Canto XV. The poets meet the angel of generosity, the virtue in opposition to envy, and are admitted to the next cornice of Purgatory where the Wrathful are purged. Once again a ‘P’ is erased from Dante’s brow and he finds that the going up the mountain becomes yet easier. He questions Virgil about something said by one of the souls of the envious, and Virgil explains that his, Dante’s, difficulty with the answer will be overcome in due course when he has completed his penance and meets Beatrice. Dante then has a vision, the whip of Wrath, in which he witnesses the gentleness of Our Lady with Jesus when he is discovered in the Temple in Jerusalem, a classical example of meekness towards men, and the example of St Stephen’s meekness at his martyrdom.

Virgil tries to explain to Dante how the envious fail in love. For them the sharing of goods with others is a loss, each has a smaller part. In fact, says Virgil, such sharing should be cause for greater joy, since more people are taking delight in what is being shared. Dante is not convinced, and Virgil says that Beatrice will have to explain. That is to say, a full understanding requires more than reason alone can provide. Human flourishing is not an individual thing. I cannot be happy unless my neighbour is able to flourish. His good should enhance mine, and mine his. Jealousy, and resulting envy, actually harms me. We truly flourish when we flourish together, in reciprocity and mutual concern. Perhaps this reflection of Virgil’s provides a link to the new cornice, that of the Wrathful. We see in the whip of Wrath that for a saint, like Stephen, the good of his enemies is something to be wished for, even as they kill him. That is the real hard stuff in religion, and perhaps this Lent it is a reminder of how far we still have to go.

Follow the link below to see an illustration of this Canto from a 14th Century Italian Manuscript of the Purgatorio in the Bodeleian Library at Oxford. In future I shall post these links for each Canto

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/holkham/misc/48/1000/04800463.jpg