against the Jews who trafficked in the Holy Land, and sold provisions to the Turks during the siege. These were not the objects of his warfare, which was directed against Christians only, and chiefly against the Colonna family, whose houses were near the Lateran. (102.) Two cardinals of the noble house of Colonna, who possessed the town of Pellestrino, and lived like sovereign princes, opposed the election of Pope Boniface. This crime he never forgave. He published a bull against them, deposed them from the dignity of cardinals, deprived them of their revenues, and threatened with excommunication those who assisted them. They answered the bull by a manifesto, declaring that they did not recognize Boniface as Pope-that Celestine had not the power to abdicate, and that the election of a successor in his lifetime was invalid. This enraged Boniface the more. He renewed his bull, and published a crusade against them, with plenary indulgence to all who took part in it. He destroyed the palaces and goods of the Colonna near the Lateran, and laid siege to their castles in the country. But the castle of Pellestrino he was unable to take. Having heard of the fame of Count Guido Montefeltro in every kind of military stratagem, he sent for him, and brought him from Assisi, where, having renounced the world, he had become a Franciscan. By desire of Boniface, Guido examined the fortifications, and found no means of taking the place by force; but having received absolution of all his sins, both past and to come, he informed Boniface that he would succeed by making large promises with slack performance. Boniface acted on this advice-offered most advantageous conditions on a surrender, and promised to restore the Colonna to his favour. The town was given up; but the secret of Boniface's intended vengeance transpired prematurely; and

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the Colonna, apprized of his intentions to put them to death, made their escape.-See Sismondi. Hist. des Rêpub. Ital. cap. xxiv.

Page 238. (Line 112.) "Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee."-Jude. St. Francis is represented as asking for his soul because Montefeltro late in life became a Franciscan friar. See Purgatorio, v. 104, where a similar contest takes place, (118.) This passage proves Dante's opinion as to Absolution where no penitence takes place, as must necessarily be the case where Absolution is given prior to sin. Though Absolution was in this case given by the Pope himself, yet the Devil prevails, and carries off his prey, on the grounds that he was logician enough to know that repentance, (which absolution implies and requires,) is altogether inconsistent with the intent to commit sin, and is a contradiction in terms. See Paradiso. xxvii. 53, where Indulgences are called "privilegi venduti e mendaci," and xxix. 120, where it is said, that if the people could but see the Devil in the cowl of the Priest who sells them, they would judge what sort of a pardon they depended upon,—thus identifying the Devil with the simoniacal Priest.

THEY arrive at the ninth gulf, where the sowers of scandal, schismatics, and heretics are seen with their limbs miserably mangled. Mahomet. Piero da Medicina. Curio. Mosca. Bertrand de Bornio.

WHO, e'en in language unconstrain'd by rhyme,

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Of all the blood and wounds I saw could speak,
Though he described their horrors many a time?
No tongue forsooth but in the attempt must fail-
Our mind too finite, and our speech too weak
To comprehend the woes I would detail.
If in Apulia's memorable land

Were all the grieving nations gather'd round,
Who met destruction by the Romans' hand,—

Or in that lengthen'd war incurr'd their fate,

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When erst with golden rings the spoils were crown'd, As Livy's faithful history doth relate ;—

Those other nations too, who were subdued

Beneath the blows of Robert Guiscard bold ;

And those whose whiten'd bones may still be view'd
At Ceperan, that saw the Apulians fly-

False to their lord; and where Alardo old

Near Tagliacozzo won the victory ;—

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And all could show their suffering limbs, pierced through,
Or lopt away;-nought were they to compare
With what this ninth compartment gave to view.
A cask, split down the middle or the end,

Gapes not so wide as one I witness'd there,
Ripp'd from the chin to where the haunches bend.
Between his legs the entrails hung; meanwhile
The midriff, and the paunch were seen confest-
Receptacle of what is foul and vile.

While, all intent, on him my sight I bend,

He eyed me, opening with his hands his breast, And said, "Behold how I my bosom rend! Behold how Mahomet is rent in twain!

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Before me, lo, rent upward from the chin

E'en to the brow, walks Ali, rack'd with pain:
And all the others, whom thou seest forlorn,

On earth sow'd seeds of scandal, and the sin
Of schism incurr'd, and therefore thus are torn.

A devil is behind us, who bestows

These cruel wounds with sword of sharpest steel,

And as we pass, inflicts on each fresh blows, Oft as we traverse this accursed strand;

Since ever and anon our gashes heal,

Ere we again in his dread presence stand.
But who art thou, whom on the rock I find
Thus musing?-haply wishing to delay
The pangs by heaven to thy misdeeds assign'd?"
“Death hath not struck him yet; nor is he led
By crime to punishment; but-that he may
Obtain experience full,-I, who am dead,”
Replied the bard, "must his conductor be

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Through the deep gulf of Hell from round to round :

This is as true as that I speak to thee."

More than a hundred, when these words arose,
Paused to behold me from the trench profound;-
In wonderment forgetting all their woes.
"Thou who perhaps the sun wilt shortly see,
Exhort Friar Dolcin, that with store of grain
He arm himself (unless to follow me

Full soon he wish) lest strait'ned by the snow,
A victory the Novarese obtain

O'er him whom else they could not overthrow.'

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