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Although Dante Alighieri credits Frederick II with promoting the Sicilian School of poetics and contributing to the establishment of vernacular Sicilian, he does not spare him from the sixth circle of Hell, where the souls of heretics and Epicureans reside. But who were these people? The followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus believed in the mortality of the soul, and for this reason they were considered infidels. In the Divine Comedy they are condemned to remain inside fiery tombs, and Emperor Frederick II was one of them. Indeed, the Guelph Dante considered him a heretic, according to the political propaganda of the time. He was, of course, also excommunicated.
Other characters linked to the Emperor also appear in the Divine Comedy: his son Manfred awaits divine forgiveness in Purgatory, following his death at the Battle of Benevento, while his mother Constance of Hauteville is received into Paradise. Dante in fact embraces the myth (or rather, rumor) that Constance was a nun before her forced marriage to Henry VI.
