Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019

Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

HELL

At half-way of life I - Dante - got lost in a dense forest. Terrible, around wild beasts - allegories of vices; there is nowhere to go. And here is a ghost, which turned out to be the shadow of my beloved ancient Roman poet Virgil. I ask him for help. He promises to take me from here in the wanderings of the other world, so that I may see Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. I am ready to follow him.

Yes, but how can I have such a journey? I got worse and hesitated. Vergil condescended to me, telling me that Beatrice (my late beloved) herself had descended from Paradise to Hell to him and asked to be my guide in the wanderings of the Death. If so, then you can not hesitate, you need resolve. Lead me, my teacher and mentor!

Above the entrance to Hell is an inscription that takes away all hope for the incoming. We entered. Here, right behind the entrance, the pitiful souls do not work in the course of life, neither good nor evil. Then the river Aheron, Through her fierce Charon transports the dead of the dead. We are with them. "But you're not a dead man!" Charon screaming at me angrily. Vergil suppressed him. Swam The rumble was heard from the distance, the wind blew, the flames flashed. I lost my senses ...

The first circle of Hell - Limb. Here the souls of unbaptized infants and glorious pagans - warriors, wise men, poets (including Vergil) are languishing. They do not suffer, but only regret that they have no place in Paradise as non-Christians. We with Vergil joined the great poets of antiquity, the first of which was Homer. Gradually went and talked about the unearthly.

In the descent into the second circle of the underground kingdom, the demon Minos defines which sinner the place of hell should be subjected to. He reacted to me in the same way as Charon, and Virgil also humbled him. We saw the spirits carried away by the hellish whirlwind (the Cleopatra, Elena the Great, etc.). Among them is Francesca, and here inseparable with his lover. An immense mutual passion led them to tragic death. Deeply compassionate to them, I again lost my senses.

In the third circle, the zealous dog of Cerberus rages. There was a cry for us, but Virgil smothered him too. Here lie in the mud, under heavy showers, the souls sinned with gluttony. Among them is my fellow countryman, Florentine Chacca. We talked about the fate of our hometown. Chakko asked me to remind him of living people when I returned to the ground.

The demon guarding the fourth circle, where he punishes the waste-makers and the procurers (among them many spiritual clergymen - the popes, cardinals), - Pluto. Vergilia too had to precipitate him, so that he would be disconnected. From the fourth, they went down to the fifth circle, where angry and lazy, mired in the swamps of the Stigiah lowlands, suffered. Come to some tower.

This is a fortress, a vast reservoir around it, in a boat, a rower, a demon of Flea. After another interruptions, they sat down to him, swim. A sinner tried to grab across the board, I screwed him around, and Virgil pushed off. In front of us is the hell city of Diet. Every dead insect prevents us from entering it. Virgil, leaving me (oh, scared one!), Went to find out what was the matter, returned anxious but encouraged.

And here also hellish furies appeared before us, threatening. The suddenly emerging heavenly messenger, who curtailed their malice, gained power. We entered the Diet. Everywhere the tombs embraced by the flames, from which the groans of heretics come. On the narrow road we get through the tombs.

A powerful figure suddenly grew from one tomb. This is Farinat, my ancestors were his political opponents. In me, having heard my conversation with Virgil, he guessed by his fellow countryman. The proud, he seemed to despise the entire abyss of Hell, We argued with him, and one more head came out of the neighboring tomb: yes, this is the father of my friend Guido! It was imagined to him that I was a dead person and that his son too had died, and he descended at the bottom. Farinath, calm him; Guido lived!

Near the descent from the sixth circle in the seventh, above the grave of the lady-heretic Anastasia, Virgil explained to me the structure of the remaining three circles of Hell, narrowing downwards (to the center of the earth), and what sins in which belt are punished.

The seventh circle is compressed by the mountains and we guard the demon-half-beat of the Minotaur, which is terribly creeping on us. Virgil shouted at him, and we hurried to move away. They saw a stream of boiling blood, in which tyrants and robbers are cooking, and from the shore, centaurs shoot them from the bows. Centaur Ness became our attendant, told about executed rapists and helped to pass the boiling river in the womb.

Circles are spiny thickets without greenery. I broke a branch, and black blood broke out of it, and the barrel groaned. It turns out that these bushes are the souls of suicides (violators over their own flesh). They are hunted by Harpius birds, trampled by running dead, causing them unbearable pain. One tattered bush asked me to assemble broken branches and return them to him. It turned out that the miserable is my countryman. I fulfilled his request and we went further. We see the sand, the flames of fire flutter from above it, burning the sinners who shout and moan - all but one: it lies silently. Who is that King Capain, a proud and gloomy atheist, defeated by the gods for his abstinence. He is still faithful to himself: either he is silent, or he swears loudly to the gods. "You are your own tormentor!" - Virgil yelled at him ...

But to meet us, tormented by fire, the souls of new sinners move. Among them, I easily found out my lofty teacher Brunetto Latini. He is among those who have to be inclined to love same-sex. We got into a conversation. Brunetto predicted that glory awaits me in the world of life, but there will be many hardships that need to be resisted. The teacher instructed me to protect his main composition, in which he lived, - "Grave".

And three other sinners (sin the same) dance in the fire. All Florentines, former dear citizens. I talked to them about the miseries of our hometown. They asked to convey to living neighbors that I had seen them. Then Vergil led me to a deep failure in the eighth circle. We will bring down the hellish beast there. He is already climbing to us from there.

This is a cute Garyon. While he is preparing for the descent, there is still time to look at the last martyrs of the seventh circle - usurers who are in the whirlwind of blazing dust. Various colored wallets with different coats of arms are hanging from their cuffs. I did not talk to them. In the way! We sit down with Vergil on horseback in Geryon and - horror! - smoothly fly into failure, to new torments. Descended Gherion immediately flew away.

The eighth circle is divided into ten tornadoes called Zlopazuha. Swordsmen and seducers of women in the first trough, and flatterers in the second. The horded demons scoff at the convoys, the flattery sit in a liquid mass of silt feces - the intolerable sting. By the way, one whore is not punished here for not being whacked, but for flattering his lover, saying that she is well with him.

The next moat (the third sinus) is lined with stone, vibrant circular holes, from which burning legs of high-ranking clergy who trade in church positions stick out. The heads and their bodies are clamped down by the wells of the stone wall. Their successors, when they die, will also be dying on their place with their burning legs, completely thrown into the rock of their predecessors. This was explained to me by Dad Orsini, who initially accepted me as my successor.

In the fourth sin is tormented by the prophets, star detectors, sorceresses. They have twisted their necks so that, crying, they irrigate themselves with tears, not their chest, but their ass. I also cried myself, seeing such a mockery of people, and Virgil humbling me; sin sorry for sinners! But he also, with sympathy, told me about my fellow countryman, the prophetess Manto, whose name was Mantoua, the birthplace of my glorious mentor.

The fifth moat is filled with boiling resin, into which the devils are evil, black, winged, throw bribe takers and make sure that they do not stretch out, and not that they sink the sinner with the hooks and finish it in the most cruel way. In the nickname of the devil: Zlohvost, Kosoprylya, etc. Part of the further path we will have to go through in their terrible company. They curl up, show the tongues, their boss made a deafening obscene sound behind him. I have not heard that yet! We go with them along the ditch, the sinners dive into the resin - they hide, and one dwells, and he immediately pulled them out with hooks, trying to torment, but allowed us to talk to him before. The poor man tricked the vigilant Zlohvatov and ducked back - he did not have time to catch him. The irritated devils fought against each other, and the two fell into a pit. In a clutter, we hurried to leave, but it was not here! They are flying for us. Vergil picked me up barely managed to run into the sixth branch, where they are not the master. Here, the hypocrites exude under the weight of leaded gilded clothes. But the crucified (circled to the ground) Jewish high priest insisted on the execution of Christ. He is trampled by the feet of lead-guilty hypocrites.

The transition was labor-intensive: in a rocky way into the seventh sinus. Here thieves live biting with monstrous poisonous snakes. From these bites they scatter in dust, but immediately recover in their face. Among them was Vanni Fuchchi, who had stroked the vestry and dumped the other. The man is rude and blasphemer: God sent "to the figs", raising two cookies upwards. There were snakes attacked on him (I love them for that). Then I watched how a serpent merged with one of the thieves, after which he took his face and stood on his feet, and the thief crawled, becoming a reptile reptile. Miracles! Such metamorphoses will not be found also by Ovid, Lickey, Florence: these thieves are your offspring! It's shameful ... And in the eighth trash dwell insidious advisers. Among them is Uliss (Odysseus), his soul is grounded in a flame capable of speaking! So, we heard the story of Ulysses about his death: he wanted to know the unknown, he floated with a handful of brave men to the other end of the world, fell into a shipwreck, and, with his friends, drowned away from the world inhabited by people, another flame spoken in which the soul was not named after its name an evil counselor, told me about my sin: this counselor helped the Roman pope in one unjust deed - relying on what the dad would release him to his sin. To the simple sinner of heaven is more tolerant than to those who hope to be saved by repentance. We went to the ninth moat, where the smiters of the troublemakers were executed.

These are the instigators of bloody dissonance and religious confusion. The devil smacks them with a heavy sword, cuts off the nose and ears, crushes the skulls. Here is also Magomet, and he urged Caesar to the Coryon civil war, and the beheaded warrior-troubadour Bertrand de Born (his head is in his hand as a lantern, and he exclaims, "Woe!").

Next, I met my relative, angry at me for the fact that his violent death remained unoccupied. Then we switched to the tenth moat, where alchemists have an eternal itch. One of them was burned for jokingly boasting that he was able to fly - he became a victim of denunciation. In Hell, it was not for this, but as an alchemist. Here, those who betrayed themselves as other people, false moneymakers and generally liars are stunned. Two of them fought against each other and then were long overwhelmed (master Adam, who mixed the copper in golden coins, and ancient Greek Synon deceiving the Trojans). Vergil rebuked me for the curiosity with which I listened to them.

Our journey through Zlopazuham ends. We came to the well leading from the eighth circle of Ada to the ninth. There are ancient giants, titans. Among them was Nemvrod, who spoke something evilly in an incomprehensible language, and Antaeus, who, at the request of Virgil, dropped us to the bottom of the well on his huge palm, and he immediately straightened himself.

So, we are at the bottom of the universe, near the center of the globe. We have an ice lake in front of us, and those who have betrayed their relatives have frozen in it. I accidentally stuck my foot over my head, he screamed, and refused to name himself. Then I grabbed his hair, and then someone called him by the name. Honey, now i know who you are and tell you about people! And he: "Vry, what do you want, about me and about others!" But here is an ice hole, in which a single dead man gnaws a skull to another. I ask: for what? Having broken off from his victim, he answered me. He, Count Ugolino, takes vengeance to his former adherent, the archbishop of Ruggieri, who drowned him and his children with hunger, shoving them into the Pyasant Tower. Their sufferings were unbearable, children were dying in the eyes of their father, he died last. Shame on Pizza! We go further. And who is this before us? Albergo? But he, as far as I know, did not die so how did he find himself in Ada? There is also such: the body of the villain still lives, and the soul is already in the underworld.

In the center of the earth, the mistress of Ada Lucifer, drowned into the ice, descended from heaven and abyss in the fall of the inferior heavens, disfigured, threefold. From his first mouth, Judas sticks out, from the second Brutus, from the third Cassius, He chews them and torks with claws. The worst of all lies with the most vile traitor - Judah. From Lucifer, a well extends to the surface of the opposite terrestrial hemisphere. We squeezed into her, climbed to the surface and saw the stars.

PURGATORY

May I help the Muses sing the second kingdom! Elder Katon, who was guarding him, met us in an unfriendly manner: who are they? How dare to come here? Vergil explained, and, wishing to calm Katona, he warmly spoke about his wife Marcia. What is Marcia here? Go to the beach, wash it! We went Here it is, the sea distant. And in the coastal grasses - abundant dew. Her Virgil washed away from my face a sip of Abandoned Hell.

The angel-controlled shuttle flew to us from the sea. In it the souls of the deceased, who were fortunate not to get into Hell. They drove off, went to the shore, and the angel swam. The shadows of the arrived crowded around us, and in one I found out my friend, the singer, to Cozell. I wanted to embrace him, but the shadow was loose - hugged herself. At the request of my sister, Kozel began to sing about love, everyone was listening, but here Cato appeared, shouted at all (did not do anything!), And we rushed to the mountain Purgatory.

Vergil was dissatisfied with himself: he gave a reason to shout at himself ... Now we need to scrutinize the way ahead. Let's see where the shadows arrived. And they themselves have just noticed that I am not a shadow: I do not miss the light. Surprised Vergil explained everything to them. "Come with us," they invited.

So, rush to the bottom of the purgatory mountain. But are they all in a hurry, are not they all enduring? There is a group of people who are not very hurrying up the climb up near the big stone: they say, it's time; it's the one to whom it's gone. Among these lazy people, I learned my boyfriend Belakva. It's nice to see that he, and in the course of life, is the enemy of all haste, is faithful to himself.

In the foothills of Purgatory, I had to deal with the shadows of the victims of violent death. Many of them were great sinners, but, prophesying with life, they managed to sincerely repent and therefore did not fall into Hell. It's a shame for a devil who has lost his prey! He, however, found how to recover: without gaining control over the soul of the repentant deceased sinner, he was abused over his dead body.

Not far from this, we saw the royal majesty of Sardoello's shadow. He and Virgil, having recognized each other in their fellow countrymen (Mantouans), were embraced fraternally. Here is an example of you, Italy, a dirty brothel, where the bonds of brotherhood are completely torn! Especially you, my Florence, is good, you will not say anything ... See, look at yourself ...

Sordello agrees to be our guide to Purgatory. It is a great honor for him to help high-spirited Vergilia. Speaking gradually, we approached the flowering fragrant valley, where, while preparing for the night, the shadows of the high-ranking people - the European sovereigns settled down. We watched them from afar, listening to their concert singing.

It was an evening hour, when the desire attracted those who had flown back to their loved ones, and remember the bitter moment of farewell; when the pilgrim owns the grief and he hears, as a distant cry weeping uneasy about the day irrevocable ... In the valley of rest of the earthly rulers crazy snake was crazy temptation, but the flying angels expelled him.

I landed on the grass, fell asleep and was transferred to the gates of the Purgatory in a dream. The angel guarded them seven times the same letter on my forehead, the first in the word "sin" (seven mortal sins, these letters will be alternately erased from my forehead as they ascend to the purgatory mountain). We entered the second kingdom of the Dead, the gates closed behind us.

The ascent began. We are in the first circle of the Purgatory, where they redeem their sin of pride. In the shame of pride there are erected statues, embodying the idea of high feat - humility. And here are the shadows of cleansing proud: during life unstable, here they are punished for their sin, bending under the weight of stone blocks buried on them.

"Our Father ..." - this prayer was sung by fierce proud people. Among them - the miniature artist, Oderiz, who, during his lifetime, was struggling with his loud glory. Now, he says, realized that he had nothing to hanker: all are equal in the face of death - and an old old man, and a baby "nymph-nym" that flutters, and glory comes and goes away. The sooner you understand this and find the strength to curb your pride, to reconcile, the better.

Under our feet, we have bas-reliefs with captured scenes of punished pride: Lucifer and Briarey, Tsar Saul, Hopfern and others descended from heaven. Our stay in the first round ends. An angel emerged from my forehead one of the seven letters - in a sign that the sin of pride was overcome by me. Vergil smiled at me.

Climbed to the second circle. Here are envious, they are temporarily blinded, their former "envious" eyes do not see anything. Here is a woman who enraged her countrymen with grief and was pleased with their failures ... In this circle I will not be shortly afterwards to cleanse, for it is rarely and envious of a few. But in the passed circle of proud people - probably long.

Here they are blinded sinners, whose blood once burned envy. In the silence, the words of the first envious man, Cain: "I will kill whoever will meet me!" In awe, I came to Vergil, and the wise leader told me bitter words about the fact that the supreme eternal light was not accessible to the envious, enthusiastic earthly lures.

The second round passed. Again an angel came to us, and here on my forehead there were only five letters left to be removed from hereafter. We are in the third circle. In front of our eyes, a brutal vision of human rage swept through (the crowd was clogged with the rocks of a mild young man). In this circle, those who are obsessed with anger are cleansed.

Even in the darkness of Hell there was no such dark blackness, as in this circle, where the rage of angry humbled. One of them, Lombard Marco, talked with me and expressed the idea that it was impossible to understand everything that was happening in the world as a consequence of the activities of the higher heavenly forces: this would mean denying the freedom of human will and removing from the person the responsibility for what he had done to him.

The reader, did you happen to wander in the mountains in the misty evening when the sun is almost not visible? That's how we are ... I felt the touch of an angel wing to my forehead - another letter was erased. We climbed the fourth circle, illuminated by the last sunset. Here the lazy ones are cleansed, whose love for good was slow.

The Lenin's here must run fast, not allowing any kind of indulgence to their life-long sin. Let it be inspired by examples of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as we know, has had to hurry, or Caesar with his striking diligence. Runned past us, disappeared. I want to sleep I sleep and see a dream ...

A frightening woman, who turned to my beauty before her eyes, was shaken up and turned into the worst bad thing (here it is, the imaginative appeal of vice!). Another letter disappeared from my forehead: I mean, I defeated such a flaw as laziness. We climb to the fifth circle - to collectors and wasters.

Lust, greed, greed for gold - disgusting vices. Molten gold was once poured into the throat of one obsessive greed: drink on health! I'm awkwardly surrounded by the squatters, and then there was an earthquake. Why? I do not know about my ignorance ...

It turned out that the shaking of the mountain was caused by the joy of the fact that one of the souls was cleansed and ready for ascension: it was a Roman poet of Stacias, a fan of Virgil, pleased that from now on we would accompany us on the way to the purifying summit.

Another letter from my forehead was erased, denoting the sin of spoilage. By the way, was not Stacius, who was thirsty in the fifth circle, was a snap? On the contrary, it is wasteful, but these two extremes are punished together. Now we are in a circle on the sixth side, where cleansers are cleared. It would not be difficult to remember that Christian devotees did not have peculiar obesity.

Fear of hunger is destined to the former hypocrites: they were constricted, skin and bones. Among them I found my late friend and fellow countryman Forese. They talked about her, cursed Florence, and Fores criticized the loose women of this city. I told my friend about Virgil and my hopes to see my beloved Beatrice in the afterlife.

With one of the believer, a former poet of the old school, I had a conversation about literature. He admitted that my adherents, "new sweet style" proponents, achieved far more in love poetry than he and his masters close to him. Meanwhile, the penultimate letter from my forehead was erased, and I opened the way to the top, seventh circle of Purgatory.

And I remember all the thin, hungry creeps: how did they put it so much? After all, it is the shadow, not the body, and it would not have been enough for them to starve. Vergilia explained: the shadows, even though they are loose, repeat the contours of the implied bodies (which would have been lost without food). Here, in the seventh circle, the voluptuous fire-burning fire is purified. They burn, sing and sing examples of abstinence and chastity.

Volunteers covered by the flames were divided into two groups: those who fell in love with the same sex and who did not know the measures in bisexual co-habits. Among the latter are the poets Guido Gvinicelli and Provencal Arnald, who exquisitely welcomed us on their dialect.

And now we ourselves have to pass through the wall of fire. I was frightened, but my mentor said that this is the path to Beatrice (to the Earth Paradise located on the top of the purgatory mountain). And here we are the three (Stations with us), we go, burning with a flame. Passed, we went on, dined, stopped on vacation, I was asleep; And when he woke up, Vergilius turned to me with the last word of welcome and approval, All, from now on he will silence ...

We are in the Earth Paradise, in the bloom of the bird's twig of the grove. I saw a beautiful Donna singing and collecting flowers. She said that there was a golden age, innocence was shining, but later, among these flowers and fruits, the happiness of the first people was destroyed in sin. When I heard this, I looked at Virgil and Stacy: both of them smiled blissfully.

Oh Eve! It was so good here, you destroyed everything with your daring! There are live lights flowing past us, righteous elders walking under them in snow-white robes, crocheted with roses and lilies, dancing wonderful beauties. I could not look at this amazing picture. And suddenly I saw her - the one I love. Shaken, I made an involuntary movement, as if trying to cling to Virgil. But he disappeared, my father and savior! I cried "Dante, Virgil will not return. But you will not have to cry for him. Look at me, that's me, Beatrice! And how did you get here? "She asked angrily. Here a voice asked her why she was so strict to me. He answered that I was strangled with a bounty of pleasure, was wrong to her after her death. Do I confess my guilt? Oh yes, tears of shame and repentance stifle me, I lowered my head. "Raise your beard!" - she said abruptly. not taking away the eyes from her. I lost my senses, but I was awakened to a ship sunk into a river, a river giving the forgetting of perfect sins. Beatrice, look now at the one who is so devoted to you and so strived for you. After a decade of separation, I looked into her eyes, and my vision for a time dimmed from their dazzling shine. When I saw it, I saw a lot of beauty in the Earthly Paradise, but suddenly, instead of all this came brutal visions: the monster, the destruction of the holy shrine, disobedience.

Beatrice deeply grieved, knowing how much he was lying about, in these visions of ours, but expressed confidence that the forces of good will ultimately defeat evil. We went up to the river Eunome, which drank from which you strengthen the memory of your perfect perfection. I and Stations were washed in this river. A breath of her sweetest water has filled me with new forces. Now I'm clean and worthy of a star.

RACE

From the Earth Paradise, we, with Beatrice, fly together into Heaven, inaccessible to the understanding of mortal heights. I did not notice how I got up when I looked at the sun. Can I, being alive, capable of this? However, Beatrice was not surprised by this: the cleansed man is spiritual, and not the burdened with sins the spirit is lighter than the ether.

Friends, let's break apart here - do not read further: disappear in the infinity of the incomprehensible! But if you tirelessly drink the spiritual food - then forward, behind me! We are in the first heaven of Paradise - in the moon sky, which Beatrice called the first star; plunged into its bowels, although it is difficult to imagine a force capable of accommodating one closed body (as I am) into another closed body (in the moon).

In the depths of the Moon, we met the souls of nuns abducted from monasteries and forcibly married. Not by their own fault, but they did not keep this at the time of the vestment of virginity, and therefore they did not have access to higher heavens. Are they sorry about this? Oh no! To regret would not agree with the supreme righteous will.

Still, I'm puzzled: why are they guilty of being subjected to violence? Why do not they rise above the moon's sphere? We must not blame the victim but the rapist! But Beatrice explained that the victim also had a certain responsibility for the violence she had committed, if she did not show heroic resistance in her resistance.

The failure of the vow, according to Beatrice, is virtually inviolable by good deeds (too much must be done by making a redemption of guilt). We flew to the second heaven of Paradise - to Mercury. Here lives the souls of ambitious righteous people. It is no longer a shadow, as opposed to previous inhabitants of the afterlife, and the lights: shine and light. One of them flared up especially brightly, rejoicing in communicating with me. It turned out to be the Roman emperor, the legislator Justinian. He realizes that staying in Mercury (and not above) is the limit for him, for ambitious people, doing good deeds for the sake of their own glory (that is, love above all for themselves), have missed the path of true love for the deity.

The light of Justinian was merged with a circle of lights - other righteous souls, I thought, and the course of my thoughts led me to the question: Why would God the Father have to sacrifice his son? It was possible simply, supreme will, to forgive people the sin of Adam! Beatrice explained: the supreme justice required that mankind itself redeemed its guilt. It is incapable of it, and it was necessary to fertilize the earthly woman, so that the son (Christ), combining the human with the divine, could do it.

We flew to the third sky - to Venus, where blissful souls of love-loving, shining in the fiery bowels of this star. One of these spirits is the king of Hungary, Karl Martell, who, speaking to me, expressed the idea that a person can realize his abilities only acting in a field that meets the needs of his life: it is a bad thing if the born warrior becomes a priest ...

Sweetheart other love-loving souls. How much is this blessed light here, heavenly laughter! And below (in Ada) the shadows were gloomy and gloomy ... One of the lights spoke to me (Troubadur Focolo) - condemned church authorities, selfish dads and cardinals. Florence is the city of the devil. But nothing, he believes, will soon become better.

The fourth star is the Sun, the dwelling of the sages. Here is the spirit of the great theologian Thomas Aquinas shining. He gladly welcomed me, showed me other wise men. Their consonant singing reminded me of the Church's blessing.

Thomas told me about Francis of Assisi, the second (after Christ) spouse of the Poverty. According to his example, the monks, including his closest disciples, began to walk barefoot. He lived a holy life and died - a naked man on a bare earth - in the bosom of Poverty.

Not only me, but also the lights - the spirits of the wise men - listened to Foma's speech, stopped singing and spinning in the dance. Then Franciscan Bonaventura took the floor. In response to the praise of his teacher, given by the Dominican Foma, he glorified the teachers of Thomas - Dominic, a farmer and minister of Christ. Who now has continued his business? Worth no.

And again Thomas took the floor. He talks about the great merits of King Solomon: he asked for God's mind, wisdom - not to solve theological questions, but to reasonably rule the people, that is, the king's wisdom, which was granted to him. People, do not judge each other hurriedly! This is a good deed, one is evil, but suddenly the first will fall, and the second will rise?

What will happen to the inhabitants of the Sun on the day of judgment, when the spirits will reach the flesh? They are so bright and spiritual that it is difficult to imagine them materialized. Our stay here ended, we traveled to the fifth sky - to Mars, where the sparkling spirits of the warriors settled in the form of a cross and a sweet anthem sounded.

One of the lights that make up this wonderful cross, without exceeding its limits, has advanced to the bottom, closer to me. This is the spirit of my valiant great-great-grandfather, the warrior of Kachchagvida. He welcomed me and praised the glorious time in which he lived on earth and which - alas! - passed, having replaced the worst time.

I am proud of my ancestor, my descent (it turns out not only on the void ground you can experience such a feeling, but also in Paradise!). Kachchagwida told me about myself and his ancestors born in Florence, whose coat of arms - white lily - is now painted with blood.

I want to know from him, the clairvoyant, about his future fate. What awaits me ahead? He replied that I will be expelled from Florence, in the wicked wanderings I will know the bitterness of strangers' bread and the steepness of strange staircases. To my honor, I will not be laughing with unclean political groups, but I will become a party for myself. In the end, my opponents will be disgraced, and I will be triumphant.

Kachchagvida and Beatrice encouraged me. The stay on Mars is finished. Now - from the fifth heaven to the sixth, from the red to the white of Jupiter, where the souls are just. Their lights form in letters, in letters - first in a call to justice, and then in the figure of an eagle, a symbol of justice imperial power, an unknown, sinful, exhausted earth, but approved in heaven.

This magnificent eagle entered into conversation with me. He calls himself "I," and I hear "us" (just collegial power!). It is clear to him that I myself can not understand in any way: why is Paradise open only to Christians? What a poorly virtuous Hindu who does not know Christ at all? And I will not understand. And the truth is, - admits the eagle, - that a bad Christian is worse than a glorious Persian or Ethiopian.

Eagle represents the idea of justice, and he does not have claws and not the main beak, but an eye-catching eye made up of the most worthy spirits of light. The pupil is the soul of the king and the psalmist, David, in the eyelashes the souls of the pre-Christian righteous are shining (and, after all, I have just been bravely arguing about Ray "only for Christians"? That's how to give in to doubt!)

We climbed to the seventh sky, Saturn. This is the abode of contemplatives. Beatrice became even more beautiful and brighter. She did not smile at me-otherwise she would have burnt me and dazzled. The blessed spirits of the contemplators were silent, did not sang - otherwise they would deafen me. The sacred light - the theologian Pietro Damiano - told me about this.

The spirit of Benedict, whose name is named one of the monastic orders, angrily condemned contemporary self-righteous monks. Listening to him, we rushed to the eighth sky, to the constellation of the Gemini, under which I was born, first saw the sun and breathed in the air of Tuscany. From his height I looked down, and my gaze, passing through the seven paradise spheres we visited, fell to a ridiculously small earth globe, a handful of dust with all its rivers and mountain peaks.

In the eighth sky, thousands of lights are flaming - these are the triumphant spirits of the great righteous. In my opinion, my vision has intensified, and now even the Beatrice smile will not blind me. She smiled strangely at me and again made me look at the light-emitting spirits, giving her the anthem of the queen of heaven, the holy virgin Mary.

Beatrice asked the apostles to talk to me. How much do I get into the sacramental sacred truths? The Apostle Peter asked me about the essence of faith. My answer: Faith is a reason for the invisible; mortals can not see with their own eyes what is revealed here in Paradise - but they believe in a miracle without having any clear evidence of its truth. Peter was pleased with my answer.

Will I see the author of the sacred poem, my homeland? Will I crouch myself with laurels where I was baptized? The apostle James asked me the question of the essence of hope. My answer: hope is the expectation of the future deserved and bestowed God of glory. The glad Jacob lit up.

Next comes the question of love. He asked me the apostle John. In answering, I have not forgotten to say that love draws us to God, to the word of truth. Everybody was lucky. The exam (what is Vera, Hope, Love?) Has been successfully completed. I saw the luminous soul of our forefather Adam, who had lived for a long time in the Earth Paradise, expelled from there to earth; after the death of a long time languishing in Limba; then moved here.

The four lights are flaming in front of me: the three apostles and Adam. Suddenly, Peter blushed and exclaimed: "My throne is seized by the earth, my throne, my throne!" His successor, the Roman pope, is hated by Peter. And it's time for us to part with the eighth heaven and rise to the ninth, supreme and crystalline. With extraordinary joy, laughing, Beatrice threw me into a rapidly spinning sphere and rushed herself.

The first thing I saw in the area of the ninth sky is the dazzling point, the symbol of the deity. The lights around it are rotated - nine concentric angelic circles. The closest to the deity and therefore the smaller ones are the seraphim and cherubim, the most distant and vast, archangels and just angels. On earth, we used to think that the great is more small, but here, as you can see, everything is the other way around.

Angels, Beatrice told me, contemporaries of the universe. Their rapid rotation is the source of all that movement that takes place in the universe. The slipping away from their sleep was thrown into Hell, and the remaining people still turn to Paradise, and they do not need to think, want to, remember, they are completely satisfied!

The Ascension to the Empire - the highest region of the Universe - is the last. I again looked at one whose beauty in the Paradise raised me from the hills to the hills. We are surrounded by pure light. Everywhere sparks and flowers are angels and blessed souls. They merge into a kind of shining river, and then they form a huge ravenous rose.

Contemplating the rose and comprehending the general plan of Paradise, I asked about something about Beatrice, but I did not see her, but a clear-eyed old man in white. He pointed up. I look - in an unattainable summit she shines, and I cried to her: "O Donna, who left a trace in Ada, giving me help! In everything that I see, I recognize your good. After you I went from slavery to freedom. Keep me in the future, so that my spirit deserves to be freed from the flesh! "He glanced at me with a smile and turned to the eternal shrine. All.

The old man in white is Saint Bernard. From now on he is my mentor. We continue to contemplate with him the rose of Empiria. In it the souls of immaculate infants also shine. This is understandable, but why in Adu there were somewhere the souls of infants - can they not be vicious in contrast to these? God knows better what potencies - good or bad - in which infant soul are laid. This explains Bernard and began to pray.

Bernard prayed to the Virgin Mary for me - to help me. Then he gave me a sign so I looked up. Looking over, I see the supreme and brightest light. At the same time, not blind, but found the highest truth. I will behold the deity in his light tripartite triune. And it leads me to love, which moves both the sun and the stars.