Paradiso
Canto XI
While on earth men pursue their petty ambitions in law, medicine (the “Aphorisms” of Hippocrates), the priesthood, etc., Dante felicitates himself on being with Beatrice in Heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas now recounts to him the story of the life of St. Francis of Assisi; of his devotion to Lady Poverty; his foundation of the Franciscan Order, his ministry and death. St. Thomas then speaks of the other great Captain of the Church, St. Dominic, and of the corruption which has spread among his followers.
DISTRACTED mortals! of what paltry worth
Are the arguments whereby ye are so prone
Senselessly to beat down your wings to earth!
One wooed the Law, one the Aphorisms, one
Coveted the priesthood, and another pressed
Through force or fraud to acquire dominion;
One plunder, and one business, quite possessed;
One in the pleasures of the carnal sty
Grew weary; another his own ease caressed;
The while, from all these things delivered, I [10]
In heaven with Beatrice in this manner met
Was entertained in glory upon high.
Each spirit, when he had made the ring complete,
Coming again where he before had been,
Stopt, like a candle in the socket set.
And straightway, from within that blessed sheen
Which first had spoken to me, smiling there
And glowing more intense, I heard begin:
“Even as in me its lustre shineth clear,
So gazing into the eternal light [20]
I see thy thoughts and what their promptings are,
Thou questionest: and, that thou construe right
My words, would’st have me more at large re-tell
In sifted phrase, clearer to earthly sight,
What I but now was saying, “He thriveth well,’
And where I said: ‘No second ever rose.’
And here on some distinctions must we dwell.
The providence, which doth the world dispose
By counsel, wherein mortal scrutiny
Is baffled ere it can the depths unclose, [30]
So that the spouse of him, who with loud cry[i]31. “The spouse”: the Church, which Christ wedded on the Cross.
And with the blessed blood made her his bride,
Might go toward her Belov’d unfalteringly,
Sure in herself and closer to his side,
Appointed in her favour captains two
Who each on either hand should be for guide.
The one was all seraphic heart a-glow,[ii]37-38. “The one”: St. Francis of Assisi. “The other’: St. Dominic.
The other, by the wisdom he attained,
A splendour of cherubic light below.
Of the one I tell, because they who commend [40]
Either, praise both, choose which-so’er they will,
For all their works were to a single end.
Between Tupino and the dropping rill,[iii]43. Assisi is situated between the river Tupino and the Chiascio; St. Ubald had his hermitage near by.
Blessed Ubaldo’s chosen mountain-nook,
A fertile slope hangs from a lofty hill,
Whence cold and heat come to Perugia’s folk
Through Porta Sole, and behind it weep
Nocera and Gualdo for the oppressor’s yoke.[iv]48. The little towns of “Nocera and Gualdo” “weep . . . for the . . . yoke” of the Apennines.
From this slope, where it breaketh most the steep,
A sun was born into the world, as this [50][v]50. This real “sun,” where Dante now is.
Is seen somewhiles from Ganges to upleap;
Wherefore, who speaks of that place speaks amiss[vi]52-54. The Tuscan form for Assisi, “Ascesi” (which also means “I have risen’), is less fit a word than “Orient,” or Dayspring.
Saying Ascesi—a falling short that were—
But Orient would name truly what it is.
Not yet from his uprising was he far
When he began to make earth feel a breath
Of comfort stirring from his virtue rare.
For, young, he ran to face his father’s wrath
For a certain lady’s sake, to whom no hand[vii]59. He espoused Lady Poverty.
Unlocketh pleasure’s gate, more than to death, [60]
And in his spiritual court to stand[viii]61-62. Summoned before the episcopal court of Assisi, St. Francis stripped off his clothes.—‘Coram patre”: before his father.
Where coram patre faith to her he swore;
And love from day to day his ardour fanned.
A thousand and a hundred years and more
She, robbed of her first husband, unrenowned,[ix]65. “She”: Poverty.—“Her first husband”: Christ.
Unwooed, till he came, scorn of all men bore.
And nought availed to hear that she was found[x]67-69. “Amyclas,” a poor fisherman, was not afraid when Caesar knocked at his door.
Calm with Amyclas, though by that voice hailed
Which made the whole world tremble at its sound;
Nor constancy nor fearlessness availed [70]
So daring that, where Mary stayed below,
She wept, high on the cross where Christ was nailed.
Lest too obscurely I continue, know
Francis and Poverty for these lovers true;
In my explicit speech accept them so.
Their concord and the joy their faces knew
Made love and wonder and gentle, sweet regard
To sacred thoughts the inviting avenue:
So first the venerable Bernard bared[xi]79. “Bernard”: the first disciple of St. Francis.
His feet, and to such great peace swiftly hied, [80]
And thought he went slow, though he ran so hard.
O fecund good! O riches undescried!
Barefoot goes Giles, barefoot Sylvester, toward[xii]83. “Giles” and “Sylvester”: two early disciples.
The bridegroom, following him: so charms the bride.
Thence took his way this father and this lord,
He and his lady and all now of his house
Already girded with the humble cord.
No abjectness of heart abashed his brows
That he was Peter Bernardone’s son,[xiii]89. “Peter B.,” St. Francis’s father, was a rich tradesman.
Nor that he seemed such wondrous scorn to arouse; [90]
But like a king his staunch resolve anon
He told to Innocent, and from him the impress[xiv]92. “Innocent” III: the Pope who reluctantly sanctioned St. Francis’s Rule.
Of the first signet on his Order won.
When the humble folk began so to increase,
Following him, whose marvellous life and death
Were better sung in glory of Heaven's high peace,
Then by Honorius with a second wreath[xv]97. Pope “Honorius” III. “A second wreath”: the final sanction.
Was this chief shepherd’s holy purpose deckt
At prompting of the Eternal Spirit’s breath.
When he, in thirst of martyrdom, erect [100][xvi]100-102. In 1219 St. Francis accompanied the crusaders to Egypt, where he preached before the Sultan.
Stood in the presence of the proud Soldan
And preached Christ and the band of his elect,
Seeing the people were too crude a clan
To be converted, he, not tarrying more,
Returned to garner ripe Italian grain.
On the rough rock ’twixt Tiber and Arno shore
He took that final imprint of the rood
From Christ, which for two years his body bore.[xvii]107. “That final imprint”: the Stigmata, or marks of Christ's five wounds.
When it pleased Him who chose him for such good
To draw him up to his reward above, [110]
Earned when he took on him that lowlihood,
To his brethren, as to rightful heirs thereof,
His most dear lady he trusted, and to her
Bade them to cleave with ever-faithful love;
And from her bosom the high soul and clear,
To its own realm returning willed to flit,
And for its body wished no other bier.
Consider now who he was, who was fit[xviii]118. “Who he was”: St. Dominic.
Colleague to captain on deep seas the bark
Of Peter, steering to the goal aright. [120]
Such and no other was our Patriarch;
Wherefore who follow him as he commands
Taketh aboard good wares, as all can mark.
But greedy has grown his flock for new viands,[xix]124. “His flock”: the Dominicans.
So that it cannot but go uncontrolled
And become scattered on high pasture-lands;
And the more wide astray over the wold
The sheep, departing from him, go to feed,
The emptier of milk they come to fold.
Some are there, dreading harm, who do indeed [130]
Cleave to the shepherd; but so few they are,
That for their cowls but little cloth they need.
Now if my voice have not seemed faint and far,
If all thy mind on what I said is bent,
If thou hast listened with attentive ear,
In part thy wish must surely be content;
For thou shalt see the plant they chip away,
And see too the correction that was meant
In ‘where he thriveth, if his feet not stray.’”