Purgatorio: Canto XVI

Third Ledge the Wrathful.—Marco Lombardo.—His discourse on Free Will, and the Corruption of the World.

Gloom of hell, or of night deprived of every planet, under a barren sky, obscured by clouds as much as it can be, never made so thick a veil to my sight nor to my feeling so harsh of tissue as that smoke which covered us there; so that my eye endured not to stay open wherefore my sage and trusty Escort drew to my side and offered me his shoulder. Even as a blind man goes behind his guide, in order not to stray, and not to butt against anything that may hurt or perhaps kill him, I went along, through the bitter and foul air, listening to my Leader, who was ever saying, “Take care that thou be not cut off from me.”

I heard voices, and each appeared to be praying for peace and mercy to the Lamb of God that taketh sins away. Only “Agnus Dei were their exordiums: one word there was in all, and one measure; so that among them seemed entire concord. “Are these spirits, Master, that I hear?” said I. And he to me, “Thou apprehendest truly; and they go loosening the knot of anger.” “Now who art thou that cleavest our smoke, and yet dost speak of us even as if thou didst still divide the time by calends?” Thus by one voice was said: whereon my Master said, “Reply, and ask if by this way one goeth up.” And I, “O creature, that cleansest thyself in order to return beautiful unto Him who made thee, a marvel shalt thou hear if thou accompanyest me.” “I will follow thee, so far as is permitted me,” it replied, “and if the smoke allows not seeing, in its stead hearing shall keep us joined.” Then I began, “With that swathing band which death unbinds I go upward, and I came hither through the infernal anguish. And if God bath so enclosed me in His grace that He wills that I should see His court by a mode wholly out of modern usage, conceal not from me who thou wert before thy death, but tell it to me, and tell me if I am going rightly to the pass; and let thy words be our guides.” “Lombard I was, and was called Marco; the world I knew, and that worth I loved, toward which every one hath now unbent his bow. For mounting thou art going rightly.” Thus he replied, and added, “I pray thee that thou pray for me when thou shalt he above.” And I to him, “I pledge my faith to thee to do that which thou askest of me; but I am bursting inwardly with a doubt, if I free not myself of it; at first it was simple, and now it is made double by thy words which make certain to me, here as elsewhere, that wherewith I couple it. The world is indeed as utterly deserted by every virtue as thou declarest to me, and with iniquity is big and covered; but I pray that thou point out to me the cause, so that I may see it, and that I may show it to others; for one sets it in the heavens, and one here below.”

A deep sigh that grief wrung into “Ay me!” he first sent forth, and then began, “Brother, the world is blind, and thou forsooth comest from it. Ye who are living refer every cause upward to the heavens only, as if they of necessity moved all things with themselves. If this were so, free will would be destroyed in you, and there would be no justice in having joy for good, and grief for evil. The heavens initiate your movements: I do not say all of them; but, supposing that I said it, light for good and for evil is given to you; and free will, which, if it endure fatigue in the first battles with the heavens, afterwards, if it be well nurtured, conquers everything. To a greater force, and to a better nature, ye, free, are subjected, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge.’ Therefore if the present world goes astray, in you is the cause, in you let it be sought; and of this I will now be a true informant for thee.

“Forth from the hand of Him who delights in it ere it exist, like to a little maid who, weeping and smiling, wantons childishly, issues the simple little soul, which knows nothing, save that, proceeding from a glad Maker, it willingly turns to that which allures it. Of trivial good at first it tastes the savor; by this it is deceived and runs after it, if guide or bridle bend not its love. Wherefore it was needful to impose law as a bridle; needful to have a king who could discern at least the tower of the true city. The laws exist, but who set hand to them? Not one: because the shepherd who is in advance can ruminate, but has not his hoofs divided? Wherefore the people, who see their guide only at that good whereof they are greedy, feed upon that, and seek no further. Well canst thou see that the evil leading is the cause that has made the world guilty, and not nature which in you may be corrupted. Rome, which made the world good, was wont to have two Suns, which made visible both one road and the other, that of the world and that of God. One has extinguished the other; and the sword is joined to the crozier; and the two together must of necessity go ill, because, being joined, one feareth not the other. If thou believest rue not, consider the grain, for every herb is known by its seed.

“Within the land which the Adige and the Po water, valor and courtesy were wont to be found before Frederick had his quarrel; now safely anyone may pass there who out of shame would cease discoursing with the good, or drawing near them. Truly three old men are still there in whom the antique age rebukes the new, and it seems late to them ere God restore them to the better life; Currado da Palazzo, and the good Gherardo, and Guido da Castel, who is better named, after the manner of the French, the simple Lombard.

“Say thou henceforth, that the Church of Rome, through confounding in itself two modes of rule, falls in the mire, and defiles itself and its burden.”

“O Marco mine,” said I, “thou reasonest well; and now I discern why the sons of Levi were excluded from the heritage; but what Gherardo is that, who, thou sayest, remains for sample of the extinct folk, in reproach of the barbarous age?” “Either thy speech deceives me, or it is making trial of me,” he replied to me, “in that, speaking Tuscan to me, it seems that of the good Gherardo thou knowest naught. By other added name I know him not, unless I should take it from his daughter Gaia. May God be with you! for further I come not with you. Behold the brightness which rays already glimmering through the smoke, and it behoves me to depart—the Angel is there—ere I appear to him.” So he turned, and would not hear me more.