Simoniacs and Sycophants- with the Foyle that we need

. An esssay on Dante's Relevance- Brian Keeler

Above- Brian Keeler, "Autumn Still Life with Dante," oil on linen, 30" x 36".

For anyone who has read The Divine Comedy, considering which of Dante's forms of justice would be appropriate for our era is understandable. There is a long list of transgressions that we observe coming from the White House. In fact, there are so many truly horrendous violations of every stripe that we are never short of material.  As many have observed, the sheer magnitude of violations from the DT is beyond our ability to process.

Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, completed in 1321 represents his version of divine justice. Dante has hell invisioned as an inverted cone with ditches or malebolges. The malebolge that is coming to the fore now is in the 8th circle, for the sin of simony. Simony is not a sin on the radar of us today as it is quite obscure and arcane. Simony, named for Simon Magus (the magician or sorcerer) of the first century AD is described in various ways, but the transgression of enriching oneself while abusing a sacred trust is the pertinent aspect here.  I find simony relates easily to emoluments, the clause in the constitution that supposedly prohibits a president from enriching himself through his office.  We can see this violation on such a massive scale for him and his entire family in blatant clarity every day. It is interesting that fraud is connected to this evil ditch, and we know fraud as part of the convictions leveled against the DT- 34 of them of which he was convicted of 2024.

This simony or emoluments can be observed in world tragedies from Gaza to Ukraine to Venezuela and even (potentially) Greenland.  The Trump team's modus operandi is to send in real estate developers like Jared Kushner who only see an opportunity to build crass developments in areas where there was human suffering. There was one of these ( (a $500 million glitzy high rise hotel project) that was planned for hallowed site in Belgrade, Sebia that was forutunately thwarted recently due to outcry and protests. Yes, these are emoluments, fraud and simony on a scale unimagined by Dante.

Dante is forthright and vehement, doling out all kinds of ghastly punishments and retribution to the characters in the inferno which includes two Popes, Boniface VII and Pope Nicholas the III. These punishments are creatively somehow inversions of the sins.  The result to these folks that abuse principles and trust is- they are plowed head first into the earth and left there with their legs protruding upward and the soles of their feet flaming. Smoke is shown billowing out around the edges of their bodies after their impact. The retribution is part of the power that Dante has imbued himself with.  Fortunately, Dante seems to have a moral compass.   Retribution and revenge, are easily regarded as a hallmark of the DT's but for inverted, perverted and always the morally reprehensible reasons.  Recall that revenge and retribution are deemed in biblical terms as the province of God. In Chapter 12 of Saint Paul's Epistles, "Avenge not Yourself."

There is an apocryphal debate between Simon Magus and Saint Peter that is part of the narrative here. Simon Magus is abusing doctrine, he wants to know how to buy holiness and supposedly does all kinds of wacky tricks like making kids grow beards etc- including the blasphemy of presenting himself as the son of God on Earth. At one point he argues with another magician and he is strruck with a stick- which passes through his body, as if through a ghost. The upshot is that he is called out and the punishment is for him to plummet to earth when he is showing off his levitation ability or flying skills. Hmm, we need a Saint Peter today to counteract the equivalent hubris today.

The episode is illustrated in several famous paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, some of which I have seen on several occasions. The most famous is by Filipino Lippi in the Brancaci Chapel in Florence. Another, also by an Italian artist, Antonio Battioni, which is in the Cleveland museum and one by Benozzo Gozzoli, the 15th century Florentine. One of the most dramatic and inventive figurative masterpieces on this theme of Simon Magus' fall is by Franceso Solimeno, within a church, San Paolo Maggiore in Naples (shown below).

Above- the tour-de-force figurative painting by Solomena Franceso- the Fall of Simon Magus is within a church in Naples, Italy. The story is apocryphal, coming from the popular account in The Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine. Saint Peter is shown in blue in the middle left (in the act of praying for this downfall) and the emperor Nero is on the throne.

Apocryphal parallels and historical precedents-

Simon Magus is a magician or we could say, a huckster, or a snake oil salesman.  And again we see the current occupier of the White House as daily falsifying and fraudulently following suit with unbridled obfuscations. And yes he too, (the DT) is a huckster and purveyor of snake oil- foisting entire policies based on lies down the throats of gullible gluttons.

The inversion of these fellows, shown upside down in holes with flames on their feet is seen as the opposite of cool water on their heads as babes during baptism.  Dante had a curious incident in the famous Baptistry in the center of Florence, where he had to break the baptismal font to save a drowning infant who was somehow stuck.  This undocumented or unrecorded anecdote (as it is not in official records) underscores Dante's connection to ritual, atonement and cleansing of the soul.

The apocryphal aspect is noteworthy. The term refers to the narrative not actually being part of the official account or in the Bible. But Jacobus de Voragine's tales and the head to head dispute between Saint Paul and Simon Magus have taken on a life of their own. They both have inspried accomplished works of art that are legendary in themselves. The frescoes by Piero della Francesca in Arezzo, in Italy are remarkable examples of illustrations of episodes from one of these legends (and oththers.)

Above- an illustration by the 19th century French artist, Gustave Dore showing Dante (with Virgil) conversing with the inverted Pope who is confessing his simony as he was supposedly lining his pockets while serving the church.

As the new year begins we reflect on a year of unparalleled transgressions and flaunting of law and all common manner of decent comportment.  The list is truly astounding.  We read compilations from essayists whom we regard with respect for their moral standing and integrity.

In the most recent issue (Dec 31, 2025) of the New Yorker Magazine,  Susan B. Glasser nails it with a column brimming with incisive summation.  Here are a couple of passages, and there are indeed overtones to Dante.

"Did we anticipate that Trump would come back to office wanting to rule as a king, consumed by revenge and retribution, and encouraged by sycophants and yes-men who would insure that he faced few of the constraints that hampered him in his first term? Yes, but now we know that bracing for the worst did not make the inevitable any less painful. In the future, historians will struggle to describe that feeling, particular to this Trump era, of being prepared for the bad, crazy, and disruptive things that he would do, and yet also totally, utterly shocked by them."

and further- from Glasser-

Yet the biggest disappointment of 2025 may well have been not what Trump did but how so many let it happen. Trump has always been a mirror for other people’s souls, an X-ray revealing America’s dysfunction. If this was a test, there were more failing grades than we could have imagined.

On the first day of his second term, the President pardoned more than fifteen hundred violent rioters who sacked their own U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a vain effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Even his Vice-President, J. D. Vance, had said that this was something that “obviously” shouldn’t happen; Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, later admitted that she had lobbied him not to go that far. But Trump didn’t listen. He was putting America on notice. The first outrage was a sneak preview of those to come: if there was a choice to be made, he would invariably opt for the most shocking, destructive, or corrupt option. And who was going to stop him?

Indeed-  a man with no moral compass who does not know basic right from wrong.  We are subjected to breathtaking ignorance and incompetence on a daily basis. The razing of the East Wing of the White House seems emblematic of the entire fiasco.  We as a nation which once prided ourselves as a beacon of light for the world, have seen our national soul violated in a flood of moral rot.

Most of us go about our lives and continue to be beneficial in some way with our work and endeavors.  The Foyle aspect mentioned in this essay's title is of course a pun on foil or a moral bulwark against what we see as policy and behavior promoted as virtue. In a BBC series that we are watching now called "Foyle's War" the lead character is a police officer in England, in Hastings during World War II.  The lead actor Michael Kitchen is a superb example of clear-eyed rectitude.   Here's a quote from Michael Keaton reflecting on the actor, Kitchen.

"Kitchen's Foyle was a man of few words, often conveying volumes with a slight tilt of the head or a weary sigh. He represented integrity in a time of moral compromise, battling black marketeers and spies with the same methodical intelligence. Kitchen refused to make Foyle emotional or flashy; instead, he made him impeccably decent.

The phrase "superb actor" is almost an understatement."

The characterization of Foyle as being impeccably decent is the takeaway here. As this is the foil or model of integrity that is sorely lacking in almost all of the current administration.  Which is worse: the violator-in-chief, his enablers in Congress or the Supreme Court who undermines our past 250 years as a nation by allowing sins of an unimaginable level? 

We may think of other paragons of virtue from literature and history as foils to these assaults on models of decency.  One that comes to mind is from the book and movie, To "Kill A Mockingbird."  Atticus Finch, the lawyer played by Gregory Peck, is similar to Foyle in his quiet and determined integrity. 

There is solace in literature, spiritual and philosophical thinkers and in Hollywood's portrayals of individuals of merit.  The historical art that I have shown here is also part of commendable efforts to nudge us towards virtue. We could hope for more of this today. Perhaps inspiring words of Martin Luther King instead of the rampant hatred of Charlie Kirk. Or perhaps more compassion of Pope Francis rather than the vindictiveness of so many autocrats of the world that the DT has aligned with.