Inferno: Canto 22 -- Circle 8, Bolgia 5
The sequel to the gargoyle episode that began in the last canto with the uncertain formation of a new league of extraordinary gentlemen (a twisted fellowship of the round, if you will, and ends like an old Batman serial . . . "will our heroes survive their perilous encounter with -- "BAM!" "BIF!" "DAF!" Before the poets can make much headway through the bolgia, the demons are distracted by their acquisition of a Navarrese grafter whom they haul aside and from whom they start raking his soul with their grappling hooks. While the Navarese is more than willing to talk, as the old Nazi films show a sinister looking German with a monocle whispering, "Ve haf vays of making you talk . . .," he is distracted from doing so as parts of his limbs are shorn from him.
At this point, the grafter makes a deal with the blacktalons to lure some Lombards and Tuscans into their grasps in exchange for his own hide, and the demons are loathe at first to do it, for they sense a trick. The wounded spirit convinces them on the count that his turning state's evidence would give him an opportunity to witness others being tortured worse in place of himself, and, as any FBI agent will confess, it's better to have more prosecutions than less. The gargoyles release their prey with the admonition that hell hasn't dreamt up sufferings sufficient for he who betrays them.
The game is set, and as Mark Antony predicted savage revenge, "Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war," and "Deaddog, who at first/ was most against it, led the saveage crew" (119-120). Naturally, the Navarrese makes his escape, an incident which precipitates the battle of the pitch as Hellken leaps for him and Grizzly leaps for Hellken in such a way as Tito went after Mihajlovi following the ouster of their common enemy. Both fall into the pitch, requiring Curlybeard to organize a rescue squad. Thus distracted, the hellspawn don't notice the dynamic duo beat a courageous retreat toward the joys (anything had to be better than this) of hypocrisy.
An interesting thought for this canto (for the adventure continues into the next) concerns the placement of the grafters -- those who accepted bribes to satisfy temporal placements, dealings, and lawsuits -- below that of simoniacs, those who accepted cash for various Church appointments. Why would crimes against the body politic be worse than those against the Church in a medieval mindset?
S.
At this point, the grafter makes a deal with the blacktalons to lure some Lombards and Tuscans into their grasps in exchange for his own hide, and the demons are loathe at first to do it, for they sense a trick. The wounded spirit convinces them on the count that his turning state's evidence would give him an opportunity to witness others being tortured worse in place of himself, and, as any FBI agent will confess, it's better to have more prosecutions than less. The gargoyles release their prey with the admonition that hell hasn't dreamt up sufferings sufficient for he who betrays them.
The game is set, and as Mark Antony predicted savage revenge, "Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war," and "Deaddog, who at first/ was most against it, led the saveage crew" (119-120). Naturally, the Navarrese makes his escape, an incident which precipitates the battle of the pitch as Hellken leaps for him and Grizzly leaps for Hellken in such a way as Tito went after Mihajlovi following the ouster of their common enemy. Both fall into the pitch, requiring Curlybeard to organize a rescue squad. Thus distracted, the hellspawn don't notice the dynamic duo beat a courageous retreat toward the joys (anything had to be better than this) of hypocrisy.
An interesting thought for this canto (for the adventure continues into the next) concerns the placement of the grafters -- those who accepted bribes to satisfy temporal placements, dealings, and lawsuits -- below that of simoniacs, those who accepted cash for various Church appointments. Why would crimes against the body politic be worse than those against the Church in a medieval mindset?
S.
posted by Sebastian Mahfood at 1:10 PM
12 Comments:
I think that our unidentified Grafter has a lot in common with the dishonest steward in Lk 16:1-13. Here the dishonest steward is acutually commended by his master for being a shrewd business man and securing a future for himself after being fired. Likewise, our grafter, also a dishonest steward in life, is still shrewder than the gargoyles, once again showing that reason can outwit the gargoyle.
Possible explanation for the reason why these guys are lower than the Church officials...even though the Church officials abused their power, it was within their rights to appoint who they wanted. The public officials did not have the right to release prisoners etc., and so were committing a double crime.
Final thought Lk 16:13 "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
I am still wrestlilng with Dante's concept that social graft is a greater evil than simony. The medieval mind-set probably eludes me. Yet, even if political graft causes a greater disorder than simony, that disorder is in a realm of much less importance.
Some commentators remark that in medieval plays the devils were often comical characters, and they see Canto XXII as farsical humor to make a moral point: the demons, greedy themselves, are outsmarted by the sinners, and these demon guards end up being the ones punished. "Who is watching the police?"
It amazes me how unintellegent these creatures are that guard the various circles of hell. They are so easily tricked and manipulated by Virgil and Dante. I would think those in hell who were bright could do the same. They might be limited by their physical punishments. But when Dante talks with the dead of Hell they still appear to have intellect. So of these people were quite intellegent. So why couldn't they manipulate the guardians to ease their pain. Of course God is in charge and would let that happen. It is also in a sense they chose to be where they are. But this does lead to the realms of possibilites.
As you stated earlier, the desire for a seperation of Church and State is a big deal for Dante. Since he feels the temporal power should lay in the hands of the emperor and not the pontiff, it would be a great sin to betray the State in the temporal world. If the State holds the place of prominence in life, perhaps sins against the State in life are more serious. I personally don't agree, but I'm not writing this journey.
This talk of betraying the State reminds me of the purges of political dissenters form the ranks of the Soviet populace.
-Ed
Fr. Martin 2B, I think your stab at why the grafters are lower than the simoniacs is quite plausible. Yesterday, while meeting with Kschroeder and Sean Burbach, I stumbled onto a parallel thought -- that the funnel nature of hell in its movement away from relationships (carnal --> sullen and violent against neighbor --> treachery) lends itself to the simoniacs being placed higher. Through that power of the Church officials to appoint whomever they wanted, they were incorporating someone into their order, building a relationship, as it were that added to the Church. The grafters, though, brought no one into their order but abused their roles in selling favors, things that were obviously not to the good of the body politic and may actually have led to the deterioration of true spheres of value within the civil order. The pattern of movement away from community still stands, and it gives us another thought to toss into the mix.
S.
Who watches the watchmen, Fr. Earl, is a question that has been with us for millennia. When the watchmen are corrupt, the civilization is doomed, for the peace of the society begins to hang on the threads of injustice, like mafia rule in Russia after the collapse of their "Evil Empire." The watchmen are more than just the police, of course. They are also the civil administration. In the fifth bolgia, we have them wrapped into one and the same order, for Malacoda is not just a police captain, but a magistrate with the power to grant passage and, though we don't see it in this canto, likely to preside over the cases of those who are captured. We see a mockery of a trial in this canto as the Navarrese is confessing (under torture) and makes a deal with the DA to save the rest of his hide. They let him go for a price, but find themselves swindled, and, of course, none of this is wasted on the poets, who realize it is time to slip away. An unjust government cannot be trusted to serve the interests of its people if its constantly trying to serve its own interests, which is why we need a system of checks and balances (of a sort) in the relegation of proper roles to proper spheres. More of this in Dante's De Monarchia if you're interested in understanding him further.
S.
The Navarrese does use his intelligence to manipulate the guards and ease his pain, Atskro. He escapes the torture by catering to their greed, offering them a soup of fresh souls in exchange for his already mangled one. It's not, however, that anyone is any smarter or dumber than anyone else in here -- all are struggling with trying to get one over on someone else. Perhaps a point out of Antonio Gramsci's prison notebooks will be helpful.
Antonio Gramsci wrote in his prison notes that every group has its intellectuals -- every single one -- from groups comprised of street bums, to groups of garbage collectors, to groups of UPS delivery persons, to groups of office secretaries, to groups of students, to groups of professors (notice how I put myself at the end of a group beginning in linear progression from street bums -- don't worry, all linear progressions are circular in their extremes). I'd add to Gramsci's analysis by saying that all groups also have their idiots (from street bums to professors), their responsible people, their shirkers, their whiners, their bravehearts. It's not a question of your being the intelligent or responsible one in a group or of your following the directives of someone who is not intelligent or not responsible -- it's a question of group cohesion and of an entire group's working together in whatever role it has to ensure that the group thrives, that the group as an entity is greater than its individual parts. This is called synergy, and a group that is inherently responsible (even though it may have irresponsible members) is fundamentally better off than a group that's irresponsible (even though it may have responsible members).
In Dante, we find a lot of irresponsible groups comprised of irresponsible members. Groups don't work together, and that's most of their problem. On a Punnett square, that's rare. In hell, it's the rule.
S.
Speaking of purges, Romani Sum, you've reminded me of what the great ethicist Joe Stalin once said about tragedy -- the death of one is tragic, the death of a million is a statistic. In the medieval period, the ecclesiastical courts had no power to sentence someone to death, but civil courts did, and this is why people sought the protection of the Church (or at least of Church courts) whenever they were being arraigned for a crime punishable by death in the civic courts. The civic courts were really those that had power of life and death over a person, then, and this made them more important in a very significant way. It was in the hands of the civil magistrates, as we will learn in the sixth bolgia of the hypocrites, that the peace of a society rests.
S.
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