The Chosen Vessel
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Andovvi poi lo Vas d’ elezïone, per recarne conforto a quella fede ch’ è principio a la via di salvazione.
Later the Chosen Vessel went there too, to bring back strength for that faith which is the beginning of the road to salvation.
Later the Chosen Vessel — St Paul — went there too, to bring back strengthening for that faith which is the beginning of the way of salvation.
The second precedent is Christian: St Paul, called in Scripture the <i>vas electionis</i>, the chosen vessel, who was caught up (tradition held) into the other world and came back to confirm the faith. Dante names him only by the epithet, trusting the reader to know.
Two travelers now stand behind him — Aeneas for the empire, Paul for the Church. Having built so grand a pair of forerunners, Dante turns, in the next tercet, to the objection that undoes him: he is neither of them.
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Inferno 2.28 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.28/