Transcript Dante, Florence, and the Church

Dante, Florence, Intellectual
Influences, & the Church
Historical Background for Reading Dante’s Inferno
Dante Alighieri – the formative years . . .
• Born 1265
− Rich & well connected family
− Raised in Florence
• Educated in both Christian and Classical works such as the
Bible, Virgil’s Aeneid, and the works of Aristotle
• As a young man served in the army and eventually received
appointments as an ambassador
• Was writing poetry, getting famous, and becoming an
important person within the city of Florence . . .
Dante and the Guelphs & Ghibellines
• Florence was a city divided by two groups: the Guelphs and
Ghibellines. As a young soldier, Dante and his family
supported the Guelphs who eventually gained control.
• However, the Guelphs broke up into two groups in terms of
who they felt should be in charge of Florence
− White Guelphs (anti-Pope) Dante
− Black Guelphs (pro-Pope)
• In 1302 the Black Guelphs defeated the White Guelphs and
took over Florence
• Like many on his side, Dante was sentenced to being burned
at the stake for his involvement with the White Guelphs- he
fled Florence never to return . . .
Dante in Exile
• From 1302 until his death in 1321, exiled from Florence
− His wife chose to stay in Florence with their children and he never
was able to see them again
− Think of Romeo’s exile from Verona
• Moved about from court to court and stayed as a guest to
various princes during his time in exile
• It was during his exile that he wrote The Divine Commedia, a
poem which recounted his journey through hell, purgatory,
and paradise
− The Inferno was so realistic that people were heard to mutter, “There is
the one who passed through hell unscathed” as he passed by
• Died 1321 in Ravenna, Italy
Beatrice
• Dante saw Beatrice twice during his lifetime
− Once when she was nine and again when she was eighteen
• Became infatuated with her and could never get her out of his
head
• She died when she was twenty-four and he never was able to
get over his grief . . . or his love for her
− "Ladies, the end of my love was indeed the greeting of this lady, of whom you are
perhaps thinking, and in that greeting lay my beatitude, for it was the end of all
my desires. But because it pleased her to deny it to me, my Lord Love in his mercy
has placed all my beatitude in that which cannot fail me."
• Becomes Dante’s muse and in the Paradisio is the one who
guides him through heaven
Influence of Aristotle
• During the Middle Ages, Aristotle was the one classical
philosopher that the Europeans kept studying
• His focus on precision, categorizing, and detail became the
hallmarks of scholarship during the Middle Ages
− Everything has a place
− Each detail builds on the next
• “The Great Chain of Being”
− Idea formed during the Middle Ages, influenced by Aristotelian logic
− Everything is connected, like links in a chain, from the lowliest
element to God sitting on the throne of Heaven; every creation has
its place and they are all ordered from worst to best
Influence of Virgil
• As an educated man, Dante read Latin, and if you read Latin it
meant you read Virgil since he was considered the master poet
of that language
• Dante views himself as being part of the Italian/Roman
tradition and is culturally, intellectually, & artistically
connected to Virgil (and, in a very real sense, writing his own
epic in the tradition of Homer and Virgil)
• As depicted in the Divine Comedy, Virgil is Dante’s guide
through Hell & Purgatory, but he is also symbolic of human
reason and how far that can take you (and, as you’ll see,
human reason, for Dante, has it’s limits – there are even some
places it shouldn’t go . . . )
Florence
• Have to remember that “back in the day” Italy wasn’t a
country yet and each of the cities were run as separate little
kingdoms or principalities (think of them as a polis that is run
by a prince – there is no such thing as democracy at the
moment)
• People fought for control of these towns and it could quite
often become quite brutal; throw in the fact that the Church
took sides and they basically became religious wars
• Florence is no exception; as the leading commercial center in
Ravenna (the section of Italy it is in), the city became a jewel
of power that many were willing to go to any extreme to get
• Not to mention, the place is absolutely gorgeous . . .
Catholic Church
• Remember, in Dante’s time, the Church is all-powerful in
religious matters (the Protestant Reformation is still about 200
years away from the year Dante dies)
• In a way that we simply cannot imagine, the Church was
woven into the fabric of daily life, reverberating through
everything you said, thought, or did
• It may sound a little odd, but think of how computer
technology is interwoven into our daily lives in ways we don’t
even take the time to think about (from using the internet to
order a book to the computer chip that runs your coffee
machine) – in a sense, that’s how the Church was
incorporated into this time period: it was everywhere, all the
time . . . period
Hell
• Without the Church, there was no salvation
• Without salvation, there was no redemption
• Without redemption, there was only Hell
• . . . . For – ev – er . . .
Purgatory
• But what about those folks who attended Church, did
their best to do good, completed the Sacraments, but
still sinned once in awhile? Could they go to Heaven?
• Yes, they could, but they had to work off their sins in
Purgatory first – sure, it might take a few thousand
years of waiting and suffering a wee bit, but what’s
that relative to eternity?
Paradise
• Needless to say, it was all about getting into Paradise . . .
• Remember, life in this time period is “nasty, brutish, and
short” – Paradise was one of the few delights a person
could look forward to in life
Corruption of the Church
• As the Church became more powerful, so did the people
who ran it . . . and in case you hadn’t noticed, sometimes
power can corrupt people . . .
− Selling of indulgences; basically, pay to get out of Purgatory early
for yourself or for a loved one (this is what will drive Luther the
most nuts by 1517)
− Politics over saving souls; like many others, Dante felt that
members of the Church were more concerned with their political
power on earth than saving souls for the afterlife
− Committing the sins they preached against; whether it was a love of
money, sins of the flesh, or abusing church power for personal
gain, Dante – and others – saw many leaders of the Church as
being hypocrites and blasphemers
• As you’ll see, Dante places many a Pope or Cardinal in Hell