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Dante's Inferno

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Starting in 1308, Dante Alighieri wrote a collection of canticles known as the Divine Comedy. Each canticle focus on one different aspect of the Christian views of afterlife. The Christian belief is that there are three different destinations, in which the soul could end up after passing from this time on earth. These destinations are known as Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, which explains Dante’s titles for his canticles; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paridiso. The souls who have committed mortal sins and have destroyed their relationship with God are put into Hell and those who have finished their penance or their souls are perfected are in Heaven or paradise. Purgatory is the place where Christians believe souls go in order to get “cleaned” or the …show more content…

103). It was previously mentioned that Hell and Purgatory are both ordered mostly by the capital vices. In Hell, the less serious, but still grave sinners are closer to the top and the very grave sinners are located closer to the bottom, towards the devil. It is important to look at the ordering of Hell and the punishments, in order to understand the penances in Purgatory. It was previously stated that those in Hell are receiving what they always desired through the form of punishment; for example, the lustful are now not burdened to control themselves anymore by allowing themselves to be whipped around and the prodigal throwing things away or the avaricious having all their belongings come back and hit them. Each punishment is specifically designed for the sin that was committed and is proportionate in terms of severity, according to Aquinas in Q. 87. Through the punishments in Hell, the souls are getting what they desired, whereas the souls in Purgatory are being made clean through the transformative power penance has. This idea of the punishments being designed to specifically fit each sin in Hell, is even more important when it comes to Purgatory and that each sin has a specific penance to get rid of the bad habits. Before starting on into penance and Purgatory, it is beneficial to mention how habits are involved in this

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