CANTO III Cowardly betrayal of the most sacred interests of both Church and Empire.

Pilate.

Among Scriptural conjectures we have Esau who sold his birthright, the young man of the Gospels who 'went away sorrowful,' and the Roman Governor, Pilate. This last conjecture, made by Dr. Schaff, has so much to recommend it that it is strange it has not received more attention. Pilate, as Dr. Schaff says, 'was perfectly convinced of the innocence of Christ, but from cowardice and fear of losing his place, refused to do Him justice and surrendered Him to the bloodthirsty design of the Jewish hierarchy-the basest act a judge could commit. Of all men in biblical or ecclesiastical history, Pilate was the fittest representative of a cowardly and selfish neutrality.' This argument is greatly strengthened by other considerations. The crucifixion of Christ naturally filled Dante's mind this Good Friday night. We shall find the other actors in that great tragedy in various parts of Hell: Caiaphas and the Counsellors lie crucified in the Moat of the Hypocrites, and Judas writhes in the central mouth of Lucifer. Pilate we find nowhere, and it would certainly be strange if so prominent an agent in the crucifixion were allotted no place in the Inferno. The man who washed his hands of all moral responsibility at the very moment when he was making 'the great refusal' to deliver Christ from His enemies, certainly deserves a place in this Vestibule of cowards and trimmers. There is one passage, indeed, which seems at first glance decisive against this interpretation. In Canto

1 Philip Schaff, D.D., Literature and Poetry, p. 380.

Crucifixion.

VI. of the Paradiso, Dante sets forth a view of the CANTO III crucifixion so extraordinary that it is difficult to Dante's view imagine any Christian man holding it. After re- of the counting the great and glorious achievements of the Roman Eagle, he says they must all pale before the glory of what took place under 'the third Cæsar,' Tiberius. This crowning glory of the Roman Eagle, marvellous to say, is the crucifixion of our Lord! < From the Divine side that crucifixion was 'vengeance of the ancient sin,' the greatest act of God's justice, on which hung the salvation of the world.1 In the De Monarchia, Dante argues that if the Roman Empire did not exist by right, the sin of Adam was not punished in Christ.' For 'punishment is not merely penalty inflicted on him who has done wrong, but that penalty inflicted by one who has penal jurisdiction. . . . If, therefore, Christ had not suffered by the sentence of a regular judge, the penalty would not properly have been punishment; and none could be a regular judge who had not jurisdiction over all mankind; for all mankind was punished in the flesh of Christ. . . . And if the Roman Empire had not existed by right, Tiberius Cæsar, whose vicar was Pontius Pilate, would not have had jurisdiction over all mankind,' and therefore the Atonement would have been invalid. To us, of course, the argument is absurd or worse; but, such as it is, Miss Rossetti thinks it is 'probably the key to a perplexing problem-why Pontius Pilate is nowhere met with in Hell.' The conclusion, how

1 Par. vi. 82-93.

3

2 De Mon. ii. 13.

3 A Shadow of Dante, p. 223.

CANTO III ever, is by no means inevitable. Dante was accustomed to distinguish between the man and his office; it would be entirely after his manner to acquit Pilate as the lawful representative of the Emperor, and condemn him as an individual. As a matter of fact, this is precisely what he has done. It is true, the condemnation is indirect, but it is none the less severe. In Purg. xx. 86-93, he draws a parallel between the crucifixion of Christ and the outrage on His vicar, Boniface VIII., at Anagni, in which Philip the Fair of France is 'the new Pilate':

'I see the fleur-de-lys Alagna enter,

And Christ in his own vicar captive made.

I see him yet another time derided;

I see renewed the vinegar and the gall,
And between living thieves I see him slain.
I see the new Pilate so relentless,

This doth not sate him, but without decree
He bears his greedy sails into the temple,'—

the reference in the last three lines being to Philip's
cruel persecution of the Order of Templars. These
words could never have been written had Dante re-
garded Pontius Pilate merely as an upright judge
lawfully fulfilling the duties of his office. They cer-
tainly justify the suggestion that he is the man who
made the great refusal,' the coward neutral who
was unworthy of a place even in Hell.

CHAPTER IV

CIRCLE I.-THE LIMBO OF THE UNBAPTIZED

Acheron.

PASSING the coward Neutrals with one contemptuous CANTO IV glance, Dante sees through the dim air a great crowd upon a river bank. Wondering who they are, and The River why they seem so eager to cross over,' he ventures to ask his guide; but Virgil rebukes his curiosity, bidding him restrain it until he reaches 'the sad shore of Acheron.' It is not easy to understand the reason for this rebuke, which makes Dante pass on in silence and with eyes downcast and ashamed. Perhaps the intention is to discourage all undue curiosity concerning the dead; it will be time enough to know when we reach the dark river ourselves. When they come within sight of Acheron, Dante sees Charon, the grim ferryman' of Death, Charon. approaching in his boat-an old man with hoary hair. He corresponds perhaps in the Inferno to Cato in the Purgatorio; only that, whereas Cato's face shone like the sun with the light of the four holy stars, Charon is a demon whose eyes are circled round with wheels of flame.' It represents the

1 Probably the eagerness is due partly to the stings of a guilty conscience, and partly to the natural longing to know the worst.

? Rather Charon corresponds to the Angel-Pilot of Purgatory, the white 'bird divine' who, unlike Charon, needs no 'human arguments' of sail or oar (Purg. ii. 31-33).

CANTO IV look of fiery terror which Death bears to wicked

The Crowd of
Lost Souls.

and impenitent souls. To the crowd upon the bank Charon cries 'Woe!' and terrifies them with anticipations of their hopeless doom; but when he sees Dante, he orders him away because he is 'a living soul.' This may mean, as some think, little more than that he is still in the flesh; but from his further words, when he saw that Dante refused to withdraw, it is obvious that Charon had a deeper meaning:

'By other ways, by other ports,

Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;
A lighter vessel needs must carry thee.'1

The other ways and ports are clearly those which
lead to Purgatory, and the lighter vessel that which
needed no sail or oar beyond the white wings of its
Angel-Pilot. Dante tells us that all the souls not
destined for Hell gather at the mouth of the Tiber,
to await there their passage across the sea to the
Mount of Purification on their way to Paradise.
Charon's meaning therefore is that Dante is 'a living
soul' in the spiritual sense, not, like the others, 'dead
in trespasses and sins,' and that Paradise is his ulti-
mate destination.

With a few sharp words Virgil rebukes the churlishness of Charon, telling him that Dante's journey is divinely ordered. The demon thereupon turns furiously on the crowd of weary, naked souls, gathering them together, and beating with his oar those who lag behind-just as you may see him doing in Michael Angelo's great picture of the Last Judg2 Purg. ii. 100-105.

1 Inf. iii. 91-93.