Why Did Dante Put a Pope in Hell?

Dante Alighieri on Church vs State

Why did Dante condemn a pope to Hell?

In his poem The Inferno, he prophesied that Pope Boniface VIII would go to Hell for his crimes against the Church. To the average reader this sounds scandalous. Few could fathom a pious Christian prophesying a still living Pope to damnation. Some claim Dant’e writing was petty — that he merely wrote The Inferno to spite his rivals.

Yet contrary to popular opinion, Dante didn’t prophecy Boniface’s doom out of sheer pettiness. In fact, The Divine Comedy is full of surprises — many of Dante’s friends are in Hell, and his enemies in Heaven.

So then what was Dante’s motive for damning a Pope to Hell?

The answer has everything to do with justice and Dante’s astute political vision. He believed Boniface made a horrible error that threatened the sanctity of the church and the political stability of Europe. For Dante, the Pope’s entire understanding of Church and State was backwards, and he proposed an ingenious solution to the timeless struggle between Church and Worldly authority.

Here then, is the mishap that sent Pope Boniface to Dante’s Hell, and the genius of Dante’s political vision…