# Inferno Canto 19

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Christianity Index  Divine Comedy Index  Previous: Inferno Canto 18  Next: Inferno Canto 20  
> 
> Canto XIX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      They come to the third gulf, wherein are punished those who have been
> guilty of simony. These are fixed with the head downward in certain apertures,
> so that no more of them than the legs appears without, and on the soles of
> their feet are seen burning flames. Dante is taken down by his guide into the
> bottom of the gulf; and there finds Pope Nicholas V, whose evil deeds,
> together with those of other pontiffs, are bitterly reprehended. Virgil then
> carries him up again to the arch, which affords them a passage over the
> following gulf.
> 
> Woe to thee, Simon Magus! woe to you,
> His wretched followers! who the things of God,
> Which should be wedded unto goodness, them,
> Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute
> For gold and silver in adultery.
> Now must the trumpet sound for you, since yours
> Is the third chasm. Upon the following vault
> We now had mounted, where the rock impends
> Directly o'er the centre of the foss.
> 
> Wisdom Supreme!  ow wonderful the art,
> Which Thou dost manifest in Heaven, in earth,
> And in the evil world, how just a meed
> Allotting by Thy virtue unto all.
> 
> I saw the livid stone, throughout the sides
> And in its bottom full of apertures,
> All equal in their width, and circular each.
> Nor ample less nor larger they appear'd
> Than, in Saint John's fair dome[1] of me beloved,
> Those framed to hold the pure baptismal streams,
> One of the which I brake, some few years past,
> To save a whelming infant: and be this
> A seal to undeceive whoever doubts
> The motive of my deed. From out the mouth
> Of every one emerged a sinner's feet,
> And of the legs high upward as the calf.
> The rest beneath was hid. On either foot
> The soles were burning; whence the flexile joints
> Glanced with such violent motion, as had snapt
> 
> [1: The apertures in the rock were of the same dimensions as the
> fonts of St. John the Baptist at Florence, one of which Dante had broken to
> rescue a child that was playing near and fell in. He intimates that his motive
> for breaking the font had been maliciously represented by his enemies.]
> 
> Asunder cords or twisted withes. As flame,
> Feeding on unctuous matter, glides along
> The surface, scarcely touching where it moves;
> So here, from heel to point, glided the flames.
> 
> "Master! say who is he, than all the rest
> Glancing in fiercer agony, on whom
> A ruddier flame doth prey?" I thus inquired.
> 
> "If thou be willing," he replied. "that I
> Carry thee down, where least the slope bank falls,
> He of himself shall tell thee, and his wrongs."
> 
> I then: "As pleases thee, to me is best.
> Thou art my lord; and know'st that ne'er I quit
> Thy will: what silence hides, that knowest thou."
> 
> Thereat on the fourth pier we came, we turn'd
> And on our left descended to the depth,
> A narrow strait, and perforated close.
> Nor from his side my leader set me down,
> Till to his orifice he brought, whose limb
> Quivering express'd his pang. "Whoe'er thou art,
> Sad spirit! thus reversed, and as a stake
> Driven in the soil," - I in these words began;
> "If thou be able, utter forth thy voice."
> 
> There stood I like the friar, that doth shrive
> A wretch for murder doom'd, who, e'en when fix'd,
> Calleth him back, whence death awhile delays.
> 
> He shouted: "Ha! already standest there?
> Already standest there, O Boniface![2]
> By many a year the writing play'd me false.
> So early dost thou surfeit with the wealth,
> For which thou fearedst not in guile to take
> The lovely lady, and then mangle her?"
> 
> [2: The spirit mistakes Dante for Boniface VIII (who was then alive,
> and not expected to arrive so soon, a prophecy predicting the death of that
> pope at a later period. Boniface died in 1303.]
> 
> I felt as those who, piercing not the drift
> Of answer made them, stand as if exposed
> In mockery, nor know what to reply;
> When Virgil thus admonish'd: "Tell him quick,
> 'I am not he, not he whom thou believest.'"
> 
> And I, as was enjoin'd me, straight replied.
> 
> That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet,
> And, sighing, next in woeful accent spake:
> "What then of me requirest? If to know
> So much imports thee, who I am, that thou
> Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn
> That in the mighty mantle I was robed,[3]
> And of a she - bear was indeed the son,
> So eager to advance my whelps, that there
> My having in my purse above I stow'd,
> And here myself. Under my head are dragg'd
> The rest, my predecessors in the guilt
> Of simony. Stretch'd at their length, they lie
> Along an opening in the rock. 'Midst them
> I also low shall fall, soon as he comes,
> For whom I took thee, when so hastily
> I question'd. But already longer time
> Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus
> Upturn'd have stood, than is his doom to stand
> Planted with fiery feet. For after him,
> One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive,
> From forth the west, a shepherd without law,[4]
> Fated a cover both his form and mine.
> He a new Jason[5] shall be call'd, of whom
> In Maccabees we read; and favor such
> As to that priest his King indulgent show'd,
> Shall be of France's monarch[6] shown to him."
> 
> [3: Nicholas III of the Orsini family, whom the Poet therefore calls
> "figliuol dell' orsa," "son of the she - bear." He died in 1281.]
> 
> [4: Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who succeeded to the
> pontificate in 1305, as Clement V. He transferred the Holy See to Avignon in
> 1308 (where it remained till 1376), and died in 1314.]
> 
> [5: "But after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called
> Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, labored to be high -
> priest, promising unto the king, by intercession, three hundred and threescore
> talents of silver, and of another revenue eighty talents." - Maccab. b. ii.
> ch. iv, 7,8.]
> 
> [6: Philip IV. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. lxxx.]
> 
> I know not if I here too far presumed,
> But in this strain I answer'd: "Tell me now
> What treasures from Saint Peter at the first
> Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys
> Into his charge? Surely he ask'd no more
> But 'Follow me!' Nor Peter,[7] nor the rest,
> 
> [7: Acts of the Apostles, ch. i. 26.]
> 
> Or gold or silver of Matthias took,
> When lots were cast upon the forfeit place
> Of the condemned soul.[8] Abide thou then;
> Thy punishment of right is merited:
> And look thou well to that ill - gotten coin,
> Which against Charles[9] thy hardihood inspired.
> If reverence of the keys restrain'd me not,
> Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet
> Severer speech might use. Your avarice
> O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot
> Treading the good, and raising bad men up.
> Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist
> Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves,
> With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld;
> She who with seven heads tower'd at her birth,
> And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,
> Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.
> Of gold and silver ye have made your god,
> Differing wherein from the idolater,
> But that he worships one, a hundred ye?
> Ah, Constantine![10] to how much ill gave birth,
> Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,
> Which the first wealthy Father gain'd from thee."
> 
> [8: "The condemned soul." Judas.]
> 
> [9: Nicholas III was enraged against Charles I, King of Sicily,
> because he rejected with scorn his proposition for an alliance between their
> families. See G. Villani, Hist., lib. iii.]
> 
> [10: He alludes to the pretended gift of the Lateran by Constantine
> to Sylvester, of which Dante himself seems to imply a doubt, in his treatise
> "De Monarchia."]
> 
> Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath
> Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang
> Spinning on either sole. I do believe
> My teacher well was pleased, with so composed
> A lip he listen'd ever to the sound
> Of the true words I utter'd. In both arms
> He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me,
> Upward retraced the way of his descent.
> 
> Nor weary of his weight, he press'd me close,
> Till to the summit of the rock we came,
> Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier.
> His cherish'd burden there gently he placed
> 
> Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path
> Not easy for the clambering goat to mount.
> 
> Thence to my view another vale appear'd.
>
> — *Inferno Canto 19*