Paradiso
Canto V
In answer to Dante’s last question, Beatrice tells him that it is impossible to make sufficient compensation for broken vows, because the vow means the surrender of the most precious gift of all, that of free will. It is however allowed to substitute other meritorious service for the “matter” of the vow; that is the service undertaken in the vow’s fulfilment; but only on condition that it is authorised by the Church (see Purgatorio, Canto IX, for the “white and yellow keys”) and that what is commuted is in the proportion of six to four, compared with the service it is substituted for. Vows are not to be undertaken lightly; the tragic dilemma of Jephthah, and of Agamemnon when he sacrificed his daughter, is adduced in illustration.
Suddenly Beatrice and Dante are caught up into the Heaven of Mercury, where are the souls of the ambitious. One of these spirits, who is Justinian, addresses Dante.
“IF I FLAME on thee in love’s fervency
Beyond all that is seen in earthly mood,
So that I quell the courage of thine eye,
Marvel not: this from perfect sight ensued,
That, even as it apprehends, can win
To set foot on the apprehended good.
I see clear how already glows within
Thine understanding the eternal light,
Which only and always kindles love, once seen.
And even if other lure your love invite [10]
'Tis nothing but some vestige left from that,
Ill-recognised, which through it showeth bright.
Thou would’st know if amends may be so great
For broken vows, with other service paid,
As to safeguard the soul from claim of debt.”
So Beatrice began this canto, and stayed
No more than one who breaks not off his theme;
And onward thus the sacred message led.
“Of all the gifts God in His bounty extreme
Made when creating, most conformable [20]
To His own goodness, and in His esteem
Most precious, was the liberty of the will,
With which creatures that are intelligent
Were all endowed, they only, and are so still.
Now thou can’st see, following this argument,
The high worth of the vow, so it not lacked,
When thou consented’st to it, God’s consent.
For when is sealed ’twixt God and man the pact,
This treasure, being such as I explain,
Is sacrificed, and that by its own act. [30]
How then can compensation here obtain?
If thou think’st to use well thine offering, thou
Would’st do a good work from ill-gotten gain.[i]33. Thou art like a thief who is trying to do good deeds with ill-gotten gain.
Of this chief point thou art certified; but now,
Since Holy Church hath dispensation made,
Which seems this truth I have told to disavow,
Still must thou be at table a while delayed,
Because what thou hast taken of tough food
Requires for thy digestion further aid.
Open thy mind to what I tell thee, and brood [40]
Thereon within; for knowledge none can vaunt
Who retains not, although he have understood.
Two things essential the conditions want;
The one is that whereof the sacrifice[ii]44-45. “The one . . .”: the thing promised. The “other” element, in a vow, is the act of agreement.
Consists; the other is the covenant.
To cancel this last, nothing can suffice
Save keeping it; that this point thou may’st heed,
I made my words about it so precise.
Therefore the Jews could not escape the need
To sacrifice, though the thing offered might [50]
In part at least be exchanged, as thou canst read.
The other thing, which I as ‘matter’ cite,
May well be such that no offence may be
If another matter be exchanged for it.
But let none shift the burden wilfully
From off his back, if at the turning sticks[iii]56-57. The “turning” of the “white key” of discrimination and the “yellow key” of authority signifies ecclesiastical permission.
Either the white key or the yellow key.
Let him hold all exchange as folly’s tricks,
Unless the thing that’s taken up include
The thing laid down, as four’s contained in six. [60]
Whatever therefore by its own worth would[iv]61-63. If the obligation is the most precious of our possessions (our free will), nothing can be substituted for it.
Weigh so that every counter-poise weighed short
By other spending cannot be made good.
Let mortals never take the vow in sport:
Keep faith, nor let your eyes, in doing this,
As Jephthah’s with his first-vowed gift, distort;[v]66. “As Jephthah . . .”: see Judg. 9:31.
Who should have rather said: ‘I did amiss’
Than, keeping faith, do worse. And thou canst trace
Such folly in the great chieftain of Greece,[vi]69. Agamemnon erred when he sacrificed his daughter to obtain from the Gods a favourable wind.
Whence Iphigenia wept for her fair face [70]
And made simple and wise to weep her too,
Hearing of that vow kept in such a case.
Christians, walk more wary in what you do,
Not like a feather blown at the wind’s bent,
Nor think that every water cleanses you.
Ye have the Old and the New Testament;
Ye have the Shepherd of the Church for guide;
With these for your salvation be content.
If evil greed aught else to you have cried,
Be men, not witless sheep, so that the Jews [80]
Among you may not mock you and deride.
Do not as the lamb does who will refuse
His mother’s milk, and silly in wantonness,
Do battle with himself, himself to amuse.”
Thus, as I write, to me spoke Beatrice;
Then turned in all her longing’s radiance
To the region where the world most living is.[vii]87. The Empyrean.
Her silence and transfigured countenance
Imposed a hush upon my craving wit
That had new questionings ready in advance: [90]
And sudden as an arrow that hath hit
The target ere the bowstring cease to thrill,
We flew, and on the second realm alit.[viii]93“Second realm”: the Heaven of Mercury.
There I beheld such joy my lady fill,
When in this heaven she stept into its blaze,
It made the planet glow more lucent still.
And if the star laughed out with altered rays,
What then did I, whose mortal character
Was liable to mutation’s every phase?
As in a fish-pond which is still and clear [100]
The fishes draw to what comes from outside
In such sort that they think their food is there,
So thousand splendours, ay, and more beside,
I saw drawn toward us; and from each was heard
“Lo one, by whom our loves are magnified.”
And as each one of them to us-ward neared
The shade was seen with joy to overflow
By the effulgence that from it appeared.
Reader, if what I start to tell thee now
Were broken off, consider how intense [110]
A craving would torment thee more to know;
And thou canst ask of thine intelligence
How much I longed to hear from these their state,
Soon as they were discovered to my sense.
“O happy born, whom grace lets contemplate
The thrones of the eternal triumph, ere
For thee thy militancy reach its date,
The light pervading heaven through every sphere
Kindles us all; of us then, if it please
To be enlightened, take thy fill and hear.” [120]
Such words were said to me by one of these
Devout souls; and by Beatrice; “Speak, speak!
Have no fear; trust as in divinities,”
“I see how in thine own light thou dost seek
To nest thee, and that it streameth through thine eye;
Such sparkles, as thou smilest, from it break:
But who thou art I know not, neither why,
Great soul, thou art stationed in this sphere veiled o’er
From mortals by another's rays on high.”[ix]129. “By another's rays ”: the Heaven of Mercury is veiled by the sun.
This I said, turning to the first splendour [130]
That had addressed me; and its luminousness
Became thereat far livelier than before.
Like as the sun, which hides him in excess
Of light, when once the heat has nibbled thin
The dense, dull mists that overspread his face,
So did the sacred presence hide within
Its beams, by joy increased in radiance,
And, close enclosed thus, gave me answer in
The manner that the following canto chants.