The Provencal love-cult, a school of poets started by William of Poitou, heavily influenced Dante in his early poetry(Smith 18). Provencal literature was very unique and technically complex(Smith 18), "it was concerned with the worship of the idealized woman (usually married, and therefore theoretically unattainable), involving much sorrow and torment to the lover, not unmixed, with pride"(Smith 18). This was the basis for the linked rhyme scheme of the Inferno. Dante was fascinated by Arnaut Daniel's "cult of the word and his veritable obsession with technique"(Smith 19). The Sicilian School, a

refinement of the Provencal, had "significant linguistic effect upon his contemporaries" (Smith 20). Giacomo Lentini, inventor of the sonnet, was a prominent poet in this school along with Cecco Angiolieri and Cino da Pistoia who heavily influenced Dante. These two contemporaries, like Dante, wrote about female idolatry. They gave special attention "to gracefulness of expression"(Smith 20), as displayed in Vita Nuova where "Dolce stil nuovo"(Smith 20). Smith defines Dolce stil nuovo as being the will that directs the lover's intellect towards the true adoration of beauty that resides the lover's happiness(Smith 20). Smith also adds that Love is said to rise from its sensual origins to a realm of purity, where it blends with the divine. Even though the Provencal school vanished by the time Dante started writing its messages and influences, they affected him immensely.

placed upside down in tube like holes, debased equivalents of baptismal fonts, with the soles of their feet on fire. Their confinement is only temporary: as new sinners arrive, the souls drop through the bottom of their holes and disappear eternally into the crevices of the rock. As they made a mockery of holy office, so are they turned upside down(Peterson). Dante encounters Pope Nicholas III in his travels and is mistaken to be Boniface VIII. Nicholas then condemns himself, Boniface and their successor Clement V for having deceived and dishonored the church. Nowhere in the poem is Dante more involved then at this point in the Inferno. He expresses his disgust for the Popes and how "this state of misery was the prevalence of cupidity, of which he believed simony was by far the most perverted and virulent result, since it produced a clergy that poisoned not only the clerical church but also the whole world"(Mandelbaum 263).

Dante's most hated adversary was Boniface VIII, known as Benedict Caetani before his election into Papacy(Mandelbaum 356). Boniface, a fiery old man, lawyer and veteran in the papal service, is said to have given much needed hours of prayer every day according to Dante(Mandelbaum 356). Dante along with many other of his colleagues thought that the Pope should have no business in politics, but Boniface saw differently as he made many political decisions in his Papal reign(Mandelbaum 356). When Edward I of England and Philip IV of France were preparing for war, both agreed that the church should provide the sinews(Mandelbaum 356). Complaints started

Dante, influenced by philosophies,

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1692
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)