dante divine comedy - free will
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Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 1
“One third, more or less, of all the sorrow that the person I think I am must endure is unavoidable. It is the sorrow inherent in the human condition, the price we must pay for being sentient and self-conscious organisms, aspirants to liberation, but subject to the laws of nature and under orders to keep on marching, through irreversible time, through a world wholly indifferent to our well-being, toward decrepitude and the certainty of death. The remaining two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary” (Huxley 85).
-Aldous Huxley, Island
The scapegoat is always easier to blame than taking responsibility upon one’s self. I once
heard a sermon by Pastor Mark Balmer on “free will.” The sermon paralleled what Dante notes
through the words of Marco Lombard: that many Christians “continue to assign to heaven every
cause, as if it were the necessary source of every motion” (Purg.XVI.67-9). These are the
Christians who fail to acknowledge “free will” which without, “there would be no equity in joy
for doing good, in grief for evil” (Purg.XVI.70-2). Free will is essential because it assigns
substance to our choices—choices become a valid way to evaluate a man. So why would God
grant mankind the ability to choose between good and evil? Isaiah 55:8 says: “For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” The Lord is a being of
eternal love, but we are not. This is because God “wants our wholehearted trust” (Balmer). John
R. Buri, Ph.D. believes “Trust is an essential part of love. In fact, love without trust is not love at
all” (Buri). So, once we recognize that “if we were just programmed to serve God, our service
would not be from our heart” (Balmer), we can fully realize the importance of “[punishment]”
and “reward” (Purg.353n70-2). Free will is both a prerequisite and a catalyst for love.
But what is the purpose of Dante’s elaboration on the importance of free will? First,
Dante wants the reader to understand that a “malevolent” (Purg.XVI.104) world, “stripped
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 2
utterly of every virtue” (Purg.XVI.58-9) is “clearly not” caused by “celestial forces—they do not
corrupt” (Purg.XVI.104-5). Thus, we humans are to blame. Primarily, in Canto XVI, he is
addressing the two factors acting “outside the heavens’ sway” (Purg.XVI.81) that cause motion
in the world: 1) man’s “simple, unaware” soul (Purg.XVI.88) which “turns willingly to things
that bring delight” (Purg.XVI.90); and, 2) a “ruler” (Purg.XVI.95) to “guide or rein”
(Purg.XVI.93) by application of existing laws (Purg.XVI.97). So we are presented with a two-
fold blame upon mankind, but not upon celestial beings, for the wrong-doings on earth. Both are
due to misrule: the misrule of one’s self and the misrule of a ruler.
The misrule of one’s self in Inferno, also two-fold, is envisioned as a disobedience to the
“first and great commandment”: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37-8), and also a disobedience to Dante’s
personal code of Nicomachean ethics. By judging those he places in Inferno using both Christian
law and Nicomachean ethics, Dante is able to project his priorities to the reader: he considers
free will nearly as important as Christian faith. A good example of this is the Knights of St. Mary
(Jovial Friars) that Dante encounters in the hypocrites pouch of the eighth circle of Inferno.
While the men Loderingo degli Andalò and Catalano di Guido are part of an organization
charged with the “defense of Catholic faith and ecclesiastical freedom” (Crawford), they
exercised their free will and “increasingly neglected their duty in favor of their own pleasure”
(Purg.377n103-8). So although they were part of the church and were well aware of Christianity,
their own personal misrule corrupted them. Their personal misrule ended up causing “greater
violence” instead of “establish[ing] peace” (Purg.377n103-8).
While Inferno is more focused on judging those not seeking any good, or spiritual love,
Purgatorio is really a narration on the misrule of one’s self insomuch that it is a visualization of
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 3
“love that seeks the good distortedly” (Purg.XVII.126). This is possible due to “mental love—a
love that can choose its object,” which can only be done by creatures possessing a “mind, soul,
[and] will” (animo), “namely, men and angels” (Purg.357n92-6). Dante’s belief in free will is
supported in the actions of Lucifer’s dissension (Isaiah 14:13-5), mankind’s fall from grace
(Genesis 3:6-7), and all of the actions throughout Inferno and Purgatorio that place individuals
in a state of punishment or penitence. Seeking love distortedly is different, however, from
seeking evil, and that is what divides Purgatorio from Inferno. The three sins Virgil explains to
Dante regarding “love that seeks the good distortedly” are pride, envy, and wrath. The example
Dante uses to illustrate how a man of pride can, using free will, get into Purgatory is probably
best demonstrated through the actions of Provenzan Salvani, a man who “thought his grip could
master all Siena” (Purg.XI.123). However, “when he was living in his greatest glory, … then in
his own free will he set aside all shame” (Purg.XI.133-6) “and humbly—and successfully—
begged the money of the Sienese” “as ransom for the release of [his] friend” (Purg.343n136-8).
And so it happens in each terrace that a man can redeem his sinful nature by performing an act
that opposes his sinful nature (e.g., humility for pride, joy for envy, meekness for wrath, etc.), but
this can only happen by focusing one’s free will—the same will that they used to sin must be
used to atone.
By now, it is easy to see that Dante’s belief in free will is not only important, but
essential, for him to believe in Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell as posthumous destinations.
Although we are driven by our natural love, our fault and yet our strength lies in our mental love
—that which we must consciously focus on good and can gain merit from doing so. This is best
embodied in Adam’s dilemma: Adam was created into the world with free will—the free will to
love, to choose, and to disobey—which is why God had to give him commandments. The
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 4
commandments are the just rule that Dante knows man must have looming over him to “guide or
rein” (Purg.XVI.93) man’s mental love less he “fall into temptation” (1 Timothy 6:9), which is
exactly what happened. Additionally, this produces the idea of self-redemption, or the idea that
our actions can actually redeem ourselves from our past wrongs which is important because it
produces hope, “for we are saved by hope” (Romans 8:24).
But there are always larger forces at work. We can try our best, but if our leaders
manipulate the rules and teach blindly, then how can the follower determine if they are even on
the right path? The misrule of a leader is political and defined in Purgatorio. We see the
metaphor of a “shepherd who precedes his flock” (Purg.XVI.98), i.e., “Pope Boniface VIII”
(Purg.354n98-9), who may “allegorically ‘chew the cud’ of the Scriptures and God’s law, but he
does not recognize the need for ‘cloven hooves,’ the separation or cleft between spiritual and
temporal powers” (Purg.354n98-9). But how can Dante put a pope in hell? Why does Boniface
end up in Inferno? Matthew 18:6 says: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he
were drowned in the depth of the sea.” So, how does Boniface’s consolidation of church and
state (i.e., practically anointing himself as temporal and spiritual emperor) affect free will and
how does this all harm “God’s children”? Dante’s belief is that when “the sword has joined the
shepherd’s crook; the two together must of necessity result in evil” (Purg.XVI.109-11). In a
pamphlet titled Monarchia, Dante made the argument that “the Papacy and the Empire were two
suns, not—as some Guelphs contended—a sun and a moon; each derived its own light directly
from God and was destined to illuminate all of humanity” (Inf.327-8). When you remove the
duality of spiritual and temporal, and the Church “allows itself to be economically or politically
‘interested,’ it is capable of being corrupted” (Purg.354n106-9) and motivations become
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 5
convoluted; “And thus the people, who can see their guide snatch only at that good for which
they feel some greed… and seek no further” (Purg.XVI.100-2). And so how can a follower
distinguish whether their actions are guiding them toward “eternal happiness” or “earthly
happiness” (Inf.328)? When this becomes the case, people cannot define what they are pursuing
since they can only eat what they are served—and “they … fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Timothy
6:9). One must be aware of the secular world and all of its sciences and philosophies, and
simultaneously be aware of the spiritual world and all that it implies in order to for a belief in
Christianity to stem from free will. If one has no options, (secular vs. spiritual) then a belief is
forcibly manifested from being cornered by a lack of options, not from free will. And that is how
Boniface’s power hungry, greed-motivated consolidation hurt God’s “little ones”—by removing
their choice to love and attempting to blanket free will with ignorance. And so Dante condemns
Boniface to a contrapasso of drowning in a baptismal-like basin with the soles of his feet
plunged into severe pain by eternal flames burning the bottoms of his feet (Inf.XIX.53). Toward
the same end as putting a Pope into hell, Dante puts a pagan ruler into Paradiso: The Roman
Emperor Trajan (Par.XX.45), in the realm of Jupiter, or the “sphere of just rulers” (Dantesworld);
this same end is to trumpet the importance of a just ruler. By ensuring justice is a strong and
binding force it gives people the freedom to pursue their own choices—thus, a just ruler mediates
an environment in which free will can thrive.
Now armed with understanding and awareness of our own responsibilities as creatures
that are blessed with free will, it becomes easier to see why divine institutions of punishment and
reward can, and must, exist (i.e., Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso). This understanding of free will
and how it applies to misrule, as Dante would explain it, also examines the concepts of a
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 6
“transparent” government, and freedom of thought and speech. Without being able to fully
consider all options available we cannot honestly say that we have chosen the best one, but
instead have chosen from “what was available.” Thus, it falls upon a leading body, the Church
and the government, to ensure a fair and just spread of knowledge so that our free will is the
determining factor of what we choose to love. If “God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten son” (John 3:16) then he deserves to be loved as truly in return. Complementary, we
also deserve to be punished when we stray—in fact, Virgil says it himself: “love is the seed in
you of every virtue and all acts deserving punishment” (Purg.XVII.104-5). And so our Father is
righteous in his love and his punishment. But, it is up to us to understand his love so we can
attempt to grow towards him in an honest and self-aware way.
Michael Spaulding Dante: Final Paper Professor BakerPage 7
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. Inferno. New York: Bantam Classics,
1982. Print.
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. Purgatorio. New York: BantamDell,
2004. Print.
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. Paradiso. New York. BantamDell,
2004. Print.
Balmer, Mark. “Message #6072; Daily Devotional #6 – Don’t Settle for Second
Best.” August 21, 2011.
<http://www.calvaryccm.com/resources/dailydevotions/08-21-11/Don_t_S
ettle_for_Second_Best.aspx>
Buri, John, Ph.D.. “Love Without Trust Is Not Love At All.” Love Bytes: Insight
on Our Deepest Desire. Psychology Today. May 17, 2011.
<http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-bytes/201105/love-without-
trust-is-not-love-all>
Crawford, Paul F, Ph.D.. "The Military Orders in Italy." Medieval Italy: an
encyclopedia, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz et al. 2004, pp. 720-22. 2004.
DantesWorld. “Dante’s Paradiso – Jupiter.” Dante’s World. The University of
Texas at Austin. Accessed 12 April 2012.
<http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/paradiso/06jupiter.html>
Huxley, Aldous. Island. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2010. 85.
Print.
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