Seeing a ruddier flame hover over one pair of soles, Dante timidly inquires to whom they belong, whereupon Virgil, carrying him down to this spot, bids him seek his answer from the culprit himself.

Peering down into the stone-pit, Dante then timidly proffers his request, only to be hotly reviled by Pope Nicholas III, who first mistakes his interlocutor for Pope Boniface, and confesses he was brought to this state by nepotism.

But, when he predicts a worse pope will ultimately follow him down into this region, Dante sternly rebukes him.
_Canto XX._ Virgil is so pleased with Dante's speech to Pope Nicholas that, seizing him in his arms, he carries him swiftly over the bridge which leads to the fourth division.

Here Dante beholds a procession of chanting criminals whose heads are turned to face their backs.

This sight proves so awful that Dante weeps, until Virgil bids him note the different culprits.