EXCERPT OF THE COMEDY: Pd. II, 31-36
Dante and Beatrice rise into a luminous cloud. They have reached the Sphere of the Moon, which is nearest to Earth. Souls of the blessed who in life broke their vows come to meet Dante: ethereal, they appear like illusory, watery reflections.
A Florentine woman, Piccarda Donati, comes to speak to Dante. She relates to him that she had made a vow to become a nun, but that her brother forced her to leave her convent to be married against her will. Piccarda then draws Dante’s and Beatrice’s attention to the soul of Constance of Hauteville, mother of Emperor Frederick II, who suffered a similar fate.
In the illumination, Dante and Beatrice talk with Piccarda Donati and Costanza d’Altavilla in the Sphere of the Moon. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 40.1, f. 219r.
Beatrice tells Dante that while the blessed will come meet him in the various celestial spheres, they all in fact reside in the Empyrean, where they sit in contemplation of God. If they have left their seats to come meet him in the different spheres, it is only to help him better understand the hierarchy of beatitude.
Dante is visiting territory uncharted by the living. A plethora of questions wells up within him as he looks in each direction: about the laws that govern Paradise; the nature of virtues and beatitudes; Christian doctrine… Beatrice converses with Dante as she would with an eager student, helping him fill the gaps in his knowledge in a series of theological lectures. Upon arriving at the Sphere of the Moon, Dante wonders why the moon’s surface is pockmarked with dark spots. Beatrice explains that celestial influences operate to varying degrees of strength in the different spheres. The moon being furthest from God and nearest the Earth, it is consequently the least perfect.
Reflecting on the souls of the vow-breakers he has just met, Dante questions the judgment that befell Piccarda, who was forced, violently and against her will, to leave her contemplative life behind. Beatrice expounds on the doctrinal difference between the absolute will, which steadfastly uses any means necessary to respect the vow it undertook, and the relative will, which bends to a lesser evil to avoid a greater one. Piccarda and Constance, she says, demonstrated a relative will to keep their vows because they did not remain steadfast in the face of violent opposition. Having kept their vows in their hearts, however, they are still granted eternal bliss.
Dante lastly ponders the possibility of modifying a vow after it has been made. Beatrice makes a distinction between the essence of a vow, which is a pact made with God and thus cannot be changed, and the terms of a vow, which can sometimes change under extenuating circumstances.