§ 63. DANTE, PETRARCA, BOCCACCIO. 571
— which are effaced only one by one, as they pass from stage to stage, " enclasped with scorching fire," until they are delivered through penal fire from all stain. A similar correspondence exists between sin and punishments as in the Inferno, but with the opposite effect, for here sins are repented of and forgiven, and the woes are disciplinary until " the wound that healeth last is medicined." Thus the proud, in the first and lowest terrace, are compelled to totter under huge weights, that they may learn humility. The indolent, in the fourth terrace, are exercised by constant and rapid walking. The avaricious and prodigal, with hands and feet tied together, lie with their faces in the dust, weeping and wailing. The gluttons suffer hunger and thirst that they may be taught temperance. The licentious wander about in flames that their sensual passions may be consumed away.
Arriving at paradise, the Roman poet can go no further, and Beatrice takes his place as Dante's guide. The spirits are distributed in glory according to their different grades of perfection. Here are passed in review theologians, martyrs, crusaders, righteous princes and judges, monks and contemplative mystics. In the 9th heaven Beatrice leaves the poet to take her place at the side of Rachel, after having introduced him to St. Bernard. Dante looks again and sees Mary and Eve and Sarah, —
. . . and the gleaner-maid
Meek ancestress of him, who sang the songs
Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood ;
Gabriel, Adam, Moses, John the Baptist, Peter, St. Augustine and other saints. Then he is led by the devout mystic to Mary, who, in answer to his prayer, shows him the Deity in the empyrean, but what he saw was not for words to utter. Alike are all the saints in enjoying the same reward of the beatific vision.
Dante_wasinfulHiarraony with the orthodox faith of his ^e, and followed closely the teachings of_ Thomas. Aquinas* great book of divinity. ^ He accepted all the distinctive tenets
1 " There is in Dante no trace of doctrinal dissatisfaction. He respects every part of the teaching of the Church in matters of doctrine, authoritatively
672 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
of mediaeval Catholicism — purgatory^ tlie worship of Mary, the intercession of saints, the^fficacy ol^apal in(Iulgenoe§.and flie divine'Thstitution of the papacy. He paid deep homage {o the monastic life and accords exalted place to Benedict, St. Francis and Dominic. But he cast aside all traditions in dealing freely with the successors of Peter in the Apostolic see. Here, too, he was under the direction of the beloved Beatrice. The evils in the Church he traced to her temporal power^and he condemned to everlasting punishment Anastasius II. for heresy, Nicolas III., Boniface VIII. and Clement V. for simony, Coelestine V. for cowardice in abdicating the pontifical office, and a squad of other popes for avarice. Following the theology of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, he put into hell the whole heathen world except two solitary figures, Cato of Utica, who sacrificed life for liberty and keeps watch at the foot of purgatory, and the just emperor, • Trajan, who, 500 years after his deatli, was believed to have been prayed out of hell by Pope Gregory I. To the region of the Inferno, also, though on the outer confines of ^t^ place is assigiied to iniantsji^o_(He^^ being^ltap-
tized, whetlier'the offspring of Christian or heathen parents. Theirs is no conscious pain, but they remain forever without the vision of the blessed. In the same vicinity the^worthies of the old dispensatioiijvere detained untLl^Cliiiai-dfiacaaded after hircrucifixion and^^vejthfinLIfilease. There, John the liaptist had been kept for two years after his pains of martyrdom. Par. xxxii. 25. In the upper regions of the hopeless Inferno a tolerably comfortable place is also accorded to the noljle hoatlien poets, philosopliers, statesmen and warriors, wliile unfaithful Cliristians are punished in the lower circles according to the degrees of tlieir guilt. The heathen, who followed the light of nature, suffer sorrow without pain. As Virgil says : —
In the right manner they adored not God. For such defects, and not for other guilt, Lost are we, and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on, in desire.
laid down. ... He gives no evidence of free inquiry and private judgment." — Moore, Studies, IL 65, OG.