The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 01
On Boniface and Florence see Guido Levi "Bonifazio VIII e le sue relazioni col Comune di Firenze," Archivio della Societa Romana,l di Storia Patria 5 (1882), 365-474; George Holmes, "Dante and the Popes," in The World of Dante, ed. Cecil Grayson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980), 18-43, and T. S. R. Boase Boniface VIII (London: Constable, 1933). Levi points out that Boniface worked for the triumph of the Guelph party in Italy and that his actions were not always taken to advance pontifical politics but often out of personal antipathy and preference.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 02
For detailed accounts of the conflict see Pierre Dupuy, Histoire du Differend d 'entre le pape Boniface VIII et Philippes le bel Roy de France (Paris: Cramoisy, 1655; reprint, Tucson: Audax, 1963); also Jean Riviere, Le probleme de l'Eglise et de l'Etat au temps de Philippe le Bel (Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1926) and Georges Digard, Philippe le. Bel et le Saint-Siege de 1285 d 1304 (Paris: Sirey, 1936), 2 vols.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 03
Perhaps the most striking forgery is the brief letter cited by Dupuy, Histoire du Differend, 44: "Bonifacius Episcopus servus servorum Dei, Philippo Francorum Regi. Deum time, et mandata eius observa. Scire te volumus, quod in spiritualibus et temporalibus nobis subes. Beneficiorum et praebendarum ad te collatio nulla spectat: et si aliquorum vacantium custodiam habeas, fructus eorum successoribus reserves: et si quae contulisti, collationem huiusmodi irritam decernimus; et quantum de facto processerit, revocamus. Aliud autem credentes haereticos reputamus." Dat. Laterani Non. Decembr. Pontificatus nostri anno 7. "Boniface, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Philip, King of the French. Fear God. and observe his commands. We want you to know that in spiritual and temporal matters you are subject to us. The collection of benefices and prebends is not your affair and if you have the care of other vacancies. you must reserve their fruits for their successors: and if you have collected any, we declare that collection invalid. and whatever proceded from that, we resolve. Those who believe anything else, we consider heretics." The Lateran, the ninth of December, in the seventh year of our Pontificate. The answer was even stronger: "Philippus Dei gratia Francorum Rex, Bonifacio se gerenti pro sulilmo Pontifice, salutem modicam, seu nullam. Sciat tua maxima faruitas ill temporalibus nos alicui non subesse. Ecclesiarum ac praebendarum vacantium collationem ad nos iure regio pertinere, fructus earum nostros facere: collationes a nobis factas, et faciendas fore validas in praeteritum et futurum, et ea rum possessores contra omnes viril iter nos tueri: secus autem credentes, fatuos et dementes reputamus." Datum Parisius, etc. "Philip, by the grace of God, King of the French, sending Boniface, for his high Pontificate, little or no greeting [as though God had designated Philip, but not Boniface]. May your great foolishness know that in temporal affairs we are subject to no one, that the collection of vacant churches and prebends is ours by royal right, to make their fruits ours; the collections made by us and to be made are valid in the past and future, and we will protect their possessors firmly against all: those believing otherwise, we consider foolish and demented." Paris, etc.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 04
The text can be found in Corpus iuris canonici (Extravagantes Communes, 1.8) ed. E. Friedberg, vol. 2, 1,245; the translation in S. Z. Ehler and J. B. Morrall, Church and State through the Centuries (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967), 90-92. For a study of the background of the bull, see James Muldoon, "Boniface VIII's Forty Years of Experience in the Law," The Jurist 31 (1971), 449-77.

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L'Ottimo Commento delta Divina Commedia, testo inedito d'un contemporaneo di Dante, ed. Alessandro Torri, 3 vols. (Pisa: Capurro, 1827).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 06
Innocent 111 had made the action legal, but it was not altogether accepted. Richard Kay, Dante's Swift and Strong, (Lawrence: Regents Press of Kansas, 1978) 114-17, says that Boniface transferred more bishops than any pope before him.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 07
Cronica Fiorentina for the year 1294, cited by Singleton in his commentary on Hell, 50.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 08
Ascendisti ut vulpes, regnabis ut leo, morieris ut canis," according to Thomas of Walsingham's History, cited by Dupuy, Histoire du Differend, 196; the same thought is expressed in the past tense as a comment in French chronicles also cited by Dupuy, ibid., 199-201, the latter in French. Dino Compagni, Cronica, ed. Gino Luzzato (Turin: Einaudi, 1968), 2.35, reports Boniface's death more soberly, but nonetheless damningly: "Many rejoiced over his death, because he ruled cruelly, and fomented wars, undoing many people and amassing a good deal of treasure: and the Whites and Ghibellines were particularly happy because he was their heartfelt enemy; but the Blacks were very sad."

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 09
Dupuy, Histoire du Differend, 56. Cf. Dante's play on Boniface's name in Hell 19, rhyming Bonifazio with sazio both sounds echoing the hissing of flames, as though the name suited the chosen destiny in Hell, and emphasizing the fact that Boniface never was "sated." Guillaume de Nogaret also called Boniface a thief, "fur et latro," which may be a play on papalist comments on kings of the Gentiles who possessed by invasion and usurpation, that they were "fures et latrones" (cf. Giles of Rome, De ecclesiastica potestate, ed. Richard Scholz [Weimar: Bohlaus, 1929; reprint, Scientia Aalen, 1961],1.5)

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 10
Henry had also turned Unam Sanctam to his own purposes, changing the end to claim that "every human spirit must be subject to the Roman prince." See William M. Bowsky, Henry VII in Italy (Lincon: University of Nebraska, 1960), 181.

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Four of the five early commentators identify the "one who out of cowardice made the great refusal," "colui che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto," Hell 3.60, as Pope Celestine V. Properly so, Pietro Alighieri says, because Celestine forgot Gregory and Sylvester, who had been able to be holy and spiritual even in the papacy (69). Guido da Pisa says Celestine renounced the papacy because he did not know how to pilot the ship of the church (59). Jacopo della Lana reports the story of the deception to explain how Celestine could be persuaded to leave thinking it was God's will, when he was having such difficulty dealing with the corruption he found (Comedia di Dante degli Allagherii cow commento di]acopo della Lana, ed. Luciano Scarabelli, 3 vols. [Bologna: Tipografia Rebia, 1866], 131-32. The Ottimo implies that Celestine's renunciation left the way open for Boniface, noting the report that his successor, Boniface, tricked him with the consent of the cardinals, because he was more fit for the solitary life than the papacy, from which the church and the world are in great danger (30). Only Benvenuto da Imola rejects the identification, although he admits that most people accept it and think of the reunuciation as cowardice, but he considers it an act of magnanimity; like the Ottimo, he lays great stress on the corruption of the churchmen around Celestine (117-18).

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Guido da Pisa suggests that since Pluto "in suo episcupatu" cannot stop Dante, he turns to a higher authority, as our bishops turn to the pope, 137. Marsilius, in a different context, identifies his pope with Satan, Defensor Pacis (2.26.19). On a possible connection of "Pape" with Boniface's coins, see below, chapter six, fn. 37.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 13
See Hell 2.27; papale ammanto is a figurative reference to Peter's position; he did not want to assume a royal mantle as later popes would. In Hell, 19.69, the simoniac, Nicholas, tells Dante he was "clothed in the great mantle"; in Purgatory, 19.104-05, Hadrian learns how the mantle weighs on one who would keep it out of the mud (perhaps an echo of Marco Lombardo's remark about the church of Rome falling in the mud and soiling itself and its burden because it combines the two governments in itself, Pg. 16.129); in Paradise, 21, 133-34, modern pastors, who cover their palfreys with their cloaks are contrasted to Peter and Paul. Historically, when the elected pope accepted the office a scarlet cloak was thrown over him by the archdeacon of the Roman church (Walter Ullman, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages [London: Methuen, 1972], 230). The symbolism of the mantle no doubt underlies a remark reported to the French assembly by Guillaume de Plaisians after a public attack on Boniface, purportedly by King Philip, that he would have preferred to cover his "father" (Boniface) with his own cloak to save the honor of the church (Dupuy, Histoire du DifferendX 107, Riviere, Le Probleme, 113).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 14
When Boniface was captured by Philip's men and there seemed no way to escape, the pope, feeling himself betrayed like Christ, according to Giovanni Villani Istorie Fiorentine [Milan: Societa Tipografica, 1802], 8.63, determined at least to die like a pope: wrapping himself in the mantle of Saint Peter, with the crown of Constantine on his head, and the keys and cross in his hand, he sat on the papal throne. It is perhaps not surprising that the Italian Villani grants him some dignity at the end, while the French reports emphasize his rage, claiming that he died of a "flux de ventre," "une frenesie" (Dupuy, Histoire du Differend, 191, 199).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 15
Though Boniface is the focus of attention, there are various other churchmen in Hell who took part in political intrigues: Nicholas against Charles of Anjou, which culminated in the Sicilian Vespers, alluded to in 19.98-99; Frate Gomita, a Sardinian friar who sold public offices and took bribes, 22.81 ff.; two Frati Gaudenti among the hypocrites, who served together as podest3 in Florence ostensibly to keep the peace, but in fact to allow the pope to maneuver in favor of the Guelphs and expel the Ghibellines, 23.103 If.. Like Guido da Montefeltro, these friars allow themselves to be used by a pope, and Dante holds them responsible for their actions. In the lowest circle of Hell, Dante sees Tesauro dei Beccheria (32.119-23), an abbot and papal legate, executed by Florence in 1258 on a charge of conspiring with the Ghibellines, and Archbishop Ruggieri, canto 33, leader of the Pisan Ghibellines, who intrigued with secular leaders encouraging them against each other then turning the people against all of them in order to gain full control, even betraying the members of his own party. Ruggieri is the nephew of Cardinal Ottaviano, the heretic who boasted of losing his soul for his party, canto 10; Ruggieri's father, on the other hand, the layman Ubaldino della Pila, is in Purgatory, canto 24. Also in the bottom of Hell is Frate Alberigo, another of the Frati Gaudenti, who had two of his relatives killed in revenge for an unsuccessful attempt to wrest political power from him (33.118 If.).. Even in Paradise, there is a striking allusion to a Guelph bishop of Feltro who betrayed, out of parq loyalty, the Ghibellines who had taken refuge with him, and thus caused their deaths (Pr. 9.52-60). In each case, the churchman's involvement in secular politics is so strong that he chooses to damn himself for political necessity

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 16
Cf. Jacopo, 1.272-73. Marsilius interprets the statue in Daniel's dream as the pope and the papal curia (Defensor Pacis, 2.24.17).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 17
See J. A. Scott, "Imagery in Paradiso XXVII," Italian Studies 25 (1970), 2728. Ulysses will also be discussed in chapters three and six.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 18
ln Hell, the rock of the Malebolge is partially inhabited by popes who perverted the church on earth by abusing its functions and are now upside down in baptismal fonts, representing the sacraments they misused. See J. A. Scott, "The Rock of Peter and Inferno XIX," Romance Philology 23 (1970), 464.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 19
Martin IV is pointed out among the gluttons, but does not come forward or speak.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 20
In Paradise 12.106-08, the two wheels of the church's chariot are identified with Francis and Dominic, suggesting that the contemporary church must be based on the reform orders rather than on the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 21
Richard Kay, "Dante's Razor and Gratian's D.XV," Dante Studies 99 (1979), 6596, also suggests that the giant is the pope, but that the whore is the heresy of plenitudo potestatis.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 22
Dante and Beatrice lack the historical authority of the saints, but they are presented in the Comedy as the chosen messengers of God and Mary, so their attacks on corrupt churchmen also have divine sanction. Beatrice, in the highest realms of heaven, complains about the abuse of Scripture by those who preach to show off and to enrich themselves (Pr. 29) and about the pope's betrayal of an emperor (Pr 30). Dante's blast, evoked by the sight of the eagle, symbol of divine justice, attacks the buying and selling in the temple (Pr. 18.121 ff.) and the selfserving use of excommunications; he ends with the fiercely sarcastic reply of the pope, who makes flippant references to John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul, affirming his devotion to John (whose image is on the florin).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 23
There is a good reason for Dante's connecting the pope and the mendicant friars, who depended directly on the pope and therefore usually defended his supreme authority, as Brian Tierney points out (Origins of Papal infallibility, 1150-1350 [Leiden: Brill, 1972] 58-59, 83. Bonaventure supports the idea of Christ's authority residing entirely in the pope rather than in the successors of the other apostles, the bishops, which makes his attack on the papacy in Dante's poem particularly effective.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 24
The papacy was actually vacant from 1314-1316, which may be a subtext to this passage. Peter, drawing on his knowledge of the future, makes reference to both Clement V and John XXII, and decries the corruption of current popes who use the church to amass wealth and fight other Christians.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 25
See the introduction for a general discussion of the controversy. l will also cite the Quaestio de utraque potestate, ed. Melchior Goldast, in Monarchiae Sancti Romani Imperii (Frankfurt: Biermann, 1614), 2.96-107. Riviere Le Probleme, and Ugo Mariani Chiesa e stato nei teologi Agostiniani del secolo 14 (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1957) discuss the major works in the controversy. Some of the imagery used in the debates and by Dante in the Comedy, e.g., wolves in shepherd's clothing, is also found in anticlerical satire from which resonances it derives even greater force.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 26
Charles T. Davis, Dante and the Idea of Rome (Oxford: Clarendon, 1957), points out the similariq between Dante's views on the Donation and those of Remigio dei Girolami in Contra falsos ecclesiae professores, 84-85. Remigio reported that at the time of the Donation, a voice from heaven was heard saying: "today poison was poured into the church of God;" cf. the voice heard in Pg. 32.129.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 27
Constantine moved the empire from Rome to Constantinople. It was moved back to the West, that is, a western claim to the empire was made under Charlemagne; the papacy claimed that it had "translated" the empire as a proof of its authority over it. John of Paris, De potestate regia et papali, 15.9, and Dante, Monarchy, 3.11, point out that the church called on Charlemagne to defend it, and in so doing recognized the transfer of the empire, which had been accomplished by the emperor. Dante also points out that one might as well say that the authority of the church depended on the emperor from the day Otto deposed Benedict and put Leo back on the throne.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 28
We are told that Christ led Abel, Noah, Moses, and Abraham out of Hell (Hell, 4.56-58), but Melchisedech is only mentioned as a name synonymous with the priesthood (Pr. 8.125). Neither John of Paris, nor Dante (in the Monarchy) mentions Melchisedech, probably for the same reasons that Giles makes much of him, because he was both king and priest, that is, he wielded both swords, as Giles points out (De ecclesiastica potestate, 1.5,6,7 and 3.1).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 29
Bernard also uses the word "forsitan," "perhaps," which Boniface and Giles drop when they cite the passage (Mariani, Chiesa e stato, 150). For a thorough study of the early history of the two swords, see Gerard E. Caspary, Politzs and Exegesis: Origen and the Two Swords (Berkeley: University of California, 1979). For further references, see Muldoon, "Boniface VIII's Ford Years," 451 and fn. 10.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 30
Antonio de Angelis, 11 concetto d 7mpenum e la comunitd soprannazionale in Dante (Milan: Giuffre, 1965), 187. The sword carried by the Apostle Paul in the procession of the books of the Bible signifies the word of God, a spiritual sword, like Beatrice's words, which strike Dante like a sword (Pg. 31. 2-3 and 30.57).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 31
Boniface's Allegacio was delivered before imperial legates and a multitude of curiali, according to Michele Maccarrone, "11 terzo libro della Monarchia," Studi danteschi 33 (1955), 33, and was a well-known document in Dante's time. Innocent 111 (and others before him, see Muldoon, "Boniface VIII's Forty Years," 475) had used the image of the two luminaries: as God made the sun to dominate the day, and the moon the night, so he made the greater rule, the church, to preside over the days of souls, and the lesser, the monarchy, to preside over the nights of bodies, Szut universitatis coeditor, 1198.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 32
Codex 1.3, cited by Gennaro Maria Monti, Cino da Pistoia Giurista (Citta di Castello: 11 Solco, 1924), 200.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 33
Cf. Monarchy 1.13. The universal monarch is in the best possible condition for governing because he surpasses all others in the power of his judgment and ustice.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 34
The keys can also be used to modify vows (Pr. 5.55-57), depending on the sincerity of the vower's intention, which means they should always aid the soul who wants to be saved. When the angel in Purgatory opens the gate for Dante, the sound reminds him of the forced opening of the temple of Saturn, which contained the Roman treasury, a suggestion both that he fears he may be unworthy and that the real treasure of the church is to be found with these keys. It also suggests yet another connection between the empire and God's realm.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 35
The position of the simoniac popes is significant not just because it turns them upside down, as they perverted their roles in dispensing the sacraments, but also because it exposes only their feet. Dante may well be playing on the custom of kissing the pope's feet as a symbol of his supremacy; the pope as universal bishop alone could demand that princes kiss his feet as part of the coronation ritual (Ullmann, Short History, 152). A famous Lateran mosaic depicted Emperor Lothar kneeling at the pope's feet (Tierney, Crisis, 99). Cardinals also kissed the feet of the elected pope. Giles, in the dedication of De ecclesiastica potestate to Boniface, offers himself as a humble creature in all submission to kiss the blessed feet, "cum omni subieccione seipsum ad pedum oscula beatorum," and later says that all should do so, 1.2. Dante also plays on the imperial footwear, the zanca, worn by popes. See Ernest N. Kaulbach, "Inferno XIX, 45: The 'Zanca' of Temporal Power," Dante Studies 86 (1968), 127-36, and Scott, "Inferno XIX," who notes that zanca is also used of Lucifer in 34.79, another pope-devil connection, 463-64, fn. 5.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 36
Pier also punned on the other part of his name, Vigna. For a discussion of the language of the imperial court, see William A. Stephany, "Pier della Vigna's Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: the "Eulogy" of Frederick 11 and Inferno 13," Traditio 38 (1982), 193-212. From Dante's references to Caesar and Augustus, Hell 13.65 and 68, we know he was aware of Frederick's affectations of ancient Roman usage.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 37
It is Saint Peter who questions Dante on his faith in Paradise. And it is certainly not coincidental that Frederick's mother, Constance, whom Dante sees in Paradise, lacked "constancy" in her vows; she is called the mother of the third "wind of Swabia," suggesting a parody of the Holy Spirit and the Triniq, which makes little sense in the context of Paradise 3, but much more in the light of Hell 10 and 13.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 38
The Ottimo mentions that Pier wrote a letter at the pope's instance revealing the emperor's secrets to the Church of Rome; in other words, that he conspired with the pope against the empire, a notion not found in the Comedy, so it is either based on a contemporary rumor or perhaps on the power of suggestion in the name. It is interesting that Jacopo connects Cecina and Corneto, mentioned at the beginning of the canto (Hell, 13.9), with the patrimony of Saint Peter, 1.2S2. For further discussion of the political implications of Pier's service to Frederick 11, see chapter three.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 39
See Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King's TVJO Bodies (Princeton: Princeton University, 1957), 196, on the use of the mystical body in a sociological sense, which he says is relatively new with Boniface. For Thomas Aquinas, the head of the corpus Ecclesiae mysticum was Christ (ST, 3, q.8, and Kantorowicz, op. cit., 203). John of Salisbury, in his comparison of the state to a body, makes the prince the head, churchmen the soul, Poliraticus, S.2.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 40
See Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969),139 ff. The wagons are mentioned frequently by Villani Istorie Fiorentine, see particularly 6.20, 43, 76. They were usually drawn by oxen. Cf. Dante's letter to the cardinals in which he says he is concerned with the oxen who draw the ark, not the ark itself, Ep. 8.5.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 41
The play on arca as "ark" and "coffer" echoes a medieval Latin poem that makes a series of similar puns, all suggesting the corruption of the church: "Nummus est pro numine/et pro Marco marca,/et est minus celebris/ara quam sit arca." ("Money stands for the divinity/and the mark for Mark,/and less celebrated/is the altar than the ark.") (Utar contra vitia).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 42
The voice may be either God's or Peter's: the Ottimo gives God, saying that the church is the boat of God under Peter's guidance, 2.573-74; but since the boat which represents the church is also called Peter's boat, "barca di Pietro" (Pr. 11.119-20), the voice might be Peter's.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 43
The rose, the assembly of all the faithful in heaven, is described as the "holy army which Christ married with his blood" (Pr. 31.1-3). Rahab, the good whore, is also a figure for the church, because she helped Joshua, a Christ figure, to take the Holy Land, in contrast to modern popes who forget the crusades and the mission to spread the faith (see Pr. 9.124-26, 15.142-44). Bernard, De considerations, had also reminded the pope of his responsibiliq to convert unbelievers, 3.3.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 44
See Maccarrone, "11 terzo libro," 130 ff., on father-son imagery.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 45
I am not including biological ancestors, like Adam and Cacciaguida, who are naturally spoken of as "father."

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 46
To distinguish the good shepherd, Francis, Dante uses the Greek word "archimandrita," "abbot," which probably involves a pun on "mandra," "flock" (Pr. 11.99, cf. Pg. 3.86). Uguccione, Magnae Derivationes, defines it as "head of the fold," cited by Singleton, Commentary on Paradise, 203. One wonders if the importance of the wool trade to Tuscany, and the fact that monasteries in England raised sheep and sold the wool to Italian merchants, did not add some piquancy to all the talk of shepherds' corruption for Dante and his audience.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 47
Scipio's name also appeared in connection with the chariot of the church, Pg. 29.116, which had once been more splendid than the Roman leader's, but had turned into a monster since it was covered with secular power and wealth.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 48
For a comprehensive survey, see the Enciclopedia Dantesca (Rome: Istituto, 1970-78) entries under veltro and cinquecento dieci e cinque; recent discussions that offer much information and very sensible readings are Charles T. Davis, "Dante's Vision of History," Dante Studies 93 (1975), and Robert Hollander, Allegory in Dante's "Commedia" (Princeton: Princeton University, 1969), particularly 181-91. Both Davis and Hollander associate the veltro with the DXV and suggest that Dante is prophesying a temporal leader, another Augustus, who may be sent to prepare the way for the second coming, but will not himself be a religious leader. Davis, 152: "It is natural to suppose that the heir of the Eagle and of Scipio will be Roman": in "Poverty and Eschatology in the Commedia," Yearbook of Italian Studies 4 (1980), 59-86, Davis points out that the Hohenstaufen themselves used the imagery of the eagle's heir, that Frederick's son, Conrad, was called "son of the Eagle, heir of the Emperor," 71. Cf. Floro di Zenzo, 11 Sistema morale e politico nella Divina Commedia (Florence: Kursaal, 1965), 7: the veltro is a Roman emperor, corresponding exactly to the sovereign described in the Monarchy. The veltro prophecy was still alive and being applied by Italians to the emperor in 1355, see later in this chapter and fn. 68. For striking examples of the importance of prophecy in the political life of this period, see Villani, Istorie Fiorentine, particularly 6.81, 7.31,9.3,9.46.

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Cf. Benvenuto, 4.273: "that wise, just greyhound . . . will kill the whore, that is, the great whore, that is, the prelacy of the pastors of the church, whose wife is the wolf, for avarice flourishes in them." Davis, "Dante's Vision," 149, cites Dante's letter to the Italian cardinals, in which he says each of the clergy "has taken avarice to wife," Ep. 8.7.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 50
For Pietro's later views, see Charles T. Davis' article on the veltro, Enciclopedia Dantesca, 5.909. On Dante and the Last World Emperor, see Marjorie Reeves, "Dante and the Prophetic View of History," The World of Dante, ed. Cecil Grayson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980), S7, and Davis, "Dante's Vision," ISS.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 51
Benvenuto on the DXV, "messenger of God," says "hic est ille veltrus," "this is the greyhound," 4.273. Hollander, Allegory in Dante's "Commedia," 184, notes the numerical symmetry of the two prophecies, Virgil's coming 101 lines after the beginning of Hell, Beatrice's 102 lines before the end of Purgatory.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 52
It seems unlikely that Dante means Boniface in the figure of the giant, as the Ottimo suggests in his comments on Purgatory 32 (2.576-77), since Boniface was already dead when Dante wrote the poem and he had certainly not been killed by a great reformer, nor had the curia been cleansed. The Ottimo, incidentally, does not repeat that identification when he discusses this passage.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 53
J. B. Fletcher, "The Crux of Dante's Comedy," in Essays in Memory of Barrett Wendell (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University, 1965), identifies Can Grande with the veltro, 74-84; Hollander, Allegory in Dante's "Commedia," 18788, suggests both Can Grande and Christ; Erich Auerbach, Dante, Poet of the Secular World trans. Ralph Manheim (1929; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961), 129, Can Grande and the Great Kahn, or the Phoenix. For others who posit Can Grande, see Davis, veltro, Enciclopedia Dantesca, 5. 908-912.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 54
Ludwig had his German coronation and his victory at Morgarten in 1315, R. Davidsohn, "11 cinquecento dieci e cinque del Purgatorio," Bullettino della Societd Dantesca Italiana 9 (1902), 129-31. Hollander makes a rather attractive point about the numbers: in IsiDoré's Etymologiae, Julius Caesar, the first emperor, is said to have been five years old in the 515Sth year from the creation, in other words, he was born in the year 5150. Thus 515 would be the number of the first emperor, and fittingly of his (final?) successor. Kay, "Dante's Razor," suggests that DXV refers to Distinction 15 in Gratian and makes an interesting case based on Dante's frequent opposition to the authority of the decretals. There may well be some truth to this argument, but it cannot be the sole explanation, since the DXV must also be a human leader, if he is heir to the eagle. Robert Kaske, "Dante's DXV and Veltro," Traditio 17 (1961), 185-254, makes a strong case for Christ on the basis of the manuscript monogram of Vere dignum: more recently, in "Dante's Purgatorio XXXII and XXXIII: A Survey of Christian History," University of Toronto Quarterly 43 (1974), 193214, he adds to his arguments for the second coming as the solution of Dante's prophecy.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 55
C. H. Grandgent, ed., La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri (Boston: Heath, 1933), 635-37, refers to commentators on Revelation who spelled out the number of the beast, 666, in Roman numberals, DCLXVI, an anagram for DIC LUX, Lucifer, who claims to be the light. Those six letters also suggest an anagram for Ludwig's name, Ludovicus, which often appears as LVDOVIC. Cacciaguida dates his own birth, the beginning of Dante's family, from the Annunciation by the numbers S00, S0, 30 (D, L, XXX), combining the imperial number 5, with the divine number 3, and implicitly connecting Dante with the leader to come, of whom he is the herald (as John the Baptist was to Christ). Five is associated with good rulers in Paradise: Solomon is the fifth light of his circle (Pr. 10.109 and 13.48) and there are five lights in the eagle's brow (20.69).

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 56
Francesco Mazzoni's view, that the last chapter of the Monarchy reflects the recent problems over the election of Ludwig of Bavaria, with the injunction that imperial electors should think of themselves as instruments of divine providence ("Teoresi e prassi in Dante politico," in Dante Alighieri, Monarchia, Epistole politiche [Turin: ERI, 1966], Ixiv), lends some weight to this hypothesis, since it means that even in the Monarchy, Dante is looking to someone beyond Henry, and Ludwig is the most likely candidate on the scene.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 57
A description of Ludwig's mother as regent, ruling wisely and governing virilely after the death of her husband, echoes what was said of the earlier Countess Matelda (see below, chapter four: "Domina Mechthildis ... post mortem mariti sui‹Dominium terrae sapienter regnans et viriliter gubernans," Monumenta Dissensia, cited by Joseph Schlett, Biographie von Kaiser Ludwig dem Baier (Sulzbach: Seidel, 1822), 12.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 58
On Dante and evangelical poverty, see Antoon Ariaens, "Dante e la Chiesa," in Miscellanea Dantesca (Utrecht: Spectrum 1965), 89-102- Raoul Manselli, "Dante e l'Ecclesia Spiritualis," Dante e Roma, Atti del Convegno di Studi (Florence: Le Monnier, 1965), 115-35; Holmes, "Dante and the Popes"; Scott, "Inferno XIX" Davis, "Poverty and Eschatology," and Dante and the Idea of Rome (214-27) for connections with Ubertino da Casale. In "Imagery in Paradiso XXVII," Scott calls the canto "an absolute condemnation of papal policy, which is based on greed and opposition to the emperor, Christ's temporal vicar on earth," 29.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 59
We know that Gregory the Great is also in Paradise, not because Dante sees him, but because he tells us that Gregory was wrong about the order of angels and smiled at his mistake when he opened his eyes in the Primo Mobile (Pr. 28.133-35). Even on angelic hierarchy, Dante will not allow a pope to be right.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 60
See Ernst Kantorowicz, Frederick the Second trans. E. O. Lorimer (1931; reprint, New York: Ungar, 1957) for a comprehensive study of the emperor. In the Convivio, Dante calls Frederick the last emperor of the Romans ("ultimo imperaDoré de li Romani"), 4.3.6.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 61
The passage is worth citing since it deals with the problem of the two powers: "'one has put the other out,' that is, the pope the emperor, and the emperor the pope, as was evident in Frederick 11 who tyrannically usurped all spiritual things, and Gregory IX, who occupied Frederick's kingdom when he was absent.... It can also be understood especially of Boniface, who girded on his own sword, as was shown above in chapter 6. Therefore he says: 'and he joined the sword,' that is, temporal power, 'with the staff,' that is, with spiritual power, which is represented by the pastoral staff. The poet sees this same thing a little later in Clement V against Henry VI [sic], when the authority of the Gospel testifies that two swords are employed by the Christian empire." Walter Ullmann, Medieval Papalism (London: Methuen, 1949), 185, notes that Frederick went further than Innocent in condemning even the suspicion of heresy and in punishing the failure of secular authorities to execute ecclesiastical sentences on heretics. Dante may also have been influenced in his judgment of Frederick by the fact that Frederick allowed his court to be described as an imperial church, "ecclesia imperialis," and himself as a kind of messiah (see Stephany, "Pier della Vigna's Prophecies"). Jacopo (1.219 ff.) tells some interesting anecdotes about Frederick's relations with the church: trying to curb the "mal reggimento" of the "mali pastori," the emperor asked the church to grant him more than one wife and when the cardinals answered with scriptural arguments against it, he pointed out how many wives (churches) they had; on another occasion, the pope, plotting against Frederick, wrote to the Sultan to take advantage of the rebellion of Sicily and Puglia which the pope had fomented, but the Sultan instead told the emperor.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 62
Hadrian, is presented as a figure of greed corrected, Martin as gluttony being purged, Peter of Spain as a scholar, none as a model pope. Gregory is mentioned in both Purgatory and Paradise, but not seen, whereas Trajan, in connection with whom Gregory is mentioned in Pg. 10.75-76, is seen both as a sculpted figure and as a soul in the eye of the eagle (Pr. 20).

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This passage may owe something to Christ's words in Matt. 7:21-23: "Non omni qui dicit mihi: Domine, Domine, inhabit in regnum caelorum...." "Not everyone that sayeth to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven...." On Ripheus's status in the Comedy, see above, chapter one, fn. 16.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 64
pg. 16.94-97; cf. Convivio, 4.9.10: "One can almost say of the emperor, wishing to describe his office with an image, that he is the rider of the human will. It is quite clear that that horse goes through the fields without its rider, and especially in poor Italy, which remains without any means for its governing"; in the Monarchy, Dante says that human cupidity must be controlled, that men would wander like horses if they were not held back "in camo et freno," "by bit and bridle," 3.16. One wonders if Dante has other passages from the controversy in mind, e.g. Giles, De ecclesiastica potestate, 2.6: there are four kinds of power, the lower always serving the higher; the art of making a bridle is not so high as that of using it; the horse is matter on which the knight acts, matter disposed for his action by a bridle; earthly power is to prepare matter so that the ecclesiastical is not impeded in dealing with spiritual things. John of Paris (De potestate regia et papali, 19.32), in a discussion of control over the end and the means by which the end is attained, points out that to say man is master of all horses, and therefore of all bridles, does not follow.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 65
See Riviere, Le Probleme, appendix 6, "Vicarius Dei," 435 ff., and Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 66
See Nevio Matteini, 11 piu antico oppositore politico di Dante: Guido Vernani da Rimini, Testo critico del "De reprobatione Monarchiae" (Padua CEDAM, 1958), 93: Habet enim mendax et perniciosi pater mendacii sua vasa que, in exterioribus honestatis et veritatis figuris fallacibus et fucatis coloribus adornata, venenum continent ... Inter alia vero talia sua vasa quidam fuit multa fantastice poetizans et sophista verbosus, verbis exterioribus in eloquentia multis gratus, qui suis poeticis fantasmatibus et figmentis ... non solum egros animos, sed etiam studiosos dulcibus sirenarum cantibus conducit fraudulenter ad interitum salutifere veritatis.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 67
See Michele Maccarrone, "Dante e i teologi del XIV-XV secolo," Studi romani S (1957), 20-28, on Guido; on Jacopo, Elisabetta Cavallari, La fortuna di Dante nel trecento (Florence: Perrella, 1921), 44.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 68
See Cavallari, La fortuna di Dante, 48, who cites the sonnet by Menghino Mezzani attacking the emperor they all thought would be "quel veltro a dar salute a Italia umile/che terra o poltro non dovea cibarlo," "that greyhound to bring salvation to humble Italy, whom earth or dust would not feed," words drawn from the Comedy, Hell 1.101-06.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 69
Carlo Dionisotti, "Dante nel Quattrocento," Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi Danteschi (Florence: Sansoni, 1965), 1.335..

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 70
For Dante's influence on imperial propaganda, see Richard Scholz, Unbekannte Kirchenpolitische Streitschriften aus der Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern (Rome: Loescher, 1911), 254-56. Antonino, bishop of Florence, said Dante's error was spread by William of Ockham, see Cavallari, La fortuna di Dante, 4243.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 71
In the Vita di Dante, chapter 26, ed. Bruno Cagli (Rome: Avanzini e Torraca, 1965), 103-04. The same story is told by the jurist Bartolo del Sassoferrato, see Maccarrone, "Dante e i teologi," 20, Matteini, Guido Verrani, 32, and Bruno Nardi "La fortuna della Monarchia," Nel mondo di Dante (Rome: Istituto grafico Tiberino,1944), 164, where Nardi notes that Bartolo cites arguments from the Monarchy against the bull Pastoralis cura. The use of the Monarchy by jurists commenting on the Justinian Code is also attested by Cavallari, La fortuna di Dante, 67.

The Political Vision of the Comedy, ch. 02: 72
See Aldo Vallone "11 pensiero politico di Dante dinanzi ad A. Trionfi e a G. Vernani da Rimini," Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Danteschi (Ravenna: Longo, 1971),173-201, particularly 191 and 194. Vallone, 187, cites one of the texts given by R. Scholz (Unbekannte Streitschriften, 2.113-14), which attacks the idea of God's two vicars, pope and emperor, as heretical, saying "this heretical error seduced many."

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Nardi, "La Fortuna," 174-91, particularly 182.