...How did Indulgences grow from prayers,“In the Roman Catholic Church, a declaration by church authorities that those who say certain prayers or do good deeds will have some or all of their punishment in purgatory remitted.” into money, “If anyone put money into the coffer for a soul in purgatory, the soul would leave purgatory for heaven in the moment one could hear the penny hit the bottom.” during the Middle Ages? From the 5th century to the 15th century, Indulgences grew and changed and right along side of it, Purgatory. From Dante’s time in the late 1200s, through Pope Boniface VIII’s papacy to Pope Leo X’s in Luther’s time in the 1500s. The desire to avoid any temporal pain or discomfort, for sins after death, was one of the only things that remained unchanged over the Middle Ages....
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...The Divine Comedy Author name University The contrast between Inferno and Purgatory First circle was Limbo. There were unbaptized and virtuous non-Christians, many wise and well-known people such as Homer, Horace, Avicenna, Cicero, Hippocrates, Socrates, Aristotle and others. In the second circle (Lust) were people, who took possession of lust. Here Dante saw Cleopatra, Semiramis, Dido, Helen of Troy. A strong wind threw their souls back and forth without a pause. The third circle (Gluttony) was for gluttons, guarded by a huge Cerberus. They laid here in mud, under the cold rain, unable to see anything around and not paying attention to each other. Here, Dante met Florentine Chacko, who died recently. In the fourth circle (Greed) were wasteful and mean people. They moved heave objects from place to place. In the fifth one (Anger) were angry and lazy people. They fought each other in Styx marsh. Dante met Filippo Argenti there. The sixth circle (Heresy) was a haven of heretics who believed that the soul dies with a body. They were burned alive in the fiery tombs. Here he met Epicurus, Emperor Frederick II, and Pope Anastasius II. The 7th circle (Violence) was the circle of violence. Here were three rings. In the outer ring, sinners were boiled in a bloody Phlegethon river. Here lived Alexander the Great, Dionysius I of Syracuse, Guy de Montfort Obizzo d'Este, Rinier Pazzo, Rinier da Corneto, and Azzolino da Romano. In the middle ring were suicides and profligates. Suicides were...
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...over the Holy Roman Emperor. This held influence in the Divine Comedy. In trying to get these ideas out the people Dante wrote the epic poem in the vernacular of the Italian people. The Divine Comedy is centered on Dante and his two guides. The poem takes the reader on a journey with Dante and his guides through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. This is accomplished through the poem being broken up into three main canticles. Each one of these canticles contains thirty-three cantos. The number three is an important Christian symbol as it symbolizes the Trinity. This is important to Dante in his poem due to his religious beliefs. As the reader gets a literal description on Dante’s travels, the reader symbolically gains insight on how people viewed the progression of a person’s soul toward God. The first canticle is about Dante’s and his guide, Virgil’s, descent through the ten circles of Hell. As they descend through Hell the reader learns about the 10 circles. The deeper in Hell the worse your sin is considered. The sins that represented the circles included lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy and more. The reader also learns that the punishment a soul in Hell receives is tailored to the sin they committed. For example fortune tellers have their heads placed on backwards so they cannot see what lay ahead. Heretics are buried in tombs that burn forever. Lastly Dante...
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...Hell on Earth Nothing impure can enter into the Kingdom of God (Revelations 21:27). Every person will have to pay for their sins to "the very last penny" (Luke 12:59). I'll use somewhat of a parable to explain purgatory. God is just per Scripture (John 5:30), correct? Now, let's say you have one man who leads a saintly life and another who leads a sinful life, but sincerely repents of his sins on his death bed. According to Protestants, both these men go straight to heaven after death. Is this just? I would have to answer in the negative. According to Catholic belief, the saintly man would go straight to heaven whereas the repentant man would have to be cleansed through temporal (not eternal) punishment for his sins before entering heaven. Where is this done? He can't be sent to hell because hell is eternal per Scripture (Matthew 25:46; Mark 3:29). There has to be a middle ground so to speak. This "middle" ground is purgatory. We must suffer for our sins just as Christ suffered for them (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5-7). If this suffering is not in this life, it has to be in the next. Protestants say that since purgatory is not mentioned in the Holy Bible, it doesn't exist. But the Holy Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible either yet almost all mainstream Protestant denominations believe in it. Unfortunately, the King James Version of the Bible mistakenly omits the Books of Maccabees. These books were decided by the Church Fathers to be inspired of God. The Twelve Apostles...
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...circles of Hell the terraces of Purgatory and the spheres of Heaven. On his journey he sees spirits either punished or rewarded for their decisions on earth. The main theme of The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri is the choices made in a man’s life and where those choices will put him after death. Dante Alighieri’s version of Hell describes all of the punishments of those condemned, in accord with their sin. On entering Hell, Dante and Virgil read a sign, describing the horrors of hell and that there is no escape. “Through me you enter the city of woes… Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” (Dante Inferno Canto III) As they travel through Hell they see all of the various punishments for the condemned. They find that each sinner is condemned to a punishment that is in relation with his or her sin. For example, the Misers and the Spendthrifts are in Circle IV. Their sins were that they worshipped money so much that they hoarded it, or had so little regard for money that they spent it wildly. Nothing is so loathed to a miser as a spendthrift. So, their punishment is to bombard each other continually with huge stones expressing the antagonism between excessive hoarding and excessive squandering. Another example is the punishment of the Thieves, their hands, which they used to steal, are cut off and their bodies are entwined with snakes or serpents. Although Hell contains grave sinners, those without very terrible sins go to Purgatory. Purgatory is the place where those who...
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...The idea of a person or a person’s soul living on after death is shared by many religions. Where these religions differ is in what they believe happens after one’s death; there are even differing views about what happens within different denominations of the same religion. The question of life after death has perplexed man through the ages. In the Bible Job famously asked “if a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). The notion of resurrection is central to Christian faith, it is the belief that Jesus returned to life on the Sunday following the Friday of his crucifixion. In Matthew 28 an angel says to the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene; “do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said.” It is from the resurrection of Jesus that the Christian belief in life after death emerges. In John 11:25-26 Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” This led to the belief that if one is to follow the teachings of Jesus and accept him as their lord and saviour; one can then look forward to the afterlife. N.T Wright, in his book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church states that “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” This literal view of resurrection in similar to the Hindu belief in reincarnation...
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...The differences between Dante’ and the churches depictions of hell and purgatory are very interesting. Dante is a crazily influential author, so separating the churches beliefs from his can be relatively difficult, considering a lot of what people believe about Hell now is based in what Dante said, and has basically nothing to do with what the Church believes. Separating the Churches beliefs of hell, and Dante’s is very difficult in terms of art. The amount of art that was created after the inferno was written that isn't heavily based off of the inferno is negligible. However, the Church believes that hell is just where people who go are completely separated from God, and there is no coming back. We can see the influence of Dante’s work in what basically everyone thinks of Hell, this horrible place that you go to be tortured for all of eternity physically, but the church believes that its more of a mental torture, knowing that you will...
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...Purgatory Why do people pray for people who have died? Because they need our prays to help them reach heaven faster. Making their journey faster to heaven. Slowly they will reach heaven with our prays. But some people are in a place Christians call purgatory. Although the word purgatory isn’t said in the bible we still believe in it. When we reach it we are considered to be saved because the next step is heaven. Purgatory is a final purification of the soul after death and before heaven for those who believed in God, but were only imperfectly purified; a final cleansing of the human before one can enter into the joys of heaven Protestants believe that when a Christian dies god purifys them right away and are perfect in heaven (Fr. Ray Ryland). Most people believe that there isn’t a place called limbo or purgatory. Most people we know are there. Some say it’s not real because it’s not in the bible, but yes it is mentioned but not directly. Although we do know that it’s there and it’s our goal to get there. Purgatory is a place where we can spend our time for the sins we committed on earth. We do this to get us ready for heaven because we need a clean soul to get to heaven. The bible tells us everything about our faith. The bible has laws for us and guides us to do what is right. Although the bible never mentions purgatory we still believe that it’s a real place. It’s still a real place to Catholics. Some people say that purgatory has flames so it’s considered Hell...
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...hell. The church took full advantage of this and collected taxes from its followers. * Followers were required to pay a 10th of their earnings to the church. This was called tithing, the people were asked to pay a 10th of income, crops, seeds, or livestock. * The church also convinced its people that they would either go to heaven, hell or purgatory after death. Purgatory was believed to be a place that the soul went to after death if one wasn’t condemned to hell and wasn’t a firm enough believer in god to go to heaven. So the person’s soul would remain in purgatory until his or her soul was purified. The important part to this was the more prayers the person received while in purgatory the faster there souls were purified. So people would buy what they called indulgences with money and in return the church would reduce the time they spent in purgatory. This was another tactic used by the church to increase its wealth and dominance. * PS 1…Tetzel’s Sermon on Preaching Indulgences How many mortal sins are committed in a day… , and those that commit them must needs suffer endless punishment in the burning pains of Purgatory. * Luther, The Ninety-Five Theses (1517) . Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying "Repent ye," etc., intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence. * I believe the church was able to maintain its dominance for so long because of its ability manipulate the words of the bible. People believed they feared god...
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...there. But one historical figure spoke very forcefully about the reality of Hell and the very real possibility of human beings spending eternity there. That person is none other than Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who became man. God did not dismiss Hell as either non-existent or not a threat. We should follow His example and learn what He taught. Who will go to Heaven? So after the Judgment, one will go to Heaven or Hell. Who goes to Heaven? How can I get there? The simple answer is that the souls of the just who are free of guilt and punishment will go to Heaven. But, we need to break that down a bit. First, let’s be clear on one point: no one can earn their way into Heaven by their good works… no one. Salvation is a free gift from God. In Catholic terminology, the person who enters Heaven is said to have died in a state of sanctifying grace. Protestants sometimes refer to this as the grace of justification. And they are correct. The souls of the just are those who have been justified by grace through faith. So the question is, who has been justified? This is where Catholic and non-Catholic teaching parts ways. We receive the grace of justification, that is, Sanctifying Grace, at our baptism when we are born anew from above Two Types of Punishment Due to Sin There are two types of punishment due to sin: * Eternal punishment * Temporal punishment Eternal punishment, what we might call guilt, is forgiven and removed in the Sacrament of Confession...
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...spur, terrace, or level but I could not really find anything. I then decided to write once again about a topic found in my first paper and I noticed that despite the fact that the Valley of the Rulers isn’t the first ledge, or terrace in Dante’s Purgatorio[1] (unlike Limbo which is the first circle of hell) and that it isn’t also technically IN Purgatory but right before it (a.k.a Ante-Purgatory), it does indeed have some similarity/parallelism (but also big differences) to the first circle of the Inferno (Limbo). The key words I noticed was that Dante the wayfarer asks Virgil who are those “separate from the rest” as they approach Limbo[2] (In the Inferno). Then in the Purgatorio, Sordello leads Dante and Virgil to the Valley of the Rulers who are referred to those (spirits) who are “set apart”[3] Now speaking of Limbo in the Inferno, Virgil, who also happens to be from this place (proved by line 39, Inferno 4), refers to the inhabitants of Limbo as “those who live in longing”[4] (manifested by their constant sighing, and not any outcry of pain due to suffering unlike other Cantos in the Inferno). Logically and factually, these souls long for the Beatific Vision or entry into Paradise, but such event will never happen despite these pagans being virtuous[5] (unless Christ decides to repeat the Harrowing of Hell wherein He took some virtuous pagans in Limbo and brought them to Paradise[6]). In reference now to the Valley of the Rulers, these individuals also live in longing, but...
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...The Divine Comedy represents the mature Dante’s solution to the poet’s task annunciated in The New Life. Its three canticles (the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso) display a nearly limitless wealth of references to historical particulars of the late Middle Ages and to Dante’s life. Even so, its allegorical form allows these to function as symbols. The Pilgrim’s journey through Hell to Heaven thus becomes an emblem of all human experience and a recognition of life’s circularity. The “Comedy” of its title is, therefore, the situation of life and the accumulation of experience that attends it. Correspondingly, however, chronological placement of the narrative from Good Friday through Easter Sunday, 1300, particularizes the experience even as it implies the death and rebirth that attends a critical stage of any person’s life. The poet tells his readers in the first line of the Inferno that he is midway through life, and indeed Dante would have been thirty-five years of age in 1300. Though he maintains present tense throughout the poem, he is, however, actually writing in the years that follow the events that he describes. This extraordinary method allows the Poet to place what amounts to prophetic utterance in the mouth of the Pilgrim. Dante thus maintains and further develops the thesis of The New Life, that the progress of the Pilgrim corresponds directly to the progress of the Poet. The literal journey that the Pilgrim undertakes toward the Beatific Vision succeeds only...
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...“Leaf by Niggle” tells the story of a painter by the name of Niggle. Painting was his passion, his life’s work, and he had little love for anything else. Anything outside of painting, whether it was other people, housework, or even leaving the house, was considered an annoyance. Niggle had been tasked with a great journey, but he continued to put off his departure. This was not to further prepare, in fact he had done nothing to prepare. He delayed the journey so he could finish his greatest and final painting. He took so long, that Niggle was eventually forced on this journey. Upon his arrival he was put to work, spending his days fixing things that were broken. Eventually, it was determined that Niggle now deserved gentler treatment. He...
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...introduction 'Earthly life passed before the half, I found myself in a dark forest ... "- With these lines begins one of the greatest and most brilliant works of world literature - "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. "This is a poem about the Dante," danteida, "and at the same time, a poem about a man who, descending and ascending the ladder of the universe, cleaned, and acquires perfect knowledge." People at all times sought to know the universe. And he could not. Maybe that's why his "comedy" to this day loved by ordinary readers and critics, and researchers are still hotly debated around her, every day, opening in this work, something new, not yet solved. "" Comedy "- it's poetry, which has become itself the judge, interpreter, and the key to unlocking secrets" - rightly remarked Alexander L. Dobrokhotov in his book "Dante Alighieri". The theme of my work - "The conductors and the twins Dante and their functions in the" Divine Comedy. '"I think for most of its first full disclosure should understand that in general it is a product. First, the genre of "Comedy" - a vision. The entire poem - a "journey to the underworld, this poet in a vision." However, it is worth noting that "in the" Divine Comedy "the central character - not an abstract" I "and Dante with all the features of his personality and life events of the past ... At the same time," Comedy "is a fiction that develops on the literary laws." Dobrokhotov draws our attention to the fact that "the combination of...
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...is for eternity and there is heaven for those who behaved well. Also, the Catholic Church claims there is an afterlife state which is between heaven and hell the Catholic Church calls ‘purgatory.’ The theological teaching is that after a time of purgation, the spirit will eventually be progress and will go to heaven. There are other Christians, the Protestants, who do not accept purgatory. Catholic theology also states that sinners can confess their sins to Catholic priests and those sins are forgiven for ever – it does not matter how grave the sins might be if the sinner truly repents, he will be forgiven. Judaism Traditional Judaism firmly believes that death is not the end of human existence. However, because Judaism is primarily focused on life here and now rather than on the afterlife, Judaism does not have much dogma about the afterlife, and leaves a great deal of room for personal opinion. It is possible for an Orthodox Jew to believe that the souls of the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian heaven, or that they are reincarnated through many lifetimes, or that they simply wait until the coming of the messiah, when they will be resurrected. Likewise, Orthodox Jews can believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented by demons of their own creation, or that wicked souls are simply destroyed at death, ceasing to exist. Islam According to the tenets of the Muslim faith, death is the complete end of physical life and the...
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