Canto XXII
CANTO XXII
Stupefied by the deafening cry that closed the last canto, Dante turns to Beatrice like a child to its mother. She reassures him that the outcry of the contemplatives proceeded from a righteous indignation at ecclesiastical corruption and that the sword of judgment will strike in due time. Then she directs the Pilgrim’s gaze to the souls who inhabit this realm. As the Poet looks, he beholds a hundred little spheres of light raying their love upon each other (1–24). Although he represses his desire to raise a question, a soul who appears like a large, radiant pearl comes forth and tells Dante that had he been able to see their ardent charity, he would not have hesitated to express himself. The spirit intimates that he is St. Benedict of Nursia, who founded the monastery of Monte Cassino and engaged himself in the conversion of the pagans in the surrounding regions. With him are Macarius, the father of monasticism in the East, and Romuald, the founder of the reformed Benedictine order known as the Camaldoli (25–51). Dante now finds his confidence expanded like a rose opening its petals in the sunlight and asks to see St. Benedict’s human features unveiled by his radiance. From his response the Pilgrim learns that he will have his wish fulfilled in the Empyrean, where each desire attains fulfillment, and to which the ladder of contemplation reaches (52–72). St. Benedict then laments that now no one in his order lifts a foot to climb that ladder and that his Rule therefore does not seem worth the paper it is written on: the abbeys have become dens of thieves and the cowls of the monks’ habits sacks of rotten meal. Not even usury constitutes so grave a sin as the monastic greed for the moneys that should go to the deserving poor. Neither St. Peter, St. Francis, nor he began with silver or gold, but their followers now pursue nothing else. Nevertheless, it would not take so great a miracle as the parting of the Red Sea or the backing up of the Jordan to heal the Church of its present ills (73–96). When he has finished, he returns to the other souls, and all whirl back up from where they had descended. Beatrice whisks Dante up the ladder behind them and, more quickly than one can pull one’s hand out of a fire, the Pilgrim finds himself in the heaven of the fixed stars, in the constellation of Gemini, under whose influence he was born. Dante invokes his sign for the inspiration he needs to complete the final pass (97–123). At this point, Beatrice has the Pilgrim look back at the regions of the universe he has traversed in preparation for the triumphant throng he will soon meet. The Poet gazes down through the seven spheres and smiles at the paltriness of the Earth, that threshing floor which makes us so fierce, then turns his eyes back to the lovely orbs of Beatrice (124–154).
1 I, overwhelmed with stupor at that host,
Turned to my Guide just like a child, afraid,
Who always runs to where it trusts the most.
4 And she, quite like a mother quick to aid
Her pale and panting son with an appeal
In words that ever reassure him, prayed:
7 “Do you not know that you’re in Heaven’s wheel,
And that God’s Heaven is all holy too,
And what is done here comes from righteous zeal?
10 You now can see what they by song would do
To you, and I by smiling up this high,
Because their shouting has so shaken you.
13 If you had heard the prayer within their cry,
That vengeance would be known for you to taste[510]
Which you shall come to see before you die.
16 The sword from here on high cuts not in haste
Nor tardily except in the surmise
Of him whose hope or fear for it is braced.
19 But to these other ones now turn your eyes;
And many famous souls you’ll see ablaze,
If you direct your sight as I advise.”
22 And just as she had pleased, I turned my gaze
And saw a hundred little spheres indeed
Who grew in beauty through each others’ rays.
25 I stood like one repressing in his need
The prick of his desire, not making bold
To ask again, so fearing to exceed.
28 The largest and the brightest to behold
Among those pearls came forward from the rest
To sate my wish to know its name of old.
31 “If you could see like me how love possessed
Among us burns,” I heard within that light,
“Your thoughts would have already been expressed.
34 So waiting will not slow you down despite
Your lofty aim, I offer my replies
To just the thoughts you’ve guarded up so tight.
37 The mountain on whose slope Cassino lies[511]
Was frequented of old upon its peak
By those misled, unfriendly, and unwise.[512]
40 And I am he who was the first to speak[513]
The name of Him who brought to earthly clay[514]
The truth that lifts us to the heights we seek.
43 Such grace upon me shone I drew away
All of the villages that lay around
From wicked cults that led the world astray.
46 And all these other flames were once profound
Contemplatives, men kindled by the heat[515]
That bears blest fruits and blooms. And here are found
49 Macarius and Romuald; here greet[516]
My brothers also who in cells below
Both kept a steadfast heart and stayed their feet.”
52 I said then: “The affection that you show
In speech and the kind semblance that I see
And note in all your flames of ardor so
55 Expand the confidence that lies in me
It’s like a rose the sun has opened wide
So it becomes as great as it can be.
58 And thus I pray you, father, please confide
If I may have such grace as to be shown
Your human face, but with the veil aside.”
61 He said: “My brother, this high wish made known
Shall be fulfilled in that last sphere, wherein[517]
There are fulfilled all others and my own.
64 It’s there alone that each desire can win
Attainment—perfect, and mature, and whole—
Where every part is where it’s always been.[518]
67 For it is not in space and has no pole;
And since our ladder reaches to that site,
It’s stolen from the vision of your soul.
70 Our father Jacob saw that to that height
Its top attains when it appeared there lit
Upon its rungs angelic throngs in flight.[519]
73 Now no one lifts his foot to climb a bit,
And my own Rule remains behind, I feel,
To waste the paper used in writing it.
76 The walls that once enclosed an abbey’s weal
Are robbers’ dens; the cowls in which they’re clad
Are just old sacks filled up with rotten meal.
79 But heavy usury is not as bad,
For to God’s will that fruit is more adverse
Which serves to make the hearts of monks go mad.
82 For all the Church may have she should disburse
To those who ask in God’s name for their dearth,
Not to their relatives or something worse.
85 The flesh of mortals is so weak on earth
That good beginnings made below won’t hold
From when oaks sprout until the acorn’s birth.
88 Did Peter start with silver or with gold?
With fasting and with prayer did I embark,
And Francis humbly gathered in his fold.
91 Look at the starting point of each, and mark
Again to see where they have strayed, all three,
And you will see that white has changed to dark.
94 And nonetheless the parting of the sea,[520]
The Jordan flowing backwards at God’s word,[521]
Were sights more wondrous than here help would be.”
97 He spoke this way to me, and then he stirred
Back to his company, which drew in line;
Swept upwards, like a whirlwind, off they whirred.
100 My sweetest Lady, simply by a sign,
Thrust me on ladder-rungs behind that string,
For so her nature’s power vanquished mine.
103 And never here below, where everything
Must rise and fall by Nature’s law then rest,
Was there a motion that could match my wing.
106 And as I hope to fly back to the nest
Of holy triumph there, for which in full
I mourn my sins and, Reader, beat my breast,
109 You could not stick your hand in fire and pull
It out so quickly as there came in sight,[522]
Receiving me, the sign behind the Bull.[523]
112 O stars of glory, lantern swelled with might
By virtue’s power, from which I can see
My genius comes, however high its flight,
115 With you was rising and was setting he
Who is the father of each mortal kind[524]
When I first breathed the air of Tuscany.
118 And then, just when the grace on me had shined
To enter the high wheel that bears you round,
Your region was the one to me assigned.
121 That virtue may for this hard pass be found,
Which draws my spirit to attempt it here,
My sighs to you devotedly abound.
124 “To final blessedness you are so near,”
So Beatrice began, “that it is fit
For you to have your eyes acute and clear.
127 And therefore look back downwards for a bit;
See what a world beneath your feet I’ve laid
Before you enter farther into it
130 So that your heart, with utmost joy displayed,
May welcome the triumphant throng that nears
Through this high ether’s rounds in glad parade.”[525]
133 My sight returned through all the seven spheres[526]
And came to see this globe so small in size[527]
I smiled at just how paltry it appears.
136 And I believe those counsels best advise
That hold it least; and he who otherwhere
Has set his thoughts may truly be called wise.
139 I saw the daughter of Latona there[528]
Aglow without the shade that caused this one
To think before that she was dense and rare. [529]
142 I there sustained the aspect of your son,
Hyperion, and near him, as he drove,[530]
Saw Maia and Diöne round him run.[531]
145 From there appeared the tempering of Jove[532]
Mid son and father, and they plainly showed
Just how they vary places as they rove.
148 Each of those seven showed me, as it rode,
How great it is, how it so swiftly spins,
How distant from the rest is its abode.
151 That threshing floor for which man fiercely sins
Appeared to me from hills to rivers then,
Who circled round with the Eternal Twins.
154 To those fair eyes I now turned mine again.