Paradiso: The Second Sphere, Mercury -- Seekers of Honor

Ciardi notes that in Canto VI of the Inferno, Dante summarizes the condition of Florence; in Canto VI of the Purgatorio, the state of Italy; and in Canto VI of the Paradiso, the history of the Holy Roman Empire. All three are disintegrating, and it is likely Dante's belief that the corruption of evil is responsible; otherwise, why use the Mark of the Beast, 6-6-6, to signify it? In following the flight of the Roman eagle through its inception to the present day, we learn a great deal about Dante's teleological understanding of history -- Troy had to fall so that Rome could grow into an empire and serve as the conduit for global Christianity. This explains why the enemies of Troy and Rome (Odysseus & company) are in hell and why the Donation of Constantine was so evil -- wealth corrupted the Church as was played out in the allegory of the harlot and the Tree of Knowledge in the terrestrial paradise. Such problems Dante saw as these that even St. Hugh of Grenoble would have had trouble sorting them out.



Those with Justinian were those who worked for the good, which, Aristotle explains, "is not some common element answering to one Idea," but they did so seeking personal honour, the worst of all good reasons to be good even if it's still oriented toward the will of God, for what did God mean by giving us gifts that would make us shine in the company of others if he didn't intend for us to polish them to brilliance? The chief problem of this canto lies in the justice of the Jews upon whom the Roman eagle wrecked a just vengeance, and this is something about which Dante will ask Beatrice in the canto that follows.

S.