the doctrine of the Incarnation most clearly
and most ardently Dante seeks to promote this cultus as the soul of the
Catholic religion.

Dante's second special devotion is to the Blessed Virgin. His Paradiso
contains the best treatise on Mariology. The whole Divine Comedy indeed
is the poet's loving testimonial of gratitude to the Madonna. It was
through Mary that his visionary voyage to the other world was made
possible. She rescued him when he was enslaved by sin and sent as his
successive guides Virgil, Beatrice and St. Bernard. She of all creatures
is proclaimed on every terrace of Purgatory first in virtue and highest
in dignity and her example is exhibited as an unfailing source of
inspiration to the Souls, to endure suffering cheerfully and to make
themselves, like her, the exemplars of goodness in the highest degree.
In Paradiso she is seen by the poet in all her unspeakable loveliness
and beatitude and as Queen of Angels and of Saints her intercession is
favorably invoked that Dante might enjoy the Vision of God himself. In
the last canto of the poem her super-eminence and incomparable
excellence are sung "with a sweetness of expression, a depth of
philosophy and a tenderness of feeling that have never been surpassed
in human language."

"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,
Humble and high beyond all other creatures,
The limit fixed of the eternal counsel;
Thou art the one who such nobility
To human nature gave that its Creator
Did not disdain to make Himself its creature.
Within thy womb rekindled was the love
By heat of which in the eternal peace,
After such wise, this flower was germinated.
Here unto us thou art a noonday torch
Of charity, and below there among mortals
Thou art the living fountainhead of hope.

Lady, thou art so great and so prevailing,
That he who wishes grace nor runs to thee,
His aspirations without wings would fly.
Not only thy benignity gives succor
To him who asketh it, but oftentimes
Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.
In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,
In thee magnificence; in thee unites
Whatever of goodness is in any creature."

The third private devotion of Dante is devotion to the Souls in
Purgatory--a pious practice founded upon the scriptural words: "It is a
holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be
loosed from their sins." Not only does Dante answer the objection raised
as to the ef