Inferno
The Third Bolgia: Simoniacs. Pope Nicholas III. Dante's Reproof of corrupt Prelates.
O Simon Magus! O you wretched followers,
you who take the things of God—which should be
wedded to righteousness—and prostitute them,
selling them greedily for silver and gold.
Now the trumpet must sound for you,
because you dwell in this third ditch.
We had already climbed onto the next tomb,
to that portion of the ridge which hangs
directly over the center of the moat.
O supreme Wisdom, how great is the art you display
in heaven, on earth, and in this world of evil,
and how justly your power distributes punishment!
I saw the dark stone, both on the sides
and on the bottom, filled with round holes,
all the same size, each one perfectly circular.
They seemed no smaller and no larger
than those in my beautiful San Giovanni
that are made for the baptizers to stand in—
one of which, not many years ago,
I broke to save someone who was drowning;
let this be my seal to set all minds at rest.
From the mouth of each hole protruded
the feet of a sinner, and the legs
up to the calves; the rest remained inside.
The soles of all their feet were aflame,
making their joints quiver so violently
they would have snapped ropes and chains.
Just as flame on oily things
moves only along the outer surface,
so it was there from heel to toe.
"Master," I said, "who is that one writhing more
than all his other companions,
the one a redder flame is devouring?"
And he replied: "If you want me to carry you
down there along that lower bank,
you'll learn from him about his sins and himself."
And I: "Whatever pleases you pleases me.
You are my lord, and you know I never stray
from your will, and you know what I leave unspoken."
We came at once to the fourth embankment.
We turned and descended on the left side
down to the bottom, narrow and full of holes.
The good Master did not set me down
from his side until he brought me
to the hole of the one lamenting with his legs.
"Whoever you are, wretched soul,
planted upside down like a stake,"
I began to say, "speak if you can."
View larger
THE SIMONISTS
“planted upside down like a stake," / I began to say, "speak if you can."”
I stood like a friar hearing confession
from a treacherous assassin who, once fixed in place,
calls him back to delay his death.
And he cried out: "Are you standing there already?
Are you standing there already, Boniface?
The prophecy has lied to me by several years!
Are you so quickly sated with that wealth
for which you did not fear to take by fraud
the beautiful Lady, and then destroy her?"
I became like people who stand there
not understanding what is said to them,
as if mocked, not knowing how to answer.
Then Virgil said: "Tell him quickly:
'I am not he, I am not the one you think.'"
And I answered as he instructed me.
At this the spirit twisted both his feet,
then sighing, with a voice of lamentation,
said to me: "Then what do you want from me?
If you care so much to know who I am
that you have crossed the bank for that reason,
know that I was clothed with the great mantle,
and truly I was a son of the She-bear,
so eager to advance my cubs that I pocketed
wealth above, and here pocket myself.
Beneath my head are dragged down all the others
who preceded me in simony,
flattened along the fissure of the rock.
I too will fall down there when he comes—
the one I thought you were
when I asked that sudden question.
But I have already been roasting my feet
and staying here upside down
longer than he will remain planted with red feet.
For after him will come a pastor without law,
from the west, of fouler deeds,
fit to cover both him and me.
He will be a new Jason, like the one
we read about in Maccabees;
and as that king was soft toward Jason,
so the one who rules France will be toward this one."
I don't know if I was too bold here,
but I answered him in this way:
"Now tell me: how much treasure
did our Lord ask of Saint Peter
before he put the keys in his keeping?
Surely he asked nothing but 'Follow me.'
Neither Peter nor the others asked
silver or gold from Matthias
when he was chosen by lot
for the place the guilty soul had lost.
Therefore stay here, for you are justly punished,
and guard well the ill-gotten money
that made you bold against Charles.
And if it were not that reverence
for the supreme keys you held
in the joyful life still restrains me,
I would use even harsher words.
For your greed afflicts the world,
trampling the good and lifting up the wicked.
You pastors the Evangelist had in mind
when he saw her who sits upon many waters
committing fornication with kings—
she who was born with seven heads
and drew power and strength from ten horns,
as long as virtue pleased her husband.
You have made yourselves a god of gold and silver.
How do you differ from the idolater,
except that he worships one, and you a hundred?
Ah Constantine! How much evil came
not from your conversion, but from that dowry
which the first rich Pope received from you!"
And while I sang these notes to him,
whether anger or conscience bit him,
he kicked violently with both feet.
I think it truly pleased my guide,
for with such satisfied expression
he kept listening to the sound of those true words.
Then he took me up in both his arms,
and when he had me completely on his chest,
he climbed back up the way he had descended.
Nor did he tire of holding me close,
but carried me to the summit of the arch
that crosses from the fourth ditch to the fifth.
There he set down his burden tenderly,
tenderly on the rough and steep crag
that would be hard passage even for goats.
From there another valley was revealed to me.