Pope Celestine V

Boniface committed was that he took “the beautiful Lady by deceit” (XIX.52). According to the endnotes, the “Lady” is how people in Dante’s time referred to the Church. Boniface was accused of causing the abdication of the previous pope, Pope Celestine V and ascending to the papacy through simony. Pope Celestine is mentioned in the inferno in the third canto, when Dante is describing Limbo. He abdicated as pope only five months in, because of political pressure in the name of Boniface. However, he was placed in Limbo because “The Great Refusal (was) impelled/by cowardice” (III.50-51). In the same way that the clergy of the fourth circle were led astray because of their irrational avarice, Pope Celestine sinned because of his emotion-driven cowardice. There is a sharp juxtaposition between Celestine’s punishment in Limbo (like Virgil’s, of longing) with Boniface’s preordained fiery suffering—due to the rationality scale on which the two of them sinned considerably differently. Celestine’s irrational cowardice contrasts with Boniface’s deliberate simony. After Boniface, the next sinner was going to be Pope Clement V, the “lawless shepherd of the West…this one/Will get soft treatment from the King of France” (XIX.76,81-82). Clement V, the pope who moved the papacy to France and who was under the control of Philip IV, is interestingly looked down upon by Nicholas as being “lawless,” despite the fact that the both of them suffer the same fate because of the same sin.…

dialects, Accents of anger, words of agony” (III.25). After asking Virgil what he was hearing Dante learns that the cries he was hearing were from the souls of people who never made the decision to be either good or evil, and consequently was sent to neither heaven nor hell. The first moments after passing through the gates of hell are undoubtedly thought-provoking, but there’s something else noteworthy that happens during this part of the poem. Dante also recognizes the “shade of him who from…

extremely important in changing the course of history. Disease can wipe out massive amounts of people, and cause chaos and destruction, but also pave the way for a new age, such as the Renaissance, which followed the Black Death. Disease can exploit the flaws in our society and cause us to improve our way of living. Boniface did not approve of the clergy being taxed by the king. The King of England did not let them be heard in the royal court. Because of this King Philip simply stopped…

The clash between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France began in the year 1296 over taxation of the French Clergy. Specifically, King Philip IV implemented taxes over the clergy and all other laymen of the French kingdom with a motive to fuel a war with King Edward I of England. Refuting this, Boniface asserted that no cleric was to pay taxes to a king without proper papal consent. If the clergy went against his commands, Boniface threatened excommunication to all who ignored him.…

TOPIC 3: The changing literary and visual representations of China by Westerners in the history One of the oldest countries in the world, China, is also one of the four ancient civilization. For long stretches of history, China had their glory but also had a hard time, and the changed of China also changed impression on westerners by their literary or visual representations. In the 13th - 14th century, Genghis Khan established the Mongolia regime, built the Empire of Mongolia and began his…

He is commissioned to not only create a portrait of Pope Paul V, but he is also given the opportunity to create a piece for St. Peter's Basilica, a massive honor. The papal portrait is far more restrained than his typical style. This is probably because the Pope was very conventional in comparison to his nephew. This sense of assertiveness is portrayed brilliantly in the subject’s posture and facial expression. Meant to serve as both an allusion to the heresy of the protestants and a…

This conflict arose between Gregory and german Emperor Henry IV, where their differing opinions on who should choose local bishops clashed in the early 11th century. Pope Gregory was an advocate for more church authority and believed that he, and future popes, should have absolute say in certain spheres of power and decision making. To cement this total authority, Gregory created his “Dictatus Papae” in 1075, which laid out his vision for the church and delegated certain powers to the pope,…

Bella Snell Robert Rusnak His 101 11/20/24 Book Report The Pope Who Quit This assignment was to write a report on one of two books. Either The War on Sparta or the Pope Who Quit, I choose to read the Pope Who Quit by Jon M. Sweeney. My expectations going into reading this book weren’t high as I don’t usually read nonfiction books, but the way this book was written as more of a story instead of just stating facts made me enjoy it more than I anticipated I would. The book was still dull at times,…

The Exarch of Revenna was the Byzantine emperor’s representation in Italy. The empire was weakened during this time, as it was in the midst of the Muslin expansion. Because of this, the current pope, Pope Stephen II, no longer trusted the current emperor, Constantine V. Later, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor (circa 800 AD), he decided that no man, at least in the West, could be emperor without the pope’s anointment. Byzantines As far back as the 600s AD, most of the southern…

Simony, which refers to the selling and buying of church offices, was considered one of the evilest sins of Dante’s time. Even though Nicholas is the main character in this Canto, he is seen as an insignificant character in Dante’s Inferno and he is only there to herald the more important arrivals of Boniface VIII and Clement V and connote political ambition. In Inferno, Nicholas admits to Dante, “I was a son of the she-bear, so greedy to advance her cubs that I pocketed wealth up there, and…