Pope Nicholas III

Hell, the journeying Dante encounters the simoniacs, one of them being Pope Nicholas III, being “planted like a fence post upside down” while “the soles of both feet were aflame” (Dante.

the 18th of March 1314), before being burned upon a scaffold, cursed Philip the Fair, his entire family and Pope Clement V. Both, King Philip and Pope Clement died only a few months after and Philip's male heirs died young and childless, whose consequence was the so-called 'The Hundred Years War', which started from 1337 to 1453 and was a series of connected conflicts between Edward III of England (son of Isabella of France and Philip's grandson), the Valois kings of France (Philip's cousins) of

Emperor Alexius I Comnenus asked Pope Urban II to help defend the Byzantine Empire in 1095 CE. The Pope agreed because he wanted to secure his own power over the church and called a military expedition to conquer the Holy Land. Peter the Hermit, a French mock had put together an disorganized army of peasants and soldiers in 1096. His army was known as the Peoples Crusades. While he stayed behind his army crossed over into Anatolia. There almost all of his army was killed by Turkish soldiers. The

spiritually, while the pope was only an example of ideal Christian living. Social deterioration led to the corruption of the Church and its offices; simony being the biggest problem. The papacy itself was corrupted by simony and Roman politics. While reform had been taking place in the local levels for some time, the papacy was the last part of the Church to be

Dante meets Pope Nicholas III who mistakenly takes Dante for Pope Boniface VIII, “Is that you here already upright Boniface?... Are you fed up so soon with all that wealth…” (p. 242). Farinata had told Dante earlier that everyone in hell has foresight into everyone who will be damned to hell, meaning Nicholas knows that Boniface will join in him hell in the circle of fraud. This again provides insight into Dante’s affiliation with the White Guelphs. He is not afraid to put Pope Nicholas or Boniface

have been, to show how corrupt the historical and political figures from that era are because he is angry at the fact that these leaders are taking advantage of innocent people. Dante meets Pope Nicholas III who “was vested with the great mantle of power” which refers to the papacy (Dante 195.63-67). Pope Nicholas was a part of the papacy from 1277 to 1280 before he was accused of different types of simony, the buying or selling of political positions. Dante talks about the seducers,

public and show everyone what being a just and fair Church meant. Dante writes about Hell in his book Inferno where he describes the many circles of Hell with his justifications of why people deserve the punishments they receive. Very early in Cantos III Dante establishes that Hell is not only just, but was also created by divine authority

versus that of the spiritual: Emperor/kings Henry IV and John of England, and the popes who aggressively challenged their exertions of authority, Pope Gregory VII

on their journey. However, all seem to have accepted the supreme authority of a certain German boy, Nicholas by name, to whom is given the credit for the whole organization of the Crusade, but about whom, unfortunately, scarcely anything is known.” The Deeds of Trier in the Crusades a Reader goes on further to describe Nicholas. The author states, “The leader and head of this journey was Nicholas, a boy from Cologne who bore over him a cross having the shape of the Greek letter tau, which was put

Emperor. Florence, Italy, 1266, the Guelfs invade the city which puts an end to Ghibelline power. Following the division of the Guelf party into the Whites - the party of supporters of independence from papal control - and the Blacks - the supporters of Pope Boniface VIII, - the later regain control of Florence and exile the White supporter, Dante Alighieri in 1302. For the remaining years of his life, Alighieri traveled around Italy while writing his masterpiece, The Comedy. Of this trilogy the most popular