Pope Nicholas III

19 Dante meets Pope Nicholas III. The Pope was the son of a senator, one of the most powerful families in Rome whose family emblem is noted by a bear. After many years of working for different kings, Pope Nicholas III was appointed as the head of the inquisition and while elected for the papacy, the Pope continued his relations with the German king. Some people agreed with his ideas and sometimes his ideas began controversies where he was accused of “simony” and “nepotism” as he used the church for his personal gain (Lansing, 648). After his death and when the time for his judgement arrived he was sentenced to hell, circle 8 where souls are convicted for the continuous buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices. When the Pope meets Dante the assumes that he is Boniface and questions his early arrival upon which Dante clarifies that he is not Boniface and he gives the Pope a chance to speak. Except when the Pope spoke he enraged Dante. The Pope speaks of Popes and one such Pope that will arrive after Boniface and is far worse of a person. Upon hearing this Dante shouts asking Pope Nicholas III wise questions about what he has does while he oversaw the Church. At the end of his rant Dante makes sure to add the fact that Pope Nicholas III truthfully deserves his punishment. “You merit punishment… I now would bring still weightier words to bear. You and your greed bring misery to the world, trampling the good and raising up the wicked” (Inf. XIX, 97-105). The Pope is one of the…

This paper will discuss Canto XIX of Dante’s Inferno, where the poet presents a character named Pope Nicholas III. Superficially, Pope Nicholas III seems to be motivated by money and greed. Deeper insight gained from close reading reveals; however, that Pope Nicholas III has lost the good of the intellect in the sense that he is obsessed with power and being in charge and believes that he can gain this power through bargaining. This thesis will be demonstrated by means of the principle of close…

Circle eight is divided into ten pouches and deal with the sin fraud. The third pouch is about Simoniacs, or people who profited by the selling of church offices or pardons, the abuse of power with in a church. Pretty much this pouch deals with corruption of the church. These people are buried head first with flames burning their feet. Their punishment is a kind of reverse baptism; they are upside-down in holes and baptized by fire, not water. The holes in the ground represent coin pouches that…

real presence. Hume says that “were the doctrine of the real presence ever so clearly revealed in scripture, it were directly contrary to the rules of just reasoning to give our assent to it.” (David Hume, “The Essay on Miracles,” Discovering, 95) Hume’s radical ideas on things that could not be proven by reason and the scientific method were in fact false and this set the Church in motion to take a stance. It was people like Hume, the ones that came before him and after him, that concerned…

money to the English. Joan was imprisoned for a while before she was put on trial for dressing like a man and using sword and charged for heresy. But she was put to death in a deal between the English and France to end the Hundred Years War. After she was killed she was praised highly. “Considered a heroine of France for fighting in the Lancastrain phase of The Hundred Years War” (Kekewich 3). The people of France today idolize her. She was very heroic and stood up for her faith when put on…

been a delicate balance between two of the most influential powers of the 8th and 9th centuries. There has always been a struggle between these two powers; a struggle concerning the jurisdictions of control each presides over one another. Some of the most influential moments in the history of the Papacy have occurred between the Pope and the Byzantine Empire; whether that may be the Iconoclast Controversy which sparked a public opposition of the use of images in church practices or the Schism of…

Starting with King Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, the church and government were connected. Charlemagne offered protection to the church, and the church taught loyalty to the king. If people were breaking the rules in term of faith and not conforming the king would deal with it. Together church and government controlled the masses. For years the alliance between the two bodies kept the people controlled, but when Pope Leo IX decided that the wealthy and the kings should no longer choose the Pope…

Alonso de Borgia, a man who’s greatest success came from when he helped end the Great Schism in Western Europe, in which two rival popes, one in Avignon and the other in Rome, disputed their claims to the papacy in Rome. Alonso was rewarded as the Bishop of Valencia, and was later made into a cardinal. Surprisingly, he led a strict pious and virtuous life,…

Cameron Peters Nicholas McEntire HIS-112-350 21 November 2017 Consequences of the Catholic Counter-Reformation The Catholic Counter-Reformation can be looked at in two different ways. The first way is as a response, or “Counter-Reformation,” to the Protestant Reformation that was happening around the same time in the early sixteenth century (Britannica n.p.). The other way is of a reformation that sprung up from the Catholic Church itself as a result of criticism of the Renaissance popes…

corrupt popes, and even lack of faith in the upper ranks of the church were the pillars to the parthenon of the church. Faith at this time became a leash, the dominant power of the church was the controlling master, as the general population became the obedient pet, blindly following, painstakingly sweating for their master’s pleasure. And their masters were the corrupt politicians, petty criminals raised to the height of society with purchasable offices. Those who bought the offices were some…