Who He Is
Thomas Aquinas is, in the Sun, the voice that names and describes the twelve wise men of the first crown. He presents himself as a lamb of the flock that Dominic leads, and names or describes, in order, those who accompany him: Saint Albert the Great, his teacher; Gratian; Peter, whom the common reading names as Lombard; the most beautiful light, whom the common reading names as Solomon; Dionysius, Orosius, and Boethius, whom the poem only describes; Isidore, Bede, Richard and, last, Siger of Brabant, whom the commentators take to be his adversary on earth. A Dominican, he spends the whole of canto XI praising Francis, the Franciscan founder, and ends by denouncing the flock of his own founder: the more the sheep stray from the shepherd, the more they return to the fold empty of milk. In canto XIII he answers a doubt of Dante's about Solomon, separates knowledge from kingly prudence, and ends with a warning against hasty judgment, in which he has the pilgrim put lead on his feet. He is a master who resolves the doubt and gives the method: before affirming or denying, distinguish. What interests us here is the character the poem builds, the professor who teaches by example, who corrects himself on the spot, and who uses the mouth of his adversary.
Trajectory
In canto X he points to the fifth light, the most beautiful, and his qualification is that of a theologian:
La quinta luce, ch’è tra noi più bella, / spira di tale amor, che tutto ’l mondo / là giù ne gola di saper novella: / entro v’è l’alta mente u’ sì profondo / saver fu messo, che, se ’l vero è vero, / a veder tanto non surse il secondo, the fifth light, the most beautiful among us, breathes such love that the whole world below hungers to hear news of it: within it is the lofty mind in which such profound knowledge was placed that, if the true is true, no one has arisen who saw so much.
The list closes with an adversary, and the choice is the poem's:
essa è la luce etterna di Sigieri, / che, leggendo nel Vico de li Strami, / silogizzò invidïosi veri, that is the eternal light of Siger, who, lecturing on the Street of Straw, syllogized truths that aroused envy.
In canto XI he returns to the image of his own flock, presented in canto X, and devotes the rest to Francis:
Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, introduces himself speaking of his own flock, in canto X.Io fui de li agni de la santa greggia / che Domenico mena per cammino / u’ ben s’impingua se non si vaneggia.Saint Thomas Aquinas presents himself as one of the lambs of the holy flock that Dominic leads along the way, where one fattens well if one does not wander in vanity, and only after naming himself does he devote the rest of the canto to narrating the life of Francis of Assisi, saying explicitly what he is doing:Francesco e Povertà per questi amanti / prendi oramai nel mio parlar diffuso.He asks that Francis and Poverty be taken as these lovers, in a discourse that he himself calls diffuse. A Dominican spending a whole canto praising the Franciscan founder is no idle courtesy; it is a construction: the poem uses the rival's mouth to prove that sanctity surpasses the quarrel between orders, a quarrel that in the Florence and Italy of Dante's own time was notoriously real.
He corrects the name of the city as one corrects a measurement:
Però chi d’esso loco fa parole, / non dica Ascesi, ché direbbe corto, / ma Orïente, se proprio dir vuole, therefore, whoever speaks of that place should not say Ascesi, for that would say too little, but Orient, if he wants to speak exactly.
The story of Francis is that of a marriage to Poverty, widow of her first husband, Christ, who waited eleven centuries for a second:
Questa, privata del primo marito, / millecent’ anni e più dispetta e scura / fino a costui si stette sanza invito, she, deprived of her first husband, for a thousand and a hundred years and more remained scorned and obscure, uninvited, until this one.
And he ends by denouncing the flock of Dominic:
e quanto le sue pecore remote / e vagabunde più da esso vanno, / più tornano a l’ovil di latte vòte, and the more his sheep, remote and wandering, go away from him, the more empty of milk they return to the fold.
In canto XIII he resumes the doubt left by canto X, and begins from the beginning of everything: what does not die and what can die is the splendor of a single idea.
Ciò che non more e ciò che può morire / non è se non splendor di quella idea / che partorisce, amando, il nostro Sire, what does not die and what can die is nothing but the splendor of that idea which our Lord brings forth, loving.
The difference between men comes from the matter that receives the mark:
ma la natura la dà sempre scema, / similemente operando a l’artista / ch’a l’abito de l’arte ha man che trema, but nature always gives it diminished, operating like the artist who, in the habit of his art, has a trembling hand.
The case of Solomon is resolved by a distinction:
Onde, se ciò ch’io dissi e questo note, / regal prudenza è quel vedere impari / in che lo stral di mia intenzion percuote, hence, if you note what I said and this, kingly prudence is that unmatched vision at which the arrow of my intention strikes.
The rule of conduct he gives Dante is lead on the feet:
E questo ti sia sempre piombo a’ piedi, / per farti mover lento com’ uom lasso / e al sì e al no che tu non vedi, and let this be always lead at your feet, to make you move slowly, like a weary man, both toward the yes and toward the no that you do not see.
He ends with the green grain in the field and with two common names:
Non sien le genti, ancor, troppo sicure / a giudicar, sì come quei che stima / le biade in campo pria che sien mature, let people not yet be too confident in judging, like one who appraises the crops in the field before they are ripe.
Non creda donna Berta e ser Martino, / per vedere un furare, altro offerere, / vederli dentro al consiglio divino; / ché quel può surgere, e quel può cadere, let Dame Berta and Sir Martin not believe, from seeing one steal and another offer, that they see them within the divine council; for the one can rise, and the other can fall.
In canto XII he is the inflamed courtesy that moves Bonaventure to celebrate the other duke, and in canto XXVIII the rule that blessedness is born of seeing is, in the common reading, his position on beatitude.
Themes Embodied
Thomas embodies Knowledge and wisdom as distinction: what he teaches is a method, that of weighing before affirming, and what he does is apply the method to himself, to the flock he directs and to a king of the Old Testament. He also embodies Faith that questions: Dante's doubt is treated as part of the path.
The text sustains two readings of the closing warning of canto XIII. In the first, it is a teacher's advice to a hasty student. In the second, it also applies to the poet, who condemns living and dead names throughout the poem, and the warning sounds like anticipated self-criticism. The symmetry of cantos XI and XII, in which each founder is praised by a member of the rival order, reinforces the second: the poem uses the adversary's mouth to prove that praise is free.
Relationships
- Bonaventure: the Franciscan who holds up a mirror to his praise in canto XII.
- Dante: the student to whom he gives the lead on the feet.
- Beatrice: who continues his voice at the start of canto XIV.
- Saint Peter: the apostle who examines Dante on faith, in objection and reply, among the fixed stars.