Beatrice’s discourse of the creation of the Angels, and of the fall of Lucifer—Her reproof of the ignorance and avarice of preachers, and the sale of indulgences.
At what time both the children of Latona, Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales, Together make a zone of the horizon, As long as from the time the zenith holds them In equipoise, till from that girdle both Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance, So long, her face depicted with a smile, Did Beatrice keep silence while she gazed Fixedly at the point which had o’ercome me. Then she began: “I say, and I ask not What thou dost wish to hear, for I have seen it Where centres every When and every Ubi . Not to acquire some good unto himself, Which is impossible, but that his splendor In its resplendency may say, ‘ Subsisto, ’ In his eternity outside of time, Outside all other limits, as it pleased him, Into new Loves the Eternal Love unfolded. Nor as if torpid did he lie before; For neither after nor before proceeded The going forth of God upon these waters. Matter and Form unmingled and conjoined Came into being that had no defect, E’en as three arrows from a three-stringed bow. And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal A sunbeam flashes so, that from its coming To its full being is no interval, So from its Lord did the triform effect Ray forth into its being all together, Without discrimination of beginning. Order was con-created and constructed In substances, and summit of the world Were those wherein the pure act was produced. Pure potentiality held the lowest part; Midway bound potentiality with act Such bond that it shall never be unbound. Jerome has written unto you of angels Created a long lapse of centuries Or ever yet the other world was made; But written is this truth in many places By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat. And even reason seeth it somewhat, For it would not concede