Up on the topmost rim of a deep-cut bank
Formed by a circle of massive, fissured rock,
We stood above a pen more cruel. The stink
Thrown up from the abyss had grown so thick
Its excess drove us to shelter in the space
Behind a great tomb’s lid. It bore a plaque
Inscribed: “I hold Pope Anastasius,
Drawn by Photinus from the proper path.”
Pope Anastasius – denied that God was the father of Jesus Christ and thus Jesus Christ was not fully God and fully man but man only.
Photinus – was a deacon in the Thessalonica church who committed heresy by denying divine paternity as well. Evidently Photinus influenced Pope Anastasius to the same heresy.
While they wait until they can stand the stench, Dante asks Virgil to use the time well and teach him. Virgil goes on to explain that the next circle of hell will have three lesser circles.
“My son,
Within these rocks three lesser circles fall,
Each one below another, like those you have seen,
And all of them are packed with accursed souls;
In order that hereafter the sight alone
May be sufficient, you will hear what rules
Determine how and why they are constrained.
The end of every wickedness that feels
Heaven’s hatred is injustice – and each end
Of this kin whether by force or fraud, afflicts
Some other person. But since fraud is found
In humankind as its peculiar vice,
It angers God more: so the fraudulent
Are lower, and suffer more unhappiness.
The whole first circle is for the violent;
But, because violence involves a deed
Against three persons, its apportionment
And fabrications are in three rings: to God,
To one’s self, or one’s neighbor, all violence
is done – to them, or to their things instead.
Virgil and Dante are about to descend to the seventh circle of Hell. It is the circle of the Violent and is divided into 3 rings that hold those who do violence against God, violence against one’s self and violence against one’s neighbor.
- Violence against one’s neighbor – “By violence, death and wounds of grievous kinds are inflicted on one’s neighbor and on his property – arson, ruinous offense, extortion. So the first ring is the harbor of torment for the homicides and those who strike out wrongfully: despoiler, robber and plunderer, in various companies.”
- Violence against one’s self – “One may lay violent hands on his own being, or what belongs to himself, and all of these repent in vain within the second ring: He who deprives himself of your world sins thus; or gambles; or dissipates whatever thing he has of worth; or weeps when he should rejoice.”
- Violence against God – “Violence against the Deity, too, exists; to deny and blaspheme Him in the heart does this, as does despising Nature and her gifts; therefore the smallest ring imprints its mark on Sodom and Cahors and him who speaks contemptuously of God with all his heart.”
Sodom – In Genesis 18:16-33 Abraham intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah after the Lord told him He was going to destroy it. Genesis 19 tells the story of how the angels go to Sodom. Lot and his family are the only ones in the two cities who are righteous so the angels rescue them before God destroys the 2 cities with fire and brimstone. The sins of the cities were “so grievous” that they gave “a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah”. But when the angels go there, they are threatened by the men of the city. Genesis 19:4-7 (NLT) 4 But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. 5 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!” 6 So Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. 7 “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing.” So sodomy and homosexuality are presented at the top of the list of sins of the two cities.
Cahors – Cahors is in the western part of southern France. Cahors has been a place since Celtic times. The original name of the town was Divona or Divona Cadurcorum, “Divona of the Cadurci,” Divona was a fountain, now called “la fontaine des Chartreux”, worshiped by the Cadurci, a Celtic people of Gaul before the Roman conquest in the 50s BC. The Cadurci were among the last Celtic tribes to resist the Roman invasion. Cahors became a large Roman city, with many monuments whose remnants can be seen today. It has declined economically since the Middle Ages. It was, at one time, famous for it’s bankers who loaned out money for interest. (Wikipedia). Unreasonable interest rates are considered usury. Usury is the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.
Immediately within the walls of the City are the Heretics, who disbelieved in immortality are forever imprisoned in red-hot tombs. Beyond are rings of those who were violent—to others, to themselves (suicides), to God (blasphemers), to art (usurers), and to nature (sexual perverts). Beyond the ruins of Dis are the frauds and corruptors, and finally the traitors. – Wikipedia
Virgil goes on to explain that the next two circles of Hell are the last ones and will be for the Fraudulent: defrauding a stranger and defrauding a friend or loved one.
“Fraud, which bites every conscience, a man may play
Either on one who trusts him, or one who does not.
The latter of the two is seen to destroy
Only those bonds of love that nature makes:
So in the second circle hypocrisy,
Flatterers, sorcery, larceny, simoniacs,
With pimps, barrators, and such filth have their nest.
But the other kind of fraud not only forsakes
The love that nature makes, but the special trust
That further, added love creates: therefore
At the universe’s core, inside the least
Circle, the seat of Dis, every betrayer
Eternally is consumed,”
Larceny – theft of personal property
Simoniacs – a simoniac practises simony which is a sacrilege that consists in buying and selling what is spiritual in return for what is temporal. In simony the person tries to equate material things, such as money, with spiritual things, such as divine grace, and treats the latter as though he or some other human being had full ownership of what really belongs to God. The term “simony” originated with the biblical account of Simon Magus, who sought to purchase from St. Peter the spiritual power derived from the imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:18). Promising prayers in return for money, giving a church office in exchange for money, promising absolution for money, etc. – CatholicCulture.org
Barrators – someone who practises barratry. Barratry is the purchase or sell of a church or state office for money; also, the persistent filing of lawsuits to harass and make money; lawsuits and litigation done for profit and harassment; illicit gain to the detriment of one’s community. Both simony and barratry are a corruption of church and state which results in a corruption of social order.
Dante asks Virgil why the sinners in Upper Hell are not in the City of Dis too?
“What brings
Your thoughts to wander so from the proper route?
Where has your mind been gazing? Don’t you recall
A passage in your Ethics, the words that treat
Three dispositions counter to Heaven’s will:
Incontinence, malice, insane brutality?
And how incontinence is less distasteful
To God, and earns less blame?”
Punished within Dis are those whose lives were marked by active sins, those done deliberately and with malice. The sinners in Upper Hell were those of “incontinence”. Their desire wasn’t the central point, it was their lack of the virtue of self discipline. For instance, eating and food aren’t sinful unless we lack self discipline and become gluttons. But within the City of Dis, are those who, with malice aforethought, sinned deliberately. It was an active and wilful choice.
Notice how Virgil directs Dante to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The Bible does not mention divisions of Hell and it seems one sin is a sin just like any other sin so there aren’t necessarily degrees of sin. One sin is all it takes to break the relationship with God. And only God could re-establish that relationship which He did through Jesus Christ. It’s why Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. He was God’s answer to sin and God’s way to salvation; one He provided and directs us to. Not all religions are the same and not all “gods” are God. Not all paths lead to salvation.
John 14:6 “I am the Way, and the truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”
Acts 16:30-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved …”
1 Corinthians 15:1-5 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve
But Dante had written a whole epic poem on the divisions of Hell so he referred to well known classical literature, Ethics.
Next Dante asks why “usury offends celestial Goodness”? Virgil tells him that Nature is a child of God and human art is it’s child (grandchild of God).
“Study your Physics well, and you’ll be shown
In not too many pages that your art’s good
Is to follow Nature insofar as it can,
As a pupil emulates his master; God
Has as it were a grandchild in your art.
By these two, man should thrive and gain his bread –
If you remember Genesis – from the start.
But since the usurer takes a different way,
He contemns Nature both in her own sort
And in her follower as well, while he
Chooses to invest his hope another place.”
The word “arte” in verse 103 is to be construed as all human techne — thus art in its broadest sense, including all human work, skills, crafts, and endeavors. Violence against nature is sodomy, while violence against human art is usury. – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
Nature follows God and our human art follows Nature like a pupil follows it’s teacher. A man should make his living by his own hands not by usury which makes a living off other people. He uses other people. They have to work to pay him.
Aristotle’s Physics: “ars imitatur naturam in quantum potest” — literally, art imitates nature as much as it can.
Genesis 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
After Adam and Eve sinned:
Genesis 3:17-19 17 And to Adam He said:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten from the tree
of which I commanded you not to eat,
cursed is the ground because of you;
through toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your bread,
until you return to the ground—
because out of it were you taken.
For dust you are,
and to dust you shall return.”
Excerpts of Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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