Our pilgrim, Dante, has been talking to Pope Nicholas III, who’s stuck upside-down in a hole in the third evil pocket of the eighth circle of Inferno, the vast landscape of the fraudulent. Nicholas III was a master of nepotism and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of other popes, even ones from Avignon.

Our pilgrim can take it no more! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the longest speech from our pilgrim yet, a diatribe about church corruption that sees the end of the world in the offing. The popes go whoring and the world just might go smash.

Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:45] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XIX, lines 88 - 117. If you'd like to read along, just scroll down this page.

[03:44] Some introductory remarks about this podcast episode.

[05:15] The Biblical references in the pilgrim Dante's rant: the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16: 13 - 20), the apostles' choosing Matthias after Judas Iscariot dies (The Acts Of The Apostles 1: 21 - 26), and the whore of Babylon (The Apocalypse of St. John [aka "Revelations"] 17: 1 - 5).

[16:38] The historical references in the rant: Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily and Naples; and Emperor Constantine The Great with his infamous "donation."

[24:23] The thematic echoes in the rant: back to the fourth circle of avarice in INFERNO, Canto VII; and even further back to the question of "folly" from INFERNO, Canto II.

[30:37] The folly of the rant: There are all sorts of garbled bits in this passage, including corrupted passages from the Bible's New Testament. Is this the folly of the pilgrim or of the poet?

[34:17] Reading the passage one more time, now that you know the details.

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XIX, Lines 88 – 117

 I don’t know whether I ventured too far into folly

When I answered him with just this sort of verse:

“Hold up and tell me this: Just how much treasure

 

“Did our lord at first require of Saint Peter

Before he entrusted him with the keys?

I’m certain he asked no more than ‘Follow me.’

 

“Neither Peter nor any of the other apostles took

Gold or silver from Matthias when he was picked

To fill the place lost by the guilty soul.

 

“So sit tight—for you are well punished.

Keep watch over the ill-gotten gains

That made you so very brave up against Charles.

 

“And if I were not otherwise kept in check

By my reverence for the great keys

That you once held in the easy-come-easy-go life up above,

 

“I’d use even rougher words than these,

Because your avarice saddens the entire world

By traipsing over the good and lifting up the bad.

 

“The Evangelist had your sort of pastors in mind

When he saw the one who sits on the waters

And fucks around with the kings of the earth—

 

“The woman who was born with seven heads

And who got her power from the ten horns

As long as her virtue pleased her groom.

 

“You have made a god of silver and gold.

What’s the difference between you and any other idolator,

Except he prays to just one god, whereas you pray to a hundred?

 

“Good grief, Constantine! You gave birth to a terrific evil,

Not because of your conversion, but because of your Donation

That let you make the first super rich holy father.”