Editing Manfred, King of Sicily (section)

=== Medieval reception ===
Contemporaries praised the noble and magnanimous character of Manfred, who was renowned for his physical beauty and intellectual attainments.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|page=568}}

In the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', [[Dante Alighieri]] meets Manfred outside the gates of [[Purgatory]], where the spirit explains that, although he repented of his sins ''[[wikt:in articulo mortis|in articulo mortis]]'', he must [[Atonement in Christianity|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 recurring themes in ''[[Purgatorio]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alighieri|first=Dante|title=Purgatorio|publisher=Anchor|year=2004|isbn=978-0385497008|page=64}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Parker|first=Deborah|date=12 August 2020|title=Regeneration and Degeneration|url=https://www.dantesociety.org/publicationsdante-notes/regeneration-and-degeneration-dante’s-purgatorio|website=Dante Society}}</ref>

Dante's placing of Manfred in Purgatory is surprising given Manfred's excommunication by multiple popes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/193827830|title=Lectura Dantis : Purgatorio|publisher=University of California Press|others=Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, Charles Ross|year=2008|isbn=978-0-520-94052-9|location=Berkeley|pages=22|language=English|oclc=193827830}}</ref> Manfred's placement in Purgatory is indicative of Dante's dislike of popes' use of excommunication as a political and policy tool.<ref name=":0" /> According to Dante, Manfred's excommunication does not make it impossible for him to make it through Purgatory and, eventually, into Paradise. 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Manfred|url=http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/pur0301.html|access-date=8 November 2021|website=danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu}}</ref>

Manfred's presence in ''Purgatorio'' also holds a more general 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alighieri|first=Dante|title=Purgatorio|publisher=Anchor|year=2004|isbn=0385497008|pages=63}}</ref>