Exploring Dante's Theology of Limbo
Introduction
One of the most debated topics of Dante's epic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is his theology of Limbo. There are numerous theories regarding the possible salvation or lack of salvation for those in Limbo, especially the virtuous pagans. Two theories regarding what Dante says about the salvation of Limbo stand out. The first and most popular opinion of scholars is that those in Limbo are stuck there forever. The second and less popular one is that those in Limbo could possibly be saved either through progressing in the afterlife or at the Final Judgment. In this essay, I will examine the less popular interpretation regarding the salvation of Virgil and possibly the other souls in Limbo as well.
The Church's Official Teaching on Limbo
Before beginning a discourse on Dante's theology of Limbo, the idea of Limbo in the Church must first be reviewed. Sacred Scripture testifies to there being a place where souls went before Christ, commonly referred to as the Pit or Abraham's Bosom.1 Another early account of their being a place in the afterlife known as Limbo comes from the 5th article in the Apostles' Creed which states that “He [Jesus] descended into hell, and on the third day rose again.” The “Hell” into which Jesus descended was not the Hell of the Damned. In Hebrew, the Hell of the damned was called Gehenna. The Hell of those in Limbo, that is, those who were just who came before Christ, would be in Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek). The Hell used in the Apostles' Creed is that of Hades or Sheol, not Gehenna. The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums it up nicely: “Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, 'hell' – Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek – because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.”2
During the medieval period of the Church, the scholastic thinkers make a distinction between two types of Limbo. The Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. states that “Catholic theology distinguishes two kinds of limbo. The limbo of the Fathers (limbus patrum) was the place where the saints of the Old Testament remained until Christ's coming and redemption of the world. The limbo of infants (limbus infantium)...those who die in original sin but are innocent of any personal guilt.”3 Dante then takes this and combines them both in The Divine Comedy, having Virgil recall when Christ came to Limbo to release those in the limbus patrum.4 Dante also mentions that the unbaptized infants are also present in Limbo referring to the limbus infantium.5 Dante does, however, add the virtuous pagans to his Limbo as well, making an entirely new Limbo. The Catholic Church has not made a solemn declaration on the existence of limbo. Fr. Hardon adds that “she [the Church] has more than once supported the fact by her authority.”6
In 2007, the International Theological Commission stated in their document “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized” that “This theory [Limbo], elaborated by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages, never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium, even if that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council. It remains therefore a possible theological hypothesis.”7
According to the scholastics, those who die in the state of Original Sin are deprived of the Beatific Vision. In discussing this question, the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, writes in the Summa Theologica:
I answer that, Punishment should be proportionate to fault, according to the saying of Isaias xxvii. 8, In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it...Wherefore no further punishment is due him, besides the privation of that end to which the gift withdrawn destined him, which human nature is unable itself to obtain. Now this is the divine vision; and consequently the loss of this vision is the proper and only punishment of original sin after death.8
Aquinas says then that the souls who merely die in the state of Original Sin are only deprived of the Beatific Vision. They do not suffer any punishment like those in the Hell of the damned.
Salvation in the Inferno?
Having examined, in brief, the Church's theology of Limbo, it is time to turn to Dante's own theology of Limbo. The first issue with the theory that Dante thinks souls can get out of Limbo is the sign that Dante places on the entrance of Hell: ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.9
At first blush, this single sentence seems to completely destroy the argument that the souls in Limbo can get to Heaven. Upon further inspection, however, Dante is actually being a clever theologian in his word use. The theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity. In life, those virtuous pagans and children who died with Original Sin without the grace of baptism, would not have had these virtues. The pagans would have had natural virtues but not theological ones. The virtues of faith and hope do not continue after death, because people will be immediately judged. Only charity continues after death. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul makes this clear: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”10 Virgil himself states that “without hope we live in longing.”11 Thus, theologically, Dante is correct in placing those who have died with Original Sin staining their souls in the first circle of Hell.
Indeed, those in Limbo have no hope of seeing God as Graziolo Bambaglioli points out in his commentary: “...it is shown from what has been said that the first punishment for souls descending into hell is that there is no hope left in them from which they would never hope to reach for themselves the material of any good or consolation...”12 It is key to note from Bambaglioli's comments that they cannot “hope to reach for themselves the material of any good or consolation.” [italics added] The souls in Limbo have no hope in reaching such glory in themselves. This does not exclude the intercession and aid of those in the Paradiso or of God Himself.
Continuing, Dante describes Limbo as the following: Here, as far as I could tell by listening, was no lamentation other than the sighs that kept the air forever trembling.13 The souls in Limbo do not suffer any of the torments of the other circles. They are all sitting around and sighing because they are deprived of the Beatific Vision.
While Dante is in the first circle of Hell, he encounters a group of poets including Homer, Ovid, Horace, and Lucan. When he asks about why these men seem so honorable, Virgil replies that “Their honorable fame, which echoes in your life above, gains favor in Heaven, which thus advances them.”14
In his commentary on these verses, Robert Hollander says that “Dante's enthusiasm for the power of great poetry is such that he claims that God, in recognition of its greatness, mitigates the punishment of these citizens of Limbo...”15 Is this God's grace or merely favor? It may be possible that this “favor” they receive in Heaven is grace that God will give them. Some Dante scholars suggest that favor is the same as grace as Francesco Torraca implies as we shall see below. Other scholars suggest that this means these virtuous pagans receive earthly honor and fame and not spiritual grace whatsoever.
In his commentary on The Divine Comedy, Mark Vernon, writing on Dante's encounter with those in Limbo has this to say:
He [Virgil] tells Dante that he will spend eternity in hell because, in life, he had followed the old insights, never having had the opportunity to know the new ones. The confession devastates Dante as much as it depresses Virgil. It also evokes the long debate among readers of The Divine Comedy about what happens to Virgil. Many commentators take the old poet's remarks at face value: he says he is damned so he must be. But, for me, that misses one of the main thrusts of Dante's journey and the joys of reading The Divine Comedy. People change as their understanding grows. They become capable of absorbing divine light and so finding unexpected release. Why wouldn't that happen to Virgil, in spite of what he says?16
Vernon's comments are important because he illustrates a main theme within the Comedy: that people grow or at least have the ability to grow. Continuing in his commentary, Vernon also adds that: “Dante might also be thinking that he was on the edge of hell, lost in the dark wood, and yet seems to have been saved, or at least given a second chance. Doesn't that happen to others? Mightn't it for Virgil? I think that The Divine Comedy gradually reveals it does, though the hope initially eludes Virgil. First, he must know that he is lost, as Dante does. Only then might he understand.”17
Vernon is arguing that Virgil and indeed all those in Limbo, may gradually get to Heaven. Vernon, however, is putting Dante's orthodoxy into question by implying that souls can change after death, directly contradicting the Catechism's teaching: “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.”18
Virgil's possible salvation is hinted at in Canto II of the Inferno when Beatrice comes to Virgil to ask him to guide Dante on his journey in the afterlife: “And when I am before my Lord often will I offer praise of you to Him.”19 Why would Beatrice intercede for Virgil if he was to be perpetually stuck in Limbo? What good what it do him? Francesco Torraca says that these verses are “an inestimable prize for Virgil, and perhaps, containing an arcane promise.”20 This theory goes against the tide of the majority of commentators who claim that Beatrice says this to appeal to the human fame of Virgil on earth and not in any spiritual context whatsoever. If Beatrice is in Heaven, it does Virgil no good that she would intercede on his behalf unless he could get out of Limbo. Enrico Mestica suggests that Beatrice is indeed interceding for Vigil writing on the verses that Beatrice praises Virgil “Not once, but often. And this as if to express her desire to be able to obtain for him that grace already granted to others by God.”21 If Dante was implying that Virgil could be saved, this would have been very controversial at the time when many of the scholastics thought that Limbo was a permanent state of being. We may never know what Dante was originally implying.
Salvation in the Purgatorio
Another major point to be discussed is that of Cato's presence in the Purgatorio. As soon as Dante enters ante-purgatory, he meets the figure of Cato: “I saw beside me an old man, alone, who by his looks was so deserving of respect that no son owes a father more.”22 Cato was born before Christ and was certainly not baptized, yet, he appears in Purgatory! Commenting on these verses, Hollander says that “It would seem that Dante was fully aware of the puzzlement and outrage his salvation of Cato would cause; he thus apparently chose to leave the detective work to us, forcing us to acknowledge, from the details that he presents, that this is indeed the soul of Cato of Utica (95-46 B.C.), saved despite his suicide and his opposition to Julius Ceasar, a sin in the last canto that damned Brutus and Cassius to the lowest zone of hell.”23
Here Hollander admits that Cato is saved. Continuing in his commentary, he quotes Pietro di Dante's commentary on the same verses which gives an explanation as to why Cato is here and not in Limbo: “Christ harrowed Cato from hell along with the faithful Hebrews; the Holy Spirit inspired Cato to believe in Christ to come and seek absolution for his sins-or so Dante would like us to believe.”24 Pietro di Dante does not imply whether this took place before Cato died or while Cato was in Limbo. If it took place before his death, then there is no problem, however, if after death, then Pietro is implying that Dante is being unorthodox. GA Scartazzini also helps to explain Cato's presence in Purgatory:
As a pagan Dante should have placed him among the virtuous pagans in limbo (Inf. IV.); as a suicide in the second circle of the seventh circle of hell. Instead he makes him the guardian and almost the lord of the entire Purgatory (cf. v. 65 and 82 of the present hymn), and worthy of one day to ascend to heaven (cf. v. 74, 75). This appears at first sight to be an inconvenience. However, it should be remembered that antiquity, not excepting even some fathers of the Church, celebrated Cato supremely.25
Since Dante places Cato in Purgatory, he will eventually make it to Heaven. While speaking with Cato, Virgil says: 'You know this well, since death in Utica did not seem bitter, there where you left the garment that will shine on that great day.'26 The “garment” of which Virgil speaks is that of Cato's body. And the great day is the Final Judgment. In fact, Hollander says that verse 75 is a “...clear prediction of Cato's eventual salvation, when he will receive his glorified body in the general resurrection of the just that will follow the Last Judgement...”27 While Cato is not a example of someone who is saved from Limbo after Christ's coming, he is an example of a virtuous pagan who was saved.
Mark Vernon suggests something rather controversial implying that Virgil has the capacity to grow after death through his encounter with Cato and his journey through Purgatory:
Cato shines with the light of the sun because his life is illuminated by the same light as that of Jesus. Pagans can know at least something of Christ, and find themselves in purgatory, which of course is now true of Virgil as well. He had traveled through hell before, though he had not emerged on the other side. Dante is, I think, suggesting his journey not only expanded his own spiritual sight but that of his companion...he [Virgil] tells Cato that Dante, a mortal soul, is here by divine blessing, which is to say that if the rules are changing, they are doing so with heavenly, not hellish, sanction. He, Virgil, has been released from the bondage of Limbo to travel to purgatory as well. Virgil's words sound almost like a prophecy, raising the question of whether the pilgrimage is as much to do with his salvation as Dante's.28
Vernon believes that The Divine Comedy is not just Dante's journey but that of Virgil and everyman alike. It is the journey toward God. According to Vernon, Virgil must leave behind his pagan ways in order to make it to Heaven. By the very fact that Virgil is able to travel from Limbo through Purgatory, means that God has given him the ability to do so. Vernon seems to be in the small camp of scholars that think that Virgil can be saved.
Salvation in the Paradiso
The final part of The Divine Comedy must also be treated. In Canto xx of the Paradiso, Dante encounters an Eagle with whom he speaks. The Eagle knows that Dante wants to ask about whether those who are not baptized can make it to Heaven. The Eagle shows Dante his brow which contains six souls. It contains two Jews: David and Hezekiah, two Christians: Constantine and William the Good, and two pagans: Trajan and Ripheus. Since Dante places two pagans in heaven, we shall examine each. The first is the pagan Emperor Trajan: 'Of the five who arc to form my eyebrow, the one who is closest to my beak consoled the widow when she lost her son.'29 R.W.B. Lewis briefly explains this encounter “In the following Canto, xx, the eagle softens, confiding to Dante that quite a few good pagans have been saved. He mentions as an example, the Roman emperor Trajan (dies A.D. 117), a warrior of large public concern and human appeal; he was admitted to heaven-Thomas Aquinas is the source of the legend-through the prayers for him, almost five centuries later, of Pope Gregory I.”30 According to the legend, Trajan died and through the prayers of Pope Gregory was brought back to life, converted, and was baptized. Thus, many commentators and scholars explain away Dante placing Trajan in Heaven since according to the legend he was alive when he was baptized and thus explicitly believed in Christ.
There is, however, another soul in the brow of the Eagle who is much harder to explain. This is the soul of the Trojan Ripheus:
'Who in the erring world would think
that Trojan Ripheus should be the fifth
among the holy lights along this arc?
Now he knows much the world cannot discern
of heavenly grace, although his sight
cannot make out the bottom of this sea.'31
Ripheus was a character in the Aeneid who, according to Virgil, died during the sack of Troy and was very righteous. Dante continues to tell the reader what the Eagle says about how the pagan Ripheus can be present in Heaven:
'The other soul, through grace, which wells up
from a source so deep there never was a creature
who could thrust his vision to its primal spring,
set all his love below on righteousness.
And for that reason, from grace to grace,
God opened his eyes to our redemption yet to come,
so that he believed and, from that time on,
endured no longer paganism's stench
but rebuked the wayward peoples for it.
The three ladies you saw near the right-hand wheel
served to baptize him one thousand years and more
before the sacrament existed.'32
Thus, Ripheus is saved through an implicit faith before he died. How did he gain this faith? Dante never tells us, leaving it to us to find out. Commenting on this passage, Mark Musa says that “God bestowed special grace on Ripheus enabling him by means of implicit faith, comparable to that which God had given those who were harrowed from Hell, [Limbo] to believe in Christ before His coming.”33 This encounter clearly shows the reader that virtuous pagans can, according to Dante, be saved. This is in accordance with Aquinas' teaching in the Summa: “a man can obtain salvation without being actually baptized, on account of his desire for Baptism, which desire is the outcome of 'faith that worketh by charity,' whereby God, Whose power is not tied to visible sacraments, sanctifies man inwardly.”34
In his commentary on the Paradiso, John S. Carroll says that “Dante is here satisfying his own hunger for the salvation of the heathen...God's grace is as unfathomable as His justice. If His justice holds in it strange condemnations of the heathen, His grace contains equally mysterious salvations of them.”35
Salvation for those in Limbo at the Final Judgement?
Having examined the controversial theory regarding the salvation of those in Limbo, one last theory must be reviewed, one which keeps the orthodoxy of the Catholic Faith and allows for the salvation of those in Limbo. This theory among commentators is that Dante believes those suspended in Limbo will be saved at the Final Judgement at the end of time. Giuseppe Campi says that Dante places the virtuous pagans neither in Heaven nor Hell but has them “suspended” in order that Virgil might serve as Dante's guide through the Inferno and the majority of the Purgatorio. He adds that it would have been painful for Dante to have to place his hero, Virgil in Limbo in order to conform with the teachings of the Church. Continuing, Campi writes: “I will say in this instead the opinion of Alighieri seems clear to me that after the Final Judgment God will save all those suspended who lost heaven by being born before the Law of grace and who lived according to the dictates of morality, etc.”36
This presents an interesting theory. In order for those in Limbo to be saved, they would need to be brought back to life or resuscitated like Lazarus and Jairus' daughter or those who were raised from the dead after Jesus' Death.37 Like the legend of Trajan, then, God could raise those in Limbo from the dead and give them the choice of being baptized or not. This is all mere speculation, there is no knowing what Dante was actually implying about the salvation of those in Limbo when writing The Divine Comedy.
Conclusion
In this essay, we have examined The Divine Comedy and how Dante portrays Limbo and those in Limbo and their possible salvation. From what has been said, nothing conclusive can be said about the salvation of those virtuous pagans in Limbo. It seems that Dante leaves the interpretation open to his readers. I do not think we can fully comprehend what Dante intended his readers to believe when writing on the salvation or lack thereof of those in Limbo. Indeed, the Church allows people to believe that those who have died without baptism have three options: Hell, Limbo (if it exists), or Heaven. Dante's Divine Comedy allows for each interpretation.
It must be said that we do not know for sure what happens to those who die with Original Sin on their souls. The International Theological Commission says that “...while knowing that the normal way to achieve salvation in Christ is by Baptism...the Church hopes that there may be other ways to achieve the same end. Because, by his Incarnation, the Son of God 'in a certain way united himself' with every human being, and because Christ died for all and all are in fact 'called to one and the same destiny, which is divine', the Church believes that 'the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery.'”38 It also must also be remembered that God works in and through the sacraments but is not bound by them. To quote the Eagle speaking to Dante and indeed to all of us: 'As my notes exceed your understanding, such is eternal judgment to all mortals.'39
Notes
1See Ezekiel 32:17-32 and Luke 16:22-26.
2Catechism of the Catholic Church, 633.
3John A. Hardon, S.J., Modern Catholic Dictionary (Bardstown Kentucky: Eternal Life, 2008), 319.
4See Dante Alighieri. Trans. Robert and Jean Hollander, Inferno (New York: Anchor Books, 2002), Canto IV, v. 53-63.
5Inf. Canto IV, v. 30.
6Hardon, Catholic Dictionary, 320.
7International Theological Commission, “Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized” Accessed via: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html#top.
8St. Thomas Aquinas, Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Summa Theologica: Volume 5 IIIa QQ. 74-90, Supplement QQ. 1-99 (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press) Appendix I, Q.1, A.1.
9Inf. Canto II, v. 9
10See 1 Corinthians 13:13.
11Inf. Canto IV, v. 42.
12Graziolo Bambaglioli's Commentary on the Inferno, accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader.
13Inf. Canto IV, v. 25-27.
14Inf. Canto IV, v. 76-78.
15Inf. Robert Hollander's Commentary on verse 78, p. 82.
16Mark Vernon, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey (Brooklyn, New York: Angelico Press, 2021), 17.
17Ibid. 17-18.
18CCC, 1021.
19Inf. Canto II, v. 73-74.
20Francesco Torraca's Commentary on the Inferno accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader#.
21Enrico Mestica's Commentary on the Inferno accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader#.
22Dante Alighieri. Trans. Robert and Jean Hollander, Purgatorio (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), Canto I, v. 31-33.
23Hollander's Commentary on the Purgatorio, p. 18.
24Hollander, Purg., p. 18.
25GA Scartazinni's Commentary on the Purgatorio. Accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader#.
26Purg. Canto I, v. 73-75.
27Hollander, Purg., p. 21.
28Vernon, Dante's Divine Comedy, 152-153.
29Para. Canto xx, v. 43-35.
30R.W.B. Lewis, Dante (New York, New York: A Lipper/Viking Book, 2001), 181-182.
31Para. Canto xx, v. 67-72.
32Ibid, v. 118-129.
33Mark Musa's commentary in: Dante Alighieri. Trans. Mark Musa. The Divine Comedy, Vol. 3: Paradise. (New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1986), 245.
34Summa, III, q.68, a.2.
35John S. Carroll's Commentary on the Paradiso. Accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader#.
36Giuseppe Campi's Commentary on the Inferno accessed via http://dantelab.dartmouth.edu/reader#.
37See John 11, Luke 8:40-56, and Matthew 27:52-53.
38ITC, 6.
39Para. Canto XIX, v. 98-99.
Fabulous article
The Divine Comedy is not in the same league as Scripture.