Worldview of the Western World II

1. Worldview of the Western World II

2. Don’t Panic • This is a help, not a requirement • For Dante read Sayers book, comments, perhaps. • This follows the same format as Quine’s book. There are many notes on the slide in the note section, these are extra for explanation e.g. in PowerPoint click L. lower corner for notes.

3. (Sayers, 62)

4. Marco Lombardo Guido del Duca Rinieri da Calboli Sapia of Siena Omberto Aldobrandeschi Oderisi da Gubbio Provenzan Salvani Sordello La Pia. Buonconte da Montefeltro Belacqua Manfred Casella Cato of Utica Pierre de la Brosse German Albert Rudolph

5. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO X – XII • Summary -- Carved into the side of the mountain on the first terrace are exemplary images of humility. • from the Gospels (Luke 1:26-38). The angel Gabriel (sent by God to Nazareth) announces to Mary, a young woman engaged to Joseph, that she will give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, who "shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32). When Mary asks how she, a virgin, will conceive, Gabriel explains: the "Holy Ghost shall come upon thee" (Luke 1:35). Declaring herself the "handmaid of the Lord" (10.44; Luke 1:38), • 2 Kings 6:1-23, portrays David, king of Israel and "humble psalmist," dancing uninhibitedly before the ark of God as it is brought into Jerusalem (10.55-69). Michol accuses David of sullying his regal status by celebrating uncovered before even the "handmaids of his servants," to which David responds: "And I will be little in my own eyes: and with the handmaids of whom thou speakest, I shall appear more glorious" (2 Kings 6:20-22). • The third and final example is the Roman emperor Trajan (10.73-93), who fulfilled the duties of justice and mercy by delaying a military campaign to avenge the murder of a poor widow's son. • Notorious examples of pride, serving to rein in the sinful disposition of the shades, are carved into the floor of the terrace (12.13-69), • Lucifer, the giant Briareus, Nimrod, Saul, Rehoboam, Sennacherib, and Holofernes; and (from classical sources) other giants, Niobe, Arachne, Eriphyle, and Cyrus of Persia. The entire series concludes with an image of Troy, the ancient city which Dante, echoing Virgil (Aen. 3.2-3), elsewhere calls "proud Ilium" (Inf. 1.75).

6. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Cornice I The Sinners ofPride • The Penance large boulderscausing them to bend down and not to be able to look up with pride. The whip of pride is humility. • The Meditation as the Virgin Mary and her humility in subjecting herself to the will of God, or the example of David and the Ark. • The Prayer Lord’s Prayer, Matt 6:9-13 • The Benediction Beati pauperes spiritu, Mat 5:3, from the lips of the penitents. • The Angel – the angel of humility

7. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Read Psalm 6 -- Psalm 6:1-10 NAS Psalm 6:1For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David. O Lord, do not rebuke me in Thine anger, Nor chasten me in Thy wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3 And my soul is greatly dismayed; But Thou, O LORD-- how long? 4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Thy lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of Thee in death; In Sheol who will give Thee thanks? 6 I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. 7 My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries. 8 Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. 10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they shall suddenly be ashamed.

8. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Commentaries • X:16: “needle’s eye” Matthew 19:24 (NASB95)24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” • X:34 We come now to the 'scourge' or 'whip' of Pride -- the great examples of Humility which urge the penitents on in pursuit of that virtue. As on every Terrace, the first and supreme example is drawn from the life of the Virgin Mary, who represents the highest reach and perfection of human virtue. . . The scene which meets Dante the moment he emerges from the needle's eye is the Annunciation, carved on the wall of the embankment so livingly that Gabriel seemed to be saying Ave, and Ecce ancilla Dei [behold the handmaid of God, Lk. 1:38] was impressed on the Virgin's attitude as plainly as a seal on wax. . .. It is not, however, the personal humility of the Virgin alone of which Dante is thinking: the thought beneath is the profounder humility of the Incarnation. In other words, the great rebuke of human pride is the humility of God in becoming man. The first thing the Proud have to learn is that it is this Divine lowliness which makes their salvation possible. Hence Gabriel who announced the Incarnation is called The Angel who came to earth with the decree Of the many years wept for peace, Which opened Heaven from its long interdict; and Mary, through whose humility the Divine Humility became incarnate, is she 'who turned the key to open the high love.‘ (Carroll)

9. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • X:56 David and Michal (2 Sam. vi. 14) • X:57 Uzzah and the Ark (2 Sam vi. 6-7) • X: 74 “ the great Roman prince” Of those whom Dante depicts as being saved to whom all or most Christians would deny, or at least question, that status (Cato [Purg. I.75], Statius [Purg. XXII.73], Trajan [Par. XX.44], and Ripheus [Par. XX.68]), only for Trajan does there exist a tradition that considered him saved. This result of St. Gregory's prayers is even allowed as possible by St. Thomas, in what seems an unusually latitudinarian gesture, recorded in the Summa theologica (as was perhaps first noted by Lombardi [1791], comm. to vv. 74-75): ST III, Suppl., quaest. 71, art. 5, obj. 5 [for the text in English see Singleton's note to verse 75]). That what seems to modern ears an unbelievable story should have had the support of so rigorous a thinker as Thomas still astounds readers. Yet, if one looks closely, one sees that Thomas does hedge his bet: Trajan's salvation by Gregory's intervention is 'probable' (potest probabiliter aestimari); further, according to Thomas, 'as others say' (secundum quosdam), Trajan may have only had his punishment put back until Judgment Day. Dante betrays no such hesitation: the salvation of Trajan is Gregory's 'great victory' (verse 75). Dante is in an enviable position, both possessing Thomas's support and being able to outdo him in enthusiasm (Hollander, notes). • X: 93: reverence: Dante's word is pieta - not here, I think, "pity", as it is usually translated, but "piety" (Lat. pietas) : the religious reverence which dictates a sense of duty. The line is thus an echo of Cicero's phrase, "pietas et justitia”. notes

10. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • X:111 1: this woe cannot, at worst, outlive the Judgement Day: Purgatory is temporal, and its pains end when time ends (though for most souls they will, of course, end long before that). • X: 124-9: that we are worms, etc.: "we have nothing in this world to be proud about, since we are but half-finished beings - grubs existing only to produce the butterfly (emblem of the soul), which, when it leaves the body, must fly to stand naked and defenceless before the judgement-seat (Sayers, 149).“

11. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • THE IMAGES (XI). The Proud: (1) Pride of Race: Humbert Aldobrandesco the aristocrat; (2) Pride of Achievement: Oderisi the artist; (3) Pride of Domination: Provenzano Salvani the despot. • XI: 1-24: Our Father, etc.: this is the Prayer of the Proud: the Paternoster, expanded by a brief meditation upon each clause, directed throughout to the virtue of Humility. • XI:13 Clause 4. our daily manna: the spiritual bread which is Christ (John vi. 31-3 and cf. the "supersubstantial bread" of Vulg. Matt. vi. I), without which our own efforts are self-defeating. (A petition for material bread would be meaningless in Purgatory.)

12. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XI: 22-4: this last prayer, etc.: the petition against temptation and the assaults of the devil is unnecessary for those in Purgatory, who are no longer able to sin; but the Proud, who in their lifetime cared for nobody but themselves, now learn to pray for those they have left behind on earth (and possibly also in Ante-Purgatory, see Canto viii and Images). • XI. 31 sqq.: if a good word, etc.: The bond of prayer and charity between the Church on earth and the Church Expectant should be mutual; the souls in Purgatory pray for us and we for them, as the Saints in Heaven pray for all and further the petitions of all (Sayers, 155).

13. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • .XI. 79: Oderisi: of Gubbio (or Agobbio) in Umbria: a celebrated illuminator of manuscripts. Notes • XI: 90: while power to sin was mine: i.e. "while I was still alive and well". Had he delayed repentance till his death-bed, he "would not yet be here", but would have been detained in Ante-Purgatory. • XI:. 97: Guido from Guido: The two poets who are thus said to contest the glory of the Italian tongue are usually thought to be Guido Guinicelli of Bologna (c. 1230-c. 1276), whom we shall presently meet on the 7th Cornice (Purg. xxvi. 16 sqq.), and Dante's friend, Guido Cavalcanti (mentioned in Inf. x. 63 and Glossary) of Florence (c. 1256-1300). Some, however, identify the first Guido with Guittone d'Arezzo (see Canto xxvi. 124 and note) and the second with Guinicelli (Sayers,156). • XI:108: Heaven's tardiest sphere: the outermost sphere, that of the Fixed Stars; "the almost imperceptible movement which it makes from west to east, at the rate of a degree in a hundred years" - Dante, Convivio, ii. 15. (Note that in its daily motion from east to west the outermost sphere is, of course, the swiftest; but in its proper motion from west to east, the slowest. The motion of the Primum Mobile is incalculable, and the Empyrean, being beyond space, cannot be said to have motion at all.) (See Dante's Universe, Inf. p. 292. see notes below) notes

14. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XI. 121: Provenzan (o) Salvani: a powerful Sienese nobleman, leader of the Tuscan Ghibellines after Montaperti, when he was one of those who urged the destruction of Florence (see Inf. x. 92 and note). He was killed in 1269, when the Sienese were defeated at Colle di Valterra (see Canto xiii. 115-19). • XI. 127: the soul who takes no care: Dante, knowing (no doubt from public report) that Provenzan had remained arrogant to the day of his death, asks how it is that he has been in Purgatory, "ever since he died", and was not detained with the other Late Repentant on the Terrace below. Oderisi tells him how one heroic act of humility done for a friend's sake availed to "undo the ban". This is Dante's only instance of a sinner's being released from the "place of waiting" as a consequence of his own conduct - in every other case he has to depend upon the charity of others. Charity is the operative word: the tune is redeemed only by charity, bestowed or received (cf. vi. 37).

15. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XII: I: so, step for step: In xi. 78 Dante mentions that in order to converse with the burdened spirits he "paced with them, bent double toward the ground", and he continues to share their stooping posture until summoned by Virgil to desist (1. 7). Only on three of the Cornices does Dante thus associate himself with the punishment of the spirits, viz. on those of Pride, Wrath, and Lust. Since these are precisely the three failings of which Dante has always been accused, one may perhaps infer that he knew his own weaknesses as well as anybody. He says himself (xiii. 133-8) that though he dreads the punishment of Pride, he believes himself fairly free from the sin of Envy; we know from Boccaccio that he was an abstemious man and not given to Gluttony; Avarice he particularly hates, and nothing in his history suggests that he was either a hoarder or a spendthrift; and the last sin anybody would lay to his charge is Sloth; on these four Cornices he remains, therefore, merely a spectator (Sayers, 162). • XII: 25-63: Mine eyes beheld, etc.: The images carved upon the pavement constitute the "Bridle" of Pride (see Introduction, pp. 67-8), and, like the "Whip", are drawn partly from sacred and partly from classical sources. They are divided into three groups of four examples (each group providing a contrast to the corresponding image in the "Whip"), followed by a concluding example. • Each example occupies one terzain; each terzain of the first group begins with the word Vedea I saw; each terzain of the second group begins with the word: 0; and each terzain of the third group begins with the word Mostrava showed; while the three lines of the final terzain begin with Vedea, 0, Mostrava respectively. Thus the initial letters of the three groups, as also of the concluding terzain, if read as an acrostic, display the word VOM or (since V and U in medieval script are the same letter) UOM, which is the Italian for MAN. This may, of course, be an accident; but such an acrostic would be entirely in the taste of the period, and the probability is that the poet did it deliberately. Sayers, 162, see 159).

16. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XII:25-7 "I beheld Satan fall as lightning from Heaven," Luke x. 18. • XII. 28-30: Briareus: a giant who attempted to overthrow the Gods of Olympus (see Inf. xxxi. 99 and note); a profane parallel to Lucifer. See notes below. • XII. 34-6: Nimrod, who endeavoured to scale heaven by building the Tower of Babel in the plain of Shinar (Gen. x. 8, xi. 1-9; and cf. Inf. xxxi. 46-81), is the sacred parallel to the Giants.

17. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XII: 37-48: Ah!: The second group, which contrasts with David's joyful humility in the presence of the Ark of God, shows that arrogance in the face of Heaven which in Greek is called hubris, and in English presumption or over-weening. • XII: 55-7Cyrus the Persian tyrant (56o-529 B.C.) murdered the son of Tomyris Queen of Scythia; she defeated and slew him, and throwing his head into a vessel of blood said mockingly: "Drink thy fill of the blood for which thou hast insatiably thirsted these thirty years." • 11. 58-60: Holofernes, captain of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, was contemptuous of the Jews and of their God, and, disregarding the advice of Achior, went up to besiege them at Bethulia. But he was outwitted and slain by the beautiful widow Judith, who cut off his head and had it displayed on the walls of the town ("the grisly relics of his slaying" : Judith vi, viii-xiv). • 11. 61-3 : Troy Town: the series is summed up in the image of Troy ("proud Ilium" Aen. iii. 2-3), whose ruin was the great classical example of the fall of pride. • 1. 79: the angel: this is the Angel of Humility. This virtue is so little prized to-day, and interpreted in so negative a sense, that to understand the shimmering radiance of its angel one needs to study all the contexts in which Dante uses the words umile, umilta, especially, perhaps, in the Vita Nuova. "[When I beheld Beatrice] there smote into me a flame of charity [so that] if anyone had asked me about anything whatsoever, my reply would have been simply, Love, with a countenance clothed in umiltà" (V.N. xi). "She bore about her so true an umiltà, that she seemed to say, I am in peace" (V.N. xxiii). "She goes upon her way, hearing herself praised, benignly clothed with umiltà, and seems a thing come from heaven to earth to show forth a miracle" (V.N. xxvi). "Therefore, when [love] so deprives me of power that my spirits seem to desert me, my frail soul tastes such sweetness that my cheeks grow pale. Then [my sighs beseech] my lady to grant me yet further salute (salutation, salvation). This happens every time she looks upon me, and is a thing so umil that it passes belief" (V.N. xxviii). The connotation is always of peace, sweetness, and a kind of suspension of the heart in a delighted tranquillity.

18. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • XII:110: Beati pauperes spiritu: "Blessed are the poor in spirit": This, taken from the Beatitudes, Matt. v. 3, is the Benediction of the First Cornice. • Pride -- note the rebellion of the most beautiful angel (Lucifer), disobedience of the first human beings (Adam and Eve), overreaching of the mighty Nimrod (Tower of Babel)--the biblical history of pride more than warrants its identification in Ecclesiasticus as "the beginning of all sin" (10:15). This dubious distinction is repeated and reinforced throughout the Middle Ages. For Gregory the Great, pride is the "queen of vices" (Moralia in Job 31.45), while Thomas Aquinas declares that "the mark of human sin is that it flows from pride" (Summa Theologiae 3a.1.5); he variously discusses pride in relation to other sins as the "gravest," the "first," and the most "sovereign" (2a2ae.162.6-8).

19. The guide for the answers covering Cornice VII,81-86 of Quine,

20. Terrace of Envy

21. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO XIII – XV • Cornice II • The Sinners of Envy whipped by cords of love • The first of two spoken allusions to envy, "whoever captures me will kill me" (14.133), repeats the lament of Cain to God (Genesis 4:14) after God has cast him out as a "fugitive and vagabond" for having killed his brother, Abel. • "Caina," derived from Cain's name, designates the area of the ninth circle of Hell in which traitors to family are punished. • The second voice, crying "I am Aglauros who became stone" (14.138), belongs to one of the daughters of Cecrops, an Athenian ruler. Aglauros, according to Ovid's account, crosses Minerva when she disobeys the goddess and opens a chest concealing a baby (Met. 2.552-61). After Mercury falls in love with Aglauros' beautiful sister Herse, Minerva exacts revenge by calling on Envy to make Aglauros sick with jealousy over her sister's good fortune. When Mercury comes to visit Herse, Aglauros attempts to bar the entrance to the god, who promptly transforms her into a mute, lifeless statue (Met. 2.708-832). • The Penance Generosity and eyes blind-folded, plain clothes

22. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The Meditation Mary informs her son Jesus, present with his disciples at a wedding celebration in Cana, that there is no wine for the guests, vinum non habent ("they have no wine") (13.28-30). Performing his first miracle, Jesus then changes into wine the water contained in six large pots (John 2:1-11). • The second echoing voice, "I am Orestes" (13.31-3), alludes to a double act of love from the classical tradition: condemned to death for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra (who had killed his father, Agamemnon), Orestes insists on revealing his true identity (and accepting the consequences) after Pylades tried to spare Orestes' life by dying in his place; each friend proclaimed "I am Orestes" to save the life of the other (Cicero, On Friendship 7.24). • The Prayer Mary pray for us sinners, Litany of the Saints

23. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The Benediction blessed are the merciful Matt. 5:7; Rev 2:7 see allusion to Matt 5:44, XV:82. • The Angel of generosity • Read Psalm 32 1 A Psalm of David. A Maskil. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long.4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.Selah.5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.Selah.6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.Selah.8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

24. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Dante's Pride. Cantos 13.133-8, 14.21 On the terrace of envy, Dante admits that he already feels the weight of rocks used to flatten the pride of penitents on the first terrace (13.138), and he perhaps confirms the likely realization of this fear when he remarks that his name is not yet well known (14.21). Such frank self-awareness encourages us to consider possible illustrations of Dante's pride thus far in the poem / journey: his self-inclusion among the great poets in Limbo, "so that I was sixth among such intellect" (4.102); his claim to superiority over the classical authors Lucan and Ovid in the presentation of the thieves; and his close identification with the Greek hero Ulysses (UT).

25. Stephen

26. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO XV-XVII • Cornice III • The Sinners wrathful • The Penance – a thick cloud of darkness covers the third terrace. The instructive cases of the virtue contrary to wrath (gentleness, forbearance) and the vice itself are experienced by the spirits--and now by Dante--as "ecstatic visions" (15.85-6), "non false errors" (15.117) insofar as they convey truth even though they occur only in the mind of the person seeing them. It is not perceived by Virgil, as these things are matters of faith. • The MeditationIn the first example of gentleness (15.85-93), Mary displays remarkable restraint upon finding Jesus, her twelve-year old son, in the temple of Jerusalem conversing with learned adults. (Luke 2:41-8). In response to Mary's gentle rebuke, cited verbatim by Dante ("Why have you done this to us?"), the young Jesus asks, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?" (Luke 2:49).

27. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Dante's second case of gentleness (15.94-105), from the classical tradition, is recounted by Valerius Maximus (Factorum et dictorum memorabilium 5.1.2): Pisistratus, a tyrannical ruler of ancient Athens (560-527 B.C.E.), counters his wife's wish for vengeance with a calm, accepting attitude toward the young man who, in love, had kissed their daughter in public. If they kill those who love them, Pisistratus asks, what should they do to their enemies? • Stephen, whose martyrdom is recounted in the Bible (Acts 6-7), causes a stir with his preaching in the name of Jesus and is brought before the council to defend himself against charges of blasphemy. He concludes a long speech by accusing the council members of betraying and murdering the "Just One," much as, he claims, their fathers persecuted the prophets (Acts 7:52). Enraged, they cast Stephen out of the city and stone him to death; as he dies, Stephen asks the Lord to "lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:57-9), the scene Dante now includes as the final instance of exemplary gentleness (15.106-14

28. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Procne, Dante's first example of wrath (17.19-21), kills her small son Itys and feeds his cooked flesh to her husband Tereus, King of Thrace, upon learning that he raped Philomela (Procne's sister) and cut out her tongue to prevent her from telling what had happened. Philomela ingeniously managed to inform Procne of the crime by weaving a tapestry that told the story in pictures. Dante here singles out the cruel vengeance wrought by Procne (with help from her sister). Made aware that he has eaten his son, an enraged Tereus, his sword drawn, chases the two sisters but before he can catch them all three are transformed into birds: Tereus into a hoopoe (a crested bird with a long beak), Procne into a nightingale, and Philomela into a swallow (in some versions Philomela is the nightingale and Procne the swallow). The gruesome story is told by Ovid (Met. 6.424-674). • Dante chooses as his second example of wrath (17.25-30) the biblical figure Haman, whose cruelty is recounted in the Book of Esther. The most favored prince of King Assuerus, ruler of an empire stretching from Ethiopia to India, Haman takes offense at Mordecai, a Jew who refuses to bow down to him. Haman's anger is such that he calls for the killing of not only Mordecai but all Jews throughout the kingdom, "both young and old, little children and women, in one day . . . and to make a spoil of their goods" (Esther 3.13). Haman's genocidal plan turns against him when Mordecai, called "just" by Dante (17.29), convinces Queen Esther to intervene. Esther, herself a Jew who is also the niece and adopted daughter of Mordecai, reveals Haman's plot to King Assuerus (he was previously unaware of his wife's background); Assuerus promptly has Haman hanged on the same gallows he (Haman) had prepared for Mordecai. (Haman is "crucified" instead of "hanged" in Purgatorio 17.26 because the gallows are described as a cross, "crux," in the Vulgate, the Latin Bible familiar to Dante [Esther 5:14; 8:7].) The king also reverses Haman's orders, so that the Jews in his realm are spared and their persecutors killed instead, and he elevates Mordecai (already honored for having foiled a plot to assassinate Assuerus) to a position of power. • Queen Amata, whose story is told in Virgil's Aeneid (7.45-106, 249-73, 341-405; 12.1-80, 593-611), inspires the third and final vision of wrath on the third terrace of Purgatory (17.34-9). Wife of King Latinus, Amata sought the marriage of her daughter Lavinia to Turnus (ruler of the Rutulians, Italian allies), but Latinus accepted the oracle's demand that she marry a foreigner, namely, the Trojan hero Aeneas. While, due to machinations of the gods, resolution of this matter is delayed and war rages, Amata mistakenly believes Turnus has been killed in battle (Aeneas will kill him at a later point). Acting on her furious despair, the queen takes her own life, thus depriving Lavinia of her mother (UT).

29. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The Prayer Agnus Dei, from the Canon of the Mass, from John 1:29 “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” • The Benediction – blessed are the peacemakers, Matt 5:9 • The Angel –of meekness • Read Psalm 38

30. Arnaut Daniel Guido Guinizzelli Bonagiunta da Lucca Forese Donati Pope Adrian V Statius Abbot in San Zero Marco Lombardo Guido del Duca Rinieri da Calboli Sapia of Siena Omberto Aldobrandeschi Oderisi da Gubbio Provenzan Salvani

31. Marco Lombardo, the terrace of the wrathful

33. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO XV-XVII • Dante’s view on worldly powers • Dante's model of "two suns," each deriving its authority directly from God, challenges the medieval Christian notion of the pope as "sun" and the emperor as "moon" (based on Genesis 1:16), with the lesser sphere wholly dependent on the greater sphere for its authority and influence. Dante later writes a treatise dealing specifically with this issue of spiritual and political power: he argues in Monarchia that even the sun-moon analogy fails to prove papal dominion over temporal matters because the two spheres possess their own powers, including (Dante believed) their own light (3.16). Although he concedes that the emperor must show reverence to the pope, like a son to a father, Dante believes strongly in their independence as divinely sanctioned guides for humanity: "one is the Supreme Pontiff, to lead humankind to eternal life, according to the things revealed to us; and the other is the Emperor, to guide humankind to happiness in this world, in accordance with the teaching of philosophy" (Monarchia 3.16). A measure of the daring (and risk) in Dante's political philosophy is readily seen from a comparison of his ideas with sentiments expressed by Pope Boniface VIII in a papal bull of 1302 ("Unam Sanctam"). Adopting the common metaphor of "two swords," one each for spiritual and temporal authority, Boniface declares that they both "are in the power of the Church" and "one sword ought to be under the other and the temporal authority subject to the spiritual power." He continues by proclaiming a sort of papal infallibility, a highly ironic notion in light of Dante's treatment of the papacy, particularly under Boniface, in the Divine Comedy: "Therefore, if the earthly power errs, it shall be judged by the spiritual power, if a lesser spiritual power errs it shall be judged by its superior, but if the supreme spiritual power errs it can be judged only by God not by man." Later Church leaders evidently felt much as Boniface did, for they condemned Dante's contrary ideas as heretical and repeatedly censored his Monarchia: in 1329 a prominent cardinal ordered all copies of the work to be burned, and in the sixteenth century the book was included in the Church's Index of banned books. It wasn't until 1881 that Dante's book was removed from the list. Dante views Marco's condemnation of the Church's claim to both worldly and spiritual authority as a modern confirmation of the biblical injunction to Levi's sons (16.130-2): God instructs Aaron that he and his descendents (of the tribe of Levi), chosen to perform priestly functions in the tabernacle, have rights to only what is required for "for their uses and necessities" and "shall not possess any other thing" (Numbers 18:20-4) (UT).

34. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Summary of a key section • Robert Hollander (2000-2007), Purgatorio 16.67-129 • Marco's speech, the only object of possible attention in the darkness, twenty-one terzine of moral philosophy, may be paraphrased as follows: If the heavens moved all things, there would be no free will; even if they did, you would still have the power to resist and conquer (67-78); to a greater power and better nature than the celestial heavens you, free, are subject, and that creates the mind [the rational soul] in you, which has nothing to do with those revolving spheres (79-83); let me expand: God lovingly created the (rational) soul in each of you; at its birth, since it was made by Him, even if it is a tabula rasa, it loves; and it loves anything at all if it is not guided or restrained; therefore, a leader and laws are necessary (84-96); laws exist, but who administers them? no one, because the pope is involved in temporal affairs and thus gives the wrong example that is much imitated (97-102); thus you can see that bad guidance and not corrupt human nature accounts for the wickedness of the world; Rome, which once made the world good, used then to have two suns which lit each path, secular and sacred (103-108); now, since the regal and pastoral functions have been conjoined, ill ensues -- by their fruits shall you know them (109-114); in northern Italy, which once was the home of courtesy and valor before the Church opposed Frederick II, there are now but three good men, all of them old (115-126); thus you must make it known that the Church of Rome is befouled and befouling, arrogating unto itself both governments (127-129).

35. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Thoughts on Freewill • Boëthius, Cons. Phil., V. Prosa 3, Ridpath's Tr.:-- “But I shall now endeavor to demonstrate, that, in whatever way the chain of causes is disposed, the event of things which are foreseen is necessary; although prescience may not appear to be the necessitating cause of their befalling. For example, if a person sits, the opinion formed of him that he is seated is of necessity true; but by inverting the phrase, if the opinion is true that he is seated, he must necessarily sit. In both cases, then, there is a necessity; in the latter, that the person sits; in the former, that the opinion concerning him is true: but the person doth not sit, because the opinion of his sitting is true, but the opinion is rather true because the action of his being seated was antecedent in time. Thus, though the truth of the opinion may be the effect of the person taking a seat, there is, nevertheless, a necessity common to both. The same method of reasoning, I think, should be employed with regard to the prescience of God, and future contingencies; for, allowing it to be true that events are foreseen because they are to happen, and that they do not befall because they are foreseen, it is still necessary that what is to happen must be foreseen by God, and that what is foreseen must take place. This then is of itself sufficient to destroy all idea of human liberty.” • Dante later again picks up the freewill discussion in XVIII:43-9, and states that if everything is moved by love, either to good or bad results, then how does one reconcile freewill. How is it not blind determinism? This is a matter of Faith.

36. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Thoughts on the Soul • John S. Carroll (1904), Purgatorio 16.82-93The cause, then, of the general corruption is not in the heavens but in men themselves, and Marco proceeds to trace it specifically to the evil guidance of the Papacy. He begins with a passage of great beauty descriptive of the innocent joy with which the human soul passes direct from God into the earthly life:Forth from the hand of Him who with joy beholds it Before it is, in fashion of a little maid Weeping and laughing in her childish sport, Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows, Save that, set in motion by a joyous Maker, Willingly it turns to that which gives it Pleasure.' Never, surely, was the doctrine of the human soul expressed with greater beauty. It reminds us of Vaughan's 'angell-infancy' with its 'white celestiall thoughts,' and Wordsworth's'trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home.' The simple unknowing joy of the unborn soul is the joy of its Maker. Before its creation it exists in the Divine idea, and there God contemplates it with delight. When it passes forth from His hand into the earthly existence, His joy goes with it and makes it turn willingly to whatever gives it pleasure. But in its childish ignorance it runs after every trivial and delusive good, the object of desire ever changing as life passes from stage to stage. 'Whence,' as he says in the Convito, 'we see little children desire above all things an apple; and then, proceeding further on, desire a little bird; and then, further on, desire a beautiful garment; and then a horse, and then a wife; and then riches, not great, then great, and then very great' (Conv. iv. 12. For the joy and happiness of God in Himself and in all good, see Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Bk. i, chaps. 90, 100- 102. The doctrine of the soul here advocated is that of Creationism [its direct creation by the hand of God], against Traducianism [its transmission by natural generation]. Dante follows Aquinas [Summa, i, q. xc; Contra Gentiles, ii. 87-89]: see Purg. XXV. 61-78; Par. VII. 142-144.)

37. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Charles S. Singleton (1970-75), Purgatorio 16.88 • che sa nulla: I.e., the mind is tabula rasa. See Thomas Aquinas (Summa theol. I, q. 79, a. 2, resp.), who, quoting Aristotle's De anima, says: • But the human intellect, which is the lowest in the order of intelligence and most remote from the perfection of the Divine intellect, is in potentiality with regard to things intelligible, and is at first like a clean tablet on which nothing is written, as the Philosopher says (De Anima iii. 4[429b-430a]). This is made clear from the fact that at first we are only in potentiality to understand, and afterwards we are made to understand actually. And so it is evident that with us to understand is in a way to be passive; taking passion in the third sense. And consequently the intellect is a passive power.

38. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The divisions of Purgatory – Sayers • No one really hates himself or God, so there remains (restat) only the love of harm to one's neighbour. This is the object of Love Perverted, and the only means by which "the work can seek to work against the Workman" — i.e. by "the harming of an image or images given to one for due love" (Charles Williams, op. cit. p. 164). • The lower part of Purgatory is made up of sins against your neighbor • Pride: the intolerance of any rivalry. • Envy: the fear of loss through competition. • Wrath: the love of revenge for injury. • Virgil explains Mid-Purgatory (4th Cornice) as one of defect -- There is a true and satisfying Good (which "the heart may rest on"), of which everybody has at least some kind of nostalgic glimmering. This is the love of God; failure to pursue it with one's whole will is called Sloth (Accidia). • There is a love which though good as far as it goes, cannot of itself bring one to Heaven (it "is not bliss") because it is not the love of God (the essential Good and source of all contingent goods). This love is threefold, and purged on the three Cornices of Upper Purgatory. • Covetous • Gluttonous • Lustful

39. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO XVII-XIX • Cornice IV • The Sinners - Slothful • The Penance – hurried pace • The Meditation -- Mary rushes to the mountain village of Judah, home to Elizabeth and Zachary. Elizabeth is herself pregnant, this conception at an advanced age also having been announced by Gabriel, and her child, the future John the Baptist, leaps in his mother's womb as she is greeted by Mary (Luke 1:39-42). Julius Caesar is the second figure praised here for his fervor: eager to move on to the next battle, Caesar accelerates his progress westward into Spain (Ilerda, today known as Lérida, in Catalonia) by leaving behind forces under Brutus' command to complete the military operations in Marseille (Lucan, Pharsalia 3.453-5). Lucan, whose poem recounts the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, compares Caesar to a thunderbolt (1.151-4). As seen in his damnation of Caesar's assassins, Dante clearly approves of Caesar's military campaigns and eventual dictatorship as part of providential history (UT).

40. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The balancing examples of sloth, or insufficient commitment and determination, are announced by two penitents at the back of the pack (18.130-8). They first lament that many of Moses' followers, beneficiaries of divine intervention in their exodus from Egypt (e.g., parting the waters of the Red Sea: Exodus 14:21-31), nonetheless later perish at God's hand and thus fail to reach the promised land due to various manifestations of incredulity, resistance, and transgression (Exodus 32:7-35; Numbers 14, 16, 20-1). Moses, who summarizes many of these instances in Deuteronomy 1:26-46, is himself shown by God the final destination but also prevented from arriving there (Deut. 34:1-5). • The second example of sloth is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid (5.700-54): Trojans who stayed behind in Sicily, to settle there and found a city, rather than endure additional hardships with Aeneas on his fated voyage to Italy, where he will lay the foundation for the Roman empire. On the counsel of his aged friend Nautes and the spirit of Anchises, his dead father, Aeneas allows those who have lost their ships, men and women weary of the journey, and others weak and afraid of new dangers to put an end to their wandering (seven years since the fall of Troy). Dante here concurs with Virgil's judgment that these individuals lack the will and courage required to achieve fame and glory (Aen. 5.751; Purg. 18.138). • The Prayer none • The Benediction Matt 5:5, blessed are they that morn • The Angel of zeal • Read Psalm 51

41. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • John S. Carroll (1904), Purgatorio 19.37-69 Freewilll • The qui lugent refers, of course, to the Vulgate of the Beatitude, 'Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted' (Matt. v. 4, 'Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur'). At first glance, this Beatitude seems to have almost no moral appropriateness to this Terrace; but on looking closer the connection is found to be peculiarly deep and intimate. Sloth, we have seen, involves a profound element of sadness, -- 'sadness,' as Aquinas says, 'at spiritual good, inasmuch as it is divine good' (Summa, ii-ii, q. xxxv, a. 3). It is that low-spirited state of soul which shrinks away sorrowfully from the pain and exertion which the struggle to attain spiritual good involves. And the Beatitude is, -- Blessed are they that mourn over this sadness which makes divine good seem not worthy of the effort to gain it. We shall miss much of the meaning if we fail to see that it is just this blessed sorrow which was bending Dante himself into 'the half arch of a bridge,' as his conversation with Virgil, when they have passed the Angel, proves. Virgil asks what ails him that he gazes only at the ground; and Dante replies that the strange vision he has had is bending him to itself and filling him with a misgiving of fear -- fear, evidently, that he will never be strong enough to cast off the power of the Siren, to break the spell of fleshly sin. It is just as he comes forward bending languidly under the load of this misgiving that the Angel meets him with the declaration that such sorrow is blessed, because it carries in its bosom treasures of consolation. What those treasures are, Dante discovers almost immediately. Virgil asks him if he had seen how man is set loose from 'that ancient witch.' The meaning is that, in his dream, he found no release from her until the grace of heaven intervened. To teach him this was the very purpose of the vision, -- that a lower love can be conquered only by a higher, the Siren by 'a lady holy and alert,' the flesh by the Spirit, earth by heaven. This, therefore, is the comfort promised in the Beatitude -- that, as the attraction of the heavens above lays hold of him, that of the earth beneath is broken, and he can tread it underfoot:

42. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • 'Suffice it thee, and strike on earth thy heels, Thine eyes turn back to the lure, which whirleth The King Eternal with the mighty wheels.‘ Even as the falcon, which at his feet first gazes, Then turns to the call, and stretches forward Through the desire of the food which draws him there, Such I made me, and such, as far as is cleft The rock to give a way to him who mounts, I went, even to the point where circling is begun.‘ • (Purg. XIX. 61-69. For the same allurement of the Heavens, compare Canto XIV. 148-150.) The whole figure is very striking. Falconry is the sport of kings ('Falcons and hawks were allotted to degrees and orders of men according to rank and station, -- for instance, to royalty the jerfalcons, to an earl the peregrine, to a yeoman the goshawk, to a priest the sparrowhawk, and to a knave or servant the useless kestrel' [Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. 'Falconry']), and the great Falconer is the King Eternal. As the human falconer gives his peculiar call, and swings his 'lure' in the air -- a contrivance of birds' feathers and food at the end of a long thong -- even so God whirls above man's life the lure of 'the mighty wheels,' the vast circlings of the Nine Heavens, that he may draw the soul to Himself by hunger for its proper food, the bread of angels. Dante confesses that he is not yet ready for the vast flight. He compares himself to a falcon which hears its master's cry, and first looks down at its feet which are restrained by the jesses. So Dante looks down at the earth which forms his jesses, and feels that all he can meantime do is to turn to the great Falconer's call, and stretch himself towards the heavenly lure -- not, as Ruskin thinks, the 'Fortuna Major' of the geomants, but of God. It is not much perhaps, but it is at least the beginning of the comfort promised by the Beatitude: it carries him with uplifted head up the entire length of the passage between the two walls of hard rock which at last open out upon the Fifth Cornice.

44. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • CANTO XIX-XXII • Cornice V • The Sinners The Covetous • The Penance - Prostration • The Meditation - The penitents on the fifth terrace, Hugh Capet explains, recite examples of avarice during the night and examples of the contrary virtue (poverty, contentment with little) during the day (20.97-102). Because Dante and Virgil arrive on the terrace in the morning, they first hear the exemplary cases of poverty, beginning as always with a biblical scene from the life of Mary (20.19-24). Her poverty is evident, the spirits proclaim, from the extremely modest circumstances in which she gave birth to Jesus, as described in Luke 2:7: "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." "Good Fabricius," a classical figure, is the second virtuous example (20.25-7). Gaius Fabricius Luscinus was a prominent Roman leader--he served the Republic twice as consul (282 and 278 B.C.E.) and once as censor (275)--legendary for his integrity and contempt for material wealth. So strong was Fabricius' loyalty to the state that he could not be bought off with lavish gifts, preferring instead "to remain in poverty as an ordinary citizen" (Augustine, City of God 5.18). Dante elsewhere presents Fabricius as a model of Roman civic virtue based on this impressive austerity (Convivio 4.5.13; Monarchia 2.5.11), which Virgil succinctly praises in the Aeneid: "Fabricius, strong with so little" (6.843-4). Nicholas, whose generosity enabled the young women to maintain honor (20.31-3), is the third individual praised on the terrace of avarice. St. Nicholas, venerated by both the Greek and Roman Churches, was the fourth-century bishop of Myra (in Asia Minor) whose remains were brought to Bari, Italy in the eleventh century (he is also known as Nicholas of Bari). The episode recited by the penitents was well known from The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the thirteenth century. Born to a wealthy family, Nicholas resolved to distribute his riches "not to the praising of the world but to the honor and glory of God." He acted on this promise upon learning that a neighbor, an impoverished nobleman, intended to keep the family afloat by prostituting his three daughters. Nicholas, horrified by this proposition, stealthily threw a bundle of gold into the man's house during the night. Thanking God, the neighbor used the gold to marry his oldest daughter. Nicholas repeated the procedure two more times, thus providing a dowry for all three daughters. The patron saint of sailors, virgins, merchants, and thieves (among others), Nicholas is most widely recognized as Santa Claus, patron saint of children.

45. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • During the night, the penitents recite, in rapid succession, seven infamous cases of avarice (20.103-17). Pygmalion, a traitor, thief, and parricide (20.103-5), was King of Tyre and brother of Dido. "Blinded by his love of gold" (Aen. 1.349), he brutally murdered Dido's wealthy husband Sychaeus (who was Pygmalion's uncle) and tried to keep the crime from his sister. Dido learned of the murder from Sychaeus' spirit, who also revealed the location of gold and silver to his sister and warned her to flee their homeland at once. Dido and her companions escaped with the treasure of rapacious Pygmalion, and they eventually founded a new city, Carthage (Aen. 1.335-68). Midas, a Phrygian king, was granted a wish by Bacchus for having returned the satyr Silenus to the god; he asked that whatever he touched be turned to gold. This was indeed an unwise choice, for now Midas could neither eat nor drink: even the solids and liquids that passed his lips turn to metal. Bacchus answered Midas' plea for forgiveness and cancelled the unwelcome gift (Ovid, Met. 11.85-145). • The next three examples are biblical. Achan was stoned to death, his family and possessions consumed by fire, for having disobeyed Joshua's command that the treasures of the conquered city of Jericho be consecrated to God (Jos. 6:18-19). Because Achan took precious items from the spoils for himself, the Israelites were defeated and they suffered heavy losses in a subsequent battle; God's wrath was averted with the punishment of Achan's crime (Jos. 7:1-26). The avarice of two early Christian followers, Sapphira and her husband Ananias, was also punished by death. While other members of the community sold their property and gave all proceeds to the apostles for distribution according to need, Ananias (with the complicity of Sapphira) kept part of the sale for himself. Confronted by Peter for the fraud, first Ananias and then Sapphira immediately dropped dead (Acts 4:32-7; 5:1-10). King Seleucus of Asia sent Heliodorus to the temple in Jerusalem to bring back money, which the king, acting on false information, believed was his. The temple members, because the funds actually belonged to them and were used for charity, were distraught until their prayers were answered: as Heliodorus prepared to take away the money, there appeared a knight in golden armor whose horse delivered the kicks now praised by the penitents in Purgatory (20.113; 2 Mach. 3:25). http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/purgatory/07avarice.html

46. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Two classical figures round out the exemplary cases of avarice. Polymnestor lives in infamy all around the mountain (20.114-15). The king of Thrace, he was entrusted with the safety of Polydorus, youngest son of Priam and Hecuba. Driven by his insatiable greed, Polymnestor instead killed Polydorus to take for himself the considerable wealth the boy brought for safe keeping from the besieged city of Troy (Aen. 3.19-68; Met. 13.429-38). Hecuba avenges this crime: pretending to believe that Polydorus is still alive, she tells Polymnestor that she has a secret store of gold for him to give her son; when the murderer, greedier than ever, asks for the gold and promises to fulfill Hecuba's request, she grabs him and, assisted by other Trojan women, gouges out his eyes and--through the empty sockets--his brain as well (Met. 13.527-64). Marcus Licinius Crassus, part of the triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey (60 B.C.E.) and twice consul with Pompey (70, 55 B.C.E.), also suffers a gruesome death due to his avarice. Nicknamed Dives ("the wealthy one": Cicero, On Duties 2.57), Crassus comes to know the taste of gold, as the avaricious spirits mockingly put it (20.117), when greed leads to his death--and the massacre of eleven Roman legions--at the hands of the Parthians. Crassus' head and right hand are brought before the Parthian king, who has melted gold poured into the open mouth so that "as the living man burned with lust for gold, now even his dead body feels the heat of gold" (Florus, Epitoma 1.46). (See Sayers’ note p. 232-3) • The Prayer – Ps. 119:25 “my soul cleaveth to the dust” • The Benediction Matt 5:6 “hunger for righteousness” • The Angel of Liberality • Read Psalm 102

47. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The souls on the fifth terrace purify themselves of their vice (avarice or its sinful opposite, prodigality) by lying face-down on the hard rock floor. Weeping and praying, they themselves call out the examples of greed and its opposing virtue (generosity). Pope Adrian V, who lived only a little more than a month after his election to the papacy in 1276 (19.103-5), explains how this prostrate position is fitting punishment for their neglect of spiritual matters and excessive attachment to worldly goods. This pope, the first saved pope encountered by the journeying Dante, tells his visitor not to kneel because they are now equals before God (19.133-5). • 137: Neque nubent = "They neither marry [nor are given in marriage"] (Matt. xxii. 23-30; Mark xii. 18-25; Luke xx. 27-35): Every bishop, including the Pope, is ceremonially wedded to his see (which is why he wears a ring and changes his name to that of his diocese). But this marriage, like any earthly marriage, is dissolved in Heaven, together with all legal and official ties and all earthly rank and privilege (cf. v. 88 and note). This holds good, despite the sacramental nature of the ties of marriage, orders, and unction: for in Heaven there is no longer any need of sacraments (Sayers).

48. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • John S. Carroll (1904), Purgatorio 19.127-138 Popes • If one form of Avarice is as dust and another as mire, there is a third of which Dante chooses the rock as symbol. It is in the Moat of the Simoniacs in the Eighth Circle of Hell; and his attitude here as he stoops over this prostrate Pope cannot but recall his form as he bends lower still over another who is worse than prostrate. For if common Avarice casts a man to the ground, Simony sinks him into it, buries him alive in the hard rock of his own merciless greed. As Dante stoops over Nicholas III. and the long non-apostolic succession of simoniacal Popes in the rock beneath him, he regards them as assassins of the Church, and breaks into a passion of indignant denunciation (Inf. XIX. 31- 133). Here, on the contrary, before a Pope who, whatever his sins, strove at least to save 'the great mantle' from the mire of base avarice, he cannot refrain from sinking on his knees in reverence. So far as it is reverence for himself as Pope, it is rebuked by Adrian the moment he discovers by the nearness of Dante's voice that he is kneeling: 'Make straight thy legs, and rise up, brother,‘ He answered; 'err not; fellowservant am I With thee and with the others to one Power. If thous didst ever that holy Gospel sound Which sayeth Neque nubent understand, Well canst thou see why I thus speak.'

49. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • The use of the word 'brother' instead of 'son,' indicates the renunciation of his superiority as spiritual Father. 'I am thy fellow-servant,' taken from Rev. xix. 10 and xxii. 9, has a double edge: it repudiates at once the exaggerated humility of the 'Servus servorum,' Servant of servants, which, since Gregory the Great, was one of the official styles of the Popes (in Inf. XV. 112, the title is used sarcastically of Boniface VIII); and that Papal grasping at spiritual and temporal power which sought to make all men serve it. This Pope has learnt that there is a higher world of equality of service of the one same Power. The 'holy Gospel sound,' 'Neque nubent,' is Christ's statement that the bond of marriage is dissolved in the world to come: 'In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage' (Matt. xxii. 30; for the figure of the Pope as the Church's spouse, see Inf. XIX. 56, and Purg. XXIV. 22). The first reference is to the ties of flesh and blood, and Dante here extends it to the Pope as the spouse of the Church. It is uncertain whether he meant it to cover holy orders. These, according to the Church, impress a 'character,' which is defined as 'a certain spiritual and indelible sign,' and it might be argued that this being indelible, a priest is a priest for ever, in the next world as in this. As a matter of fact, Adrian, as already stated, was never ordained to the priesthood, and therefore the question does not arise. What Dante really wishes to do is to bring the office of Pope into line in this matter with that of Emperor. Both offices are ordained by God for certain earthly ends, and therefore lapse with the earthly life. 'Caesar I was, and am Justinian,' says the great Emperor in Paradise (Par. VI. 10). It is a law which holds good of every earthly rank: the Count of Montefeltro, for example, disclaims his title: 'I was of Montefeltro, I am Buonconte.' Pope, Emperor, Count -- all at death lapse back into the primal manhood, the naked personality, in which all men are equal before God.

50. THE DIVINE COMEDY: PURGATORY • Robert Hollander (2000-2007), Purgatorio 21.16-18 • Virgil's wish for Statius is touching, in part because it has been accomplished, since Statius is already substantially one of the blessed, only awaiting a change in his accidental state, which will be accomplished in less than a day. While the poem does not show him there, its givens make it plain that, had Dante chosen to do so, Statius could have been observed seated in the rose in Paradiso XXXII; he is there by the time Dante ascends into the heavens at the beginning of the next cantica, or so we may assume. • Virgil's insistence on his own eternal home is a moving reminder of his tragic situation in this comic poem. Statius's salvation comes closer than anyone else's in showing how near Virgil himself came to eternal blessedness, as the next canto will make clear. And, once we learn (Purg. XXII.67-73) that it was Virgil who was responsible, by means of his fourth Eclogue, for the conversion of Statius, we consider these lines with a still more troubled heart. For remarks in a similar vein see Stephany (“Biblical Allusions to Conversion in Purgatorio XXI,” Stanford Italian Review 3 [1983]), p. 158n.