Hell: A Gateway for Change

There has been an ongoing debate over exactly who and what sparked the Renaissance and the Reformation. In his work The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno significantly influenced the appearance of these great reforms and modernizations, depicting many of the social and religious issues of the day during his journey through the seven layers of Hell.

The Renaissance, meaning rebirth, was a time of intense social, political and moral change (Estep 22). Generally, the era is defined between the dates of 1300 and 1517, with Dante and Luther acting as bookends on each side (20). According to “The Magazine of Christian Literature”, Dante inaugurated the Renaissance in his hometown, Florence, Italy (96). Known as “the antipapal polemicist” the Catholic church disliked Dante’s works because they seemed to favor Protestantism as a lead into Luther, even greater evidence that he influenced this period of prodigious reform (Friedrich 44, 48). One renowned Jesuit, the Cardinal Bellarmine argued that the Inferno was very similar to the works of Luther, escorting literature in to the Reformation and Renaissance that Luther so greatly expanded (49).
Interestingly enough, while Dante may have influenced Martin Luther in the writings of his Reformation theologies, in turn, Virgil “is above all Dante’s master in style” (Clarke 13). Despite Dante’s role in the Renaissance and Reformation, he was influenced tremendously by the classics of the Middle Ages, yet he raised their art to a new level. However, this preoccupation with classical writers, such as Virgil, displays the renaissance of humanism under which the idea of a Renaissance man evolved with the belief that “people should be proficient at a wide variety of things” (Malone). Dante fabricated a never-before used verse called ‘terza rima’ “which rhymes in the Italian original according to the scheme aba cbc cdc and so on. The lines thus form groups of three interlocked by a repeated rhyme word- a verbal equivalent to the three-in-one of the Trinity” (Norton Anthology 1827).” This creativity exhibits the return to studia humanitatis under which “grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy” were emphasized (Malone).

Commonly mentioned in discussions about the Renaissance is the idea of the ‘modern man,’ yet many question, “Who was ‘the first modern man’? Was he the anonymous burgher who in his obsession with wealth disregarded the traditions and structures of the church, Dante of the Divine Comedy” (Estep 21)? Dante serves in many ways as a symbolic picture of this first modern man. Although some would argue that he falls under the less revolutionary category of the Middle Ages, throughout Inferno, Dante’s “concern with the secular problems of his day is not that of a medievalist. And in religion he held that virtue and inner peace are attained by ethical rather than by supernatural means” in contradiction to the vast majority of beliefs that prevailed in that day (22). According to The Magazine of Christian Literature,
Dante was and still is a prophet rebuking tyranny and injustice, avarice and pride, in high and low places of Church and State, without fear or favor, and pointing to the eternal issues of man’s actions. He stands on the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times…He proved that one may be a good Catholic and yet call for a thorough Reformation (96-97).
Several political figures of Dante’s day appear in his work Inferno, displaying the corrupt nature of both the government and many of its citizens leading towards the Renaissance. In the Seventh Circle of Hell reside Dionysius of Syracuse in Sicily and Alexander the Great, both of which were “the tyrants who plunged their hand in blood and plundering” (Dante 1871).

While the Renaissance meant the rebirth of the modern man along with all the political and social changes which that entailed, the Reformation acted as the religious counterpart to this movement. To many of the first Protestants, Reformation meant returning to the earliest forms of Christianity in an attempt to reverse the thorough morphing and corrupting of original Christianity that had taken place in the Church through the centuries since the death of Christ (Smith 20). Many of the clerical figures that appear in Dante’s Inferno are in hell because of their role in the corrupt and evil practices of the Church that sparked the Reformation. Dante “condemned the interference of the Church, and especially the pope, in political affairs” (Norton Anthology 1827). Furthermore, as the frontrunner of the Reformation, chiefly “he is concerned with restoring the conditions in which Christ first came” (Ibid).

Corruption took many roles in the Church leading up to the Reformation. For example, the selling of church offices as well as justice was a common misuse of clerical authority (Smith 20). In the Inferno, Dante met an individual who, out of cowardice, made the ‘great refusal,’ choosing not to do the good he had the opportunity to do, which served as another form of extortion of Christianity. Pope Celestine V, resided with others of his sort in the Ante-Inferno, naked and continually bitten by flies and stung by bees, shedding tears and dripping blood to his feet, which disgusting worms consumed (Dante 1843-1844). Another prevalent practice exercised among priests was charging exorbitant remunerations for their services, which Luther, among others in the Reformation, later decried as useless and erroneous assistance. Others followed heresies rather than standing on the doctrine if the Holy Scriptures, such as Pope Anastasius whose tomb Dante and Virgil visited in the Sixth Circle of Hell (1866-1867). He “was thought, wrongly, to have accepted a heresy promoted by the fifth-century theologian Photinus that Christ was not divine but only human,” a blasphemy that resulted in his entombment in Hell.
Basically, the Church in Dante’s time at the beginning of the Reformation amounted to a massive money-making venue. An advantageously common belief which greatly empowered the Church was the claim to possess the ability to free souls from Purgatory even after they were deceased. (Smith 23-24). According to Smith in his work The Age of Reformation,
One of the richest sources of ecclesiastical revenue was the sale of indulgences, or the remission by the pope of the temporal penalties of sin, both penance in this life and the pains of purgatory…In the 14th century the pardons were extended to all who contributed a sum of money to a pious purpose, whether they came to Rome or not, and, as the agents who were sent out to distribute these pardons were also given power to confess and absolve, the papal letters were naturally regarded as no less than tickets of admission to heaven (23).
Ironically, many of these emissaries for the pope found their way into the corridors of Hell rather than the paradise that they promised so many. One Reformation writer Hutten “mocked at Pope Julius II for selling to others the heaven he could not win himself” (24).

Another corrupt and unethical practice in the church that Reformation theologians attempted to terminate was the selling of church offices for extortionate prices. “Though the normal method of appointment to civil office was sale, it was felt as a special abuse in the church [when such methods were carried out] and was branded by the name of simony” (Smith 22). Simony won its name from Simon Magnus, who attempted to purchase the spiritual power of the Apostles for his own temporal gain (Dante 1891). In Canto XIX of Dante’s Inferno, Virgil carries Dante into the Third Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell. In this division of Hell, the Simonists are held, their heads embedded in the orifices of rocks with their feet sticking out, constantly writhing from the pain caused by fire burning their soles “as a flame on oily things will only stir along the outer surface” (1891). Dante commends this punishment as fit justice for their sin as, just as they were most attentive in life to the contents of their purses, now in the afterlife the Simonists are rewarded by having their heads stuck into a sort of purse, the thing which they loved most in the world (Ibid). Dante is able to talk to one of these sinners: Pope Nicholas III, who mistakes him for his successor, Pope Boniface VIII (1892). He also sees other famous Simonists, such as Pope Clement V who arranged with the king of France to have the papacy moved, and Jason of the Jews who bribed the king in Maccabees to appoint him high priest (1893).

Although Dante’s work spoke to effect a change in the Church doctrine and practice, many tenets of the Catholic faith of the day are visibly evident in the Inferno. Catholicism held that “grace is imparted to the believer [only] by means of certain holy rites: baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders and matrimony” (Smith 27). In Canto IV of the Inferno, Virgil leads Dante through the First Circle of Hell, which is also called Limbo, and is “inhabited by those who were worthy but lived before Christianity and/or without baptism” (Dante 1845). Among others, there were many infants in this circle of Hell as well as the righteous that never received salvation, in accordance with Catholic doctrine. Virgil explains that this is because “they did not sin; and yet, though they have merits, that’s not enough, because they lacked baptism, the portal of the faith that you embrace. And if they lived before Christianity, they did not worship God in fitting ways” (1846). Sadly, this shows the way in which the leaders in the Catholic church “were made the arbiters of each man’s eternal destiny, and their moral character had no more to do with their binding and loosing sentence than does the moral character of a secular officer affect his official acts” (Smith 27-28).

In conclusion, Dante performed an important role in the advancement of European culture and religion, acting as the first modern man to stand in the gap between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages through his political involvements and religious dissensions. Lifting his pen to write a beautiful work and craft an ingenious new style of verse, Dante renewed an emphasis on reason and the humanities. His efforts finally culminated to spark the flame that led to the Renaissance and Reformation, influencing many of the key leaders of the time through his writings.



Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. Dante Alighieri. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Vol. B 100-1500 with Inserts, 2nd Edition. Ed. Sarah N. Lawall and Maynard Mack. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. 1826-942.
Clarke, A. K. "The Scope of Virgil's Influence." Greece & Rome 16 (1947): 8-16.
Estep, Willieam R. Renaissance and Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman's Company, 1986.
Friedrich, W. P. "Dante Through The Centuries." Comparative Literature 1 (1949): 44-54.
"Renaissance." Interview with David Malone. Renaissance Notes. ENG-201 World Literature Class. Jackson, TN. 27 Apr. 2009.
Schaff, Philip. "The Renaissance and the Reformation." Magazine of Christian Literature Apr. 1891: 96-97.
Smith, Preserved. The Age of the Reformation. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
1920.

"The Mind of the Maker"~ Dorothy Sayers

Everyone needs to read this excerpted chapter entitled "The Image of God" from Dorothy Sayers book The Mind of the Maker! This is great stuff!
For background information on Dorothy Sayers: Among Sayers' peers were C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. She had a child out of wed-lock, but later adopted the child after marrying another man, giving her credence in the world of sinners. This is just so incredible to read- please take the time!
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/dlsayers/mindofmaker/mind.02.htm

I Surrender All

I surrender all. A simple statement- three words- but what does it mean? Do we ever really think about what we are saying when we pronounce these words? I grew up saying them, but I never really sat down and thought through all that they entailed. Different influences in my life growing up attempted to define this phrase for me, but I subconsciously pushed such definitions aside and shoved them into the back of my brain.
Total surrender. If anyone is truly honest with them self, this is not a very appealing idea. We sing happy tunes in church on Sunday about surrendering our entire lives to Christ, but surrender, for the humans self, is not a happy or joyous event. It means death. Death to desires, to hopes, dreams, wishes, cravings, It means putting ourselves in prison- forgoing all of our rights. It means becoming a slave to Someone who is completely opposite of what we are in every way.
I don’t know about most people, but I certainly have never longed to be put into jail. I have never yearned to subjugate myself to a lifetime of hard work that does not pay or benefit myself. If you don’t relish these ideas, surrender is not your deck of cards, for surrender is so much more than imprisonment and enslavement and death.
Surrender is a total submission to the will and desires of another. A slave can still defy his master, but one who is completely surrendered lives to serve and please and obey his master. Death may still overcome you so that you must give in to it in the end, but you may still fight till the last. Likewise, a prisoner may try to escape rather than accepting his due punishment, but one who truly surrenders will submit meekly, knowing that he deserves to pay the penalty.
Naturally, no one is going to humbly submit to imprisonment for sin. Everyone accused of doing wrong, even if they know they are guilty, will take their case to court and try to get off with a lighter punishment. Hardly anyone hates life so much that, put in a desperate situation, they will quickly give up all hope and take their own lines away, submitting to the rule of death. No slave, given the opportunity, would remain in servitude when offered a chance at freedom and escape from bondage. All of these things are exactly what we are saying we will do when we proclaim loudly for all to hear: “I surrender all.”
We are placing ourselves in prison and humbly, quietly, brokenly taking on the just penalty for our sins. We are willing taking on a lifelong enslavement to the strictest, most exacting of Masters, but a Master who carries our burden for us, whose “yoke is easy and burden is light.” We are embracing death daily, killing ourselves and our desires to make room for our Master.
Are you so eager now to sing for all to hear “Jesus, I surrender all”? I think that it is important to take a moment to stop and really think through what those seemingly simple words really mean. For too long I pushed this reality “out of sight, out of mind,” but when it all boils down, you cannot escape the reality that one day all must face: Either you surrender you entire life to Christ, OR you surrender it to yourself and thereby to sin and wickedness. There is no straddling the fence- either you fully belong to Christ or totally to the power of sin. I have lived a large part of my own life trying to please both God and my own desires, but in the end these endeavors lead only to one or to the other- never do these two paths cross. Next time you begin to sing or pray “I surrender all,” decided to get off the fence and pick a side- choose death, choose imprisonment, choose servitude, and in the end you choose life.

I Want to be the Rain

I want to be free. I feel like a raindrop kept captive in a cloud. All I want is to be released from my bondage and allowed to free-fall to the earth to water the ground and be used for something useful- something that actually holds meaning. Each sunny day lengthens my enslavement. Each cloudy and overcast day torments and tortures me with futile hopes of freedom. I long for a rainy day. I long for it not merely to rain, but to pour. I want to be the pitter-patter on someone's roof, the steady drip-dripping of their gutter. I desire to be a part of the power of a mighty rushing river, pushing boars full of precious cargo upstream, or helping fish migrate, or even begin the energy harnessed to turn a waterwheel. I want to be the answer to prayer that ends the drought and allows the crops to grow again. I want to be that drop of water on parched lips that quenches the longings of a thirsty soul. I want to be the dewdrops on the grass in the early morning. I want to wash the air clean and leave it smelling fresh and new again. I want to help that rose to grow that he will give to his beloved that will adorn her wrist at her senior prom, that he will wear in honor of his mother each May. I want to water the wildflowers that line the fields, creating a radiant magnificence with their simple beauty and grace. I want to whiten the cotton crop and paint with gold the wheat fields. I want to lift the surfer to the top of the wave and give him a glorious ride. I want to be the salty sea-spray that caresses faces walking on the shores. I want to carry a great ship from one harbor to the next. I want to be a habitat for amazing creatures. I want to be the lake families enjoy each summer; the pond the children grow up playing in. I want to be the bubbling brook and the silent creek. I want to fill the water troughs of countless livestock. I want to be added to the tastiest dishes. I want to sustain life. I want to give a new definition of fun to winter extreme sports. I want to redefine beauty on an untouched white mountain slope. I want to be the icicle garnishing overhangs. I want to be the drop tat keeps the family Christmas tree alive through the season. I want to be the cleansing flow for dirty hands, the soouthing stream for tired bodies. I want to be the parted Red Sea, the stopped River Jordan. I want to be part of the beauty and awesome power of the thunderstorm. I want to be a wave of the sea. I want to be a part of the experiment that discovers the cure for many diseases. I want to hydrate dehydrated bodies. I want to be in the rush of a waterfall- even Niagara Falls. I want to be free to fall. But most of all, I want to be the rain that falls while the sun shines...