User:Dantestudent/Manfred, King of Sicily

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In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri meets Manfred outside the gates of Purgatory, where the spirit explains that, although he repented of his sins in articulo mortis, he must atone for his contumacy by waiting 30 years for each year he lived as an excommunicate, before being admitted to Purgatory proper. He then asks Dante to tell Constance about him being in Purgatory. With this statement, Manfred reveals that one's time in Purgatory can lessen if someone still alive can pray on their behalf, anticipating one of the reoccurring themes in Purgatorio. Family connections, whether by blood or by marriage, are heavily referenced throughout this section of the Divine Comedy. Dante uses these relationships to demonstrate that earthly connections impede souls in Purgatory from reaching Paradise.

Dante's placing of Manfred in Purgatory is surprising given Manfred's excommunication by multiple popes. Manfred's place in Purgatory is indicative of Dante's dislike of popes' use of excommunication as a political and policy tool. Manfred's excommunication, according to Dante, does not make it impossible for him to make it through Purgatory and into Paradise eventually. Dante adds to this characterization of Manfred and the Church by describing how the Church ordered Manfred's bones unearthed after his death and thrown into a river outside the kingdom in fear that his gravesite would inspire the development of a cult around it.

Aside from the general themes of Purgatorio, Manfred's presence also holds a symbolic value. Robert Hollander argues that Manfred's time in Purgatory should be seen as a symbol of hope, given that Manfred's final statement in Purgatorio, Canto III is that "hope maintains a thread of green" (speranza ha fior del verde) (Purgatorio III.135), which is paraphrased as death not eliminating hope so long as even a bit of hope is there.