Paradiso
Canto VII
After Justinian and his companion spirits have resumed their place in the celestial dance, Beatrice dispels certain difficulties which had arisen in Dante’s mind concerning the doctrine of Redemption. The first is the question: Why, if Christ was justly put to death, could it be just to punish those who did this? Beatrice explains that he was justly punished as regards his human nature, unjustly as being God. The next question is: Why did God choose this particular mode of redeeming mankind and not some other mode? The answer is that man could only recover what he lost by the Fall either through atoning himself for Adam’s sin (and no offering of his was adequate) or through the divine mercy. But God combined “the two ways,” both mercy and justice, for by Christ’s incarnation and death man recovered the means of being pardoned, while at the same time justice was satisfied. Beatrice goes on to enlighten Dante on another point, and explains the difference between those created things which are corruptible and those which are incorruptible—the latter being acted upon immediately by the Divine Power, the former by the secondary influences of the stars.
HOSANNA, Holy God of Hosts, to thee,
Who from the loftiest heaven illuminest
These kingdoms’ flames in their felicity!”
So, turning, by its own song re-possest,
That spirit appeared to sound its chant of praise,
On whom two splendours, twinned in lustre, rest.[i]6. “Two splendours”: of natural intelligence and of illuminating grace.
And it and the others stept into their maze,
Dancing, like sparks, of speed ineffable;
And sudden distance veiled them from my gaze.
A doubt held me; and I said inly “Tell, [10]
O tell it to her! Tell my lady,” I said,
“Who slakes my thirst with sweet drops from her well.”
But the overmastering reverence in me bred,
Though but by Be and ice, again deprest,[ii]14. “Be and ice”: Beatrice.
Like to a drowsing man’s, my drooping head.
Beatrice bore that I was thus distrest
A short time; such a smile then rayed from her
As would make one, in fire that burnt him, blest.
“According to my thought, which cannot err,
How vengeance that is just can justly be [20]
Chastised, provoketh in thy mind demur.
Soon from this doubt will I deliver thee.
Hearken thou to my words, for I have brought
A gift, to make thee of most high doctrine free.
Because that man who ne’er was born brooked not[iii]25. “That man”: Adam.
To curb his will to his profit, he condemned
Himself; condemned, too, all his seed begot.
Wherefore mankind lay in great error penned
Down there for many an age and sick thereof,
Until it pleased the Word of God descend; [30]
And there that nature, which had dared remove
From its creator, he to himself annealed
By the sole act of his eternal love.
Now turn thy sight to what is now revealed.
This nature, with its maker joined, as first
Created, not a grain of ill concealed;
But by itself it had been banished erst
From Paradise, because it swerved aside
From truth, and its own way of life reversed.
And thus the penalty the Cross applied, [40]
If measured by the nature taken on,
Was never in its sting more justified.
In like manner was never such wrong done,
Having regard to Him who suffered there,
In whom this nature was condensed to one.
Thus from one act diverse effects appear:
At the one death God and the Jews were glad:
Therewith earth shook and the heavens were laid bare.
It should not then perplex thee, when ’tis said
At any time that vengeance justly wrought [50]
In a just court with vengeance was repaid.
But now I see thy mind from thought to thought
Ravelled within thee and in great desire
Waiting for the untying of the knot.
Thou sayest: ‘I understand well what I hear;
But for what cause God willed this mode alone
For our redemption, is to me not clear.’
This decree, Brother, is not to be shown
To the eyes of him whose unperfected wit
Hath not in love’s flame into ripeness grown. [60][iv]60. Only an infinitely loving mind can comprehend what impelled God to sacrifice himself for man.
But since this target many engage to hit
But few clearly discern, I will expound
How such mode was the worthier and more fit.
The Divine Bounty, in which no shadow is found
Of envy, as it burns from inward, spills
Eternal beauties sparkling all around.[v]66: “Eternal beauties”: men and angels.
That which immediately from it distils
Thereafter knows no end, since its imprint
Remaineth ever on whatso thing it seals.
That which immediate raineth without stint [70]
From it, is all free, since it is removed
From power of new things in the firmament.[vi]72. The “power of new things . . .”: of the stars.
Being more conformed to it, ’tis the more loved;
For the holy ardour that irradiates all
Lives most in what most like to itself is proved.
Vantaged with all these bounties is man’s soul:
And should one thing fail that is requisite,
From its nobility it needs must fall.
Sin only is that which disfranchises it,
And makes it unlike to the Sovereign Good, [80]
So that with that light ’tis but faintly lit
Nor can regain the station where it stood
Unless with suffering of just penalties
For ill joys it fill up what sin made void.
Your nature forfeited these dignities
When its first seed sinned wholly and was cast
From them, as it was cast from Paradise;
And they could be recovered (if thou hast
Subtly considered it) by no way save
One or the other of these fords be past: [90]
Either that God in graciousness forgave,
Or else that man by his own will and deed
For his own folly satisfaction gave.
Deep in the deep, eternal counsel feed
Thy fixt eyes now, and close as thy mind may
Let it to every word of mine give heed.
Man in his circumscription could not pay
The debt, since not so deep might he descend,
Were he, thereafter, humbly to obey,
As, disobeying, he aspired to ascend: [100]
For the which cause, from rendering the due
Atonement by his own act he was banned.
Needs then must God by His own ways renew[vii]103. “His own ways”: Mercy and Justice.
Man’s life and its integrity restore;
I mean, by one way or by both the two.
But as the deed commends itself the more
The more it makes the goodness to appear
Of the heart, whence it issued, of the doer,
The Divine Goodness, whereof all things bear
The seal, designed then all its paths to assay [110]
That it might lift you up where once ye were;
Nor ’twixt the final night and the first day[viii]112. Between Judgment and Creation.
Did aught of such a grandeur come to pass
Nor ever shall, on one or the other way.
God gave Himself with larger bounteousness
To enable man to lift himself again
Than if he had only pardoned of his grace;
And Justice must all other modes disdain
Except the Son of God humbled Him so
That He became incarnated in man. [120]
Now backward to a certain point I go
To enlighten thee and fill full thy desire,
So that thou mayest perceive this as I do.
Thou say’st: ‘I see the water, I see the fire,
The air, and the earth, and their comminglings, come
All to corruption and short time endure;
And yet these were created things: wherefrom
Follows, if it be truth thou dost declare,
They should be safe from that corruption’s doom.’
The angels, Brother, and this untainted star [130]
In which thou art, one may ‘created’ call
Even as entirely in their being they are;
But the elements which thou hast named, and all
The things that they have mingled to compound,—
Created virtue hath informed them all.[ix]135. “Created virtue”: the secondary power of the stars.
Created was the matter in them found,
Created was the informing power, whose worth
Is in the stars about them rolling round.
The life of every brute and plant on earth
Is by the quick beams of the sacred fires [140]
From its combining potencies drawn forth.
But the Supreme Benignity inspires
Directly your life, making it to love
Itself, and kindling it to fresh desires.
For thee this argument may further prove
Your resurrection, if the thought be weighed
How human flesh was formed to breathe and move,
When the first parents both of them were made.”