The Circle of Divine Teachers — Divine Comedy

Divine love operates through perfect cosmic design, where every element serves a greater purpose that mortals can barely comprehend. Dante pauses to prepare readers for the intellectual feast ahead, explaining how God the mighty Architect loves his work so inwardly that his eye watches it constantly. The planets roll on their oblique path precisely so that virtue is not lost on earth, any deviation would create great defects both in heaven and below. Ascending with the sun that imprints heaven's virtue on the world, Dante climbs to the Sun sphere unconscious of his ascent, like one who until arrived knows not his coming. Beatrice passes from good to better so rapidly that time cannot count the act; her brightness in the sun exceeds all imagination and description. When Dante's devotion to God becomes so complete that it eclipses even Beatrice in oblivion, she responds not with displeasure but with such joyous laughter that her radiant eyes scatter his collected mind abroad. A bright band of souls forms a crown around them, their voices sweeter than their beaming faces. Thomas Aquinas speaks for the circle, identifying himself as one of Dominic's lambs and naming the great teachers: Albert of Cologne, Gratian who helped both forums, Peter Lombard, Solomon with his profound sapience, Dionysius who saw angelic nature clearly, Boethius the Christian pleader, Isidore, Bede, Richard, and finally Siger of Brabant, who escaped not envy when he argued truth in the straw-littered street. The glorious wheel moves like a matins clock calling God's spouse to love, each voice answering voice in musical harmony that can only be known where day endless shines.