Paradiso Rules and Order Quotes

[Beatrice]: "All things, among themselves,
possess an order; and this order is
the form that makes the universe like God.
Here do the higher beings see the imprint
of the Eternal Worth, which is the end
to which the pattern I have mentioned tends.
Within that order, every nature has
its bent, according to a different station,
nearer or less to its origin.
Therefore, these natures move to different ports
across the mighty sea of being,
each given the impulse that will bear it on." (Par. I, 103-114)

[Beatrice]: "If violence means that the one who suffers
has not abetted force in any way,
then there is no excuse these souls can claim:
for will, if it resists, is never spent,
but acts as nature acts when fire ascends,
though force – a thousand times – tries to compel.
So that, when will has yielded much or little,
it has abetted force – as these souls did:
they could have fled back to their holy shelter.
Had their will been as whole as that which held
Lawrence fast to the grate and that which made
of Mucius one who judged his own hand, then
once freed, they would have willed to find the faith
from which they had dragged; but it is all
too seldom that a will is so intact." (Par. IV, 73-87)

[Beatrice]: "As for the matter of the vow – discussed
above – it may be such that if one shifts
to other matters, one commits no sin.
But let none shift the burden on his shoulder
through his own judgment, without waiting for
the turning of the white and yellow keys;
and let him see that any change is senseless,
unless the thing one sets aside can be
contained in one's new weight, as four in six.
Thus, when the matter of a vow has so
much weight and worth that it tips every scale,
no other weight can serve as substitute.
Let mortals never take a vow in jest;
be faithful and yet circumspect; (Par. V, 52-65)

[Justinian]: "But part of our delight is measuring
rewards against our merit, and we see
that our rewards are neither less nor more.
Thus does the Living Justice make so sweet
the sentiments in us, that we are free
of any turning toward iniquity." (Par. VI, 119-123)

[Beatrice to Dante]: "You say: 'I see that water, see that fire
and air and earth and all that they compose
come to corruption, and endure so briefly;
and yet these, too, were things created; if
what has been said above is true, then these
things never should be subject to corruption.'
Brother, the angels and the pure country
where you are now – these may be said to be
created, as they are, in all their being;
whereas the elements that you have mentioned,
as well as those things that are made from them,
receive their form from a created power.
The matter they contain had been created,
just as within the stars that wheel about them,
the power to give form had been created.
The rays and motion of the holy lights
draw forth the soul of every animal
and plant from matter able to take form;
but your life is breathed forth immediately
by the Chief Good, who so enamors it
of His own Self that it desires Him always. (Par. VII, 124-144)

[Charles Martel]: "Engendered natures would forever take
the path of those who had engendered them,
did not Divine provision intervene." (Par. VIII, 133-135)

[St. Thomas]: But that which never dies and that which dies
are only the reflected light of that
Idea which our Sire, with Love, begets;
because the living Light that pours out so
from Its bright Source that It does not disjoin
from It or from the Love intrined with them,
through Its own goodness gathers up Its rays
within nine essences, as in a mirror,
Itself eternally remaining One.
From there, from act to act, light then descends
down to the last potentialities,
where it is such that it engenders nothing
but brief contingent things, by which I mean
the generated things the moving heavens
bring into being, with or without seed.
The wax of such things and what shapes that wax
are not immutable; and thus, beneath
Idea's stamp, light shines through more or less.
Thus it can be that, in the selfsame species,
some trees bear better fruit and some bear worse,
and men are born with different temperaments.
For were the wax appropriately readied,
and were the heaven's power at its height,
the brightness of the seal would show completely;
but Nature always works defectively –
she passes on that light much like an artist
who knows his craft but has a hand that trembles." (Par. XIII, 52-78)

[Beatrice]: The size of spheres of matter – large and small –
depends upon the power – more and less –
that spreads throughout their parts. More excellence
yields greater blessedness; more blessedness
must comprehend a greater body when
that body's parts are equally complete.
And thus this sphere, which sweeps along with it
the rest of all the universe, must match
the circle that loves most and knows the most,
so that, if you but draw your measure round
the power within – and not the semblance of –
the angels that appear to you as circles,
you will discern a wonderful accord
between each sphere and its Intelligence:
greater accords with more, smaller with less." (Par. XXVIII, 64-78)

[Beatrice]: …"The first circles have displayed to you
the Seraphim and Cherubim. They follow
the ties of love with such rapidity
because they are as like the Point as creatures
can be, a power dependent on their vision.
Those other loves that circle round them are
called Thrones of the divine aspect, because
they terminated the first group of three;
and know that all delight to the degree
to which their sees – more or less deeply –
that truth in which all intellects find rest…
The second triad – blossoming in this
eternal springtime that the night Ram
does not despoil – perpetually sings
'Hosanna' with three melodies that sound
in the three ranks of bliss that form this triad;
within this hierarchy there are three
kinds of divinities: first, the Dominions
and then the Virtues; and the final order
contains the Powers. The two penultimate
groups of rejoicing ones within the next
triad are wheeling Principalities
and the Archangels; last, the playful Angels." (Par. XXVIII, 98-126)

[Beatrice]: "Not to acquire new goodness for Himself –
which cannot be – but that his splendor might,
as it shines back to Him, declare 'Subsisto,'
in His eternity outside of time,
beyond all other borders, as pleased Him,
Eternal Love opened into new loves.
Nor did he lie, before this, as if languid;
there was no after, no before – they were
not there until God moved upon these waters.
Then form and matter, either separately
or in mixed state, emerged as flawless being,
as from a three-stringed bow, three arrows spring.
And as a ray shines into amber, crystal,
or glass, so that there is no interval
between its coming and its lighting all,
so did the three – form, matter, and their union –
flash into being from the Lord with no
distinction in beginning: all at once.
Created with the substances were order
and pattern; at the summit of the world
were those in whom pure act had been produced;
and pure potentiality possessed
the lowest part; and in the middle, act
so joined potentiality that they
never disjoin." (Par. XXIX, 13-37)

[Beatrice]: "But since on earth, throughout your schools, they teach
that it is in the nature of the angels
to understand, to recollect, to will,
I shall say more, so that you may see clearly
the truth that, there below, has been confused
by teaching that is so ambiguous.
These beings, since they first were gladdened by
the face of God, from which no thing is hidden,
have never turned their vision from that face,
so that their sight is never intercepted
by a new object, and they have no need
to recollect an interrupted concept." (Par. XXIX, 70-81)

[Beatrice]: "The number of these angels is so great
that there has never been a mortal speech
or mortal thought that named a sum so steep;
and if you look at that which is revealed
by Daniel, you will see that, while he mentions
thousands, he gives no number with precision.
The First Light reaches them in ways
as many as are the angels to which It conjoins
Itself, as It illumines all of them;
and this is why (because affection follows
the act of knowledge) the intensity
of love's sweetness appears unequally." (Par. XXIX, 130-141)

[St. Bernard]: "Within the ample breadth of this domain,
no point can find its place by chance, just as
there is no place for sorrow, thirst, or hunger;
whatever you may see has been ordained
by everlasting law, so that the fit
of ring and finger here must be exact;
and thus these souls who have, precociously,
reached the true life do not, among themselves,
find places high or low without some cause.
The King through whom this kingdom finds content
in so much love and so much joyousness
that no desire would dare to ask for more,
creating every mind in His glad sight,
bestows His grace diversely, at His pleasure –
and here the fact alone must be enough." (Par. XXXII, 52-66)

[St. Bernard]: "Without, then, any merit in their works,
these infants are assigned to different ranks –
proclivity at birth, the only difference.
In early centuries, their parents' faith
alone, and their own innocence, sufficed
for the salvation of the children; when
those early times had reached completion, then
each male child had to find, through circumcision,
the power needed by his innocent
member; but then the age of grace arrived,
and without perfect baptism in Christ,
such innocence was kept below, in Limbo." (Par. XXXII, 73-84)

… In the deep and bright
essence of that exalted Light, three circles
appeared to me; they had three different colors,
but all of them were of the same dimension;
one circle seemed reflected by the second,
as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third
seemed fire breathed equally by those two circles. (Par. XXXIII, 114-120)