In Canto 19, Dante gives an example of contrapasso with direct reference to a biblical event. The sinners we see here are guilty of simony; profiting from the buying and selling of gifts from the Holy Spirit such as positions of power or artefacts. Dante comes across a Pope, Nicholas III, one of many buried face down in holes in the ground leaving only their ‘feet and legs up to the thighs’[1]. To add extra discomfort, they had ‘both their soles on fire’[2] as they were slowly driven into the ground. This punishment is contrapasso as it reflects the events of the Pentecost in which the disciples received fire on their heads from the Holy Spirit. The sinners receiving fire on their feet instead is an ironic punishment for abusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit through their simony.
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