The Inferno by Dante Alighieri portrays a frighteningly vivid vision of the Christian hell using poetic prose. He writes of a journey through the many levels of hell where he shows what sins will merit what punishments. There are other reasons for Dante's writing of the Inferno. Dante states his objections to the impure deeds done by corrupt members of the Catholic Church utilizing sharp poetic observation. Dante's words do show his bitter hostility against what the church has become, but the Inferno has purposes other than catalyzing changes in the papacy. He had strong political as well as spiritual beliefs that called for an absolute separation between church and state. Dante noticed Boniface VIII's lust for greater political power. This caused him to fear for the fate the souls of the followers of a corrupt church official would suffer. The Inferno aided in bringing back parishioners to the path they have been lead astray from.
Sister Mary Rose Gertrude describes Dante's use of revelations and honesty that underlie the inferno. She states that "a spirit of renouncement was Dante's" (35) and that he "refused to acknowledge a ruler between himself and god" (35). Sister Gertrude makes further observations:.
Judging from the evidence of Dante's Enormous accomplishment, we pronounce him a busy man frugal of time; from the delicacy of his sonnets .
Frost 2.
to Beatrice and his repeated reference to the Virgin of virgins, we think his mind was clean, and capable of a reverence as deep as his hatred. He disdained the bow which courtesy masked officials of either Church or State; but his soul knelt in profound veneration before honor, purity, and truth. He lauded restraint and we feel that his life was no contradiction to his principles. (38).
There is no doubt that Dante carried much hatred within him, but he believed that his spiritual and personal opinions. He saw god as the only being that could decide where social power fell.