Commentary Inf III 58-60

The most-debated passage of this canto, at least in the modern era. Many of the early commentators were convinced that it clearly intended a biting reference to Pope Celestine V (Pier da Morrone), who abdicated the papacy in 1294 after having held the office for less than four months. He was followed into it by Dante's great ecclesiastical enemy, Pope Boniface VIII, and there are colorful contemporary accounts that would have it that Boniface mimicked the voice of the Holy Spirit in the air passages that led to Celestine's bed chamber, counseling his abdication. Mazzoni (Mazz.1967.1), pp. 390-415, offers a thorough history of the interpretation of the verse. Two factors led to growing uneasiness with the identification of Celestine: (1) in 1313 he had been canonized, (2) ca. 1346 Francesco Petrarca, in his De vita solitaria, had defended the motives for his abdication. Thus, beginning with the second redaction of the commentary of Pietro di Dante, certainty that the vile self-recuser was Celestine began to waver. The names of many others have been proposed, including those of Esau and Pontius Pilate. It seems fair to say that there are fatal objections to all of these other candidacies. For strong, even convincing, support for that of Celestine see G. Padoan (Pado.1961.1) and M. Simonelli (Simo.1993.1), pp. 41-58. Mazzoni (Mazz.1967.1), pp. 414-415, ends his lengthy study of the problem opting for (as had Sapegno [DDP Sapegno.Inf.III.59-60] before him), a generic sinner, unspecified, but standing for all who had made so vile a choice. Yet Mazzoni's own evidence and arguments, as well as Dante's usual procedures, which tend to avoid such indeterminacy, help to convince this reader that it was indeed Celestine that Dante had in mind, as is underlined by his later scathing reference to the event of 'the great refusal' in [Inf. XXVII. 104-105]. Further, Dante tells us that he 'saw and knew' (that is, 'recognized') this shade: there is nothing indeterminate in such a locution. Nardi's telling objections to Petrocchi's denial that Dante would have put the canonized Celestine in Hell (Petr.1969.1, pp. 41-59, first published in Studi Romani in 1955) are today found in Nard.1960.1).

The word viltâ (cowardice) is the very opposite of nobility of character. See Conv.IV.xvi.6 for Dante's own statement of this commonplace: '"nobile" [...] viene da "non vile"' ['noble' derives from 'not vile']). And we should remember that Dante himself has twice been accused by Virgil of viltâ because of his cowardice in not immediately accepting his heaven-sent mission ([Inf II 45], [Inf II 122]).