Paradiso (156 page)

1–3.
   
In celebration of the completion of Adam’s “education” of Dante in the eighth sphere—where Dante spends six hours (see
Par.
XXII.152, XXVII.79–81, and cf. Adam’s six hours in Eden) and six cantos, the longest time spent in any sphere—the entire consistory of heaven, first seen in
Paradiso
XXIII.19–33 and 82–139, now sings the “Gloria” to the Trinity. Bosco/Reggio point out that the poem contains the “great prayers” of the Church: “Paternoster” (
Purg.
XI.1–24), “Credo” (
Par.
XXIV.130–41), “Ave Maria” (
Par.
XXXIII.1–21), “Te Deum” (
Purg.
IX.139–41;
Par.
XXIV.112–14), and “Sanctus” (
Par.
XXVI.69). Here once again the souls sing in Italian. It seems possible that the blessed and the angels use Latin when they sing to one another and that, when they sing of Dante, their language is Italian. For the songs heard in this canticle, see the note to
Paradiso
XXI.58–60.

For Dante’s “drunkenness” see Jeremiah 23:9, “quasi vir ebrius” (like a man who is drunk); but see also, as Bosco/Reggio cite Consoli as noting,
Vita nuova
III.2, where Dante, upon first hearing Beatrice’s voice, was taken by “tanta dolcezza, che come inebriato mi partio da le genti” (became so ecstatic that, like a drunken man, I turned away from everyone [tr. M. Musa]). He has come full circle.
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4–6.
   Insisting on his “drunkenness,” the poet now says that to the first cause (the singing) was added a second inebriant, what seemed to him no less than a smile of universal proportions.
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7–9.
   The five conditions apostrophized by the poet (happiness, joy, love, peace, riches) are all usually associated with life in this world. Here they are all rather imagined in their transmuted spiritual forms.
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9.
   The word
brama
occurs six times in the poem and is always associated with a low longing, especially for wealth; in fact, it is twice associated with wolves (
Inf.
I.49;
Par.
IV.4). Bosco/Reggio (comm. to verse 9) cite
Convivio
III.xv.3: “[il desiderio] essere non può con la beatitudine, acciò che la beatitudine sia perfetta cosa e lo desiderio sia cosa defettiva” (desire is something that cannot coexist with blessedness, since blessedness is something perfect and desire something defective—tr. R. Lansing).
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10–15.
   Peter, about to reenter the action as the
primus inter pares
yet again, has his flame turn from white to red. The pseudo-simile has it that Peter
went from white to red as would Jupiter were he to exchange plumage with Mars; against those who find the figure of speech “strange” or “forced,” Chiavacci Leonardi (Chia.1997.1), p. 743, points out that an ancient tradition of representation presented the planets as birds, with rays as their feathers. Scott, in his essay “Su alcune immagini tematiche di
Paradiso
XXVII” (Scot.1977.1, pp. 195–237), demonstrates the precision of Dante’s apparently forced figure: The just God (Jove) will demonstrate His justness by righteous indignation (i.e., Mars-like—pp. 196–202).
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16–18.
   Tozer (comm. to vv. 16–17) explains the reference as being to that aspect of Providence “ ‘which in Heaven assigns to each his fitting time and part’;
vice
is the occasion when this or that person is to act,
offizio
the function which he is to perform. For the general principle which is here expressed, cp.
Par.
XXI.67–72” (i.e., Peter Damian expressing his subservience to God in accepting his mission to Dante).
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19–21.
   Peter looks ahead to the transmogrification of every member of the Church Triumphant, reddening with righteous anger, when he unleashes his harsh words. Significantly enough, this is treated as occurring only after his reference to Satan in verse 27.
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22–24.
   Despite Peter’s vehemence about Rome’s centrality to the papacy, it is good to keep in mind the observation of V. H. H. Green (cited by Scott [Scot.2004.1], p. 253n.), that between 1100 and 1304 (and we should be aware of Dante’s insistence on the rightness of their being there), the popes were more absent from Rome than present, 122 years vs. 82 years. Further, for Dante, Boniface was both a bad pope and an improperly elected one. On either (or both) of those grounds, he may have considered the Papal See “vacant” in 1300, and thus felt he could represent Satan’s particular pleasure in Boniface’s improper stewardship. However, it seems likely that the passage is also meant to reflect the scandalously long period between the death of Bertrand de Got, Pope Clement V (20 April 1314), and the election of yet another Frenchman, Jacques d’Euse, as Pope John XXII (5 September 1316). On the other hand, it also seems probable that, to Dante’s eyes, if Boniface had left the papacy “vacant” because of his various shortcomings, both of his successors, one having moved the papacy to France and the other having kept it there, had left its true seat, in Rome, vacant. (Scartazzini [comm. to vv. 10–27] is of a somewhat different opinion, believing that Dante considered the Papal See “vacant” when John XXII, a simoniac pope if ever there was one, ruled the Church; half a dozen more recent commentators are also of this opinion.)

Tommaseo (comm. to vv. 22–24) was apparently the first to point out that the repeated phrase “il luogo mio” recapitulates Jeremiah 7:4, the thrice-repeated “templum Domini” (the Lord’s temple). He is seconded by a number of other commentators between Poletto and Fallani, but then the commentaries go silent on this ascription.

Peter’s triple repetition, not quite unique in the poem (see the
santo, santo, santo
of
Par.
XXVI.69), is nonetheless notable, perhaps reminding the reader of the Trinity as well as of the triple-tiered tiara worn by the pope.
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25–27.
   For a discussion of this penultimate, if intrinsic, assault on Boniface, see Massimo Seriacopi (Seri.2003.1), pp. 220–25. The author goes on to describe Dante’s general attitude toward this great figure in the history of the papacy as follows: “[Boniface is to Dante] at once the pope and a simoniac; magnificent and yet obtuse; full of energy but arrogant” (p. 226). His book concludes with a helpful review of the varying views of Boniface, found in Dante’s margins, put forward by the fourteenth-century commentators (pp. 239–57). For a papal attempt (that of Benedict XV in 1921) to square Dante’s poem with the Church’s teaching, see Maria Lorena Burlot (Burl.2003.1), p. 551.
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28–30.
   This detail is drawn from Ovid (
Metam.
III.183–185): Diana’s blush as seen by Actaeon. (See Grandgent [comm. to verse 28].) That blush fits the context of the blush of shame attributed to Beatrice in verse 34.
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31–36.
   D’Ancona (Danc.1913.1), p. 460, was among the first to insist (see Steiner [comm. to vv. 31–34], in disagreement) that Beatrice went pale, that is, did not grow red with indignation. (But see Poletto’s [comm. to vv. 31–34] earlier report of Giuliani’s still earlier and similar interpretation, which he, similarly, does not accept.) This view has, nonetheless, been followed by a number of twentieth-century Dantists. But see Scott (Scot.1977.1), p. 209, for a rebuke of those who so argue. And see Bosco/Reggio (comm. to vv. 28–36) for a view similar to his; however, they go on to argue that the reference to the eclipse at Christ’s Passion (see Matthew 27:45) reflects not only her darkening, but that of all the saints of the Church Triumphant temporarily gathered here.
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33.
   What probably makes the passage more difficult than it really should be is the adjective
timido
, understood by the early commentators as
“ashamed” (a word readily associated with blushing), while modern ones think it means “timid” (an adjective more likely associated with facial pallor). The last seems a less likely significance, given the context.
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37–39.
   Peter’s voice (vv. 19–27) was, we may be surprised to learn, not as angry in that utterance as it is soon to be. When we read back over the passage (vv. 19–39), we realize that the poet has carefully staged the development of this scene: (1) preparation for the change in color (vv. 19–21); (2) the occurrence of that change (vv. 28–36); (3) the further change in the quality of Peter’s voice (vv. 37–39). Cf. Dante’s own two-stage “drunkenness” in vv. 1–6, first at a sound, then at a sight. Here Peter modulates his appearance first, and then his voice.
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40–45.
   Peter begins a list of some martyred popes with himself; he refers to or names six others in all. These may be broken down into three pairs, one from each of the first three centuries of the Church’s life (Linus and Cletus, Sixtus and Pius, Calixtus and Urban).
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46–48.
   Christ will come in judgment and divide his flock into sheep (those who are saved) and goats (those eternally damned). The sitting pope (in 1300, Boniface VIII) is charged with dividing his people into two political factions, the Guelphs loyal to him (his sheep) and his Ghibelline enemies (the goats). This does not mean that Dante limited his list of papal offenders in this respect to one.
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49–51.
   The first four of Peter’s complaints (vv. 40–54) about papal misconduct seem both generalizable and yet specific to Boniface’s reign (1294–1303). The papacy was often portrayed by Dante as using its temporal power incorrectly; this passage may particularly remember Boniface’s “crusade” against the Colonna family, already alluded to in
Inferno
XXVII.85–90, as Benvenuto (comm. to vv. 49–54) was the first to suggest.
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52–54.
   This tercet reflects the sale of ecclesiastical privileges that bore the papal seal, the image of St. Peter.
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55–57.
   Now we descend to the lesser ranks of the clergy. See Matthew 7:15 for the warning against wolves in sheep’s clothing, applied to those priests who betray their calling (and their parishioners).

See Marietti (Mari.2003.1), pp. 435–40, for the way in which Dante considers himself a descendant of the prophet Jeremiah here and throughout
the
Comedy
. And see Sapegno (comm. to these verses) for a citation of the prophet’s outcry against those shepherds who harm their flocks (Jeremiah 23:1).
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58–60.
   Two French popes, the Gascon Clement V (1305–14—see the note to
Inf.
XIX.79–87) and John XXII (1316–34) of Cahors (for that city’s association with usury, see the note to
Inf.
XI.46–51), will attempt to gather wealth from the Church founded by the blood of the first martyred popes, representing the good beginning that will have so foul an end.
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61–63.
   A first prophetic utterance, leading into the fuller prophecy at the end of the canto (vv. 142–148): Providence, which sided with Scipio (in 202 b.c. at the battle of Zama) to maintain Rome’s glory in the world (and it is clear that the text refers to imperial, and not ecclesiastical, Rome), will soon act to set things straight, as Peter
conceives
(for the force of this verb, see the notes to
Inf.
II.7–9,
Inf.
XXXII.1–9, and
Purg.
XXIX.37–42).

For Dante’s lofty sense of Scipio, see Hollander and Rossi (Holl.1986.1), pp. 65–69. For his persistent presence in
Convivio
(IV.v),
Monarchia
(II.ix), and
Commedia
(
Inf.
XXXI,
Purg.
XXIX,
Par.
VI, and here), see the table (Holl.1986.1), p. 75, also listing the various appearances of the dozen and a half republican heroes referred to in Dante’s works.

It is surely striking that, at the climax of his antipapal outburst, he turns to a great political figure and not to a religious one. For an earlier and more developed presentation of this view, see Scott (Scot.1977.1), pp. 216–20. A similar political frame of reference may inform Beatrice’s prophecy of the
fortuna
(verse 145) at the end of the canto.
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64–66.
   These are the last words spoken by any character in the poem, except for Dante, Beatrice, and Bernard. Peter joins those who charge mortal Dante with his prophetic task, Beatrice (
Purg.
XXXII.103–105; XXXIII.52–57) and Cacciaguida (
Par.
XVII.124–142), thus making threefold the source of the poet’s authority to reveal his vision. This represents his final investiture in his role as God’s prophet.

Peter’s flat-out acknowledgment that Dante is here in his flesh finally sets that question to rest. See previous discussions in the notes to
Paradiso
I.73, II.37–45, and XXII.129.
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