Beatrice, The Vow Accountant: PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63

At last, Beatrice explains how you can make up for broken or unfulfilled vows: Just give back 150% of the original worth of the thing vowed.

But what happens when the thing vowed can't be valued . . . or breaks every scale.

Her answer ropes in both the one who vows and the church who can offer an out to the vow.

In other words, Dante is setting the terms of canon law.

The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:15] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, scroll down this page.

[03:56] An examination of the small, gritty details in this difficult passage about making up for broken or unfulfilled vows.

[17:32] Food as crucial imagery in PARADISO.

[20:36] Three ways out of unfulfilled vows: the eternal light in all things, God's consent, and Beatrice's 150% accounting scheme.

[23:14] Dante's possible attempt to make up for his broken vow to Beatrice.

[24:53] Vows and the possible threat of the Avignon papacy.

[28:09] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto V, lines 34 - 63.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 34 - 63:

[Beatrice continued:] “Now you’re certain about the major point.

But because holy church in this matter offers a provision,

One that seems to contradict the truth I’ve demonstrated,

“You’ll have to settle in a bit more at your meal,

Because the tough food you’ve swallowed

Still requires help for your own provision.

“Open your mind to what I reveal to you

And firm it up in there, since comprehension

Without retention isn’t secure knowledge.

“Two things make up the essence

Of this sacrifice: the first is

That which is sacrificed and the second is the contract.

“This last cannot be cancelled

If it’s not fulfilled. It was of this

That I just spoke to you with such precision.

“Therefore, it was necessary for the Hebrews

To go on offering sacrifices, even if some allowed

For substitutions, as you must know.

“The other, which has been shown to you as the matter [of the contract],

May well be such that there’s nothing wrong

With substituting some other matter for it.

“But let no one shift the burden on his shoulders

By his own arbitration, without turning

Both the white key and the yellow one.

“Believe that each permutation is empty

Unless the thing laid aside is found

In what is taken up, as four [is found] in six.

“Therefore, whatever thing is heavy enough

To unbalance any scale can’t be replaced,

No matter the cost. . . .”