Canto XIX/1 Popes are not uncommon in Dante's Hell and they are mostly clustered here, stuffed upside down and one on top of another. The papal arms stand for all these simoniac Popes and they are seen much degraded by the process of etching and re-etching a line drawing so that it begins to disintegrate. The version of the papal arms used for this was itself doctored by the removal of one of the two keys, i. e. the keys to Heaven and Hell that the Pope possesses. Thus these Popes that have misused their high office have forfeited the key to Heaven. Seen upside down the tassels now represent their feet aflame with a parody of anointment. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.