How Did Pope Niccolo III Influence Dante's Inferno

In other words, Dante the Poet rebukes the Church’s greedy and reckless behavior by placing its members in hell.

The article Christianity and the Roman Empire by Dr. Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe reads, “Thus the classic test of a Christian’s faith was to force him or her, on pain of death, to swear by the emperor and offer incense to his images, or to sacrifice to the gods.” This passage explains the terror of the Romans, for they felt that the Christians were deliberately jeopardizing the Roman Empire by angering their gods. There are many more reasons as to why Christians were persecuted by the inhabitants of Rome, but these are the major elucidations. The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire started to die down around 250 A.C.

And [Filippo]: ‘I am one who weeps.’ And [Dante] then: || ‘May you weep and wail to all eternity, / for I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are.” (Canto VIII, lines 34-38) Dante uses Filippo Argenti as a symbol of his anger towards the Black Guelphs. Dante, a member of the White Guelphs, believed in freedom for Rome, whereas the Black Guelphs were in favor of submitting to the powers of the Pope.

The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, follows the pilgrim as he travers through the three spheres of eternity: Hell, Purgatory, Heaven. Hell is described as a pit of rings, each containing a unique sin which increases in severity as one travels downward. Throughout the Inferno, Dante takes great care to highlight sins especially heinous to his particular historical context of the Medieval Ages. Canto XIX of Inferno looks to the sin of Simony, a sin common among the popes in Dante’s day. Simony is the selling a Church positions or misuse of Church authoritative offices for earthly wealth and gain.

They are the second and third worst sinners. They were also traitors to God. In addition, they assassinated Julius Caesar. Dante chose these three sinners to demonstrate contrapasso . Moreover , Circle 9 is the greatest level of hell and betrayal is by far the worst sin anyone could commit.

As one that truly despises the Catholic Church’s doings, Dante associates Pope Nicholas III as a simonist and nepotists in order to slander the church; a goal that Dante is trying to portray in his works. Pope Nicholas III is not only depicted in the Inferno, but he is also placed in one of the lowest levels of hell, Circle 8. Dante’s use of such a location further emphasized his hate for the church’s decision of exile and acts of simony.

Count Ugolino (1220-1289) is also a figure placed in hell. Count Ugolino is located in the ninth circle of hell. His crimes to be located here was betraying those who were close to him. Count Ugolino’s punishment is to forever gnaw on the head of Archbishop Ruggieri (his murderer,

To begin with, one of the themes that connect the literary works to Greek civilization is wrath. In the Iliad, the book was full of the theme wrath. One example of it is the Iliad when Achilles found his best friend killed and rejoined the war to kill Hector. Another Literary work with the theme of wrath is Medea. She was full of wrath for her husband, Jason, and killed their two sons because of it.

Innocent III also arranged that the Roman church promote a crusade against what he saw as heretics in southern France. Much bloodshed and lasting enmity were the only lasting effects of this effort. Innocent III promoted the Fourth Crusade to recover Jerusalem fro the western nation coalition. The fourth crusade was a debacle since in 1204 a group of Crusaders sacked and took control of Constantinople, ostensibly the ally of Rome.

Reeking of desperation and lust the poor monk is left to roam the earth hating his existence while teaching others how to love God’s creations. Voltaire’s criticism continues throughout the narratives of the old woman and Cunegonde. When describing the old woman’s childhood, Voltaire gets a good jab in a the Catholic Church by “conferring a bastard on the pope” (31), highlighting the infidelity he sees within religion. Cunegonde on the other hand is tossed between the Grand Inquisitor and a jew who struck a deal that “the Jew would get Mondays, Wednesday and the Sabbath, while the Grand Inquisitor would get the other days of the

46-49). Dante the author once again uses imagery reminds us of the terror of hell as Dante the character enters a new bolgia. He uses the Christian values to to judge people for what they did against God’s will as it says in the values. He emphasises the punishments such as this one to create this atmosphere. Dante often punishes the sinners according to what they did.

But when Virgil and Dante see Satan they see that he is chewing on three of the worst sinners to be known one was Judas who betrayed the son of god and the other two were Cassius and Brutus they both betrayed god too “That soul up there which has the greatest pain the master said is Judas Iscariot with head inside he piles his legs without of the two others who head downward are the one who hang from the black jowl is Brutus see how the he writhes himself and speaks no word and the other who so stalwart seems is Cassius” (Dante line-62-65) they are the three worst sinners and he is chewing on

In the 1730s and 1740s a revival called the Great Awakening took place. In a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards incorporates his concern by reminding everyone of God’s wrath in the face of their worldliness and wealth. Edwards explains, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: ‘tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell.” After this more churches popped up along with new colleges and universities, and over time these values and beliefs became as prominent as when they were first established.

Ventresca, if he realizes this, could use his status to be an intrusion into the Vatican for the Illuminati. Next, Ventresca could also be threatened into joining the Illuminati. The Illuminati are notorious for being a violent and unforgiving group; hence, they could use the Chamberlain’s innocence to threaten him into joining their cause. Ventresca proves the violence of the Illuminati, “Satanists lurking among us-running our governments, our banks, our schools, threatening to obliterate the very House of God with their misguided science” (Brown 585). This quote illustrates the view of the Chamberlain and Christians on the Illuminati.

Written by Dante Alighieri, a great poet of the 14th century banned from his home, Inferno describes the journey of Dante himself as a man who has lost his way in the woods, which represents losing his way from the righteous path. In order to find salvation, Dante must take a journey through Hell with the guidance of the poet Virgil, who represents human reason. The poem depicts many theological ideas that people of the time may have believed, but enhances their effectiveness through graphic punishments that await sinners in Hell. The ideology breaks down into two general ideas: God is just and impartial to humans and punishments are based on the severity and consciousness involved in the sin, which can be observed in the punishments facing the great influences of Dante’s life, the lovers