Cantos 6-12

Tell if you can the divided city's fate,
And of the citizens: is any one just?
And tell me why such schism threatens it.

-Cantos VI (55-57)

Study your physics well, and you'll be shown
In not too many pages that your art's good
Is to follow Nature insofar as it can,

As a pupil emulates his master; God
Has as it were a grandchild in your art.
By these two, man should thrive and gain his bread--

-Cantos XI (97-102)

Dante is influenced greatly by the political turmoil at the time he was writing The Inferno. "The Divided City" refers to the warring political factions in Florence. Dante belonged to the faction called the White Guelphs, who are at war with the White Guelphs favored by the Pope. During his journey, Dante comes to meet many Italian souls damned to eternal hell, and with them he discusses the current events in Italy, of which he is involved and concerned, havign been recently excommunicated, and therefore feeling lost and forgotten. During these conversations, Dante is able to voice his own poetic political views. Politics is as equally important to Dante as religion, which of course is a prominent theme in The Inferno. In this way, Dante may also voice his opinion of those who are damned, and in which circle of hell they will reside. He meets philosophers, and men of the clergy, as well as those souls he knew in life.

Dante hold that religion and intelligence be help as equals, the same idea held by those at the time: that those who are gifted in religion are of intelligence and should be held in respect. In modern times, the opposite is considered true by most, that one must put aside his or her logical intellectual beliefs in order to truly believe in God. Dante believes that if one embraces the sciences, he uses "Physics" as an example, then belief in "Nature," most likely referring to God follows, hand in hand. God is the one who created the phenomenon of science, and only when one has accepted both God and Science can one truly "thrive."

To Dante the best way to govern is to govern with religion and politics equally.