Canto XIX
CANTO XIX
Recalling the spectacle presented below the third bridge, the Poet bursts into an invective against Simon Magus and all his followers, who traffic in spiritual goods, and then apostrophizes the Divine Wisdom that castigates them in this ditch (1–12). Its base and sides are perforated by holes into which the simoniacs have been thrust headfirst and out of which their lower legs protrude, kicking so violently from the flames broiling their soles that they would easily have snapped ropes (13–30). When Dante inquires about one of the writhing spirits who appears to agonize more than the others, Virgil carries him on his side down the fourth embankment to the trench’s floor to meet him (31–45). The Pilgrim tauntingly enjoins the thrashing soul to speak, and, on hearing his voice, the partially buried shade mistakes him for the nepotistic Boniface VIII. When Virgil instructs the puzzled Dante to respond that he is not the one he is thought to be, the half-interred simonist convulses even more vehemently at the revelation and indirectly discloses himself as Pope Nicholas III, who abused his sacred office to advance his blood relations. He has flattened his predecessors into the crevices of the rock as he too shall soon be forced down by his successors Boniface VIII and Clement V (46–87). Restrained only by his respect for the papal office, the Poet demands to know if Jesus required silver or gold of Peter before entrusting the keys to him, or if the apostles exacted payment from Mathias when he was selected to replace Judas. The Church, the Bride of Christ, was strengthened by the seven sacraments and guided by the ten commandments as long as virtue pleased her groom on earth, but idolatry of silver and gold has now turned her into a scarlet woman whoring with kings. The Pilgrim closes his diatribe with an impassioned apostrophe to Constantine the Great, whose alleged donation to the Church first infected her with the lust for wealth (88–120). Representing both reason and the Roman Empire, Virgil is pleased with Dante’s words and bears him against his chest up the wall and over the bridge to the fifth embankment, from where another ditch is seen (121–133).
1 O Simon Magus, O sad retinue![285]
Who take the things of God, which you should hold
As brides of righteousness—rapacious crew!—
4 And pander them for silver and for gold!
Now must the trumpet sound for you, the rich
Who find your place in this third trench’s fold!
7 Already we had climbed the ridgeway which
Went over the next tomb, just at the part
That hangs above the middle of the ditch.
10 (O highest Wisdom, how your boundless art
In heaven, earth, and this ill world is found;
What justice does your might to all impart!)
13 I saw holes on the sides and on the ground
That fill the livid stones and in such wise
That all were of one width and each was round.
16 They seemed to me no less nor great in size
Than those on my fair San Giovanni’s floor,[286]
Which serve as stands for those who there baptíze.
19 (I’d broken one, not many years before,
To save from drowning one who’d fallen in—
This be my seal that men may doubt no more.)
22 A sinner’s feet and legs up to the shin
Emerged out of the mouth of each to wring,
While all the rest of him remained within.
25 Both soles of all, aflame with fire, so swing
That they’d have snapped—their joints were writhing so—
Both bands of twigs and ropes of hempen string.
28 As flames on oily things are wont to flow
And on the outer face alone are spread,
So likewise did they there from heel to toe.
31 “O Master, who is he who writhes,” I said
“And twists more than his other comrades do,
And who is licked by flames of deeper red?”
34 He said: “If you would have me carry you
Down there along the bank that lies more low,
You’ll learn of him and of his evils too.”
37 “But where you please, it pleases me to go,”
I said. “You know I would not leave your will,
For you are Lord, and what’s unsaid you know.”
40 We came to that fourth dike and turned downhill,
And thus descended leftwards by the bank,
Down to the narrow, potted base; and still,
43 My good Lord did not let me leave his flank
Until he first had brought me to the hole
Of one who was lamenting with his shank.
46 “You upside down! You planted like a pole!
Whoever you may be,” my words began,
“Now speak, if you are able, wretched soul!”
49 I stood there like a priest who shrives a man
Fixed in the earth for faithless homicide,
Who calls him back, delaying death a span.[287]
52 “Are you already standing there,” he cried,
“Already standing there, O Boniface?[288]
By sundry years the writ to me has lied.
55 Have you been cloyed with wealth in such short space,
Which killed your fear of taking on the sly
The lovely Maid and doing her disgrace?”[289]
58 And I became like someone standing by,
Who did not grasp the answer but instead
Felt ridiculed and could not make reply.
61 “Now quickly say to him,” my Virgil pled,
“I am not who you think, I am not he.”
And I replied to him just as he said.
64 That spirit writhed his feet most mightily,
And making sighs and in a voice of woe,
He said: “What is it, then, you want of me?
67 If knowing who I am concerns you so
That you descended the embankment’s stair,
Know that I wore the mighty mantle, though
70 In truth I was an offspring of the bear,[290]
So eager to advance the cubs that I
Here purse myself since I pursed wealth up there.
73 Beneath my head the other ones are nigh
Who once preceded me in simony
But flattened in the clefts of stone now lie.
76 I too shall fall below in turn, you see,
When he comes whom in you I thought to meet
When I had questioned you so suddenly.
79 I’ve cooked my feet, though, longer in this heat
And stood in this inverted pose oppressed
Than he’ll stand planted here with scarlet feet.
82 For after him a shepherd from the west
Will come who, lawless and of fouler deed,
Is fit to cover him and me the best.[291]
85 He’ll be a second Jason as we read
In Maccabees: as his king was soft-souled
To him, so will the French King be indeed.”[292]
88 I do not know if here I was too bold
When I chimed back to him this melody:
“Now tell me, just what treasury of gold
91 Was Peter asked for by our Lord that He
Might place the keys beneath the Saint’s control?
He surely asked him only: ‘Follow me.’
94 And Peter and the others asked no toll
Of gold or silver when by lot they sent
Mathías to replace the guilty soul.[293]
97 Since you are rightly punished, stay thus pent,
And guard with care the money wrongly gained,
Which made you turn on Charles with bold intent.[294]
100 And were it not that I am still refrained
By my respect for those great keys, which when
You lived the happy life, you once maintained,
103 I should use words much harsher yet again
Since by your avarice the world is grieved;
You trample good and raise up evil men.
106 You pastors the Evangelist perceived[295]
When she who sits upon the water’s spume
Was seen to whore with kings—a maid conceived
109 And born with seven heads and one to whom
Great power came from those ten horns she bore,
As long as virtue satisfied her groom.
112 You’ve made a god of gold and silver ore;
Are idolmongers different from your crew,
Save that they worship one and you five score?
115 Ah Constantine, what ills you mothered too,[296]
Not by conversion, but the dowry made,
Which your first wealthy father took from you!”
118 And while I sang such notes to him, that shade,
Whom either anger or his conscience bit,
Kept kicking hard, with both his feet displayed.
121 I well believe my Guide was pleased with it—
He’d listened with a look that seemed content
To truthful words that I expressed as fit.
124 He took me up in both his arms and went
As now against his chest he held me fast,
Remounting by the road of our descent.
127 And, unfatigued, he held me till at last
He carried me up to the arch’s height,
Where from the fourth dike to the fifth we passed.
130 And here he set his burden down so light,
So light because the rough, steep crag would be
For any goat a rugged passage site.
133 From there another vale was shown to me.