Worldview of the Western World II

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Worldview of the Western World II
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Dont Panic

• This is a help, not a requirement
• For Dante read Sayers book, comments, perhaps.
• This follows the same format as Quines 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.

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(Sayers, 62)
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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
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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 126-38). 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 132). When Mary asks how
  she, a virgin, will conceive, Gabriel explains
  the "Holy Ghost shall come upon thee" (Luke
  135). Declaring herself the "handmaid of the
  Lord" (10.44 Luke 138),
• 2 Kings 61-23, 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 620-22).
• 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).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Cornice I The Sinners of Pride
• The Penance large boulders causing 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 Lords Prayer, Matt 69-13
• The Benediction Beati pauperes spiritu, Mat 53,
  from the lips of the penitents.
• The Angel the angel of humility

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Read Psalm 6 -- Psalm 61-10 NAS Psalm 61 For
  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.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• Commentaries
• X16 needles eye Matthew 1924 (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.
• X34 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. 138 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)

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• X56 David and Michal (2 Sam. vi. 14)
• X57 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
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• X111 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).

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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.
• XI13 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.)

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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).

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• .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).
• XI108 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
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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).

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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).

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• XII25-7 "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.

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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.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• XII110 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"
  (1015). 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).

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The guide for the answers covering Cornice
VII,81-86 of Quine,
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Terrace of Envy
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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 414)
  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

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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 21-11).
• 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

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• The Benediction blessed are the merciful Matt.
  57 Rev 27 see allusion to Matt 544, XV82.
• 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.

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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).

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Stephen
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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 Meditation In 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 241-8). 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
  249).

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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
  752). 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 757-9), the scene Dante now includes as
  the final instance of exemplary gentleness
  (15.106-14

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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 514 87.) 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).

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• The Prayer Agnus Dei, from the Canon of the Mass,
  from John 129 behold the Lamb of God who takes
  away the sins of the world.
• The Benediction blessed are the peacemakers,
  Matt 59
• 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
32
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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY

• CANTO XV-XVII
• Dantes 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
  116), 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 1820-4) (UT).

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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).

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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 XVIII43-9, 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 lifeForth 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.)

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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. 4429b-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.

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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 139-42). 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).

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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
  1421-31), 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 327-35
  Numbers 14, 16, 20-1). Moses, who summarizes many
  of these instances in Deuteronomy 126-46, is
  himself shown by God the final destination but
  also prevented from arriving there (Deut.
  341-5).
• 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 55, 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

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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.

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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 27 "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.

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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. 618-19).
  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. 71-26). 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
  432-7 51-10). 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. 325).

http//danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/purgatory/07av
arice.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. 11925 my soul cleaveth to the
  dust
• The Benediction Matt 56 hunger for
  righteousness
• The Angel of Liberality
• Read Psalm 102

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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).

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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.'

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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.

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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.

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THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORY
Statius, a Roman poet from the first century
(45-96 C.E.), is the author of two epic La