Commentary Purg III 22-24

Benvenuto da Imola's paraphrase of Virgil's rebuke begins with the words 'modicae fidei': ('you of little faith, why have you so easily lost the faith and the hope that you ought and may have in me, who never left you behind in the city of the demons?').  Benvenuto is clearly thinking of the words of Christ in the Gospels (in the Latin Bible the phrase 'modicae fidei' is found four times and only in Matthew [6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8]).  If Benvenuto has correctly heard that echo, its effect is noteworthy, for then the faithless Virgil is reproving his pupil, modeling his speech on the words of Christ, for his lack of faith, evident on occasion from the first canto of the Inferno until Virgil leaves the poem in Purgatorio XXX.  Whether Virgil is citing Scripture or having Scripture placed in his mouth by his Christian author is a problem the reader has already encountered (see [Inf VIII 45] and C.Inf.VIII.40-45).