# Paradise Canto 20

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

---

> Christianity Index  Divine Comedy Index  Previous: Paradise Canto 19  Next: Paradise Canto 21  
> 
> Canto XX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The eagle celebrates the praise of certain kings, whose glorified spirits
> form the eye of the bird. In the pupil is David; and, in the circle round it,
> Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II of Sicily, and Ripheus. It explains
> to our Poet how the souls of those whom he supposed to have had no means of
> believing in Christ, came to be in Heaven; and concludes with an admonition
> against presuming to fathom the counsels of God.
> 
> When, disappearing from our hemisphere,
> The world's enlightener vanishes, and day
> On all sides wasteth; suddenly the sky,
> Erewhile irradiate only with his beam,
> Is yet again unfolded, putting forth
> Innumerable lights wherein one shines.
> Of such vicissitude in Heaven I thought;
> As the great sign,[1] that marshaleth the world
> And the world's leaders, in the blessed beak
> Was silent: for that all those living lights,
> Waxing in splendour, burst forth into songs,
> Such as from memory glide and fall away.
> 
> [1: The eagle, the imperial ensign.]
> 
> Sweet Love, that doth apparel thee in smiles!
> How lustrous was thy semblance in those sparkles,
> Which merely are from holy thoughts inspired.
> 
> After[2] the precious and bright beaming stones,
> That did ingem the sixth light, ceased the chiming
> Of their angelic bells; methought I heard
> The murmuring of a river, that doth fall
> From rock to rock transpicuous, making known
> The richness of his spring - head: and as sound
> Of cittern, at the fret - board, or of pipe,
> Is, at the wind - hole, modulate and tuned;
> Thus up the neck, as it were hollow, rose
> That murmuring of the eagle; and forthwith
> Voice there assumed; and thence along the beak
> Issued in form of words, such as my heart
> Did look for, on whose tables I inscribed them.
> 
> [2: "After." "After the spirits in the sixth planet (Jupiter) had
> ceased their singing."]
> 
> "The part in me, that sees and bears the sun
> In mortal eagles," it began, "must now
> Be noted steadfastly: for, of the fires
> That figure me, those, glittering in mine eye,
> Are chief of all the greatest. This, that shines
> Midmost for pupil, was the same who[3] sang
> The Holy Spirit's song, and bare about
> The ark from town to town: now doth he know
> The merit of his soul - impassion'd strains
> By their well - fitted guerdon. Of the five,
> That make the circle of the vision, he,[4]
> Who to the beak is nearest, comforted
> The widow for her son: now doth he know,
> How dear it costeth not to follow Christ;
> Both from experience of this pleasant life,
> And of its opposite. He next,[5] who follows
> In the circumference, for the over - arch,
> By true repenting slack'd the pace of death:
> Now knoweth he, that the decrees of Heaven[6]
> Alter not, when, through pious prayer below,
> To - day is made to - morrow's destiny.
> The other following,[7] with the laws and me,
> To yield the Shepherd room, pass'd o'er[8] to Greece;
> From good intent, producing evil fruit:
> Now knoweth he, how all the ill, derived
> From his well doing, doth not harm him aught;
> Though it have brought destruction on the world.
> That, which thou seest in the under bow,
> Was William,[9] whom that land bewails, which weeps
> For Charles and Frederick living: now he knows,
> How well is loved in Heaven the righteous king;
> Which he betokens by his radiant seeming.
> Who, in the erring world beneath, would deem
> 
> [3: "Who." David.]
> 
> [4: "Trajan. See Purgatory, x. 68.]
> 
> [5: "He next." Hezekiah.]
> 
> [6: The eternal counsels of God are indeed ummutable, though they
> appear to us men to be altered by the prayers of the pious.]
> 
> [7: Constantine. No passage in which Dante's opinion of the evil that
> had arisen from the mixture of the civil with the ecclesiastical power is more
> unequivocally declared.]
> 
> [8: Left the Roman State to the Pope, and transferred the seat of the
> empire to Constantinople.]
> 
> [9: William II, called "the Good," King of Sicily, at the latter part
> of the twelfth century. He was of the Norman line of sovereigns. His loss was
> as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the presence of Charles II
> of Anjou, and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow.]
> 
> That Trojan Ripheus,[10] in this round, was set,
> Fifth of the saintly splendours? now he knows
> Enough of that, which the world cannot see;
> The grace divine: albeit e'en his sight
> Reach not its utmost depth." Like to the lark,
> That warbling in the air expatiates long,
> Then, trilling out his last sweet melody,
> Drops, satiate with the sweetness; such appear'd
> That image, stampt by the everlasting pleasure,
> Which fashions, as they are, all things that be.
> 
> [10: "Then Ripheus fell, the justest far of all the sons of Troy." -
> Virgil, Aeneid. lib. ii. 427.]
> 
> I, though my doubting were as manifest,
> As is through glass the hue that mantles it,
> In silence waited not; for to my lips
> "What things are these?" involuntary rush'd,
> And forced a passage out: whereat I mark'd
> A sudden lightening and new revelry.
> The eye was kindled; and the blessed sign,
> No more to keep me wondering and suspense,
> Replied: "I see that thou believest these things,
> Because I tell them, but discern'st not how;
> So that thy knowledge waits not on thy faith:
> As one, who knows the name of thing by rote,
> But is a stranger to its properties,
> Till other's tongue reveal them. Fervent love,
> And lively hope, with violence assail
> The Kingdom of the Heavens, and overcome
> The will of the Most High; not in such sort
> As man prevails o'er man; but conquers it,
> Because 'tis willing to be conquer'd; still,
> Though conquer'd, by its mercy, conquering.
> 
> "Those, in the eye who live the first and fifth,
> Cause thee to marvel, in that thou behold'st
> The region of the Angels deck'd with them.
> They quitted not their bodies, as thou deem'st,
> Gentiles, but Christians; in firm rooted faith,
> This,[11] of the feet in future to be pierced,
> That,[12] of feet nail'd already to the Cross.
> 
> [11: "This." Ripheus.]
> 
> [12: "That." Trajan.]
> 
> One from the barrier of the dark abyss,
> Where never any with good will returns,
> Came back unto his bones. Of lively hope
> Such was the meed; of lively hope, that wing'd
> The prayers[13] sent up to God for his release,
> And put power into them to bend his will.
> The glorious Spirit, of whom I speak to thee;
> A little while returning to the flesh,
> Believed in Him, who had the means to help;
> And, in believing, nourish'd such a flame
> Of holy love, that at the second death
> He was made sharer in our gamesome mirth.
> The other, through the riches of that grace,
> Which from so deep a fountain doth distil,
> As never eye created saw its rising,
> Placed all his love below on just and right:
> Wherefore, of grace, God oped in him the eye
> To the redemption of mankind to come;
> Wherein believing, he endured no more
> The filth of Paganism, and for their ways
> Rebuked the stubborn nations. The three nymphs,[14]
> Whom at the right wheel thou beheld'st advancing,
> Were sponsors for him, more than thousand years
> Before baptizing. O how far removed,
> Predestination! is thy root from such
> As see not the First Cause entire: and ye,
> O mortal men! be wary how ye judge:
> For we, who see our Maker, know not yet
> The number of the chosen; and esteem
> Such scantiness of knowledge our delight:
> For all our good is, in that Primal Good,
> Concentrate; and God's will and ours are one."
> 
> [13: The prayers of St. Gregory.]
> 
> [14: "The three nymphs." Faith, Hope, and Charity. Purgatory, Canto
> xxix. 116.]
> 
> So, by that form divine, was given to me
> Sweet medicine to clear and strengthen sight.
> And, as one handling skilfully the harp,
> Attendant on some skilful songster's voice
> Bids the chord vibrate; and therein the song
> Acquires more pleasure: so the whilst it spake.
> 
> It doth remember me, that I beheld
> The pair[15] of blessed luminaries move,
> Like the accordant twinkling of two eyes,
> Their beamy circlets, dancing to the sounds.
> 
> [15: Ripheus and Trajan.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto 20*