# Paradise Canto 12

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> 
> Canto XII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      A second circle of glorified souls encompasses the first. Buonaventura,
> who is one of them, celebrates the praises of St. Dominic, and informs Dante
> who the other eleven are, that are in this second circle of garland.
> 
> Soon as its final word the blessed flame[1]
> Had raised for utterance, straight the holy mill[2]
> Began to wheel; nor yet had once revolved,
> Or e'er another, circling, compass'd it,
> Motion to motion, song to song, conjoining;
> Song, that as much our muses doth excel,
> Our Syrens with their tuneful pipes, as ray
> Of primal splendour doth its faint reflex.
> 
> [1: Thomas Aquinas.]
> 
> [2: The circle of spirits.]
> 
> As when, if Juno bid her handmaid forth,
> Two arches parallel, and trick'd alike,
> Span the thin cloud, the outer taking birth
> From that within (in manner of that voice[3]
> Whom love did melt away, as sun the mist),
> And they who gaze, presageful call to mind
> The compact, made with Noah, of the world
> No more to be o'erflow'd; about us thus,
> Of sempiternal roses, bending, wreathed
> Those garlands twain; and to the innermost
> E'en thus the external answer'd. When the footing,
> And other great festivity, of song,
> And radiance, light with light accordant, each
> Jocund and blythe, had at their pleasure still'd,
> (E'en as the eyes, by quick volition moved,
> Are shut and raised together), from the heart
> Of one[4] amongst the new lights[5] moved a voice,
> 
> [3: One rainbow giving back the image of the other, as sound is
> reflected by Echo, that nymph, who was melted away by her fondness for
> Narcissus, as vapor is melted by the sun. The reader will observe in the text
> not only a second and third simile within the first, but two mythological and
> one sacred allusion bound up together with the whole. Even after his
> accumulation of imagery, the two circles of spirits, by whom Beatrice and
> Dante were encompassed, are by a bold figure termed two garlands of
> neverfading roses.]
> 
> [4: "One." St. Buonaventura, general of the Franciscan order, in
> which he effected some reformation; and one of the most profound divines of
> his age. "He refused the archbishopric of York, which was offered him by
> Clement IV, but afterward was prevailed on to accept the bishopric of Albano
> and a cardinal's hat. He was born at Bagnoregio or Bagnorea, in Tuscany, A. D.
> 1221, and died in 1274." Dict. Histor, par Chaudon et Delandine, Ed. Lyon.
> 1804.]
> 
> [5: In the circle that had newly surrounded the first.]
> 
> That made me seem[6] like needle to the star,
> In turning to its whereabout; and thus
> Began: "The love,[7] that makes me beautiful,
> Prompts me to tell of the other guide, for whom
> Such good of mine is spoken. Where one is,
> The other worthily should also be;
> That as their warfare was alike, alike
> Should be their glory. Slow, and full of doubt,
> And with thin ranks, after its banner moved
> The army of Christ, (which it so dearly cost
> To reappoint), when its imperial Head
> Who reigneth ever, for the drooping host
> Did make provision, through grace alone,
> And not through its deserving. As thou heard'st,[8]
> Two champions to the succour of His spouse
> He sent, who by their deeds and words might join
> Again His scatter'd people. In that clime,[9]
> Where springs the pleasant west - wind to unfold
> The fresh leaves, with which Europe sees herself
> New - garmented; nor from those billows[10] far,
> Beyond whose chiding, after weary course,
> The sun doth sometimes[11] hide him; safe abides
> The happy Callaroga,[12] under guard
> Of the great shield, wherein the lion lies
> Subjected and supreme. And there was born
> The loving minion of the Christian faith,[13]
> The hallow'd wrestler, gentle to his own,
> 
> [6: "That made me turn to it, as the needle does to the pole."]
> 
> [7: "The love." By an act of mutual courtesy, Bounaventura, a
> Franciscan, is made to proclaim the praises of St. Dominic, as Thomas Aquinas,
> a Dominican, has celebrated those of St. Francis; and in like manner each
> blames the irregularities, not of the other's order, but of that to which
> himself belonged. Even Macchiavelli, no great friend to the Church, attributes
> the revival of Christianity to the influence of these two saints.]
> 
> [8: See the last Canto, v. 33.]
> 
> [9: "In that clime." Spain.]
> 
> [10: "Those billows." The Atlantic.]
> 
> [11: During the summer solstice.]
> 
> [12: "Callaroga." Between Osma and Aranda, in Old Castile designated
> by the royal coat - of - arms.]
> 
> [13: Dominic was born April 5, 1170, and died August 6, 1221. His
> birthplace Callaroga; his father and mother's names. Felix, and Joanna; his
> mother's dream; his name of Dominic, given him in consequence of a vision by
> his godmother, are all told in an anonymous life of the saint, said to have
> been written in the thirteenth century.]
> 
> And to his enemies terrible. So replete
> His soul with lively virtue, that when first
> Created, even in the mother's womb,[14]
> It prophesied. When, at the sacred font,
> The spousals were complete 'twixt faith and him,
> Where pledge of mutual safety was exchanged,
> The dame,[15] who was his surety, in her sleep
> Beheld the wondrous fruit, that was from him
> And from his heirs to issue. And that such
> He might be construed, as indeed he was,
> She was inspired to name him of his owner,
> Whose he was wholly; and so call'd him Dominic.
> And I speak of him, as the labourer,
> Whom Christ in His own garden chose to be
> His help - mate. Messenger he seem'd, and friend
> Fast - knit to Christ; and the first love he show'd,
> Was after the first counsel[16] that Christ gave.
> Many a time[17] his nurse, at entering, found
> That he had risen in silence, and was prostrate,
> As who should say, 'My errand was for this,'
> O happy father! Felix[18] rightly named.
> O favour'd mother! rightly named Joanna;
> If that do mean, as men interpret it.[19]
> Not for the world's sake, for which now they toil
> Upon Ostiense[20] and Taddeo's[21] lore;
> But for the real manna, soon he grew
> Mighty in learning; and did set himself
> 
> [14: His mother, when pregnant with him, is said to have dreamt that
> she should bring forth a white and black dog with a lighted torch in his
> mouth, which were signs of the habit to be worn by his order, and of his
> fervent zeal.]
> 
> [15: His godmother's dream was, that he had one star in his forehead
> and another in the nape of his neck, from which he communicated light to the
> east and the west.]
> 
> [16: "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that
> thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and
> come and follow me." - Matt. xix. 21. Dominic is said to have followed this
> advice.]
> 
> [17: His nurse, when she returned to him, often found that he had
> left his bed, and was prostrate, and in prayer.]
> 
> [18: "Felix." Felix Gusman.]
> 
> [19: Grace or gift of the Lord.]
> 
> [20: Arrigo (about 1250 A. D.), a native of Susa, and cardinal of
> Ostia and Velletri, hence his name of Ostiense, was celebrated for his
> lectures on the Decretals.]
> 
> [21: "Taddeo. Either the physician or the lawyer of that name. The
> former, T. d' Alderotto, a Florentine, called the Hippocratean, translated the
> Ethics of Aristotle into Latin; and died toward the end of the thirteenth
> century. The other, of Bologna, left no writings behind him.]
> 
> To go about the vineyard, that soon turns
> To wan and wither'd, if not tended well:
> And from the see[22] (whose bounty to the just
> And needy is gone by, not through its fault,
> But his who fills it basely), he besought,
> No dispensation[23] for commuted wrong,
> Nor the first vacant fortune,[24] nor the tenths
> That to God's paupers rightly appertain,
> But, 'gainst an erring and degenerate world,
> License to fight, in favour of that seed[25]
> From which the twice twelve cions gird thee round.
> Then, with sage doctrine and good will to help,
> Forth on his great apostleship he fared,
> Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein;
> And, dashing 'gainst the stocks of heresy,
> Smote fiercest, where resistance was most stout.
> Thence many rivulets have since been turn'd,
> Over the garden catholic to lead
> Their living waters, and have fed its plants.
> 
> [22: "The apostolic see, which no longer continues its wonted
> liberality toward the indigent and deserving; not indeed through its own
> fault, as its doctrines are still the same, but through the fault of the
> pontiff, who is seated in it."]
> 
> [23: Dominic did not ask for license to compound for the use of
> unjust acquisitions by dedicating a part of them to pious purposes.]
> 
> [24: The first benefice that fell vacant.]
> 
> [25: "For that seed of the divine Word, from which have sprung up
> these four - and - twenty plants, these holy spirits that now environ thee."]
> 
> "If such, one wheel[26] of that two - yoked car,
> Wherein the holy Church defended her,
> And rode triumphant through the civil broil;
> Thou canst not doubt its fellow's excellence,
> Which Thomas,[27] ere my coming, hath declared
> So courteously unto thee. But the track,[28]
> Which its smooth fellies made, is now deserted:
> That, mouldy mother is, where late were less.
> His family, that wont to trace his path,
> Turn backward, and invert their steps; erelong
> To rue the gathering in of their ill crop,
> When the rejected tares[29] in vain shall ask
> 
> [26: Dominic; as the other wheel is Francis.]
> 
> [27: "Thomas." Thomas Aquinas.]
> 
> [28: "But the track." "But the rule of St. Francis is already
> deserted; and the lees of the wine are turned into mouldiness."]
> 
> [29: "Tares." He adverts to the parable of the tares and the wheat.]
> 
> Admittance to the barn. I question not[30]
> But he, who search'd our volume, leaf by leaf,
> Might still find page with this inscription on't,
> "I am as I was wont." Yet such were not
> From Acquasparta nor Casale, whence,
> Of those who come to meddle with the text,
> One stretches and another cramps its rule.
> Bonaventura's life in me behold,
> From Bagnoregio; one, who, in discharge
> Of my great offices, still laid aside
> All sinister aim. Illuminato here,
> And Agostino[31] join me: two they were,
> Among the first of those barefooted meek ones,
> Who sought God's friendship in the cord: with them
> Hugues of Saint Victor,[32] Pietro Mangiadore;[33]
> And he of Spain[34] in his twelve volumes shining;
> Nathan the prophet; Metropolitan
> Chrysostom;[35] and Anselmo;[36] and, who deign'd
> To put his hand to the first art, Donatus.
> 
> [30: "I question not." "Some indeed might be found, who still observe
> the rule of the order; but such would come neither from Casale nor
> Acquasparta." At Casale, in Monferrat, the discipline had been enforced by
> Uberto with unnecessary rigor; and at Acquasparta, in the territory of Todi,
> it had been equally relaxed by the Cardinal Matteo, general of the order.]
> 
> [31: Two among the earliest followers of St. Francis.]
> 
> [32: "Hugues of Saint Victor." He was of the monastery of St. Victor
> at Paris, and died in 1142, at the age of forty - four. His ten books,
> illustrative of the celestial hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite, according
> to the translation of Joannes Scotus, are inscribed to King Louis, son of
> Louis le Gros, by whom the monastery had been founded.]
> 
> [33: "Pietro Mangiadore." Petrus Comestor, or the Eater, born at
> Troyes, was canon and dean of that church, and afterward chancellor of the
> church of Paris. He relinquished these benefices to become a regular canon of
> St. Victor at Paris, where he died in 1198.]
> 
> [34: To Pope Adrian V succeeded John XXI, a native of Lisbon; a man
> of great genius and extraordinary acquirements, especially in logic and in
> medicine, as his books, written in the name of Peter of Spain, (by which he
> was known before he became Pope), may testify. He was killed at Viterbo, by
> the falling in of the roof of his chamber, after he had been pontiff only
> eight months and as many days, A. D. 1277.]
> 
> [35: "Chrysostom." The eloquent Patriarch of Constantinople.]
> 
> [36: Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Aosta, about 1034,
> and studied under Lanfranc, at the monastery of Bec in Normandy, where he
> afterward devoted himself to a religious life, in his twenty - seventh year.
> In three years he was made prior, and then abbot of that monastery; from
> whence he was taken, in 1093, to succeed to.the archbishopric, vacant by the
> death of Lanfranc. He enjoyed this dignity till his death in 1109, though it
> was disturbed by many dissensions with William II and Henry I respecting
> immunities and investitures.]
> 
> Raban[37] is here; and at my side there shines
> Calabria's abbot, Joachim,[38] endow'd
> With soul prophetic. The bright courtesy
> Of friar Thomas and his goodly lore,
> Have moved me to the blazon of a peer[39]
> So worthy; and with me have moved this throng."
> 
> [37: Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, 847, is placed at the head
> of the Latin writers of this age.]
> 
> [38: Abbot of Flora in Calabria; whom the multitude revered as
> divinely inspired, and equal to the most illustrious prophets of ancient
> times.]
> 
> [39: "A Peer." St. Dominic.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto 12*