one of the seven deadly sins. At the top of the mountain, the souls, having undone the effect of original sin and so having reclaimed Adam's original nature, return to the Garden of Eden, the place God had originally intended for humanity. There is a frequent misapprehension about Purgatory that should be mentioned. Purgatory is not, as is sometimes thought, a second chance for those neither decisively good nor bad in life. It is not a period of probation after which one might be assigned to Hell. (Thanks to the Ghost of Hamlet's father for that misunderstanding. Shakespeare, of course, shared with his fellow Elizabethans a characteristic misunderstanding of, and hostility toward, things uniquely Popish.) Rather, everyone who enters Purgatory eventually gets into Heaven; therefore, the Gate of Heaven is found not in Paradiso, but in Purgatorio, canto 9. All people are sinners deserving damnation, unless they achieve reconciliation, generally through the sacrament of penance or confession. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 had insisted upon frequent auricular confession for absolution from sins, and Dante, writing in the aftermath of this council, makes of this sacrament the gateway to heaven. Without Penance, sinners go to Hell; with it, they go to Heaven. The three parts of the sacrament necessary for its validity-- contrition, confession, and satisfaction--are represented in the three steps one must mount in approaching Dante's gate (Purg. 9. 94-102). It is clear from Dante's description of these steps that the sacrament, at its best, is no easy or automatic escape from guilt or from personal responsibility. The first step, contrition, requires self-knowledge. To feel true sorrow for past sins requires that people see their "true reflection past all seeming." The second step, the actual confession that follows contrition, is black, rough, and cracked, for the actual telling of one's sins to another is the most difficult of the steps...
