The Malebranche (; "Evil Claws")Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell: notes on Cantos XXI and XXII, Penguin, 1949, . are the demons in the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy who guard Bolgia Five of the Eighth Circle (Malebolge). They figure in Cantos XXI, XXII, and XXIII. Vulgar and quarrelsome, their duty is to force the corrupt politicians (barrators) to stay under the surface of a boiling lake of pitch.
