Home      Back to Trinity 8

from Commentary on the Images  in Canto XIX

 

Covetousness (Avaritia) is the inordinate love of wealth, and the power that wealth gives, whether it is manifested by miserly hoarding or by lavish spending.  It is a peculiarly earth-bound sin, looking to nothing beyond the rewards of this life (cf. Bunyan's "man with the muck-rake"); it is expiated here by the endurance of its effects; the souls are so fettered that they can see nothing but the earth on which they once set store.