Satirical Blasphemy

What measure of wickedness

Stems from that mother--not your conversion, I mean:
Rather the dowry that the first rich Father
Accepted from you
Canto 19 (109-110)

Dante here clearly states his dispute with the church. As a representation of the Church Dante uses the Pope. In fact he sees the Pope burning hotter and brighter than the rest of the souls. This proof that the pope is evil is Dante's expression of his disgust for what the church says and represents. This also adds to the argument that the entire of the work is intended to mock or satirize the church in what it believes. When I read his disgust towards the church, it reminds me of George "something," a traveling preacher during the Great Awakening in the U.S. In those times the preachers spoke as apologetics, they would attempt like they do today to associate religion with the church. I think maybe Dante is an apologetic for his time because he disses the church and therefore is satirizing the church in order to further his cause of the religion he believes in.


As when Alexander in India's hottest region
Saw flames fall on his army, intact to the ground,

And had his soldiers tramp the accumulation
To extinguish them before the fire could spread,
Eternal fire descended in such profusion

Sand kindled like tinder under flint, and made
The pain redouble

Canto XIV 27-31

Dante reference here to Sodom reflects the journey that Dante traverses though the relation between faith and life. There is ample evidence that Dante seeks to explore God's presence on earth. Here Dante references an event that is entirely heavenly and completely the work of God. The story itself is proof that Dante believes that God is in control of everything, and not the devil. This prooves in Dante's mind that God is also the more powerful of the two. But it also contradicts what the church was saying at the time. This becomes an addition to the argument that Dante is satirizing the church.