The Theme in the Work
In the third canticle, justice no longer punishes; it explains. The Inferno showed the contrapasso, and Purgatory the pain that purges. Paradise asks how God's justice weighs what men do, and answers with a method of counting, comparing, and limiting what is said. The first case is the will of one who was torn from the cloister. In canto IV, Beatrice classifies Dante's doubt before answering: asking why divine justice seems unjust is a matter of faith, not of heretical wickedness.
Parere ingiusta la nostra giustizia / ne li occhi d’i mortali, è argomento / di fede e non d’eretica nequizia, that our justice should seem unjust in the eyes of mortals is a matter of faith, and not of heretical wickedness.
In VI, justice is history. Justinian tells the story of Rome's eagle to set the standard: the sign deserves reverence, and what is judged is the use that both sides make of it.
perché tu veggi con quanta ragione / si move contr’ al sacrosanto segno / e chi ’l s’appropria e chi a lui s’oppone, so that you may see with how much reason moves against the sacrosanct sign both he who appropriates it and he who opposes it.
In VII, it is theology: Beatrice measures the penalty of the cross in two ways, by the nature assumed and by the person who suffered, and concludes that God was more generous in giving himself than he would have been had he forgiven alone.
La pena dunque che la croce porse / s’a la natura assunta si misura, / nulla già mai sì giustamente morse, so the pain the cross brought, if measured by the nature assumed, never bit so justly.
ché più largo fu Dio a dar sé stesso / per far l’uom sufficiente a rilevarsi, / che s’elli avesse sol da sé dimesso; / e tutti li altri modi erano scarsi / a la giustizia, se ’l Figliuol di Dio / non fosse umilïato ad incarnarsi, for God was more generous in giving himself, to make man able to rise again, than if he had forgiven by himself alone; and all the other ways were scant for justice, had the Son of God not humbled himself to be incarnate.
In Jupiter, justice has a heaven of its own. The souls trace an order for those who judge the earth and gather into an eagle that speaks in the first person singular, and the question the Eagle faces is that of the man of the Indus: he is born on the bank of the river, never hears of Christ, has desires and good deeds, dies without baptism, and where is his fault? The answer does not deny the doubt; it refuses the place of the one who formulates it, and it relocates the fault: it is not in the judgment, it is in the short sight.
Però ne la giustizia sempiterna / la vista che riceve il vostro mondo, / com’ occhio per lo mare, entro s’interna; / che, ben che da la proda veggia il fondo, / in pelago nol vede; e nondimeno / èli, ma cela lui l’esser profondo., therefore, in eternal justice, the sight that your world receives goes inward as the eye does into the sea; for although from the shore it sees the bottom, in the open sea it does not see it; and yet it is there, but its depth hides it.
In XX, the Eagle shows two cases the world would not expect in heaven, Trajan and Rhipeus, and closes with the bridle on human judgment: those who see God still do not know all the elect.
E voi, mortali, tenetevi stretti / a giudicar: ché noi, che Dio vedemo, / non conosciamo ancor tutti li eletti; / ed ènne dolce così fatto scemo, / perché il ben nostro in questo ben s’affina, / che quel che vole Iddio, e noi volemo»., and you, mortals, keep yourselves close in judging: for we, who see God, do not yet know all the elect; and this lack is sweet to us, because our good is refined in this good, that what God wills, we will.
The justice of Paradise thus has two faces. On one side, it is rigor: firm will is rare, offenses are not excused, the penalty of the cross was most just. On the other, it is a limit on judgment: the sight of a span does not measure a thousand miles, and the poem that condemns by name across three canticles accepts here that the last word on who is saved does not belong to the one who speaks.
Who Embodies It
Justinian is justice as the history of the empire. Beatrice is justice as argument. The eagle of justice is the justice that speaks for many and refuses the judge's place. Charles Martel is justice as providence that corrects lineage. Cacciaguida is the political justice of Florence that undoes its houses.
Where It Appears
- Canto IV: Beatrice distinguishes absolute will, which does not consent to harm, from the will that consents out of fear of a greater evil.
- Canto VI: Justinian tells the story of Rome's eagle to judge who takes it for a party and who fights it.
- Canto VII: Beatrice explains that the penalty of the cross was most just by the nature assumed, and unjust by the person who suffered it.
- Canto XIII: Thomas warns that the judge does not see, within the divine counsel, who steals and who offers.
- Canto XVIII: The souls of Jupiter trace a sentence that commands those who judge the earth to love justice.
- Canto XIX: The Eagle answers the doubt of the man of the Indus with the question of who sits to judge from a thousand miles away.
- Canto XX: The Eagle shows Trajan and Rhipeus and warns that mortals must be cautious in judging, because not even the elect are all known.
- Canto XXII: Beatrice says that the sword of heaven cuts neither in haste nor late, except in the view of the one who awaits it.
Where the Readings Diverge
The Eagle's answer may sound unsatisfying, because it refuses the place of the one who asks instead of explaining the case.
The text supports two readings of the answer. The first sees in it a limit of method: the question is legitimate, the answer comes from one who refuses the judge's place, and the poem holds itself back. The second sees an evasion, because the one who asks is left not knowing what happens to the man of the Indus, and the case of Rhipeus and Trajan only shows how others were saved. The poem gives both and leaves the reader between them, the question open.