misericordia y mérito

“If the strict Calvinists had known the Paradiso of Dante as well as they knew their Old Testament, their theology might have found more adherence among the merciful, for the Paradiso is a triumphant song of mercy, of love, and of the final triumph of every soul that has sincerely hoped in, or sought, the truth, even if the truth were not crowned in its fullness in this world.”

“And Dante, put by Raphael without protest from the Church Militant, among the Doctors of the Faith, glorifies Trajan among the Saved and opens Heaven to Cato. This shows, by the way, the falsity of the Voltairean mauvais mot, that all the people worth meeting are in Hell!”

(Maurice Francis Egan, Confessions of a Book-Lover, 1922)