The Divine Comedy: Part 5
Eden: as God had intended it. The composite figure of Matelda (Matilda) and the apocalyptic arrival of Beatrice. And the breadth, depth and purpose of Dante's narrative. And more on astronomy.
Recently while reading an article I was struck by the inadequacy of the language used. Variously the event was described as "a key milestone", "a major milestone", "big" and "really impressive". And as the article progressed, another scientist, doing his best to give expression to his feeling of incredulity said: "It's utterly astonishing that this fragile artefact, based on 1970's technology, can signal its presence from this immense distance."
I was, of course reading about Voyager-1; and the reason why the language seemed inadequate, was, that the various contributors were struggling to convey a sense of an event that is beyond the experience of all of us. And in that context, a few simple stats will do: Now that Voyage-1 is in interstellar space, (beyond the magnetic field of the sun), it will be another 300 years before it reaches the edge of the solar system; and though travelling at 100,000 mph, it will take 40,000 years, before it approaches the nearest star.
Be that as it may, and though I will be returning in this blog to the heavens: to the astronomy of Aristotle, for now it is back to earth: to the Garden of Eden, situated as it is, at the summit of the Mountain of Purgatory.
As Dante passes through Purgatory, of necessity, he undergoes a process of cleansing from sin, a point made apparent when, passing through the narrow gate, his forehead is marked by the angel guarding it:
Seven P's he traced upon my forehead
With the point of his sword, and said: "See that you wash
Those wounds when you are in here."
(Purgatorio IX (9) 112-14)
Consequently, as he passes out from each of the seven Terraces a "P" (symbolic of his soul wounded by sin), is removed, so that when he emerges into the Garden of Eden, he is cleansed from the consequences of his sins. And it is at this point that he meets Matelda.
A composite figure, Matelda is singing, and gathering flowers, in what is an idyllic place: the Garden of Eden as God had intended it for Adam and Eve. And it is here too, where Dante, for the first time on this spiritual journey, comes face to face with Beatrice. Coming as she does from Heaven, she arrives in a perfusion of light and singing: distant at first, but more audible as the great allegorical procession that accompanies her draws near. At this point in his composition, Dante draws on images from the Old and New Testaments: the books of Ezekiel, and Revelations (Apocalypse) respectively; and because they are complex images, they deserve their own special treatment, which is why, for now, I am focusing on Dante and his encounter with Matelda.
In Canto XXVIII, (28), and before Matelda makes her appearance, Dante paints a picture of the Garden of Eden as God had intended it: a place in marked contrast to the tormented world that Dante inhabits, a place in which there is neither pain nor sorrow, where nature and Matelda are in harmony, and Dante, as reflected in his writing, feels liberated:
Eager now to explore in and around
The divine forest, which was dense and alive,
So that it tempered the new light to my eyes,
4 I left the slope, without waiting longer,
Making my way across the plain at leisure
Over the ground which was everywhere fragrant.
7 A soft air, without any trace
Of variation, struck me on the forehead,
But no harder than a gentle breeze;
10 It made the branches quiver without resistance,
As one and all they bent in the direction
In which the holy mountain casts its first shade;
13 Yet they were not so deflected from their stations
That the little birds who were perched on top of them
Interrupted the exercise of their art;
(Purgatorio XXVIII (28) 1-15)
And it is while admiring the variety of the May flowers, that Dante becomes aware of Matelda and engages her in conversation.
34 With my feet I came to a stop, but with my eyes
I crossed the little river, in order to gaze
At the variety of May-time flowers;
37 And there appeared to me, as there appears,
Suddenly, something which, for the wonder of it,
Sets every other thought one may have off course,
40 A girl by herself, who went along
Singing, and picking flower after flower,
Her entire path being coloured with them.
43 "Pray, lovely lady, who, if I am to believe
The looks which generally reveal the heart,
Are warming yourself in the sunshine of love,
46 May it please you to come forward a little,"
I said to her, "towards the bank of the stream
So that I may hear what you are singing.
49 You bring to my mind where and what manner of person
Proserpine was in the time when her mother
Lost her and she herself lost her spring flowers."
52 As a woman dancing turns herself
With her feet close to the ground and to each other,
And hardly advances one toe out of line,
55 She turned in my direction, looking over
The red and yellow flowers, exactly as
A virgin will modestly lower her eyes;
(Purgatorio XXVIII (28) 34-57)
Now what is interesting about the fictional character of Matelda is, that commentators generally are unclear as to who, (if anyone), Dante had in mind when he created her. Among them are Raffa and Higgins, both of whom go to some lengths to provide possibilities for the reader. In Danteworlds, Raffa having explained how Dante draws a comparison between Matelda and the classical Roman goddess Proserpina (Greek: Peresphone) and Venus, as well as the virginal figure of Justice, Astraea, goes on to suggest as a possibility, that Dante may have had a number of Matelda's, or near sounding Matelda's in mind: Countessa Matilde of Canossa, or the mystic Mechtildis of Hackeborn, or possibly, Saint Machtildis of Magdeburg.
But for Harold Bloom who has a lot to say about the role of Beatrice in The Divine Comedy, and who doesn't much care for her, all such speculation is pointless. For it would seem from his Introduction to Bloom's Modern Classics: Dante Alighieri, he too, in the context of Matelda, feels liberated:
"Why Dante named this singing girl of a restored Eden Matilda (Metelda) is something of a puzzle, explained away differently by various scholars. Dante's Matilda makes only a brief appearance, but I personally prefer her to Beatrice, who scolds and preaches, and is endlessly too good for Dante. Like Shakespeare's Perdita, Matilda charms us. Who but the ferocious Dante could fall in love again with the heavenly Beatrice? Who would not fall in love with Matilda . . . "
Then having quoted a passage by William Merwin, Bloom continues in this blissful frame of mind, with the image of Dante and Matelda walking in the meadow. And clearly enjoying himself, ends, it seems to me, making light of this literary debate:
"Gracious and beautiful, the mysterious epitome of a young woman in love, Matilda walks with Dante through the meadows as though the Golden Age had returned. Matilda moves like a dancer, and we need not slow her pace by piling allegories upon her, or by relating her to historic noblewomen or blessed contemplatives. Dante notoriously susceptible to the beauty of women, clearly would fall in love with Matilda, if the transmogrified Beatrice, as much chiding mother, as image of desire, were not waiting for him in the next canto."
Of course what Matelda doesn't do is usurp the role of Beatrice. On the contrary, she alerts Dante to the imminent arrival of Beatrice from Heaven, and on Beatrice's instructions, she performs the final cleansing rite for Dante: bathing him in the rivers Lethe and Eunoe. But not before she first explain to Dante how, the state of perfection that she enjoys, is sustained by the will of God. Or before Dante, speaking through Matelda, reminds us of the mythical poetry of the ancients, in which attempts were made to create, (or from Dante's point of view), recreate, that idyllic world that was lost. This Dante attributes to the unique perceptiveness of the poet; and it is not an idle boast, for in making it he was claiming no small credit for himself:
136 I [Matelda] will give you a corollary as a grace;
Nor do I think you will value my words less
If they go beyond what I have promised.
139 Those who in ancient times wrote poems about
The happy condition of the age of gold,
Perhaps, on Parnassus, were dreaming of this place.
142 Here the root of the human race was innocent;
Here it was always spring, every fruit is here;
This is the nectar of which everyone talks."
(Purgatorio, Canto XXVIII (28) 136-144)
Now as compared to the quiet and pleasing appearance of Matelda, the pending arrival of Beatrice was both dramatic and problematic for Dante, who found himself caught between extremes of emotion. On the one hand, the rekindling of his natural love for Beatrice, and on the other, fear of the love that he might experience when he sees her transformed in glory:
31 Over a white veil, crowned with olive,
A lady came to me, under her green cloak
Clothed in the colour of flame.
34 And my spirit, which for so long a time
Had not been in her presence,
Trembled with wonder, crushed,
37 Without knowing her any more, with my eyes,
But through the secret virtue which went out from her,
Felt the great power of this ancient love.
40 The moment that, as I looked, I was struck
By the high virtue which had already stabbed me
Before I was out of my boyhood,
43 I turned round to my left, with that trust
With which a child runs to his mother,
When he is afraid or in trouble,
46 To say to Virgil: "Less than a drop of blood
Is left in me, that is not trembling:
I know the signs of the ancient flame."
49 But Virgil had taken himself away from us,
Virgil, my sweetest father, to whom
I had given myself up for my own well-being."
(Purgatorio Canto XXX (30) 31-51)
But given the the redemptive nature of Dante's journey, it was not long before the mood had changed, and a remorseful Dante was reduced to tears by Beatrice, who, addressing her entourage! was chastising him for having endangered his soul after her death:
121 For some years I sustained him with my looks
Showing my youthful eyes to him,
I led him with me in the right direction.
124 As soon as I was upon the threshold
Of my second age and changed my life, he took himself [Her marriage]
From me, and gave himself to others.
127 When I had mounted from flesh to spirit, [Early death]
And my beauty and virtue had grown greater,
To him I became less dear and less pleasing;
130 And he turned his steps along an untrue path, [Study and politics]
Following false appearances of good
Which never kept any promise entirely.
133 It was not good my begging for inspiration,
With which in dreams, and in other ways
I called him back, little he cared about that!
136 So low he fell, that every remedy
Was short of what was needed for his salvation,
Except that of showing him the dammed."
(Purgatorio Canto XXX (30) 121-138)
And yet again the scene changes. With the procession retracing its steps we find Beatrice sitting on the ground by a rejuvenated tree, talking to Dante, and instructing him to remember what he had sees, so that he can tell of it when he returns to earth. For what had unfolded before him, as allegory, was the history of the Church.
In the first of these allegorical passages, the arrival of Beatrice, Dante was mistaken in interpreting the images before him. What from a distance had appeared as illuminated trees, turned out to be seven candlesticks. And what he had mistakenly thought were banners following on from behind the candlesticks, were trailing flames of light. And using the span of the seven candlesticks as a guide, he judged the procession to be ten paces wide. Behind the candlesticks and with the choir singing Hosannas, came seven columns, one behind each candlestick, as though, as Dante put it, following their leader. They were dressed in white, and in appearance gave off a luminous quality that he likened to sunlight reflected in a mirror. And coming two-by-two behind them, were twenty four elders, "all crowned with fleur-de-lys." and singing: "Blessed art thou/Among the daughters of Adam, and blessed/Your loveliness to all eternity!" In turn, they were followed by "four living creatures/Each of them crowned with green branches". They each had six wings, and their feathers were "full of eyes."
At this, Dante breaks off from his description of the four living creatures, to address the reader directly, and advises them to read Ezekiel, where these creatures can be found. After which, he continues with his description of this great procession:
In the space between these four creatures came a triumphal two wheeled car drawn by a griffin The griffin's wings stretched upwards to a great height, and with such precision, that they allowed the middle streamer of light to pass undisturbed between the wings, and with three of the remaining six streamers of light passing on the outer edge of each wing. Those parts of the griffin that resembled a bird, were gold, while the rest was white and carmine. By the right carriage wheel three ladies danced in a circle. One was a fiery red, another, the colour of emerald, while the third was as white as fresh snow. And there were four by the left wheel, all dressed in purple and led in their dance by the one with three eyes in her head. Then came two old men who, though dressed differently, had the same forthright and massive bearing. One he tells us, was dressed like a follower of Hippocrates, the other, as he puts it, "dressed for the opposite profession". He bore a sword: glittering and sharp, that left Dante fearful, though he was watching this solemn procession from a distance: from the opposite bank of the river. And lastly, came four men of modest appearance, and behind them, an old man, advancing as though he were asleep, but whose face was keen. All were dressed in purple; and rather than lilies, their heads were bedecked with roses and other red flowers. To which Dante adds, that from a distance, it seemed as though the area above their eyes was alight.
Now if we are to go beyond the literal, to the allegorical, this is a moment at which we need help, and here the notes are invaluable, for they provide us with an insight into the breadth, depth, and purpose of Dante's narrative.
From them we learn that what Dante was witnessing was the Revelation of Divine Truth. In the "candlesticks":we have the seven-fold spirit of God, as well as the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that in my boyhood days would have been identified as: "Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and fear of the Lord." "Hosanna" was the cry of welcome that went up from the crowds, as Jesus entered Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, after which, he was betrayed and put to death by crucifixion. And the ten paces between the banners of light, "probably" represent the Ten Commandments. As for the elders, they are symbolic of "the twenty-four books of the Old Testament, "on the reckoning of St. Jerome, (who had in mind the twenty-four elders of Revelations 4.4"). As for the fleur-de-lys, the lily, that is symbolic of the purity of the Faith. And when it comes to the words: :"Blessed art thou/Among the daughters of Adam, and blessed/Your loveliness to all eternity!" (II.85-87, we are told that in them we have a blend of ideas: an echo of the words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation (Luke 1.28), to which Dante added, "something of the words of the Bridegroom to his Bride" in this instance, "Christ to his Church" (Higgins), from the Song of Songs (4.7), of which, the chariot or "car" that carries Beatrice is the symbol. The four "living creatures" represent the Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and consequently the four Gospels. "Green" expresses the hope of eternal life, which is the message of the Gospels. And as previously mentioned, the "triumphal car": is the Church on earth, the two wheels of which, "probably" signify the monastic: religious orders: the Dominicans and Franciscans who were dedicated to the pursuit and propagation of divine knowledge and the practice of Christian love. To which, Higgins adds, that the "car", is also a reminder of the two-wheeled war chariots employed in triumphal processions in ancient Rome. Half Eagle and half lion, the griffin stands for Christ in his duality: as both God and man. with the gold, an incorruptible metal, representing his divinity, and the white and carmine, the purity of his manhood, and the blood of his sacrifice on the Cross. The "Three ladies" in their traditional symbolic colours of red, green and white, are representations of the theological virtues of love, hope and faith, virtues essential to salvation, which is why they dance by the right wheel of the Church. As for the four ladies on the left, they stand for the "moral, cardinal or active virtues of prudence, courage, justice and moderation." And while their purple dresses are symbolic of the Christian love that infuses them, for they are now are what were pagan virtues, transferred to the service of the true God.. As for the lady leading the dance and having "three eyes", this we are told, is a representation of the past the present and the future. The "two old men" are the evangelist Luke, (a doctor,) identified by his link to Hippocrates, and who appears here as the author of the Acts of the Apostles; and St. Paul, representing the major Epistles. As for the "four modest men" they are Peter, Jude, James and John, who represent the minor or General Epistles. And, "an old man by himself": Saint John the Evangelist, author of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, (Apocalypse.) which it is believed he wrote after a profound visionary experience. And lastly: "...roses and other red flowers:" the red signifying the fire of Christian love.
Continuing with the allegory, in Canto XXXII, (32), what Dante describes, is the history of the struggle between good and evil as represented both within the Church, and between the Church and the wider world. And here too, meaning is implied. That said, this passage, from a literary point of view, could stand: alone:
109 Never did fire descend with such swiftness
From thick cloud, where it falls from the remotest
Regions of the atmosphere,
112 As I saw the bird of Jove drop
Down through that tree, ripping the bark,
As well as the flowers and the new leaves;
115 And he struck against the car with all his strength;
So that it reeled like a ship in a storm,
Battered by the waves, first to port and then to starboard.
118 Then I saw the vixen rush into the cradle
Of the triumphal car; she seemed to have been fasting
From every kind of wholesome nourishment.
121 But, reproving her for her obscene faults,
My lady put her to a flight as swift
As those bones without flesh could manage.
124 Then, by the way by which it had first come,
I saw the eagle descend into the inside
Of the car, and leave it coated with his feathers:
127 And, as a voice comes from a grieving heart,
There came a voice from heaven, with these words:
"My little ship, how ill-laden you are!"
130 Then it seemed to me that the earth opened
Between the wheels, and I saw a dragon come out;
And it struck its tail right up through the car;
133 And like a wasp which pulls back its sting,
Drawing his malignant tail to himself,
He pulled out a bit of the bottom and wandered off.
136 What remained covered itself again
With the feathers - which perhaps had been offered
In good faith and with the kindest intentions -
139 Like earth sprouting grass, and both wheels,
And the shaft were covered with them
In less time that a sigh keeps the mouth open for.
142 The sacred construction, thus transformed,
Put out heads from its different parts,
Three over the prow and one on each side.
145 The first were horned like oxen, but the four
Had a single horn upon their foreheads;
Like monster there was never seen before..
148 Securely, like a city set on a hill,
Appeared to me a harlot, her clothes loose,
And casting her eyes around her all the time.
151 And as if to ensure that no one carried her off,
I saw a giant beside her, standing upright;
And from time to time they kissed one another.
154 But because she turned her lustful wandering eye
On me, her fierce lover immediately
Whipped her from head to foot;
157 Then, full of suspicion and made cruel by rage,
He loosed the monster, and dragged it through the wood,
Which made that the only shield I had
160 From the harlot and the new monstrosity
(Purgatorio Canto XXXII (32) 109-160)
In opening tercet, Dante alludes to the persecution of the early Christian Church by the Emperor Nero. While in the tercet that follows "the bird of Jove" is the eagle, and "possibly" symbolic of the Roman Empire. In turn the "vixen" is representative of heresy, and in particular Gnosticism in the second century. As for the eagles feathers with which the car was coated, these relate to what is known as the "Donation of Constantine" a forged document that surfaced in the eighth century, and n which it was claimed that the Emperor Constantine had surrendered the political authority of the Roman Empire to the Pope. As for the "dragon" attacking the carriage and being linked to Mohammed and Islam, in context, this relates to the, mistaken belief, by Dante and his contemporaries, that Mohammed was a Christian heretic, apostate and schismatic. As for the additional feathers, that Dante suggests might have been offered in good faith (as protection for the Church), Higgins suggests that this may relate to the donations to the Church of territories and wealth by the Frankish kings, Pepin and Charlemagne in the eighth century, thereby compounding the problem of avarice and loss of spiritual authority within Church, with the result that the Church of Dante's day was seen to be a monstrous parody of the primitive Church, (lines 142-7), born as it was, out of material poverty and spiritual wealth. And the metamorphosis of the car into a monstrous beast with seven heads and ten horns, is linked to the image of Revelations (Apocalypse) 13.1. The harlot is the corrupted Bride of Christ, the Church, and the giant, the kings of France who at first on friendly terms with the papacy, came to dominate it, and who, with the compliance of the Gascon pope, Clement V, moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. An action for which in the Inferno, Dante predicts his eternal damnation.
All this being so, and before Dante undergoes his final spiritual cleansing: a prerequisite for ascending with Beatrice to the Heavens, Beatrice foretells that God will send a champion to save, both the Church and the Empire.
Now in the context of Dante's pending journey with Beatrice, this seems a good point at which to return, briefly, to a consideration of astronomy from the point of view of Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Dante.
In Dante's day, astronomy and theology were part of the liberal arts at the first universities of Oxford and Paris, with the result, that the linking or overlapping of these disciplines was not uncommon. So beginning with Aristotle and moving from there to Aquinas, by the time we get to Dante we will better understand his approach to astronomy in the Comedy.
Aristotle's views are expressed in a convoluted argument in Chapter VIII of "Physics", and on the theme of motion and cause, he argues that a "first mover" is self-evidently necessary in explaining the origin of things. In his argument he considers movement as we understand it, not just in the heavens, but here on earth: as to whether or not, for example, movement in an animate object can be self-generated, an idea that he rejects. And so too with the inanimate. We know from experience, he tells us, that movement has to be generated from beyond the thing itself. i.e., a stone can't move itself, but it can be moved by a stick, that in turn is moved by an arm holding the stick, and so on And so too in respect of the heavenly bodies, for which motion is essential. While the movement in one thing can generate movement in another, Aristotle argues that it is self-evidently not an explanation for the cause of existence, to try to trace motion back into infinity, because what we know, is, that movement ultimately has to be generated by a mover, a first mover, that by that very fact, has to be eternal..And he argues the case for a single unidentified first mover. So it is in this context that Aristotle knows that God exists, but, unlike Aquinas, who was a theologian, he does not go beyond this point.
Now in the passage that follows, taken from Aquinas, from his Shorter Summa, his own abridged version of his vast work Summa Theologica,.we can see the mind of Aristotle, as it were, hovering in the background.
Simply headed "God" it reads:
"Regarding the unity of the divine essence, we must first believe that God exists. This is a truth clearly known by reason. We observe that all things that move are moved by other things, the lower by the higher. The elements are moved by heavenly bodies; and among the elements themselves, the stronger moves the weaker; and even among the heavenly bodies, the lower are set in motion by the higher. This process cannot be traced back into infinity. For everything that is moved by another is a sort of instrument of the first mover. Therefore, if a first mover is lacking, all things that move will be instruments. But if the series of movers and things moved is infinite, there can be no first mover. In such a case, these infinitely many movers and things moved will all be instruments. But even the unlearned perceive how ridiculous it is to suppose that instruments are moved, unless they are set in motion by some principle agent. This would be like fancying that, when a chest or a bed is being built, the saw or the hatchet performs its functions without the carpenter. Accordingly, there must be a first mover that is above all the rest; and this being we call God.".
As for Dante and his astronomy, and the link with Aristotle, we have this passage from Raffa's Danteworlds, which is clear and concise, and therefor a good summary:
"Dante's Paradise, consistent with Medieval cosmology, comprises concentric spheres revolving around a fixed immobile earth [the Earth is the centre of the universe]. The first eight spheres each carry a heavenly body - or bodies, in the case of the eighth - in circular orbit around the earth: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Fixed Stars (the constellations of the Zodiac) The ninth, outermost sphere in Dante's geometric cosmos, is the crystalline sphere of Primum Mobile - that is the sphere that is first moved and thus able to impart movement to the sphere's below it. Beyond the Primum Mobile, and therefore beyond space and time, is the Empyrean. . . . . .an immaterial motionless heaven that is the divine mind itself and the true home of angels and the blessed."
And an important aspect of the connection with Aristotle, is how Dante used astronomy as a measure of good or ill in the journey of the soul to God. Just as Aristotle developed a cosmology of worth, as determined by his perception of the physical laws in which all that was corruptible and imperfect was consigned to Earth, (people and animals), so too, all that was considered Divine, or perfect, was associated with the heavens, and with the moon representing the lowest point in this state of perfection. So too with Dante. Remembering that as Dante arranged it, there was a hierarchy of sin in both Hell and Purgatory, Dante follows the principles of Aristotle. Hell, and hence the Devil, as we have seen, are at the centre of the Earth, at the farthest most point from the Empyrean, the place where God dwells. And as we progress through the Paradiso, we can see that there is a definite gradation in saints, the nearer we get to the Empyrean.
So here then is Dante's categorizing of the blessed, as expressed superficially, that is, as best he can so as to be understood by us.
On the Moon we have those souls who, while consecrated to God in religious life, had been unfaithful to their vows. On Mercury, those whose sin had been to seek after fame. On Venus, lovers, but with this important caveat, those whose love (for whatever reason), had been misplaced. The Sun: is where we find those who were renowned for their wisdom. And on Mars, and as in mythology the name suggests, the valiant: those souls who in life had evangelized, risking, and in some instances, loosing their lives for Christ. Jupiter, again as the name suggests, is the heavenly home of those who ruled justly. And Saturn: the home of contemplatives. At the Fixed Stars we have the Church Triumphant, where, among others, we meet the apostles, Peter, James and John, and Adam, the first man created by God. And at the Primum Mobile, the orders of angels
_______________
© Cormac McCloskey
Note: The next in this series of blogs, AN INTERMISSION: will appear on 12 February.
Dante's letter to his patron Cangrande della Scalla, and what it tells us about The Divine Comedy. And, is it real, or a fake?
The sources listed below were referenced, and in most instances, used, in the composition of these blogs:
The Divine Comedy
Translated by C.H. Sisson
Introduction and Notes: David H. Higgins
(Oxford World's Classics)
Oxford University Press (2008)
ISBN: 978-0-19953564-4
Dante: The Divine Comedy
I: Hell
Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers
Penguin Classics (1953) edition
The Complete Danteworlds
A Reader's Guide to the Divine Comedy
Guy P. Raffa
University of Chicago Press (2009)
ISBN:10: 0-226-70270-7
The De Monarchia Of
Dante Alighieri
Edited With Translation And Notes
by Aurelia Henry (1904)
Printed in Great Britain
by Amazon.co.uk Ltd
Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol's 1,3,7,11,14 and 28
in respect of a variety of related topics (1991 edition)
Vol 14: Aristotle. 28: Thomas Aquinas
Aristotle
A very Short Introduction
by Jonathan Barnes
Oxford University Press (2000)
ISBN: 978-19-285408-7
BBC Radio 4 archive
In Our Time, 17th September 2009
"Melvyn Bragg discusses the life, works and enduring influence of the medieval philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, with Martin Palmer, John Haldane and Anabel Brett." here
Bloom's Modern Critical Views
Editor, Harold Bloom
Chelsea House Publishers,
Philadelphia U.S.A. (2004)
ISBN: 0-7910--7658-X
The Poetics of Conversion
by John Freccero
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London England (1986)
ISBN: 0-674-19225-7 (alk, paper (cloth)
ISBN: 0-674-19226-5 (paper)
Saint Augustine
City of God
Penguin Books 2003
ISBN-13: 978-8-14-044894-8
Evangelii Gaudium
The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis
The Word Among Us press 2013
ISBN : 978-1-59325-262-5Penguin Books 2003
ISBN-13: 978-8-14-044894-8
Evangelii Gaudium
The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis
The Word Among Us press 2013
(1) Wikipedia unam sanctam
Virgil (40-19BC) Regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets
(2) Wikipedia, for an excellent broad sweep of The Divine Comedy, go here
(3) De Monarchia Boo II: XIII In the chapter headed "Christ in dying confirmed the jurisdiction of
the Roman Empire over all humanity" Dante argues the case for the Roman Empire being the lawful authority by which Christ was put to death (lawful, in the sense of being ordained by God) and at XIII.4 he writes "Wherefore let those who pretend they are sons of the Church cease to defame the Roman Empire, to which Christ the Bridegroom gave his sanction both at the beginning and at the close of his warfare. And now I believe, it is sufficiently obvious that the Roman people appropriated the Empire of the world by Right."
(1) Dante's Astronomy :
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