Commentary Par XXX 100

There is a certain amount of indecision in the commentaries as to whether this lume is reflected light rather than its source (which would be luce).  Some argue that it is the Holy Spirit, others Jesus as Logos, still others some form of grace.  For this last, see Carroll (DDP Carroll.Par.XXX.100-123): 'It will be noticed that I speak of this central circular sea as lumen gratiae, for it is still the light of grace which once flowed in form of a river; but that light of grace has now reached its perfect form of eternity, the lumen gloriae.  The change of the river into the circular sea is Dante's symbolic way of stating that the grace by which a soul is saved and strengthened to persevere to the end of the earthly life, is not something different in kind from the glory to which it leads.  According to Aquinas, "grace is nothing else than a certain beginning of glory in us" [ST II-II, q. 24, a. 3: "Gratia et gloria ad idem genus referuntur; quia gratia nihil est aliud quam quaedam inchoatio gloriae in nobis"], and the light of glory is simply the perfected form of the grace of earth [ST I-II, q. 111, a. 3].  Aquinas is here laying down the distinction between prevenient and subsequent grace.'  Hollander (Holl.1993.5), p. 25, n. 63, claims that, among the first commentators, only Benvenuto (DDP Benvenuto.Par.VII.1-6) discusses the lumen gloriae (even if elsewhere); but see his remarks on this passage (DDP Benvenuto.Par.XXX.100-102) and those of his student, John of Serravalle (DDP Serravalle.Par.XXX.100-105).  Hollander does go on (correctly) to credit Scartazzini (DDP Scartazzini.Par.XXX.115-117) as being the first of the moderns to do so.