Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradiso
Canto IV
Dante is baffled. Firstly, how can those souls forced to break their vows be given a reduced level of merit? Secondly, could Plato's notion of the soul's return to its native star be correct? In answer to the first question, Beatrice discusses two kinds of Will. The Absolute Will of Lawrence and Mutius and the Conditioned Will of Piccarda and Constance, which changes according to circumstances. It is that which has bound them to the Moon. Beatrice gives a theological answer to the second question. Dante then asks if it is possible to atone for broken vows through good deeds.
Between two viands, equally removed
And tempting, a free man would die of hunger
Ere either he could bring unto his teeth.[1]
So would a lamb between the ravenings
Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike;
And so would stand a dog between two does.
Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not,
Impelled in equal measure by my doubts,
Since it must be so, nor do I commend.
I held my peace; but my desire was painted
Upon my face, and questioning with that
More fervent far than by articulate speech.
Beatrice did as Daniel had done
Relieving Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath
Which rendered him unjustly merciless,[2]
And said: "Well see I how attracteth thee
One and the other wish, so that thy care
Binds itself so that forth it does not breathe.
Thou arguest, if good will be permanent,
The violence of others, for what reason
Doth it decrease the measure of my merit?
Again for doubting furnish thee occasion
Souls seeming to return unto the stars,
According to the sentiment of Plato.[3]
These are the questions which upon thy wish
Are thrusting equally, and therefore first
Will I treat that which hath the most of gall.
He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,
Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,[4]
Have not in any other heaven their seats,
Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
Nor of existence more or fewer years;
But all make beautiful the primal circle,
And have sweet life in different degrees,
By feeling more or less the eternal breath.[5]
They showed themselves here, not because allotted
This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Of the celestial which is least exalted.
To speak thus is adapted to your mind,
Since only through the sense it apprehendeth
What then it worthy makes of intellect.
On this account the Scripture condescends
Unto your faculties, and feet and hands
To God attributes, and means something else;
And Holy Church under an aspect human
Gabriel and Michael represent to you,
And him who made Tobias whole again.[6]
That which Timaeus argues of the soul
Doth not resemble that which here is seen,
Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks.[7]
He says the soul unto its star returns,
Believing it to have been severed thence
Whenever nature gave it as a form.[8]
Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise
Than the words sound, and possibly may be
With meaning that is not to be derided.
If he doth mean that to these wheels return
The honour of their influence and the blame,
Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth.
This principle ill understood once warped
The whole world nearly, till it went astray
Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars.[9]
The other doubt which doth disquiet thee
Less venom has, for its malevolence
Could never lead thee otherwhere from me.
That as unjust our justice should appear
In eyes of mortals, is an argument
Of faith, and not of sin heretical.
But still, that your perception may be able
To thoroughly penetrate this verity,
As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee.
If it be violence when he who suffers
Co-operates not with him who uses force,
These souls were not on that account excused;
For will is never quenched unless it will,
But operates as nature doth in fire
If violence a thousand times distort it.
Hence, if it yieldeth more or less, it seconds
The force; and these have done so, having power
Of turning back unto the holy place.
If their will had been perfect, like to that
Which Lawrence fast upon his gridiron held,
And Mutius made severe to his own hand,[10]
It would have urged them back along the road
Whence they were dragged, as soon as they were free;
But such a solid will is all too rare.
And by these words, if thou hast gathered them
As thou shouldst do, the argument is refuted
That would have still annoyed thee many times.
But now another passage runs across
Before thine eyes, and such that by thyself
Thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be weary.
I have for certain put into thy mind
That soul beatified could never lie,
For it is near the primal Truth,
And then thou from Piccarda might'st have heard
Costanza kept affection for the veil,
So that she seemeth here to contradict me.
Many times, brother, has it come to pass,
That, to escape from peril, with reluctance
That has been done it was not right to do,
E'en as Alcmaeon (who, being by his father
Thereto entreated, his own mother slew)
Not to lose pity pitiless became.[11]
At this point I desire thee to remember
That force with will commingles, and they cause
That the offences cannot be excused.
Will absolute consenteth not to evil;
But in so far consenteth as it fears,
If it refrain, to fall into more harm.
Hence when Piccarda uses this expression,
She meaneth the will absolute, and I
The other, so that both of us speak truth."
Such was the flowing of the holy river
That issued from the fount whence springs all truth;
This put to rest my wishes one and all.
"O love of the first lover, O divine,'
Said I forthwith, "whose speech inundates me
And warms me so, it more and more revives me,
My own affection is not so profound
As to suffice in rendering grace for grace;
Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.
Well I perceive that never sated is
Our intellect unless the Truth illume it,
Beyond which nothing true expands itself.
It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair,
When it attains it; and it can attain it;
If not, then each desire would frustrate be.
Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot,
Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature,
Which to the top from height to height impels us.
This doth invite me, this assurance give me
With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you
Another truth, which is obscure to me.
I wish to know if man can satisfy you
For broken vows with other good deeds, so
That in your balance they will not be light."
Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes
Full of the sparks of love, and so divine,
That, overcome my power, I turned my back
And almost lost myself with eyes downcast.
Footnotes
1. viand, Latin vivanda, vīvenda, vīvō, “I live”, meaning an item of food.
2. Daniel was a noble Jewish youth of Jerusalem taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, serving the king and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect and beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court, and are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar. Daniel and his friends refuse the food and wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid becoming defiled. They receive wisdom from God and surpass "all the magicians and enchanters of the kingdom." Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron and clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies four kingdoms, of which Babylon is the first, but God will des troy them and replace them with his own kingdom.
Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters all the world and of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth. When Nebuc hadnezzar's son Belshazzar uses consecrated vessels from the Jewish temple as serving vessels for his extravagant feast, a hand appears and writes a mysterious message on a wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be gi ven to the Medes and Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel. The Medes and Persians overthrow Nebuchadnezzar and the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealou s rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, and Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, and Daniel is restored to his position.
3. Like many other medieval thinkers-including Thomas Aquinas, whom he will meet in Canto 10—Dante is interested in reconciling classical philosophy with Christian theology. His discussion of the "spheres" in which the planets move owes much to Aristotle, who se works also supply the logical underpinnings of Aquinas's major writings. Here, however, Dante cites the beliefs of Plato, a figure then far less well known in medieval Italy.
The greatest Greek philosopher of the early 4th century BCE, Plato was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. His most important works are a collection of approximately 30 dialogues, imagined conversations on a wide range of philosophical iss ues. Only two of these dialogues were available in Europe in Dante's time, though two others were known via fragmentary accounts in the works of other writers. The rest would be rediscovered in the early 16th century. In citing Plato as an authority on the soul, Dante refers to the Timaeus, one of the two partial dialogues.
The "spheres" to which Dante alludes are not the spherical bodies of the planets themselves. Rather, they are much larger invisible spheres in which the planets were thought to be embedded. The movement of these spheres was attributed, in medieval Christian ity, to God, whose will was thought to set in motion the fastest and outermost sphere. In Canto 27 Dante will visit this sphere, known as the Primum Mobile ("first moved"). In effect his travels will take him to the edge of the physical universe they could then imagine.
4. Seraphim, pleural of Seraph, Hebrew, the highest order of angels.
Moses was the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the Exodus from Egypt. He is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and Samaritanism, and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and other Abrahamic religions. According to the Bible and Quran, God dictated the Mosaic Law to Moses, which he wrote down in the five books of the Torah.
Samuel (1070-1012 BC) is a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Bible, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran. He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century.
John the Apostle (6–100 AD), also known as Saint John the Beloved and, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saint John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. His brother James was another of the Twelve Apostles. The Church Fathers identify him as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder, and the Beloved Disciple, and claim that he outlived the remaining apostles and was the only one to die of natural causes, although modern scholars are divided on the v eracity of these claims.
5. Dante clues the reader in to the allegorical nature of his poem. Images like stars and planets help Dante to convey the awesomeness of the divine, but he does not imagine God is literally to be found in outer space. Similarly, Dante uses directional terms l ike "outer, inner" and "higher, lower" to gesture toward spiritual concepts that are impossible to physically map or diagram but must be understood in those terms. Beatrice illustrates this dichotomy between language and reality when she calls the Empyrean the "highest gyre," even though it stands outside time and space entirely.
6. Gabriel and Michael are two prominent archangels who play significant roles in various biblical events. The name Gabriel means “God is my strength” or “man of God,” while Michael means “Who is like God?” These two angels are mentioned by name in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
Gabriel is known as the messenger angel, delivering important messages from God to His people. One of the most famous appearances of Gabriel is recorded in the Gospel of Luke when he appears to Mary to announce that she will conceive and give birth to J esus, the Son of God. In this encounter, Gabriel reassures Mary and plays a crucial role in the fulfillment of God’s plan for salvation.
Michael is often depicted as a warrior angel, leading the heavenly armies against the forces of evil. In the book of Daniel, Michael is referred to as the “great prince who protects your people.” He is described as a powerful figure who fights on behalf of God’s chosen people.
7. Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of long monologues given by Critias and Timaeus, written c. 360 BC. The work puts forward reasoning on the possible nature of the physical world and human beings and is followed by the dialogue Criti as.
The world is a living creature. Since the unintelligent creatures are in their appearance less fair than intelligent creatures, and since intelligence needs to be settled in a soul, the demiurge "put intelligence in soul, and soul in body" in order to make a living and intelligent whole. "Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God".
8. Dante's experiences on the moon have raised two questions in his mind, which Beatrice proceeds to answer before he can ask them aloud. He is wondering, first, whether the Greek philosopher Plato is correct in writing that souls "go back to the stars" up on death. This is not literally accurate, Beatrice insists, but is partly true if seen metaphorically. Heaven, she explains, is not really a set of concentric spheres like the planetary orbits Dante is traversing. Instead, all souls are enthroned in the sam e "sphere"—the "highest gyre" that exists outside the physical universe. Thus, souls like Piccarda and Constance in Canto 3 are not physically remote from God. Rather, the stars-and-planets imagery is God's way of relaying divine truth to the limited "huma n mind," since before being united with God humans still are limited in understanding.
Dante's second, difficult question concerns the justice of punishing souls for acts committed against their will. If Piccarda and Constance were forced to break their vows, why are they held responsible? Beatrice prefaces her explanation with an acknowledgm ent "that justice in our realm, to mortal eyes" will sometimes "seem unjust." Free will, she continues, is paramount and cannot be defeated even by force. Piccarda and Constance could have resisted those who forced them from their convents, just as early ma rtyrs accepted death rather than betraying their faith. When "will conjoins with violence," Beatrice maintains, "there is no excuse"—even if the consent is granted out of fear for one's life, that is not enough.
Satisfied, Dante thanks Beatrice for her explanation. He then asks a follow-up question: Can souls "make amends" for a broken or "unfulfilled" vow? As Beatrice turns to answer him, the canto ends.
9. In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice.
Mercury is a major god in Roman religion and mythology, being one of the 12 Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the god of boundaries, commerce, communication, divination, eloquence, financial gain, languages, luck, thieves, travele rs, and trickery; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld.
Mars is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.
10. Saint Lawrence (225–258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman emperor Valerian ordered in 258.
As a deacon in Rome, Lawrence was responsible for the material goods of the Church and the distribution of alms to the poor. Ambrose of Milan related that when the treasures of the Church were demanded of Lawrence by the prefect of Rome, he brought forward the poor, to whom he had distributed the treasure as alms. "Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church's crown." The pre fect was so angry that he had a great gridiron prepared with hot coals beneath it and had Lawrence placed on it, hence Lawrence's association with the gridiron.
11. In Greek mythology, Alcmaeon, as one of the Epigoni, was the leader of the Argives who attacked Thebes, taking the city in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven against Thebes, who died while attempting the same thing.
Although sources differ concerning whether Alcmaeon knew about his mother's treachery before he attacked Thebes, all agree that once he returned he killed his mother, possibly with the help of his younger brother Amphilochus.
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