Corruption In Dante's Divine Comedy

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Dante’s Divine Comedy is well known for its artful depiction of the horrors of hell, and the gentleness od heaven, and in that it can be seen as a warning to the people of Florence to concern themselves more with the future of their eternal soul. However, there is another message just as powerful Dante conveys to his former community to warn them not to subdue “secular authority” (Aleksander) in favor of religious authority because power when left unchecked often corrupts. Furthermore, if we become too obedient to one authority, to a religious figure such as the Pope, and forgo our own “natural law” and we lose our own God given sense of morality that makes the test of life meaningful. Even when our actions are not sinful, when our motivations are misplaced we are as doomed as …show more content…
It is suggested by cliffnotes in canto III the one who “made the great refusal” is Pope Celestine V who gave up his seat and paved the way for future corruption in the church. Dante goes even farther to subtly accuse religious authority of political corruption In Cantos XIX when Pope Nicholas III is not only found suffering from his own sinful acts, he outright states he is waiting for Boniface, the current Pope of Dente’s time, to arrive and he goes on to state “under my head are dragg’d… … my predecessors in the guilt of simony” (Dante). So then we must ask if a religious figure such as the Pope were truly a reliable source of morality and above corruption as it is believed, then are how is it that a pope should reside in the catacombs of hell with other fraudulent sinners? Dante is suggesting with so much authority as the Pope often wielded in his time, like most men would, the Pope drunk with power becomes concerned with political agendas and forgoes their righteous

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