Inferno: Canto 19 -- Circle 8, Bolgia 3

Acts 8: 9-25
9 A man named Simon used to practice magic 4 in the city and astounded the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.
10 All of them, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying, "This man is the 'Power of God' that is called 'Great.'"
11 They paid attention to him because he had astounded them by his magic for a long time,
12 but once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized.
13 Even Simon himself believed and, after being baptized, became devoted to Philip; and when he saw the signs and mighty deeds that were occurring, he was astounded.
14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
15 who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit,
16 for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 5
17 Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.
18 6 When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money
19 and said, "Give me this power too, so that anyone upon whom I lay my hands may receive the holy Spirit."
20 But Peter said to him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the gift of God with money.
21 You have no share or lot in this matter, for your heart is not upright before God.
22 Repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your intention may be forgiven.
23 For I see that you are filled with bitter gall and are in the bonds of iniquity."
24 Simon said in reply, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
25 So when they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem and preached the good news to many Samaritan villages.

And a whole new round of sinners were born into the world. Let that be a lesson to those who enter the priesthood with false intentions!



Stuck upside down in fonts like these with flames licking about their legs and feet, those who tried to (or did) buy and sell ecclesial offices and duties are damned to mock the baptismal rite (the very thing that removes original sin and opens us to the sweetness and light of G-d's kingdom) until hell is sealed over on the Last Day. This is a particularly gruesome punishment for we learn from Pope Nicholas III who mistakes Dante for Boniface VIII, whom he knows will replace him in the font, will be pushed further into the font each time a new sinner takes his place. That means the new sinner's head is shoved into the font between the old sinner's legs, which is what pushes the original occupant further into the crevice. So, it's not his own ass up which Boniface VIII has his head as was much the geopolitical thinking of the time. It is unknown whom Nicholas III is countenancing.

Simoniacs are worse than panderers or seducers or flatterers because they did all of that to the Holy Mother Church, and in attempting to corrupt the nature of their offices, they attempted to corrupt the seat of G-d on earth. It is in the nature of the Church to bestow power in the office of the priest, the occupant of that office receiving access to the power contained within it. This is why the baptisms and marriages done by priests who are later defrocked for immoral practices are still valid. The person is a custodian of the seat on which that power resides, and if a person tries to abuse that power, then he will be consumed by it. In short, don't f-ck with G-d is the message of this canto because you'll end up the devil's b-tch. (I'm saying an additional rosary today for that last sentence, by the way.)

In his encounter with Pope Nicholas III, Dante recognizes him for who he was, and gives the second major railing against a sinner that we've seen in the Inferno, the first being his verbal attack on Filippo Argenti that elicited such a response from you, my pilgrims. After adding to the pope's torment by calling him on whether Christ demanded money of Peter before giving him to keys to heaven, or of whether Peter demanded money of Matthias before replacing Judas's vacated place (likely, you're wondering where Judas is in this circle -- his seat's occupied further below), Dante then agrees with the divine assessment and denounces the pope, "Therefore stay as you are; this hole well fits you/ . . . And were it not that I am still constrained/ by the reverance I owe to the Great Keys/ you held in life, I should not have refrained/ from using other words and sharper still; for this avarice of yours grieves all the world/ tramples the virtuous, and exalts the vil./ In what are you different from the idolator,/ save that he worships one, and you a score?" (84-111). Dante ends his jeremiad by invoking the name of Constantine, whose Donation, it was believed, gave temporal wealth to the Church and began its corrosion. What we have, then, are 27 lines of 'righteous indignation' hurled at this pope, which Dante prefaces with, "Maybe--I cannot say--I grew too brash at this point." Virgil again approves. Is it possible that this anger is misplaced? Does it put the anger toward Filippo in perspective? Dante will show much worse anger below, and it's important to prepare yourselves for it as we continue our descent.

S.