Quote 13
No green leaves in that forest, only black;
no branches straight and smooth, but knotted, gnarled;
no fruits were there, but briers bearing poison.
Even those savage beasts that roam between
Cecina and Corneto, beasts that hate
tilled lands, do not have holts so harsh and dense. (Inf. XIII, 4-9)
In the ring where the suicides reside, not even nature’s growing flora can flourish. Here, trees and plants that normally sprout in healthy shades of green rot to black and do not sprout nourishing fruits, but poisoned thorns. The reference to the living "beasts" between "Cecina and Corneto" implies that even these savage creatures could not survive in such a place. Nature decrees that nothing can live and grow in a place where men have taken their own lives.
Quote 14
Above that plain of sand, distended flakes
of fire showered down; their fall was slow –
as snow descends on alps when no wind blows.
Just like the flames that Alexander saw
in India’s hot zones, when fires fell,
intact and to the ground, on his battalions,
for which – wisely – he had his soldiers tramp
the soil to see that every fire was spent
before new flames were added to the old;
so did the never-ending heat descend;
with this, the sand was kindled just as tinder
on meeting flint will flame – doubling the pain. (Inf. XIV, 28-39)
The environment designed for punishing blasphemers perverts nature by raining fire, instead of snowflakes, to the ground. So instead of bringing relief to the sandy desert and allowing things to grow, the fiery rain increases the heat, making it eternally uncomfortable for the sinners trapped there.
Quote 15
[Dante to Pope Nicholas III]: "I’d utter words much heavier than these,
because your avarice afflicts the world:
it tramples on the good, lifts up the wicked.
You, shepherds, the Evangelist had noticed
when he saw her who sits upon the waters
and realized she fornicates with kings,
She who was born with seven heads and had
the power and support of the ten horns,
as long as virtue was her husband’s pleasure.
You’ve made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
how are you different from idolaters,
save that they worship one and you a hundred?" (Inf. XIX, 103-113)
In condemning the simonists, Dante paints their practices as highly perverted and unnatural. Here, "she who was born with seven heads" is pagan Rome, blessed by seven heads (representing the seven sacraments) and supported by "ten horns" (the ten commandments). Dante’s message: the Catholic Church (represented by the female Rome) only has power as long as her rich husbands, the "kings" with whom she "fornicates," decide to remain virtuous. When they disagree with the Church, they withdraw their financial support and the Church loses influence. To emphasize the Church’s corruption, Dante pictures her as a hideous monster with a writhing gaggle of seven heads, ten horns, and the rampant lust to "fornicate" with any rich man who comes her way. Not only does this undermine the spiritual purity for which the Church stands, degrading God to a material idol of "gold and silver," but also usurps the natural order of good over evil. As Dante puts it, such simony – the selling of the Divine Word for gold and silver – "tramples on the good" and "lifts up the wicked."