Then heard I: "If whatever is acquired Below by doctrine were thus understood, No sophist's subtlety would there find place."
Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love;
Then added: "Very well has been gone over Already of this coin the alloy and weight;
But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?"
And I: "Yes, both so shining and so round That in its stamp there is no peradventure."
Thereafter issued from the light profound That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel, Upon the which is every virtue founded, Whence hadst thou it?" And I: "The large outpouring Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused Upon the ancient parchments and the new, A syllogism is, which proved it to me With such acuteness, that, compared therewith, All demonstration seems to me obtuse."
And then I heard: "The ancient and the new Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive, Why dost thou take them for the word divine?"
And I: "The proofs, which show the truth to me, Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature Ne'er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat."
'Twas answered me: "Say, who assureth thee That those works ever were? the thing itself That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it."
"Were the world to Christianity converted,"
I said, "withouten miracles, this one Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;
Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter Into the field to sow there the good plant, Which was a vine and has become a thorn!"
This being finished, the high, holy Court Resounded through the spheres, "One God we praise!"
In melody that there above is chanted.
And then that Baron, who from branch to branch, Examining, had thus conducted me, Till the extremest leaves we were approaching, Again began: "The Grace that dallying Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened, Up to this point, as it should opened be, So that I do approve what forth emerged;
But now thou must express what thou believest, And whence to thy belief it was presented."
"O holy father, spirit who beholdest What thou believedst so that thou o'ercamest, Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,"
Began I, "thou dost wish me in this place The form to manifest of my prompt belief, And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest.
And I respond: In one God I believe, Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens With love and with desire, himself unmoved;
And of such faith not only have I proofs Physical and metaphysical, but gives them Likewise the truth that from this place rains down Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms, Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote After the fiery Spirit sanctified you;
In Persons three eterne believe, and these One essence I believe, so one and trine They bear conjunction both with 'sunt' and 'est.'
With the profound condition and divine Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical.
This the beginning is, this is the spark Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me."
Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him His servant straight embraces, gratulating For the good news as soon as he is silent;
So, giving me its benediction, singing, Three times encircled me, when I was silent, The apostolic light, at whose command I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him.
