vede la mia
donna gloriosamente : " in that season when manj' people go to see
that blessed image, which Jesus Christ has left to us as model
of His most beauteous countenance, the which my lady gloriouslj*
beholdeth."
It seems certain that this passage in the Vita Nuova (unlike the
above in the Paradiso) does not refer to the Jubilee. There were
frequent pilgrimages to see the Veronica, especially in Holy
Week ; and the devotion had been much encouraged by Nicholas
276
THE EMPYREAN
But the vision is drawing to a close, even as
Dante's life was as he wrote ; so let him finally turn
to the contemplation of the Priino Amove, first ask-
ing grace from Mary, —
Grazia da quella clie puo aiutarti,^
and following St. Bernard's prayer with his heart.
Again the w^ords are, most fittingly, almost taken
from the mouth of Bernard himself : " With all the
tenderness of our hearts, with all the love of our
inmost hearts, with all our vows and prayers, let us
turn to Her."
The famous address of St. Bernard to the Blessed
Virgin holds the same place of supremacy in poetry
as does the Madonna di San Sisto among paintings.
Setting forth at the outset the predestination of the
Virgin Mother from Eternity to bring the Redeemer
into the world, her office of love and hope to heaven
and earth, her infinite excellence and dignity, her
power and never-failing love, St. Bernard implores
of her grace for Dante to rise to the vision of the
Divine Essence now, in ecstatic contemplation ; and
then for his final perseverance, that, on his return to
«arth, her loving protection may still follow him and
strengthen him against the assaults of passion, until
the nuhc di sua mortalita be finally dissipated and
he rejoice once more in this supreme vision for
all Eternity. The hymn might be taken terzina by
IV. (1288-1291), wlio -was Pope at tlie epoch of most of the Vita
Xuova. See article by Pio Ra.jna in the Gioniale Storico della
Letteratura Italiana (1885, Vol. YI.).
' Grace from Her who can aid thee {Par. xxxii. 1-18). Cf. the
€nd of the second of St. Bernard's four homilies Dc Laiidibus
Virginis Matrls.
277
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
terzina, so as to show how Dante has made the
doctrines of St. Bernard and other Catholic theolo-
gians live with a new life in his immortal song ; but
it is, after all, better comprehended, not with the
aid of the cold light of dogma, but with the silent
language and simple affection of the heart.
Tergine Madie, figlia del tuo Figlio,
Umile ed alta piu clie creatiira,
Termiue fisso d'eterno consiglio,
Tu se' colei clie I'limana natura
ISTobilitasti si, che il suo Fattore
Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura.
Kel ventre tuo si raccese I'amore,
PeT lo cui caldo neireterna pace
Cosi e germinato questo fiore.
Qui sei a noi meridiana face
Di caritate, e giuso, intra i niortali,
Sei di spei'anza fontana vivace.
Donna, sei tauto grande e tanto vali,
Che qual vuol grazia ed a te non ricorre.
Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali.
La tua benignita non pur soccorre
A clii domanda, ma molte fiate
Liberamentc al domandar precorre.
In te misericordia, in te pietate,
In te magnificenza, in te s'aduna
Quantunque in creatura e di bontate.
Or qiiesti, clie dall' infima lacuna
Deir universe infin qui La vedute
Le vite spiritali ad una ad una,
Supplica a te, per grazia, di virtute
Tanto cbe possa con gli occlii levarsi
Pill alto verso I'ultima salute.
Ed io, cbe mai per mio veder nou arsi
Pill clvio fo i)er lo suo, tutti i miei pregbi
Ti porgo, e prego clie non sieno scarsi,
Percbe tu ogni nube gli dislegbi
Di sua mortalita coi pregbi tuoi,
Si cbe il sommo piacer gli si disi^iegbi.
Ancor ti prego, Eegina, cbe puoi
Cio cbe tu vuoli, cbe conservi sani,
Dopo tanto veder, gli afFetti suoi.
Yinca tua guardia i movimenti umani :
278
THE EMPYREAN
Vedi Beatrice con quanti beati
Per li miei preghi ti cliiudon le mani.
Par. xxxiii. 1.'
Mary accepts the prayer, and turns her eyes to the
Eternal Light in intercession. And, in response to
that intercession, the ^^sion of the Divine Essence,
in which consists the last and perfect happiness of
the human intellect, is gradually vouchsafed to
^ "Tliou Virgin Mother, daughter of thj- Son,
Humble and high beyond all other creature,
The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,
Thou art the one "u-ho such nobilitj'-
To human nature gave, that its Creator
Did not disdain to make Himself its creature.
Within thy womb rekindled was the love,
By heat of which in the eternal peace
After such wise this flower has germinated.
Here unto us thou art a noonday torch
Of charity, and below there among mortals
Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.
Lady, thou art so great and so prevailing,
That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,
His aspirations without wings would fly.
!Not onlj- thy benignity- gives succour
To him who asketh it, but oftentimes"'
Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.
In thee compassion is, in thee is pity.
In thee magnificence ; in thee unites
"S^^iate'er of goodness is in any creature.
Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth
Of the imiverse as far as here has seen
One after one the spiritual lives,
Supplicate thee through grace for so much power
That with his eyes he may uplift himself
Higher towards the uttermost salvation.
And I, who never burned for my own seeing
More than I do for his, all of my prayers
Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,
That thou wouldst scatter from him everj- cloud
Of his mortality so with thy praj^ers,
That the Chief Pleasure be to him displaj-ed.
279
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Dante. Now that he is approaching this end of all
desires, of a necessity the very ardour of desire must
die away within him ; for the end of all desires is
that Universal Good which sets the will of man to
rest, and that Universal Truth which completely
satisfies the intellect. Happiness is perfect good
which entirely appeases desire ; otherwise it would
not be the last end, if something still remained to
be desired. When man has gained his last end, he
remains at peace with his desires at rest. His sight
becoming pure enters more and more by infused
grace into the Light Divine, which is Truth in its
Essence, and of which the light of man's reason at
its highest is but a faint reflected ray. But neither
speech nor memory can follow this vision, which
grace has granted beyond the natural powers of
man. Though the vision was but as a transitory
dream, yet something of the joy, the sweetness of
divine love which is consequent upon the act of
vision, still remains in the poet's heart ; and he im-
plores grace from the Supreme Light that he may
leave the world some faint notion of what he saw,
not now to gain the poet's crown, nor for any hope
of fame or reward, but solely for the benefit of his
fellow-men and the greater glory of God : —
O somma Luce, che tanto ti levi
Dai concetti mortali, alia mia mente
Ripresta iin poco cli quel clie parevi ;
Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst
Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve
After so great a vision his affections.
Let thy protection conquer human movements ;
See Beatrice and all the blessed ones
My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee ! "
LONGFELLOAY.
280
THE EMPYREAN
E fa la lingua mia tanto possente,
Ch'una favilla sol della tua gloria
Possa lasciare alia futura gente ;
Che, per tornare alquanto a mia niemoria,
E per sonare tin poco in questi versi,
Pill si conceper^ cli tua vittoria.
Par. xxxiii. G7.*
Uniting his intellectual vision to the Divine Essence,
it becomes (in the phrase of St. Thomas) the intelli-
gible form of the intellect, and in that divine light he
sees all that a spirit may see by this immediate
intuition, —
Tanto, che la vecTuta vi consunsi.-
In it he sees the exemplar, the type of all creation,
— all created substances with their qualities, their
different modes of being, their functions ; and how
they are all bound u]3 into the beauty and wonder of
God's Universe, the form that makes that Universe
like to Him : the whole bound with love into one
ineffable golden volume.
Nel sue profondo vidi clie s'interna,
Legato con amore in un volume,
Cio che per I'viniverso si squaderna ;
Sustanzia ed accidenti, e lor costume,
Tutti conflati insieme per tal modo,
Che cio ch'io dico e un semplice lume.
^ Light Supreme, that dost so far uplift thee
From the conceits of mortals, to my mind
Of what thou didst appear re-lend a little.
And make my tongue of so great puissance,
That but a single sparkle of thy glory
It may bequeath unto the future people ;
For by returning to my memory somewhat,
And by a little sounding in these verses.
More of thy victory shall be conceived !
Longfellow.
' "So that the seeing I consumed therein," that is, so that I
saw all that I could see therein. — Par. xxxiii. 84.
281
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
La forma universal di questo nodo,
Credo ch'io vidi, perclie piu di largo,
Dicendo questo, mi sento ch'io godo.
Par. xxxiii. 85.'
Sustanzia ed accidenti e lor costume, that is, every-
thing conceivable by thought as capable of existence
in itself (substance) or only in something else as a
mode of being (accidents) ; e lor costume, apparently
the proi^erties and mutual relations of all created
things.
Immovable in his vision, the intensity of contem-
plation increases. The poet's mind and will are
completely absorbed in contemi)lation and love of the
Supreme Good. " When the soul," says Richard of
St. Victor, " has begun through pure understandings
to pass out of itself, and entirely to enter into that
brightness of incorporeal light, and to draw some
taste of the intimate sweetness that it sees in Its-
depths, then indeed in this excess of the mind that
IDeace is found and obtained which is without dis-
turbance or fear ; and there is silence in heaven, a&
it were for half an hour, so that the soul of the
contemplative may be disturbed by no tumult of
discordant thoughts." ^
A quella luce cotal si diventa,
Che volgersi da lei per altro aspetto
E impossibil clie mai si consenta :
* I saw that in its depth far down is lying,
Bound up with love together in one volume,
"What through the universe in leaves is scattered;
Substance, and accident, and their operations,
All interfused together in such wise
That what I speak of is one simple light.
The universal fashion of this knot
Methiuks I saw, since more abundantly
In saying this I feel that I rejoice.
Longfellow.
^ De Extei^iinatione Mali, iii. 18.
282
THE EMPYREAN
Pcrocche il ben, cli'e del volei'e obhietto,
Tutto s'accoglie in lei, e fuor di quella
E difettivo cio clie li e perfetto.
Par. xxxiii. 100.^
" The perfect happiness of man," says St. Thomas
Aquinas, " consists in the vision of the Divine Essence.
Now it is impossible that any one seeing the Divine
Essence should wish not to see it ; because every good
gift which one is willing to go without, is either in-
sufficient, so that something else more sufficing is
sought in its place, or has some inconvenience
annexed to it, whereby it comes to excite disgust.
But the vision of the Divine Essence fills the soul
with all good things, since it unites to it the Source
of all good." ^ Thus, of his own free will, no one will
forsake this j)erfect hajipiness, nor can he who enjoys
it fall into any fault, since rectitude of will neces-
sarily follows ujDon the vision of the Essence of God.
But there is yet a further progression. In the
Divine Essence Dante has seen the type of creation ;
now he must behold the Creator. There is no change
whatever in the light upon which he is gazing ; only,^
as he gazes, his own j)ower of intellectual sight is
supernaturally enlarged ; the divine light seems to
his sight to grow more manifest, because that sight
itself has changed by increased virtue : —
jSTou r>erclie piu cb'un semplice sembiante
Fosse nel vivo Ivime cb'io mirava,
Che tal e sempre qual era davante ;
^ In presence of tliat light one sucli becomes.
That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect
It is impossible he e'er consent ;
Because the good, which object is of will,
Is gathered all in this, and out of it
That is defective which is perfect there.
Longfellow.
* Summa, I.— 2, q. 5, a. 4 (Aquinas Ethicus).
28.3
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Ma per la vista clie s'avvalorava
In me, giiardaaido, una sola parvenza,
3Iutandom' io, a me si travagliava.
Par. xxxiii. 109.^
He beholds, therefore, the mystery of the most
Blessed Trinity, and how the Divine Nature is united
to the Human in the Person of the Word. In the
profound and clear subsistence of the Supreme Light
(one substance — unity in Essence), appeared to him
three circles of three colours (distinctness in the Per-
sons) and of one dimension {una continenza — equality
in the Majesty). And one seemed reflected from the
other, and the third like flame proceeded equally
from both the reflecting and the reflected. Similarly
the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are indicated
in his last ejaculation to the Light Eternal : —
O luce eterna, clie sola in te sidi,
Sola t'intendi, e da te intelletta
Ed intendente te, ami ed arridi !
Far, xxxiii. 124.^
The circle which ap^ieared as reflected showed
within itself the human form — del suo colore stesso
'iiii parve pmta della nostra effige,^ of its own divine
colour, because, in the union of the Divine Nature
with the Human Nature in Christ, both remain com-
plete in the unity of the Person of the Word Divine.
Then, as finally the poet strives to comprehend yet
' Xot because there was more tliau one simple semblance in tlie
living light upon wliicli I gazed, which is ever such as it was
before ; but through my vision, which grew stronger in me, by
looking, one sole appearance, as I changed, grew different to me.
^ light eternal, that sole in Thyself dwellest, sole knowest
Thyself, and known by Thyself and knowing Thj'self, dost love
and smile.
' Of its own very colour it appeared to me painted with our
likeness. — Par. xxxiii. 130.
284:
THE EMPYREAN
more of the mystery of the Divinity, how and why
human nature is united to the Word, a sudden ray of
divine light penetrates his mind, enabling him to see