The Theme in the Work
Forgiveness in Purgatory has three directions, and the poem shows all of them before reaching Dante's. The first is God's forgiveness of whoever turns at the last instant. Manfred, excommunicated, struck by two mortal wounds, says that his sins were horrible and that infinite goodness has arms so large that it takes in everything that turns to it. The same logic sustains the souls of those who died by force in Canto V, who sinned up to the last hour and were saved because a light from heaven made them aware. The poem ties repentance to the forgiveness they give, and the phrase that sums them up is one of reconciliation with the enemy:
Noi fummo tutti già per forza morti, / e peccatori infino a l’ultima ora; / quivi lume del ciel ne fece accorti, / sì che, pentendo e perdonando, fora / di vita uscimmo a Dio pacificati, / che del disio di sé veder n’accora, we were all already dead by force, and sinners up to the last hour; there a light from heaven made us aware, so that, repenting and forgiving, we left life reconciled with God, who wounds us with the desire to see him.
And the scene of Buonconte is the boldest: an angel and a demon dispute his soul over a small tear, and it is this smallness that scandalizes the devil.
Buonconte da Montefeltro, saved by a tear (Canto V). Wounded in the battle of Campaldino and dead in flight by the Archiano, his body never found, Buonconte tells how an angel disputed his soul with a demon at the moment of death, in a scene that reverses the logic of weight: it is not the size of life that decides, it is the final instant, and that is why the demon takes revenge by dragging the rain to carry off the body, since he cannot carry off the soul:
l’angel di Dio mi prese, e quel d’inferno / gridava: “O tu del ciel, perché mi privi? / Tu te ne porti di costui l’etterno / per una lagrimetta che ’l mi toglie, the angel of God took me, and the one from hell cried out: "O you of heaven, why do you deprive me? You carry off the eternal part of this one for one little tear that takes him from me." The tear is only small, and it is its smallness, not its sincerity, that gives the demon his scandal.
The second direction is that of forgiveness the living win for the dead through prayer. All the souls of Ante-Purgatory ask Dante for the same thing, that he remember them, and Dante's question to Virgil is whether this bends the decree of heaven. The answer denies the contradiction:
Ed elli a me: «La mia scrittura è piana; / e la speranza di costor non falla, / se ben si guarda con la mente sana; / ché cima di giudicio non s’avvalla / perché foco d’amor compia in un punto / ciò che de’ sodisfar chi qui s’astalla, my writing is clear; and the hope of these souls does not fail, if one looks at it with a sound mind; for the height of judgment is not lowered because the fire of love fulfills in an instant what those who are settled here must satisfy.
The fullest example is that of Forese, who was pulled from the slope of waiting by the prayers of Nella. The third direction is that of forgiveness that is asked for: the humiliation of Provenzano Salvani, who planted himself in the Campo of Siena and trembled in every vein to free his friend from prison, and the meekness of the visions on the ledge of wrath, the prayer of the young man stoned by his persecutors. The poem never says that forgiveness is easy: the excommunicated waits thirty times the length of his presumption, and what shortens it is the prayer of others. Mercy, in Purgatory, is also counted in time.
Who Embodies It
Manfred is forgiveness received. Forese Donati is forgiveness helped by prayer. Dante is the one who asks Beatrice for it through confession. Virgil transmits it as explanation: his writing is clear, and the hope of the souls does not fail.
Where It Appears
- Canto III: Manfred says that infinite goodness has arms so large that it takes in everything that turns to it, and then immediately imposes the wait of thirty times the presumption on the excommunicated.
- Canto V: Those who died by force tell Dante that they repented and forgave before leaving life, and Buonconte tells that an angel won his soul by a tear.
- Canto VI: Virgil answers Dante's question about prayer by saying that the fire of love accomplishes in an instant what satisfaction required.
- Canto VIII: Nino asks Dante to tell his Giovanna to pray for him, where the innocent are answered, and doubts the love of the widow.
- Canto XI: Oderisi tells that Provenzano Salvani was spared the wait for having humbled himself in the Campo of Siena to ransom his friend.
- Canto XIII: Sapia tells that only at the end of her life did she want peace with God, and that the prayer of Pier Pettinaio, moved by charity, spared her further delay.
- Canto XV: Dante sees in a vision a young man stoned who asks the high Lord for forgiveness for his persecutors, with his eyes made doors to heaven.
- Canto XXIII: Forese says that his Nella, with devout prayers and sighs, pulled him from the slope where one waits and freed him from the other circlings.
- Canto XXXI: Beatrice demands Dante's confession, which he answers with a single sentence, and Matelda immerses him in the Lethe so that the sin may be forgotten.
Where the Readings Diverge
Manfred's speech places side by side two things that seem to contradict each other. Infinite goodness takes in everything that turns to it, and whoever dies in contumacy of the Church waits thirty times the length of his presumption. The text sustains two readings. On the first, the wait is part of mercy, because it gives the living a means to help those who departed. On the second, it is a severity that infinite goodness would not need, and the poem has an excommunicated man who suffers from it say so. The order of the sentences, first goodness and then the rule, lets the first speak louder.
Provenzano shows the other side of forgiveness. He was spared the wait by an act of shame, not by a lasting virtue, and the text does not say who decides that the act is enough. Two readings: voluntary humiliation as merit, or as what the poem demands from whoever had more power.