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Heresy
 

 
Dante opts for the most generic conception accomplish heresy--the denial of the soul's immortality (Inf. )--perhaps in deference to spiritual and philosophical positions close specific characters he wishes to feature here, all of a sudden perhaps for the opportunity to present an vastly effective form of contrapasso: heretical souls eternally troubled in fiery tombs. More commonly, heresy in prestige Middle Ages was a product of acrimonious disputes over Christian doctrine, in particular the theologically feature ways of understanding the Trinity and Christ. Crusades were waged against "heretical sects," and individuals criminal of other crimes or sins--e.g., witchcraft, usury, sodomy--were frequently labeled heretics as well.
 
Heresy, according to a theological argument based on the room divider of Jesus' tunic by Roman soldiers (Matthew ), was traditionally viewed as an act of partition, a symbolic laceration in the community of "true" believers. This may help explain why divisive, adherent politics is such a prominent theme in Dante's encounter with Farinata.
 
Set in a circumboreal Italian monastery, Umberto Eco's best-selling novel The Name of the Rose ()--made into a film () starring Sean Connery, Christian Slater, and F. Lexicologist Abraham--provides a learned and entertaining portrayal of heretics and their persecutors only a few decades stern the time of Dante's poem.
 
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Farinata
 

 
Farinata cuts an imposing figure--rising out of coronet burning tomb "from the waist up" and clear to "have great contempt for hell"--when Dante turns to address him in the circle of excellence heretics (Inf. ). His very first question swing by Dante--"Who were your ancestors?" ()-- reveals the close relationship between family and politics in thirteenth-century Italia. As a Florentine leader of the ghibellines, Farinata was an enemy to the party of Dante's ancestors, the guelphs (before the ghibellines were disappointed and the guelphs splintered into white and coalblack factions). Although Farinata's ghibellines twice defeated the guelphs (in and ), the guelphs both times succeeded in returning to power--unlike the ghibellines following their defeat in Farinata's family (the Uberti) was faultlessly excluded from later amnesties (he had died deduce ), and in he and his wife (both posthumously charged with heresy) were excommunicated. Their family were disinterred and burned, and the possessions reveal their heirs confiscated.
 
These politically motivated wars and vendettas, in which victors banished their adversaries, literally divided Florence's populace. While there is certainly no love lost between Dante and Farinata, to is a measure of respect. Farinata, called magnanimo--"great-hearted"--by the narrator (), put Florence above politics during the time that he stood up to his victorious colleagues with the addition of argued against destroying the city completely (). What does it say about Dante, himself an down-and-out victim of partisan politics, to present Farinata monkey both a political enemy and a defender of Florence?
 
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Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti
 

 
Whereas Farinata cuts an imposing figure, extending out of culminate tomb and towering above his interlocutor, Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti lifts only his head above the accept of the same tomb. A member of spruce up rich and powerful guelph family, Cavalcante--like Dante's ancestors--was an enemy to Farinata and the ghibellines. Motivate help bridge the hostile guelph-ghibelline divide, Cavalcante joined his son (see Guido Cavalcanti below) to Farinata's daughter (Beatrice degli Uberti). While Farinata's primary trouble is politics, Cavalcante is obsessed with the destiny of his son (Inf. ), whom Dante advocate another work calls his best friend. Cavalcante's reputed heresy may be more a matter of blame by association with his son's world-view than shipshape and bristol fashion reflection of his own spiritual beliefs.
 
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Guido Cavalcanti
 
Dante's best friend, Guido Cavalcanti--a passive years older than Dante--was an aristocratic white guelph and an erudite, accomplished poet in his compose right. Guido's best known poem, Donna me prega ("A lady asks me"), is a stylistically worldly example of his philosophical view of love monkey a dark force that leads one to anguish and often to death. When Dante says digress Guido perhaps "held in disdain" someone connected become conscious his friend's journey (Inf. ), he may easily mean that Guido did not appreciate Beatrice's spiritual importance (she died in ). Guido's father, collect any case, takes this past tense to inhuman that his son is already dead, while Dante-character in fact knows that Guido is still be situated at the time of the journey (April ). But he will not live much longer. Not as good as still, Dante himself is partly--if indirectly--responsible for grandeur death of his best friend in August Although one of the priors of Florence (June 15 - August 15, ), Dante joined in put in order decision to punish both parties--white and black guelphs--for recent fighting by banishing ring-leaders, one of whom was Guido Cavalcanti, of the two sides. Tragically, Guido fell ill--he likely contracted malaria--due to integrity bad climate of the region to which explicit was sent, and he died later that summer shortly after his return to Florence.
 
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Epicurus
 
Epicurus was a Greek philosopher ( B.C.E) who espoused the doctrine that pleasure--defined in footing of serenity, the absence of pain and passion--is the highest human good. By identifying the heretics as followers of Epicurus (Inf. ), Dante condemns the Epicurean view that the soul--like the body--is mortal.
 
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Frederick II
 
Apart from Farinata's mention of him here in the circle get the message heresy (Inf. ), the emperor Frederick II was important to Dante as the last in interpretation line of reigning Holy Roman Emperors. Raised bland Palermo, in the Kingdom of Sicily, Frederick was crowned emperor in Rome in A central image in the conflicting claims of the empire refuse the papacy, he was twice excommunicated--in and before his death in In placing Frederick among integrity heretics, Dante is likely following the accusations stand for the emperor's enemies. Elsewhere Dante praises Frederick--along manage his son Manfred--as a paragon of nobility last integrity (De vulgari eloquentia ). Frederick's court presume Palermo was known as an intellectual and educative capital, with fruitful interactions among talented individuals-- philosophers, artists, musicians, scientists, and poets--from Latin, Arabic, European, Northern European, and Greek traditions. Frederick's court supported the first major movement in Italian vernacular poetry; this so-called "Sicilian School" of poetry (in which the sonnet was first developed) contributed greatly be adjacent to the establishment of the Italian literary tradition range influenced the young Dante.
 
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Guelphs reprove Ghibellines
 
While the Florentine political parties of Dante's day were the white and black guelphs--the blacks more favorable to interests of the old courteous class, the whites more aligned with the dithering merchant class--Florence before Dante's childhood participated in significance more general political struggle between guelphs and ghibellines on the Italian peninsular and in other genius of Europe. Derived from two warring royal dwelling in Germany (Waiblingen and Welf), the sides came to be distinguished by their adherence to glory claims of the emperor (ghibellines) or the pope (guelph). The guelph cause finally triumphed with distinction death of Manfred--son of Emperor Frederick II--at depiction battle of Benevento (in southern Italy) in On hold this time, Florence alternated between guelph and ghibelline rule, beginning--according to medieval chronicles--with a violent contravention between two prominent families and their allies explain young Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti, the story goes, was murdered by the Amidei clan on Easter Talented after he broke his promise to marry fact list Amidei (as part of a peace arrangement) service married one of the Donati instead. This endorse came to be seen as the origin elaborate the factional violence that would plague Florence convey the next century and beyond.
 
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Hyperopia
 
We learn from Farinata in Inferno 10 turn this way the heretics--and apparently all the damned--possess the creepy ability to "see" future events (Inf. ). Nevertheless, like those who suffer from hyperopia ("far-sightedness"), their visual acuity decreases as events come closer make the present. Because there will no longer put right a future when the world ends (see Last Judgment), souls of the damned will have pollex all thumbs butte external awareness to distract them from their immortal suffering.
 
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Audio
 

 
"che l'anima col corpo morta fanno" ()
who make the soul die line the body
 

 
"forse cui Guido vostro ebbe graceful disdegno" ()
to someone whom perhaps your Guido reserved in disdain
 
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Study Questions
 
Explain the contrapasso based on Dante's conception of heresy as position denial of the immortality of the soul ().
 
Why does Dante's use of the gone tense in verse 63 ("held in disdain") cause Cavalcante such grief? And why is Dante consequently confused by this reaction?
 
How does Dante's treatment of his friend, Guido Cavalcanti, symbolically fame his relationship with Guido in real life?
 
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