essory powers on behalf of the souls in Purgatory. An individual parish priest would be hard pressed to devote the time needed for so many Masses, but a religious community by division of labor, could knock off the commission in a day or two. The stipend for such services would not, of course, be negligible, but then helping religious houses pay their debts was honorable, and few would be inclined to scruple over money that would deliver ancestors from suffering to bliss. Reformers again objected that this gave the wealthy a special advantage, and again the Council of Trent abolished the practice. Neither abuse flourished until after Dante's death. For him, rather, the doctrine of Purgatory seemed to stress the continuity of human life and spiritual growth past death, the need for total purification before entry into Heaven, and the opportunity for the living to remember in a meaningful way their dead brothers and sisters in Christ. At least these are the points emphasized in the unique structuring of his second canticle. Dante conceived of Purgatory as a gigantic mountain in the southern hemisphere rising up at exactly the opposite side of the globe from Mt. Zion. When the fallen Satan plunged into the earth's core, the ground, in revulsion at this invasion of evil, swelled up as if trying to escape his presence. At the top of this mountain, one finds the Garden of Eden, the spot originally assigned as the primal home for the human race. Subsequent to the fall, Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, and according to Dante, wound up in the northern hemisphere. In the Christian era, souls who die reconciled to God return to Him by climbing the mountain. At the base of the mountain are two areas of Ante- Purgatory where certain souls must wait a while before beginning their climb. Most of the mountain (cantos 9-27) is taken up by seven cornices or terraces which ring the mountain, on each of which one is purged in systematic fashion of...
