Dante Visits the Pope in Hell
Dante Alighieri composed a 3 poem epic in which he and his guides travel through Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. Written during his exile from Florence after publically opposing Pope Boniface VIII, Dante includes cardinals, bishops and previous Popes in his imagery of Hell. Dante condemns Pope Nicholas III for his acts of simony- using his status as pope to grant favors for his friends and family- and Pope Boniface VIII for abusing his religious power and taking advantage of those who would otherwise trust him.
Gustav Dore's collection of artwork from Inferno and shows Dante and Virgil speaking with Pope Nicholas III who is face down in a ditch while his feet burn in flames. While Inferno inspired many pieces of artwork Gustav Dore's illustrations hav determined much of the imagery we think of today related to the Divine Comedy.
Dante also includes the story of Guido de Montfeltro, a man who once was a grifter and sinner who changed his ways. Pope Boniface VIII promised him absolution and entrance to heaven before he committed his sins, so Montfeltro felt absolved. When Saint Florence came to escort him to heaven, a demon argued his soul belonged to Hell as he could not be forgiven before the sin was committed.
You can read the passage about Guido De Montfeltro below in Canto XXVII
believing that, so girt, I made amends;
and surely what I thought would have been true
had not the Highest Priest — may he be damned! —
made me fall back into my former sins;
and how and why, I’d have you hear from me.
While I still had the form of bones and flesh
my mother gave to me, my deeds were not
those of the lion but those of the fox.
The wiles and secret ways — I knew them all
and so employed their arts that my renown
had reached the very boundaries of earth.
But when I saw myself come to that part
of life when it is fitting for all men
to lower sails and gather in their ropes,
what once had been my joy was now dejection;
repenting and confessing, I became
a friar; and — poor me — it would have helped.
The prince of the new Pharisees, who then
was waging war so near the Lateran —
and not against the Jews or Saracens,
for every enemy of his was Christian,
and none of them had gone to conquer Acre
or been a trader in the Sultan’s lands —
took no care for the highest office or
the holy orders that were his, or for
my cord, which used to make its wearers leaner.
But just as Constantine, on Mount Soracte,
to cure his leprosy, sought out Sylvester,
so this one sought me out as his instructor,
to ease the fever of his arrogance.
He asked me to give counsel. I was silent —
his words had seemed to me delirious.
And then he said: ‘Your heart must not mistrust:
I now absolve you in advance — teach me
to batter Penestrino to the ground.
You surely know that I possess the power
to lock and unlock Heaven; for the keys
my predecessor did not prize are two.’
Then his grave arguments compelled me so,
my silence seemed a worse offense than speech,
and I said: ‘Since you cleanse me of the sin
that I must now fall into, Father, know:
long promises and very brief fulfillments
will bring a victory to your high throne.’
Then Francis came, as soon as I was dead,
for me; but one of the black cherubim
told him: ‘Don’t bear him off; do not cheat me.
He must come down among my menials;
the counsel that he gave was fraudulent;
since then, I’ve kept close track, to snatch his scalp;
one can’t absolve a man who’s not repented,
and no one can repent and will at once;
the law of contradiction won’t allow it.’.’
Mandelbaum Translation of Canto 27 and other Cantos Available on Digital Dante