In Dante’s Inferno, the great Italian poet arranges the geography of hell in the form of nine concentric, descending circles. As you descend from circle to circle the severity of the sins being punished increases as does the gruesomeness of the punishments. Dante populates each level with figures from ancient history as well as his contemporaries in late medieval Italy. He thus goes considerably beyond any explicit biblical precept in creating a hierarchy of sin. He does not minimize any kind of sin, but he has clear and definite ideas about which sins are lesser and which sins are greater. Here’s a short summary of the nine circles of hell (according to Dante):

Circle One: virtuous pagans and unbelievers

Circle Two: the lustful

Circle Three: the gluttons

Circle Four: the greedy & the miserly

Circle Five: the wrathful

Circle Six: heretics

Circle Seven: the violent

Circle Eight: frauds

Circle Nine: traitors

Circle Nine is subdivided into four sub-rings: those who betrayed their kin; those who betrayed their city or country; those who betrayed their guests; and finally in the very pit of hell, those who betrayed their lords and benefactors – exemplified by Brutus and Cassius (who together betrayed Julius Caesar) and Judas who betrayed Jesus.

I plan on sending a copy of Dante’s Inferno to Rep. Kent Williams.

To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I had his Cromwell, and Rep. Williams . . . may profit by their example.”