The Song of the Just. — Princes who have loved righteousness, in the eye of the Eagle. — Spirits, once Pagans, in bliss. — Faith and Salvation. — Predestination.
When he who illumines all the world, descends from our hemisphere so that the day on every side is spent, the heavens which erst by him alone are enkindled, suddenly become again conspicuous with many lights, on which one is shining.1 And this act of the heavens came to my mind when the ensign of the world and of its leaders became silent in its blessed beak; because all those living lights, far more shining, began songs which lapse and fall from out my memory.
1 One, that is, the sun, supposed to be the source of the light of the stars.
O sweet love, that cloakest thee with a smile, how ardent didst thou appear in those pipes1 which had the breath alone of holy thoughts!
1 That is, in those singers.
After the precious and lucent stones, wherewith I saw the sixth luminary ingemmed, imposed silence on their angelic bells, I seemed to hear the murmur of a stream which falls pellucid down from rock to rock, showing the abundance of its mountain source. And as the sound takes its form at the cithern’s neck, and in like manner at the vent of the bagpipe the air which enters it, thus, without pause of waiting, that murmur of the Eagle rose up through its neck, as if it were hollow. There it became voice, and thence it issued through its beak in form of words, such as the heart whereon I wrote them was awaiting.
“The part in me which in mortal eagles sees and endures the sun,” it began to me, “must now be fixedly looked upon, because of the fires whereof I make my shape, those wherewith the eye in my head sparkles are the highest of all their grades. He who shineth in the middle, as the pupil, was the, singer of the Holy Spirit, who, bore about the ark from town to town.1 Now he knows the merit of his song, so far as it was the effect of his own counsel,2 by the recompense which is equal to it. Of the five which make a circle for the brow, be who is nearest to my beak consoled the poor widow for her son.3 Now he knows, by the experience of this sweet life and of the opposite, how dear it costs not to follow Christ. And he who follows along the top of the are in the circumference of which I speak, by true penitence postponed death.4 Now he knows that the eternal judgment is not altered, when worthy prayer there below makes to-morrow’s what is of to-day. The next who follows,5 under a good intention which bore bad fruit, by ceding to the Pastor6 made himself Greek, together with the laws and me. Now he knows how the ill derived from his good action is not hurtful to him, although thereby the world may be destroyed. And he whom thou seest in the down-bent are was William,7 whom that land deplores which weeps for Charles and Frederick living.8 Now he knows how heaven is enamoured of a just king, and even by the aspect of his effulgence makes it seen. Who, down in the erring world, would believe that Rhipeus the Trojan9 was the fifth in this circle of the holy lights? Now he knows much of what the world cannot see of the divine grace, although his sight cannot discern its depth.”
1 David. See 2 Samuel, vi.
2 So far as it proceeded from his own free will, open to the inspiration of grace.
3 Trajan. See Purgatory, Canto X.
4 King Hezekiah. See 2 Kings, xx.
5 The Emperor Constantine.
6 By his so-called “Donation,” Constantine was believed to have ceded Rome to the Pope, and by transferring the seat of empire to Constantinople, he made the laws and the eagle Greek.
7 William H., son of Robert Guiscard, King of Sicily and Apulia, called “the Good.”
8 Charles H. of Apulia, and Frederick of Aragon, King of Sicily.
9 — Rhipeus,iustissimus unus Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi. — Aeneid, ii, 426-7.
“Rhipeus, the one justest man, and heedfullest of right among the Trojans.”
Like as a little lark that in the air expatiates first singing, and then is silent, content with the last sweetness which satisfies her, such seemed to me the image of the imprint of the Eternal Plea, sure, according to whose desire everything becomes that which it is.1 And though I was there, in respect to my doubt,2 like glass to the color which cloaks it; it3 endured not to await the time in silence, but with the force of its own weight urged from my mouth, “What things are these?” whereat I saw great festival of sparkling. Thereupon, with its eye more enkindled, the blessed ensign answered me , in order not to keep me in wondering suspense: “I see that thou believest these things because I say them, but thou seest not how; so that, although believed in, they are hidden. Thou dost as one who fully apprehends a thing by name, but cannot see its quiddity unless another explain it. Regnum coelorum4 suffers violence from fervent love, and from a living hope which vanquishes the divine will; not in such wise as man overcomes man, but vanquishes it, because it wills to be vanquished, and, vanquished, vanquishes with its own benignity. The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth make thee marvel, because thou seest the region of the Angels painted with them. From their bodies they did not issue Gentiles, as thou believest, but Christians, in firm faith, one in the Feet that were to suffer, one in the Feet that had suffered.5 For the one from Hell, where there is never return to righteous will, came back to his bones; and that was the reward of living hope; of living hope, which put its power in prayers made to God to raise him up, so that it might be possible his will should be moved.6 The glorious soul, whereof I speak, returning to the flesh, in which it remained short while, believed in Him who was able to aid it; and in believing was kindled to such fire of true love, that at the second death it was worthy to come to this sport. The other, through grace which distils from a fount so deep that creature never pushed the eye far as its primal wave, there below set all his love on righteousness; wherefore from grace to grace God opened his eye to our future redemption, so that he believed in it, and thenceforth endured no more the stench of paganism, and reproved therefor the perverse folk. More than a thousand years before baptizing,7 those three ladies whom thou sawest at the right wheel8 were to him for baptism. O predestination, how remote is thy root from the sight of those who see not the entire First Cause! And ye, mortals, keep yourselves restrained in judging; for we who see God know not yet all the elect. And unto us such want is sweet, for our good is perfected in this good, that what God wills we also will.”
1 So, seemed the image (that is, the eagle), satiated with its bliss, whether in the speech or the silence imposed upon it by the Eternal Pleasure, in accordance with which all things fulfil their ends.
2 How Trajan and Rhipeus could be in Paradise, since none but those who had believed in Christ were there.
3 My doubt.
4 The kingdom of Heaven.” — Matthew, xi. 12.
5 Rhipeus died before the coming of Christ; Trajan after.
6 According to the legend, St. Gregory the Great prayed that Trajan, because of his great worth, might be restored to life long enough for his will to return to righteousness, and for him to profess his faith in Christ.
7 Before the divine institution of the rite of baptism his faith, hope, and charity served him in lieu thereof.
8 Of the Chariot of the Church. See Purgatory, Canto XXIX.
Thus, to make my short sight clear, sweet medicine was given to me by that divine image. And as a good lutanist makes the vibration of the string accompany a good singer, whereby the song acquires more pleasantness, so it comes back to my mind that, while it spake, I saw the two blessed lights moving their flamelets to the words, just as the winking of the eyes concords.