4 They struck against each other, and then there each wheeled round, rolling back, 30 crying: “Why boldest thou?” and “Why flingest thou away?” Thus they turned through the dark circle on either hand to the opposite point, 33 still crying out at each other their opprobrious measure; then each wheeled round, when he had come through his half circle to the other joust. 36 And I, who had my heart as it were pierced through, said: “My Master, now declare to me what folk this is, and if all were clerks 39 these tonsured ones on our left.” And he to me: “Each and all of these were so asquint in mind in the first life 42 that they made no spending in it with due measure. Clearly enough their voice bays it forth, when they come to the two points of the circle 45 where the contrary fault divides them. These were clerks who have no hairy covering on their heads, and Popes and Cardinals, 48 in whom avarice practices its excess.” And I: “Master, among such as these I ought surely to recognize some 51 who were polluted with these evils.” And he to me: “Thou harborest a vain thought; the undiscerning life that made them foul 54 now makes them dim to all discernment.
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