# Paradise Canto 22

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XXII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      He beholds many other spirits of the devout and contemplative; and among
> these is addressed by St. Benedict, who, after disclosing his own name and the
> names of certain of his companions in bliss, replies to the request made by
> our Poet that he might look on the form of the saint, without that covering of
> splendor, which then invested it; and then proceeds, lastly, to inveigh
> against the corruption of the monks. Next Dante mounts with his heavenly
> conductress to the eighth heaven, or that of the fixed stars, which he enters
> at the constellation of the Twins; and thence looking back, reviews all the
> space he has passed between his present station and the earth.
> 
> Astounded, to the guardian of my steps
> I turn'd me, like the child, who always runs
> Thither for succour, where he trusteth most:
> And she was like the mother, who her son
> Beholding pale and breathless, with her voice
> Soothes him, and he is cheer'd; for thus she spake,
> Soothing me: "Know'st not thou, thou art in Heaven?
> And know'st not thou, whatever is in Heaven,
> Is holy; and that nothing there is done,
> But is done zealously and well? Deem now,
> What change in thee the song, and what my smile
> Had wrought, since thus the shout had power to move thee;
> In which, couldst thou have understood their prayers,
> The vengeance[1] were already known to thee,
> Which thou must witness ere thy mortal hour.
> 
> [1: "The vengeance." Beatrice, it is supposed, intimates the
> approaching fate of Boniface VIII. See Purgatory, Canto xx. 86.]
> 
> The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite,
> Nor yet doth linger; save unto his seeming,
> Who, in desire or fear, doth look for it.
> But elsewhere now I bid thee turn thy view;
> So shalt thou many a famous spirit behold."
> 
> Mine eyes directing, as she will'd, I saw
> A hundred little spheres, that fairer grew
> By interchange of splendour. I remain'd,
> As one, who fearful of o'er - much presuming,
> Abates in him the keenness of desire,
> Nor dares to question; when, amid those pearls,
> One largest and most lustrous onward drew,
> That it might yield contentment to my wish;
> And, from within it, these the sounds I heard.
> 
> "If thou, like me, beheld'st the charity
> That burns amongst us; what thy mind conceives
> Were utter'd. But that, ere the lofty bound
> Thou reach, expectance may not weary thee;
> I will make answer even to the thought,
> Which thou hast such respect of. In old days,
> That mountain, at whose sidehCassino[2] rests,
> Was, on its height, frequented by a race
> Deceived and ill - disposed: and I it was,[3]
> Who thither carried first the name of Him,
> Who brought the soul - subliming truth to man.
> And such a speeding grace shone over me,
> That from their impious worship I reclaim'd
> The dwellers round about, who with the world
> Were in delusion lost. These other flames,
> The spirits of men contemplative, were all
> Enliven'd by that warmth, whose kindly force
> Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness.
> Here is Macarius;[4] Romoaldo[5] here;
> 
> [2: A castle in the Terra di Lavoro.]
> 
> [3: "A new order of monks, which in a manner absorbed all the others
> that were established in the west, was instituted, 529, by Benedict of Nursia,
> a man of piety and reputation for the age he lived in." Maclaine's Mosheim,
> Eccles. Hist.]
> 
> [4: "Macarius, an Egyptian monk, deserves the first rank among the
> practical writers of the fourth century, as his works displayed, some few
> things excepted, the brightest and most lovely portraiture of sanctity and
> virtue." Ibid.]
> 
> [5: S. Romoaldo, a native of Ravenna, and the founder of the order of
> Camaldoli, died in 1027. He was the author of a commentary on the Psalms.]
> 
> And here my brethren, who their steps refrain'd
> Within the cloisters, and held firm their heart."
> 
> I answering thus: "Thy gentle words and kind,
> And this the cheerful semblance I behold,
> Not unobservant, beaming in ye all,
> Have raised assurance in me; wakening it
> Full - blossom'd in my bosom, as a rose
> Before the sun, when the consummate flower
> Has spread to utmost amplitude. Of thee
> Therefore intreat I, father, to declare
> If I may gain such favour, as to gaze
> Upon thine image by no covering veil'd."
> 
> "Brother!" he thus rejoin'd, "in the last sphere[6]
> Expect completion of thy lofty aim:
> For there on each desire completion waits,
> And there on mine; where every aim is found
> Perfect, entire, and for fulfillment ripe.
> There all things are as they have ever been:
> For space is none to bound; nor pole divides.
> Our ladder reaches even to that clime;
> And so, at giddy distance, mocks thy view.
> Thither the patriarch Jacob[7] saw it stretch
> Its topmost round; when it appear'd to him
> With Angels laden. But to mount it now
> None lifts his foot from earth: and hence my rule
> Is left a profitless stain upon the leaves;
> The walls, for abbey rear'd, turn'd into dens;
> The cowls, to sacks choak'd up with musty meal.
> Foul usury doth not more lift itself
> Against God's pleasure, than that fruit, which makes,
> The hearts of monks so wanton: for whate'er
> Is in the Church's keeping, all pertains
> To such, as sue for Heaven's sweet sake; and not
> To those, who in respect of kindred claim,
> Or on more vile allowance. Mortal flesh
> 
> [6: "In the last sphere." The Empyrean, where he afterward sees St.
> Benedict, Canto xxxii. 30. Beatified spirits, though they have different
> heavens allotted them, have all their seats in that higher sphere.]
> 
> [7: "The patriarch Jacob." "And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set
> upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of
> God ascending and descending on it." - Gen. xxviii. 12.]
> 
> Is grown so dainty, good beginnings last not
> From the oak's birth unto the acorn's setting.
> His convent Peter founded without gold
> Or silver; I, with prayers and fasting, mine;
> And Francis, his in meek humility.
> And if thou note the point, whence each proceeds,
> Then look what it hath err'd to; thou shalt find
> The white grown murky. Jordan was turn'd back:
> And a less wonder, than the refluent sea,
> May, at God's pleasure, work amendment here."
> 
> So saying, to his assembly back he drew:
> And they together cluster'd into one;
> Then all roll'd upward, like an eddying wind.
> 
> The sweet dame beckon'd me to follow them:
> And, by that influence only, so prevail'd
> Over my nature, that no natural motion,
> Ascending or descending here below,
> Had, as I mounted, with my pennon vied.
> 
> So, reader, as my hope is eo return
> Unto the holy triumph, for the which
> I oft - times wail my sins, and smite my breast;
> Thou hadst been longer drawing out and thrusting
> Thy finger in the fire, than I was, ere
> The sign,[8] that followeth Taurus, I beheld,
> And enter'd its precinct. O glorious stars!
> O light impregnate with exceeding virtue!
> To whom whate'er of genius lifteth me
> Above the vulgar, grateful I refer;
> With ye the parent[9] of all mortal life
> Arose and set, when I did first inhale
> The Tuscan air; and afterward, when grace
> Vouchsafed me entrance to the lofty wheel[10]
> That in its orb impels ye, fate decreed
> My passage at your clime. To you my soul
> Devoutly sighs, for virtue, even now,
> To meet the hard emprise that draws me on.
> 
> [8: "The sign." The constellation of Gemini.]
> 
> [9: "The parent." The sun was in the constellation of the Twins at
> the time of Dante's birth.]
> 
> [10: "The lofty wheel." The eighth heaven; that of the fixed stars.]
> 
> "Thou art so near the sum of blessedness,"
> Said Beatrice, "that behoves thy ken
> Be vigilant and clear. And, to this end,
> Or ever thou advance thee further, hence
> Look downward, and contemplate, what a world
> Already stretch'd under our feet there lies:
> So as thy heart may, in its blithest mood,
> Present itself to the triumphal throng,
> Which, through the ethereal concave, comes rejoicing."
> 
> I straight obey'd; and with mine eye return'd
> Through all the seven spheres; and saw this globe
> So pitiful of semblance, that perforce
> It moved my smiles: and him in truth I hold
> For wisest, who esteems it least; whose thoughts
> Elsewhere are fix'd, him worthiest call and best.
> I saw the daughter of Latona shine
> Without the shadow,[11] whereof late I deem'd
> That dense and rare were cause. Here I sustain'd
> The visage, Hyperion, of thy son;[12]
> And mark'd, how near him with their circles, round
> Move Maia and Dione;[13] here discern'd
> Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son;[14] and hence,
> Their changes and their various aspects,
> Distinctly scann'd. Nor might I not descry
> Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift;
> Nor, of their several distances, not learn.
> This petty area, (o'er the which we stride
> So fiercely), as along the eternal Twins
> I wound my way, appear'd before me all,
> Forth from the havens stretch'd unto the hills.
> Then, to the beauteous eyes, mine eyes return'd.
> 
> [11: "Without the shadow." See Canto ii. 71.]
> 
> [12: "Of thy son." The sun.]
> 
> [13: "Maia and Dione." The planets Mercury and Venus, Dione being the
> mother of the latter, and Maia of the former deity.]
> 
> [14: "'Twixt his sire and son." Betwixt Saturn and Mars.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto 22*