The Portable Dante by Dante Alighieri
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So would a lamb between the ravenings of two fierce wolves be caught in fear of both, so would a dog stand fixed between two does.
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If, then, I stood there mute, drawn equally by my two doubts, I merit neither blame nor praise—the victim of necessity.
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I did not speak, but written on my face was my desire, all of my questioning more vividly than words could have expressed.
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Then Beatrice did what Daniel did when he appeased Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath that drove him to such unjust cruelty.
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She said: “I see how you are torn between your two desires, so that your eagerness is choking itself into speechlessness.
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You think: ‘But if my will for good remains unchanged, how can another’s violent act lessen the measure of my just deserts?’
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There is a second doubt that gives you pause: that after death all souls seem to return each to his star, as Plato’s word affirms.
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These are the questions that have equal weight, contending with your will to know; I first shall treat the one that is more poisonous.
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Not the most Godlike of the Seraphim, not Moses, Samuel, whichever John you choose—I tell you—not Mary herself
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has been assigned to any other heaven than that of these shades you have just seen here, and each one’s bliss is equally eternal;
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all lend their beauty to the Highest Sphere, sharing one same sweet life to the degree that they feel the eternal breath of God.
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These souls appeared here not because this sphere has been allotted them, but as a sign of their less great degree of blessedness.
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I speak as one must speak to minds like yours which apprehend only from sense perception what later it makes fit for intellection.
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For this same reason Scripture condescends to your intelligence, attributing with other meaning, hands and feet to God;
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and Holy Church presents to you archangels with human features: Gabriel and Michael and that one who made Tobit see again.
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If what Timaeus says about the souls in Heaven is to be taken literally, it contradicts the truth we witness here:
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37-39. The soul in Paradise appears in a particular level or station according to its degree of blessedness and not because of any platonic affinity between the soul and the sphere.
48. The unnamed archangel is Raphael, who instructed Tobit’s son Tobias to cover his father’s eyes with a certain substance, saying that when he peeled it off, Tobit’s sight would be restored (Tobit 11:1-15).
he says the soul returns to its own star from which, he thinks, it once had been cut off when Nature sent it to substantial form.
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Perhaps his words were not meant to be heard exactly as they sound, but make a claim deserving the respect of every man.
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If he means that the honor and the blame of each sphere’s influence returns to it, his arrow, then, has hit upon some truth.
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This principle, misunderstood, once led the world astray when they bestowed on planets such names as Jove and Mercury and Mars.
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The other doubt that still perturbs your mind is not as poisonous, for all its malice could never make you wander from my side.
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That in the eyes of mortal men our justice appears to be unjust is proof of faith, not of heretical iniquity.
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But since this truth is such that your own powers can understand its meaning easily, I shall explain it to you, as you wish.
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Now, if the one who suffers violence contributes nothing to the violent act, he cannot be excused on that account;
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for will, if it will not, cannot be quenched but does as nature does within a flame, though violence force it down a thousand times.
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The will abets the force when it gives in even a little bit; this their will did, for they could have gone back into the cloister.
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Had they been able to maintain their will intact, like that of Lawrence on the grid, and Mucius cruel to his own hand in fire—
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it would have forced them back, once they were free, back to the path from which they had been drawn. But such firm will as this is seldom found.
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If you have truly taken in my words, you see how they have quashed the argument that never would have ceased to plague your mind.
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But now another pass that must be crossed opens before your eyes, and by yourself you would collapse before you could get through.
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I certainly have led you to believe that these souls cannot lie, for they exist forever in the sight of Primal Truth;
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but then you heard Piccarda say that Constance had never lost devotion to the veil; this must have seemed to contradict my words.
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Often, my brother, it occurs that men against their will, to avoid a greater risk, have done that which should never have been done;
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82. St. Lawrence, a supposed native of Huesca in Spain, was a deacon of the Church of Rome at the time of Valerian. He was grilled alive on an iron grid in 258 for his refusal to disclose the hiding place of Church treasures entrusted to him by Pope Sixtus II.
84. Gaius Mucius Scaevola (“left-handed”) was a Roman citizen who attempted to kill the Etruscan King Porsena during the latter’s siege of Rome in the late sixth century B.C. When he stabbed Porsena’s secretary by mistake, Mucius was condemned to be burned alive. He thereupon stuck his right hand into a nearby sacrificial fire, and held it there without flinching. Porsena was so impressed by this display of fortitude that he spared Mucius’s life.
so Alcmeon, moved by his father’s prayer, killed his own mother: so as not to fail in piety, he was pitilessly cruel.
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You understand, when things like this occur, how will and violence can mix to cause offenses that can never be condoned.
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Absolute Will does not consent to wrong, but it consents in so far as it fears, if it draw back, to fall into worse trouble.
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And so, Piccarda, in her explanation was speaking of Absolute Will, and I about the other; both of us spoke truth. ”
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Such was the flowing of the holy stream that pours down from the Fountain of All Truth that it now laid both of my doubts to rest.
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“Beloved of the First Love, lady divine, ” I said then, “you whose words bathe me in warmth, wakening me to life again, the depth
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of my deep love is not profound enough to find the thanks your graciousness deserves— may He Who knows and sees all be my answer.
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I see man’s mind cannot be satisfied unless it be illumined by that Truth beyond which there exists no other truth.
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103-105. Alcmeon was the son of Amphiaraus the seer and Eriphyle. Amphiaraus foresaw that he would die during the Theban expedition, and hid so as not to have to join it. Eriphyle betrayed him. Before he died, he demanded that Alcmeon avenge him by slaying Eriphyle. Thus, out of obligation to and pity for his father, he killed his mother. Alcmeon’s act here is presented as an example of Conditioned Will, will consenting reluctantly to evil out of a sense of fear or false obligation. (See also Purgatory XII, 49-51.)
109-111. Will in the absolute sense (Absolute Will) never consents to doing wrong; it is only in a relative sense that it consents (Conditioned Will); that is, it gives in or draws back in fear that if it does not it will be in greater danger (“fall into worse trouble”).
Within that Truth, once man’s mind reaches it, it rests like
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is vain! So at the foot of truth, like shoots, our doubts spring up; this is a natural force urging us to the top from height to height.
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And this gives me the courage that I need, my lady, in all reverence, to ask about a truth that is not clear to me:
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would it be possible for those who break their vows to compensate with such good deeds that they would not weigh short upon your scales?”
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Then Beatrice looked at me, her eyes sparkling with love and burning so divine, my strength of sight surrendered to her power—
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with eyes cast down, I was about to faint.
CANTO V
BEATRICE EXPLAINS TO the Pilgrim that a vow is a freely made sacrifice of one’s own free will to God, and since free will was God’s most precious gift to His creatures, what could possibly be substituted for it? But since the Church from time to time does free the individual from his vow, she finds it necessary to explain further. While a person can never take back from God the sacrifice he has made to Him of his free will, he can change the substance of his vow on two conditions: that he have the consent of the Church and that the substitution made be of greater value than the original promise. Beatrice then addresses all mankind, warning them not to take their vows lightly, to think carefully before making them, and to use the Scriptures and ecclesiastical authority as guides. Then, in silence, she turns her eyes on high, and the Pilgrim, still with questions to ask, dares not speak. In the meantime they ascend with great speed to the second sphere, the heaven of Mercury, which shines more brightly with the happiness of Beatrice as she enters the planet. Countless lights appear to the Pilgrim, one of whom he asks two questions: who it is and why it is in this particular heaven. The light of this soul closed tightly in its own light answers, as the closing verse of this canto says, “the way in which the following canto chants. ”
129-130. It was a basic concept of scholastic philosophy that nothing in the universe is without a goal or purpose. Man’s innate desire to know God must be satisfied, for God would never have put such a desire in man’s mind if it could not be satisfied.
“If, in the warmth of love, you see me glow with light the world below has never seen, stunning the power of your mortal sight,
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you should not be amazed, for it proceeds from perfect vision which, the more it sees, the more it moves to reach the good perceived.
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I can see how into your mind already there shines Eternal Light which, of Itself, once it is seen, forever kindles love;
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and should some other thing seduce man’s love, it can be only some trace of this Light, misapprehended, shining through that thing.
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You wish to know if for a broken vow one can make compensation of the kind that makes the soul secure from litigation. ”
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These were the words with which my Beatrice began this canto, then without delay continued with her sacred explication:
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“The greatest gift that our bounteous Lord bestowed as the Creator, in creating, the gift He cherishes the most, the one
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7-9. As Dante’s journey progresses, his understanding and his ability to know God increase.
most like Himself, was freedom of the will. All creatures with intelligence, and they alone, were so endowed both then and now.
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Such reasoning as this should make it clear how sacred is the vow when it is made with God consenting to your own consent;
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when, therefore, God and man have sealed the pact, this treasure, then, of which I speak becomes the sacrifice the free will wills itself.
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What compensation can you offer, then? Can you use well what is no longer yours? You cannot do good works with ill-got gains.
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So far, the main point should be clear to you, but since the Church grants dispensations here, which seems to contradict the truth I spoke,
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you must sit at the table yet awhile because the food that you have taken in is tough and takes time to assimilate.
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Open your mind to what I shall reveal and seal it in, for to have understood and not retained, as knowledge does not count.
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The essence of this sacrifice depends on two things: first, the promised act itself, and next, the solemn nature of the pact.
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The latter cannot be annulled except by its fulfillment; and it was of this I spoke in such precise terms earlier.
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43-48. Two things are involved in the taking of a vow, whereby an individual offers his free will to God. The first of these is the substance of the vow (e. g., virginity, abstinence, poverty), or that which the individual promises to accomplish. The second is the nature of the vow, or the fact that the individual has abdicated his free will and contracted to keep faith with God. This second component cannot be discharged save through complete fulfillment, and cannot be declared void without obliteration of the pact and eventual revocation of one’s gift to God.
Thus, it was mandatory for the Jews to sacrifice, but they could, as you know, substitute one offering for another.
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This may be called the substance of the vow, and may be such that no real fault occur if the one substance take the other’s place.
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But let no one assume by his own choice responsibility for substitution; be sure the white and yellow keys have turned.
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And any change must be considered vain if the new matter not contain the old, as six exceeds and holds the number four.
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There are, however, certain things once sworn that by their value can tip every scale: for these no substitution can be made.
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Let no man take his vow too lightly. Keep your word! But, do not make a blind, rash oath as Jephthah did in his first offering—
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better if he had said, ‘My vow was wrong, ’ than do far worse by keeping it. No less insensate was that great war-chief, the Greek
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whose Iphigenia mourned her loveliness, and made the wise as well as simple weep to hear the tale of such a grievous rite.
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Christians, beware of rushing into vows. Do not be like a feather in the wind, or think that every water washes clean!
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You have the Testaments, the Old and New; as guide you have the Shepherd of the church: they should be all you need to save your soul.
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76-78. A Christian is not obligated to make vows in order to ensure his salvation. He has Scriptural precedent to guide him, as well as the Church; he has only to resist faulty motivation, which leads to hasty decisions.
If evil greed incites you otherwise, be men, not senseless sheep, lest any Jew among you point his finger out of scorn!
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Do not be like the lamb who turns away from its own mother’s milk, capriciously playing a silly game to its own harm!”
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As I have written, so spoke Beatrice. Then full of yearning she turned to that height where all the universe is quickened most.
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Her stillness, her transfigured countenance imposed silence upon my eager mind, already stirred with new questions to ask;
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and like an arrow that has struck the mark before the bow-string stops its quivering, we soared into the second realm, and there,
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I saw my lady so caught up in joy as she went into that new heaven’s glow, the planet shone with more than its own light.
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And if the star changed then and seemed to smile, imagine what took place in me, a man whose nature is transmutability.
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As in the cle
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I saw more than a thousand splendors move toward us, and in each one I heard the cry: “Behold one more who will increase our love. ”
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And as they came nearer to us, the joy of each soul there was rendered visible in the clear luminance with which it shone.
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Imagine, Reader, if I were to stop right here without describing what came next, how keenly you would crave to hear the rest—
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and you will surely understand how keen I was to learn from them all they could tell about themselves as soon as they appeared.
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“O bliss-born soul, to whom God grants the grace to see the thrones of the eternal triumph before abandoning the war of life,
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the light of God that shines throughout the heavens is lit in us, and so, if you desire enlightenment, ask to your heart’s content. ”
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So spoke one holy soul, and Beatrice was quick to urge me: “Speak, and have no fear, confide in them, as if they were all gods!”
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“I see how you have made yourself a nest of your own light and how those rays of light pour from your eyes that dazzle when you smile,
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but who you are, I do not know, or why, O worthy soul, you are assigned this sphere which with another’s rays is veiled to man. ”
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These were the words I spoke into the glow that had addressed me; whereupon it shone, this time with light far brighter than before.
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Just as the sun, when its increasing rays have broken through dense vapors, hides itself within the very excess of its light—
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even so, in its own glowing jubilance that holy figure hid itself from me, and so enraptured wrapt, it answered me
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the way in which the following canto chants.
128-129. The sphere “veiled to man” is Mercury, which is so close to the sun that it is usually obscured by it and thus seldom visible from earth.
CANTO VI
THIS SOUL, IN answer to the Pilgrim’s first question, identifies himself as Justinian, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in the sixth century, famous for his compilation of Roman law which became known as the Justinian Gode. He then states that the very nature of his answer, in which he made mention of the Roman Eagle, necessitates a digression, and begins to give the long history of the Empire in terms of its “sacred standard, ” so worthy of reverence. The story of the Eagle starts with the first kings of Rome and the Republic, continuing through to the age of the Empire. He concludes his historical digression with an invective against the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, accusing both parties of defiling the Eagle in different ways. Now ready to answer the Pilgrim’s second question, Justinian says that in the sphere of Mercury are those souls of the Blest who were too concerned with their own fame and earthly glory which, as a result, lessened their degree of beatitude. Nonetheless, they are perfectly happy with their degree of blessedness because they know that their reward is in perfect accord with their merit. The light of Justinian speaks from beginning to end of this canto without interruption. He concludes by making reference to a certain Romeo of Villeneuve, who proves to be a figure similar to Dante the Poet in a number of ways.