The third bolgia: holes drilled into the rock, each one containing a shade planted headfirst, its legs protruding and its feet on fire. The soles of the feet burn with concentrated, dancing flame. The image is of baptismal fonts inverted — the sacred space of initiation corrupted into a place of punishment. These are simoniacs — those who bought or sold ecclesiastical offices, who put a price on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The name comes from Simon Magus in Acts, who tried to buy the power of the Spirit with money.
One shade's feet burn more fiercely than the others. Virgil carries Dante down into the ditch and Dante addresses the shade directly. It assumes he is the shade of Boniface VIII arriving ahead of schedule — a prophecy embedded in the encounter, since Boniface is already condemned though still alive in 1300. The shade reveals himself: Nicholas III, pope from 1277–80, from the Orsini family. He had used the papacy to enrich his family; he was followed in this sin by Boniface (already below him, awaiting his turn) and will be followed in turn by Clement V, who will push Nicholas even deeper as the column of corrupt popes fills up.
Dante delivers an extended rebuke — to the astonished silence of Virgil — invoking the Apocalypse's great whore who sits on waters and commits fornication with the kings of the earth. The Church has made gold and silver her gods; it was not money but the keys and the pastoral staff that Christ gave Peter. Dante, who at Canto X barely flinched at Farinata's contempt, here becomes the prosecutor himself. It is among the most explicit anti-papal passages in the poem.