Dante Divine Comedy - Free Will

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


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


“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


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


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


“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.


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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Dante Divine Comedy - Free Will