Dante places him in the lowest round of the ninth or last
of the hellish circles, where he is eternally "champed" by Satan,
"bruised as with ponderous engine," his head within the diabolic jaws
and "plying the feet without." In the absence of a biography with
details, it is impossible to make out with accuracy what the real Judas
was. We can, however, by dispassionate examination of the facts
determine their sole import, and if we indulge in inferences we can
deduce those which are fairly probable. As Judas was treasurer, he must
have been trusted. He could hardly have been naturally covetous, for he
had given up in common with the other disciples much, if not all, to
follow Jesus. The thirty pieces of silver--some four or five pounds of
our money--could not have been considered by him as a sufficient bribe
for the ignominy of a treason which was to end in legal murder. He
ought perhaps to have been able to measure the ferocity of an
established ecclesiastical order and to have known what would have been
the consequence of handing over to it perfect, and therefore heretical,
sincerity and purity, but there is no evidence that he did know: nay,
we are distinctly informed, as we have just seen, that when he became
aware what was going to happen his sorrow for his wicked deed took a
very practical shape.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87