Justinian’s Jus and Justificatio in Paradiso 6.10–27

When Dante arrives in the sphere of Mercury, during the second leg of his journey through Paradise, one of the blessed beckons him to sate his curiosity. Encouraged by Beatrice, Dante says,

non so chi tu se’, né perché aggi, anima degna, il grado de la spera che si vela a’ mortai con altrui raggi

(Par. 5.127–129).

In the ensuing canto the soul responds,

Cesare fui e son Iustinïano, che, per voler del primo amor ch’i’ sento, d’entro le leggi trassi il troppo e ‘l vano

(Par. 6.10–12).

This is an allusion to the Corpus juris civilis, a compilation and redaction of Roman law which would become known as Justinian’s greatest achievement. Justinian adds that, before embarking on his magnum opus, he underwent a conversion:

E prima ch’io a l’ovra fossi attento, una natura in Cristo esser, non piùe, credea, e di tal fede era contento; ma ‘l benedetto Agapito, che fue sommo pastore, a la fede sincera mi dirizzò con le parole sue. Io li credetti; e ciò che ‘n sua fede era, vegg’ io or chiaro sì, come tu vedi ogne contradizione e falsa e vera

(Par. 6.13–21).¹

Justinian concludes his short, autobiographical sketch with a description of what happened after he corrected the error in his faith:

Tosto che con la Chiesa mossi i piedi, a Dio per grazia piacque di spirarmi l’alto lavoro, e tutto ‘n lui mi diedi; e al mio Belisar commendai l’armi, cui la destra del ciel fu sì congiunta, che segno fu ch’i’ dovessi posarmi

(Par. 6.22–27).

In other words, he devoted himself entirely to the compilation of the Corpus, and had his general, Belisarius, assume his military duties.

As Giuseppe Mazzotta has shown, Justinian recalls his conversion, because of Agapetus, from the Eutychian heresy, which held that divinity and humanity were not both present in Christ (DV 103–104). The line “vegg’ io or chiaro sì come tu vedi / ogne contradizione e falsa e vera” contains, as Mazzotta points out, the definition of logic as the art that separates truth from falsehood on the principle of non-contradiction, and that determines whether, in the words of Aristotle, “two contradictory propositions can be simultaneously true”.² As Mazzotta states,

[t]he brunt of Justinian’s account is that Agapetus’s faith, in which Justinian came to believe, coincided with logic’s analytical distinctions. Contradiction means that if one proposition is true, the other is false, and this principle is the ground on which Justinian’s change of mind from error to truth lies

(DV 104).

I would like to complement Mazzotta’s discussion of Justinian’s conversion with a look at how the emperor’s autobiographical sketch is also an account of his justificatio, or justification in the eyes of God. In order to do this, I will borrow from Antonio Mastrobuono’s analysis of Dante’s own justification. Mastrobuono states that “[c]onversion or justification is an effect of operating grace, which involves a movement of faith, and therefore must occur right here and now, on the stage of this life”.³ Quoting Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologica, Mastrobuono adds that,

in the justification of the ungodly there must be two movements of the free choice, one whereby it tends to God’s justice, the other whereby it hates sin

(I–II q. 113, a. 5).⁴

Again paraphrasing Aquinas, Mastrobuono says,

since a movement of faith is made perfect by a movement of charity, a movement of charity is also infused. This is what is called an act of ‘formed faith,’ which is faith directed by charity: ‘The movement of faith is not perfect unless it is quickened by charity, and so in the justification of the ungodly, a movement of charity is infused together with the movement of faith.’ And since the same act of free choice may spring from different virtues, ‘an act of filial fear and an act of humility also concur’

(I–II, q. 113, a. 4, R...