The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Purgatory. The Divine Comedy

H istatory ( purgatorium), according to Catholic doctrine, is a place where the souls of dead sinners are cleansed of sins that were not redeemed during their lifetime. The dogma of purgatory was introduced into Catholicism in 1439, and confirmed in 1562.

According to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on purgatory, a baptized person who has committed a sin and has been forgiven, or who has committed a "venial" sin that remains unforgivable, is generally subject to a "temporary" punishment here or there. future life. A person who dies as a good Christian, but is burdened with the burden of such sins, ends up in purgatory, that is, where souls undergo suffering for sins, which subsequently gives them the opportunity to go to heaven.

According to the teachings of the Western Church, this truth is confirmed by Scripture (2 Maccabees 12:43-45). Since it is possible to make a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead, this must mean that their souls are neither in hell nor in heaven, since those who have achieved salvation do not need the prayers of the living, and such prayers will not help those condemned to eternal damnation. Thus, it is believed that the souls of the dead reside in a place where prayers can still help them “get rid of sin.”

It is believed that with the beginning Last Judgment Purgatory will be abolished altogether, but until then each soul will remain in it for the period necessary for it to pay for its sins. The living can help shorten this period for themselves and others by making “propitiatory sacrifices” and good deeds (for example, ordering masses) or receiving indulgences. God takes this payment into account when determining the terms of the temporary punishment.

Souls in purgatory cannot escape punishment. However, since they died in peace with the church and were not in a state of mortal sin, they continue to love God and therefore know that they will certainly end up in heaven after their suffering is completed.

Tradition reveals belief in purgatory already among the Old Testament Jews. This doctrine has always been accepted by the Catholic Church, but Protestants (Luther and Calvin) resolutely rejected it.

Orthodoxy denies the existence of purgatory. According to the teaching Orthodox Church the state of the souls of deceased people is a temporary expectation of eternal joy or eternal torment. At the same time, Orthodox Christians believe that the all-merciful God can still alleviate the eternal fate of sinners, and even make them co-heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, if those still alive on Earth pray earnestly for these sinners (their relatives or godly acquaintances). That is why in Orthodox churches They pray for the dead, remember them and accept notes with the names of the deceased - For the repose of their souls.

Long before the official adoption of Dante's postulate of purgatory in more detail described the structure of Purgatory in his Divine Comedy.

The concept of Purgatory in Dante's Divine Comedy

The three holy virtues - the so-called "theological" ones - are faith, hope and love. The rest are the four "primary" or "natural" ones.

Dante depicts it as a huge mountain rising in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Ocean. It looks like a truncated cone. Coastal strip and Bottom part the mountains form the Prepurgatory, and the upper one is surrounded by seven ledges (seven circles of Purgatory proper). On the flat top of the mountain, Dante places the deserted forest of the Earthly Paradise.

Virgil expounds the doctrine of love as the source of all good and evil and explains the gradation of the circles of Purgatory: circles I, II, III - love for “other people's evil”, that is, malevolence (pride, envy, anger); circle IV - insufficient love for the true good (despondency); circles V, VI, VII - excessive love for false benefits (greed, gluttony, voluptuousness). The circles correspond to the biblical mortal sins.

Prepurgatory

The foot of Mount Purgatory. Here the newly arrived souls of the dead await access to Purgatory. Those who died under church excommunication, but repented of their sins before death, wait for a period thirty times longer than the time they spent in “discord with the church.”

First ledge. Negligent, who delayed repentance until the hour of death.

Second ledge. Negligent people who died a violent death.

Valley of the Earthly Rulers (not related to Purgatory)

• 1st circle. Proud people.
• 2nd circle. Envious people.
• 3rd circle. Angry.
• 4th circle. Dull.
• 5th circle. Misers and spendthrifts.
• 6th circle. Gluttonies.
• 7th circle. Voluptuous people.
• Earthly paradise.

In search of harmony. Art history works different years Dmitrieva Nina Aleksandrovna

Purgatory (About Dante's Divine Comedy)

Auguste Rodin. Walking man. 1900

The idea of ​​Purgatory is close human soul. Purgatory is clearer than Hell and Heaven. Although Hell is easy to imagine sensually because of its many similarities in life. Someone even expressed the idea that our earthly existence is the stage of Hell that the soul goes through.

Dante had no shortage of models of Hell, and the first cantina of the Divine Comedy turned out to be the most plastic. But moral feeling resists Hell and refuses to recognize it as a manifestation of Divine justice. Hence the dual mood of Dante traveling through the outcast villages, his constant fluctuations between condemnation of sinners and pity for them, and even undisguised admiration - for example, in front of Farinata or Ulysses. Without this duality, Dante's Inferno would be worth little. Hell is absolute, eternal, excluding compassion, morally unimaginable.

On the other hand, absolute and eternal bliss - Paradise - is too contrary to all our experience for the imagination to cope with it. You can guess about it from moments of visions, dreams, mystical insights (always moments, and never something lasting). Being outside of time is not given even in visionary experience: there is “first” and “then” there. “But sleep time is rushing by, and it’s time to put an end to it,” says the penultimate song of “Paradise.” If it rushes in Paradise, then what changes does it bring? If none, then doesn’t “divine boredom” await the righteous too? Eternally under the bushes of the Gardens of Eden, eternally singing praise and hosanna... It seems that only the Black Monk in Chekhov's story said something different. To Kovrin’s question what the purpose of eternal life is, the monk replied: “True pleasure is in knowledge, and immortal life will present countless and inexhaustible sources for knowledge, and in this sense it is said: in the house of My Father are many abodes.”

This mysterious and beautiful promise of many abodes “in the Father’s house” makes one think that eternal bliss is not immobility, but only “ new land and a new sky." You need to believe in it, but how to imagine?.. Both poles - Hell and Paradise - are difficult to reach: the first - to the human heart, the second - to human understanding.

But Purgatory is proportionate to man. It quenches his thirst for justice, redemption and movement. After all, we are always on the road, always waiting. When we are young, we think we know what we are waiting for. But even in old age we continue to wait, no longer knowing what, but in essence we are waiting and longing for Purgatory. What is more desirable than the opportunity to look at the past from a new height, to understand where the mistake was, to voluntarily atone for it, to pay for the bad in the firm hope of the best? Even if you just wait and endure, as in the Pre-Purgatory, just to know that you will endure and wait.

It's not so bad to wait at the foot of that mountain that you dreamed of in prophetic dream Dante Alighieri. A huge truncated cone rises in the middle of the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth, where no European had ever been before in the time of Dante. To this day, scientists are at a loss as to how the poet learned about the sparkling constellation of the Southern Cross, which captivated his gaze as soon as he followed Virgil out of the bowels of the earth and saw the night sky - “the joyful color of oriental sapphire accumulated in the air.”

The entire first song of “Purgatory” is like a deep, blissful sigh of relief. After wandering around the circles of the hellish funnel under the roar and screams of those being executed, after the travelers crawled and groped their way through the thickness of the earth, clinging to Lucifer’s shaggy fur with crusts of ice frozen into it - finally, there was light! Finally they emerge from the underground hollow onto the seashore. The shore is deserted, but such a joyful space above them and around them, trembling with living lights! At this moment, Dante doesn’t ask about anything, it seems that he doesn’t need anything - just stand, breathe, look at unfamiliar stars.

But then an old man with a black-gray beard approaches them - Cato Uticus, an unyielding Roman republican who committed suicide when the republic fell. Although he was a pagan, and even a suicide, so by all rights his place was in Hell, he "plagued by miraculous power" for his devotion to freedom and was made the guardian of Prepurgatory, just as Minos was the guardian of Hell. Severity befits a guardian. Cato sternly asks the newcomers where they are from and why they are here. Virgil responds hastily, even servilely, forcing Dante to kneel - bending him down with his hand. One senses that Virgil fears that Cato might prohibit them from visiting the “seven kingdoms.” Cato is just a watchman - but who doesn’t know how much sometimes depends on a simple watchman!

To appease him and soften him, Virgil mentions Marcia, Cato’s beloved wife, who is with him, Virgil, in Limbo, and conveys greetings from her to Cato. But this does not impress Cato: he dryly says that he is now indifferent to Marcia, but if Virgil was really sent by the heavenly wife (that is, Beatrice), then there is no need to interpret and waste time on inappropriate flattering speeches. Let Virgil gird Dante with the reed of humility and wash his face properly, and when the sun will rise, they will see the road themselves. With these words the elder leaves; one can guess that he is not very pleased with Beatrice’s feminine whims, although he obeys them.

Virgil and Dante happily rush to do what they are told, tear the flexible reed, and twist the belt. Meanwhile, dawn comes. The rippling surface of the sea and the path leading along the slope are becoming more and more clearly visible. Keen eyes Dante notices a flying white shine on the sea. This is an angel "Lord's bird" fluttering its huge white wings like sails, it leads to the shore a boat with newly arrived souls, singing a psalm in chorus. Having landed them on the shore, the heavenly pilot immediately sails away, and the souls are confused: they do not know where to go. Someone asks Virgil where the path up the mountain is and how they can climb the almost vertical cliff. Virgil replies that they themselves have just arrived and everything is new to them too.

Souls look at Dante with curiosity, noticing him "breath on the lips" marveling that he, alive, wormed his way among the shadows. One of them steps out from the crowd and heads towards Dante with a smile and open arms. Dante recognizes his friend, musician and singer Casella. He wants to hug him, but his arms embrace the void: Casella is incorporeal. This does not prevent them from having friendly, joyful conversations. Dante says that he hopes to return here again (that is, after death), and Casella says that he had to wait a long time to leave for the mountain of Purgatory, but now the helmsman angel freely takes everyone except those condemned to eternal torment (in 1300 the anniversary was celebrated Catholic Church: remission of sins for the living and relief for the dead). It's about O anniversary year- short explanation.

Casella does not complain and does not consider it an insult that he was not taken for a long time: he knows that the angel acts according to the dictates of the highest truth. But still, why did he have to wait so long, and not even in the Pre-Purgatory, but somewhere "at the mouth of the Tiber"? The poem does not explain the reason. According to ancient beliefs, the soul remains for some time near the place where it physically resided, and the longer it is, the more it is attached to the earthly. Casella, who was endowed with the gift of singing and died young, was probably deeply devoted to earthly joys.

Dante asks him to sing one of those gentle songs that on earth calmed anxiety and relieved fatigue. And Casella, without forcing himself to ask for long, sings “Love, talking to me in my soul...”- Dante's canzone from The Symposium. Dante, Virgil and the whole crowd of shadows listen with pleasure, drinking in every sound. Indeed, how wonderful it is - the sunrise over the sea, meeting old friends, music...

But the stern Cato is dissatisfied. And so the order is disrupted by the lawless appearance of Virgil and Dante, and then there are songs. He interrupts the singing with a grumpy shout, reproaches careless souls for procrastinating instead of going where they should go. The shadows scatter, just as doves pecking at grain scatter when something frightens them.

“Our step was also hasty...” Virgil is almost running, Dante can barely keep up with him. He sees that the teacher is embarrassed, dissatisfied with himself, reproaches himself for listening and succumbing to sweet temptation. Perhaps this once again reminded the poet of his pagan nature, because of which he is doomed to a foggy Limbo and will never be worthy of seeing the Divine. Dante does not know this bitter feeling and, apparently, finds no sin in listening to Casella’s singing. He runs not because he is driven by remorse, but simply trying not to lose sight of Virgil, fearing to be left without a counselor.

Virgil slows down and they walk side by side. And suddenly Dante begins to feel that he is still alone. Because he sees only one shadow under his feet - his own, and Virgil does not cast a shadow. And Dante, a living person, becomes scared; It was as if he realized for the first time that his leader and beloved teacher walking next to him was dead: he was not there, he did not exist.

In hell, Dante forgot about this - there was eternal darkness there and there were no falling shadows. And now, at sunlight, on solid ground... Dante says nothing, but Virgil, noticing a look full of horror, guesses his thoughts. Yes, he says, answering the unspoken, my ashes have long since rested where it is evening, in Naples. But I'm here with you. There is nothing to be surprised that I “I will not darken the day”: after all, the ray passes through the heavenly circles unhindered. Another thing is surprising: that we, incorporeal, are still subject to cold, heat and bodily sorrows. This is one of the great mysteries, incomprehensible to the mind. Not everything is accessible to the mind; it should not break through the limits set for it: let people limit themselves to the knowledge of what There is, without asking - Why. Plato and Aristotle longed to comprehend everything with reason - and the thirst turned out to be vain, unquenchable, and turned into eternal sadness, to which they are doomed in Limbo. Remembering Plato and Aristotle, Virgil bitterly falls silent, looking down. Dante does not object to him - he never argues with the teacher, but judging by his constant inquisitive questions, he himself is not alien to the Aristotelian thirst for all-understanding, all-explanation, and secretly hopes that reason will be reconciled with Revelation.

Both in hell and in purgatory, Virgil answers Dante’s questions as best he can - and he can within the bounds of reason. But as soon as the question comes up against these limits, Virgil says: Beatrice will better explain this to you. The closer to the top of purgatory, the more often he sends an overly inquisitive student to Beatrice, the bearer of Divine Revelation.

So they move on, looking for a way up, but everywhere they come across a steep cliff. Again they encounter a crowd of shadows - these are no longer newcomers, they have been here for a long time, and Virgil asks them how to get through. Dante compares this crowd to a flock of sheep: “like sheep coming out of the fold...” Everyone follows in a crowd behind those in front, but if those in front stop, everyone stops; if the first one pulls back, everyone retreats. Timid and meek, like sheep, they did not behave like that on earth: there they were obstinate, but they managed to repent before death, although they were excommunicated from the Church. They must now remain in the Pre-Purgatory, at the foot of the mountain, for a period thirty times longer than the time of their excommunication.

Among them is the handsome Manfred, the son of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, an implacable opponent of the papacy. Manfred tells his story and asks Dante to return to earth and tell his daughter Constance that her father is not in Hell; and let her pray for him, since through the prayers of the righteous the period of waiting in the Pre-Purgatory can be shortened. Again, a new reason for Dante’s curiosity - he remembers that in one verse of the Aeneid it is said: “Do not hope to bend the powerful will of the gods with prayers,” and asks: are the hopes of waiting souls not in vain? Virgil answers: no, they are not in vain, for the prayers of Christians are effective, unlike the prayers of the pagans. However, Beatrice will explain it to you better.

Virgil and Dante pass through the chasms, barely move from ledge to ledge, but still remain within the Pre-Purgatory. Virgil encourages Dante, saying: the mountain is so constructed that at first the climb is difficult, but the higher you go, the easier it will be. Every now and then they encounter crowds and groups of shadows, doomed to different periods of waiting: here are those who died without repentance violent death, and simply “careless”, careless, who generally thought little about repentance, although they did not sin too much. Among the latter, Dante, with cheerful surprise, sees his friend, the Florentine Belacqua, a skilled craftsman musical instruments, a notorious lazy person. Belacqua, too, sits here in a pose of lazy languor, with his head bowed on his knees, and is in no hurry: he still has to wait a long time - the duration of his earthly life - before the angel admits him to the ordeal. He's one of those people who doesn't mind waiting.

Others, recognizing Dante as living, surround him, bombard him with requests, and give instructions to his relatives. He feels like a lucky dice player who, after winning, is crowded by a crowd of petitioners - “who will come in front, who will touch you from behind, who will say a word for themselves from the side,”- and he gets rid of them with handouts (the sixth canto begins with this comparison). In the end, Dante gets into the role so much that Virgil is forced to sternly reprimand him: “Follow your own path and let people say what they want.”

They meet many more in the Pre-Purgatory, acquaintances and strangers, listen to the stories of their lives and deaths, and are present at the night mystery in the valley "earthly rulers": there those who were at enmity during life sing hymns in agreement, and green-winged angels with flaming blades protect them from the ancient serpent of enmity and strife, which lies in wait for former kings here too. Then Dante falls into a deep sleep.

During his sleep, Lucia, one of his heavenly patrons, carries him to the cherished entrance to Purgatory, where he climbs three steps: white, black and scarlet - and the guardian of the threshold with a radiant face unlocks the gates in front of him, having chalked seven “R” on Dante's forehead. "P" stands for "peccatum" - sin. In further ascent, after each circle, the next angel erases one “P” with his wing: to the top of the mountain - to earthly paradise- the traveler comes cleansed of sins. Accompanied by the faithful Virgil and as a kind of heavenly tourist, Dante goes through all seven circles in the shortest possible time, but the purified souls atone for their sins for a long time, for centuries. True, compared to eternity, what do centuries mean? And what does suffering mean when there is light ahead?

Redemptive suffering in Purgatory is not at all funny: the proud wander, bent under the weight of stone slabs; envious people have their eyelids sewn shut with iron thread, “how they are sewn up to wild hawks to tame them”; the angry wander in thick, bitter smoke; misers (as well as spendthrifts) are thrown to the ground (“My soul is cast to the dust” - they sing); gluttons atone for sin through the pangs of hunger and thirst.

Virgil tells Dante that “all creation... is full of love, natural or spiritual.” “Natural cannot sin” - that is, she strives for what is beneficial for her: light, food. But the second - spiritual - can be mistaken in its goal, therefore love is the source of both good and evil. The proud, the envious and the angry love "someone else's evil" that is, they see in it a condition for their own happiness: they need "to trample a neighbor" or take revenge on him in order to establish ourselves. Another kind "bad love" - love of deceptive, empty pleasures: gluttons, misers and spendthrifts, voluptuous people indulge in it. In the middle between both are "dull" whose love for good was insufficient, sluggish: they “they coldly and lazily delayed doing good deeds” but here, in Purgatory, they know no peace, they rush tirelessly.

The punishment of voluptuous people here is almost more severe than in Hell: they walk through a wall of raging fire, through which Dante does not dare to pass for a long time, even in the name of meeting Beatrice.

However, the ordeals of Purgatory are experienced completely differently than the torments of Hell - and not only because they are alleviated by hope. The torment of Purgatory symbolizes repentance; penitents voluntarily surrender to what they resisted during life: the proud to self-humiliation, the gluttons to hunger. And in Hell, those executed essentially do the same as during life: they hunger, fight, bite, deceive, and exchange natures with snakes. They are characterized by unrepentance, that is why they are in Hell. As you can see, the difference between the inhabitants of Hell and Purgatory is not so much in the degree of sinfulness, but in the fact that some felt a urge to repentance while sinning, others did not. Otherwise, it is incomprehensible why the venerable, educated Brunetto Latini, Dante’s teacher, ended up in Hell for the sodomite sin, while others guilty of the same atone for him in the seventh circle