The Heaven of the Fixed Stars continued. St. Peter examines Dante on Faith.
Revelation xix. 9: "And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb."
The carol was a dance as well as a song; or, to speak more exactly, a dance accompanied by a song.
Gower, Confes. Amant., VI. :--
"And if it nedes so betide,
That I in company abide,
Where as I must daunce and singe
The hove daunce and carolinge."
It is from the old Frencb karole. See passage from the Roman de la Rose in Note 118 of this canto. See also Roquefort, Glossaire: "KAROLE, dance, concert, divertissement; de chorea, chorus;"and " KORALER, sauter, danser, se divertir.
Et Ii borjéois y furent~en present
Karolent main à main, et chantent hautement.
Vie de Du Guesclin."
Milton, Par. LostV 618 :--
'That day, as other solemn days, they spent
In song and dance about the sacred hill,
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular
Then most when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine
So smooths her charming tones, that God's
own ear
Listens delighted."
Not far from Aquinum in the Terra di Lavoro, the birthplace of Juvenal and of Thomas Aquinas, rises Monte Cassino, celebrated for its Benedictine monastery. The following description of the spot is from a letter in the London Daily News, February 26, 1866, in which the writer pleads earnestly that this monastery may escape the doom of all the Religious Orders in Italy, lately pronounced by the Italian Parliament.
"The monastery of Monte Cassino stands exactly half-way between Rome and Naples. From the top of the Monte Cairo, which rises immediately above it, can be seen to the north the summit of Monte Cavo, so conspicuous from Rome; and to the south, the hill of the Neapolitan Camaldoli. From the terrace of the monastery the eye ranges over the richest and most beautiful valley of Italy, the
'Rura quqe Liris queta
Mordet aqua taciturnus amnis.'
The river can be traced through the lands of Aquinum and Pontecorvo, till it is lost in the haze which covers the plain of Sinuessa and Minturnae ; a small strip of sea is visible just beyond the mole of Gaeta.
" In this interesting but little known and uncivilized country, the monastery has been the only centre of religion and intelligence for nearly 1350 years. It was founded by St. Benedict in 529, and is the parent of all the greatest Benedictine monasteries in the world. In 589 the monks, driven out by the Lombards, took refuge in Rome, and remained there for 130 years. In 884 the monastery was burned by the Saracens, but it was soon after restored. With these exceptions it has existed without a break from its foundation till the present day.
"There is scarcely a Pope or Emperor of importance who has not been personally connected with its history. From its mountain crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Normans, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and devastate the land which, through all modern history, has attracted every invader.
"It is hard that, after it has escaped the storms of war and rapine, it should be destroyed by peaceful and enlightened legislation.
"I do not, however, wish to plead its cause on sentimental grounds. The monastery contains a library which, in spite of the pilfering of the Popes, and the wanton burnings of Championnet, is still one of the richest in Italy; while its archives are, I believe, unequalled in the world. Letters of the Lombard kings who reigned at Pavia, of Hildebrand and the Countess Matilda, of Gregory and Charlemagne, are here no rarities. Since the days of Paulus Diaconus in the eighth century, it has contained a succession of monks devoted to literature. His mantle has descended in these later days to Abate Tosti, one of the most accomplished of contemporary Italian writers. In the Easter of last year, I found twenty monks in the monastery: they worked harder than any body of Oxford or Cambridge fellows I am acquainted with; they educated two hundred boys, and fifty novices; they kept up all the services of their cathedral ; the care of the archives included a laborious correspondence with literary men of all nations they entertained hospitably any visitors who came to them ; besides this, they had just completed a facsimile of their splendid manuscript of Dante, in a large folio volume, which was edited and printed by their own unassisted labour. This was intended as an offering to the kingdom of Italy in its new capital, and rumour says that they have incurred the displeasure of the Pope by their liberal opinions. On every ground of respect for prescription and civilization, it would be a gross injustice to destroy this monastery.
'If we are saved,' one of the monks said to me, 'it will be by the public opinion of Europe.' It is the most enlightened part of that opinion which I am anxious to rouse in their behalf."
In the palmy days of the monastery the Abbot of Monte Cassino was the First Baron of the realm, and is said to have held all the rights and privileges other barons, and even criminal jurisdiction in the land. This the inhabitants of the town of Cassino found so intolerable, that they tried to buy the right vith all the jewels of the women and all the silver of their households. When the law for the suppression of the convents passed, they are said to have celerated the event with great enthusiasm; but the monks, as well they might, sang Oremus in their chapel, instead of a Te Deum.
For a description of the library of Monte Cassino in Boccaccio's time, see Note 75 of this canto.
"That is," says Buti, ''of the abundance of their beatitude . . . . . . .And is swiftness and slowness signified the fervour of love which was in them."
From the brightest of these carols or dances.
St. Peter.
Three times, in sign of the Trinity.
Tints too coarse and glaring to paint such delicate draperies of song.
St. Peter speaks to Beatrice.
Fixed upon God, in whom all things are reflected.
The captain of the first cohort of the Church Militant.
St. Paul. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I. 159, says: The early Christian Church was always considered under two great divisions : the church of the converted Jews, and the church of the Gentiles. The first was represented by St. Peter, the second by St. Paul. Standing together in this mutual relation, they represent the universal church of Christ; hence in works of art they are seldom separated, and are indispensable in all ecclesiastical decoration. Their proper place is on each side of the Saviour, or of the Virgin throned; or on each side of the altar; or on each side of the arch over the choir. In any case, where they stand together, not merely as Apostles, but Founders, their place is next afer the Evangelists and the Prophets."
Hebrews xi. I: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
In Scholastic language the essence of a thing, distinguishing it from all other things, is called its quiddity; in answer to the question, Quid est?
Jeremy Taylor says: "Faith is a certain image of eternity; all things are present to it; things past and things to come are all so before the eyes of faith, that he in whose eye that candle is enkindled beholds heaven as present, and sees how blessed a thing it is to die in God's favour, and to be chimed to our grave with the music of a good conscience. Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory; every man that hath this grace is as certain that there are glories for him, if he perseveres in duty, as if he had heard and sung the thanksgiving-song for the blessed sentence of doomsday."
"The purified, righteous man," says Tertullian, "has become a coin of the Lord, and has the impress of his King stamped upon him."
The Old and New Testaments.
In the Middle Ages titles of nobility were given to the saints and to other renowned personages of sacred history. Thus Boccaccio, in his story of Fra Cipolla, Decamerone, Gior. VI. Nov. 10, speaks of the Baron Messer Santo Antonio; and in Juan Lorenzo's Poema de Alexandro, we have Don Job, Don Bacchus, and Don Satan.
The word donnea, which I have rendered "like a lover plays," is from the Provencal donnear. In its old French form, dosnoier, it occurs in some editions of the Roman de la Rose, line 1305:--
"Les karoles jà remanoient;
Car tuit li plusors s'en aloient
O leurs arnies umbroier
Sous ces arbres pour dosnoier."
Chaucer translates the passage thus:--
"The daunces then ended ywere;
For many of hem that daunced there
Were, with hir loves, went away
Under the trees to have hir play."
The word expresses the gallantry of the knight towards his lady.
St. John was the first to reach the sepulchre, but St. Peter the first to enter it John xx. 4: "So they ran both together; and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie."
Dante, Convito, II. 4, speaking of the motion of the Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven, which moves all the others, says: "From the fervent longing which each part of that ninth heaven has to be conjoined with that Divinest Heaven, the Heaven of Rest, which is next to it, it revolves therein with so great desire, that its velocity is almost incomprehensible."
St. Peter and the other Apostles after Pentecost.
Both three and one, both plural and singular.
Again the sign of the Trinity.