Dante Alighieri – sentenced

ON THIS DATE

Dante Alighieri on 3/10/1302 was sentenced to burn to death (for political reasons).  The firey death was sidestepped when he was exiled instead – this gave him his Life but not his Wife – he was never to see her again. Dante was born in Florence in May 1265 & died in Ravenna September 13, 1321.  In between these “life covers” he was educated, married, fathered 3 children, was very active in religious-political actions of day and wrote his famous Divine Comedy.  This work was written after this exile date. 

Italy’s best known poet divided his book into three sections Paradiso (paradise), Purgatorio (purgatory), & Inferno (hell).  Literature majors (my BA is in Lit.) may want to read the entire work as I have.  Others need not worry with the first two sections but probably every minister should read his concept (purely that) of hell with its concentric circles going deeper & deeper.

I could hope that Dante Alighieri is in paradise.  I could equally hope he is not in an inferno; I wish no man a future in that awful place (whether it approximates his imagination or not). What I do know is that Dante is NOT in purgatory.  There is no such place found in the Bible. It is a lie of the worst proportions – to give dying men a false hope which they will not know is a lie until it is too late.

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Dante (Alighieri Dante) – sentenced, Mar. 10, 1302

When I had journeyed half of our life’s way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,

for I had lost the path that does not stray.

Canto I, 1

 

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Canto III, 8

 

There is no greater sorrow,
than thinking back upon a happy time,
In misery.

Canto V, 121

 

Alighieri ( (ä”leg•yā’ re) Dante was sentenced this date (3/10/1302) to be burned to death in Italy for political reasons.  He was able to avoid this by agreeing to enter exile.  This allowed him to live but he never saw his wife again.  The above are quotes from “The Inferno” the first third of his Divine Comedy and the third worth reading.                          

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