The Divine Comedy Part - 2Who was Dante and what was doing on in his world?
For weeks now I have been on the road, travelling with my companions, Dante and Virgil, on a journey that took us first into the very depth of Hell, after which we climbed the mountain of Purgatory. At its summit and unable to travel further, (because he predates the Christian era), Virgil was replaced by Beatrice, a girl whom Dante had loved, but not married, since first setting eyes on her when he was twelve and she was nine. From here we travelled through the heavens, stopping off at the Moon, Mercury, Venus and the Sun, before heading on to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn and passing on through the Fixed Stars and Primum Mobile before arriving at Empyrean, the place where God dwells. And no less remarkable was the fact, that at every stage in this journey, we were travelling through parallel worlds: the spiritual landscape of the soul and of life here on earth: as it is to be found in the Bible, in ancient classical literature, the Church and politics, as well as in the broader complexities, both noble and ignoble, of everyday life.
Of course, and as the title makes clear, I have been reading The Divine Comedy, a vast work of Italian literature, that was composed by Dante Alighieri, (otherwise known as Dante). Begun around 1308 and completed shortly before his death in 1321; and not withstanding the reputations of Chaucer, Shakespeare and other great men of letters, The Divine Comedy is generally regarded, as one of, if not the greatest, work of literature, ever. But, a note of caution.
The Divine Comedy is not something that we can just read. If we are to come anywhere close to developing a sense of the poem's potential, it has to be studied: to be seen in context, (the age in which it was written), and that means trying to acquire some knowledge of the people and places that we encounter along the way, to say nothing of the very considerable resources, (both lay and religious), that Dante drew on, in developing his allegory. But don't let that discourage you, and here's why.
"Although Dante's answers may not be our answers, issues raised in the Purgatorio (Purgatory) [the middle section of the poem], remain significant in the world today; justice, (punishment and rehabilitation), political oppression and war, love and sexuality, church-state relations, pride and fame, art and censorship, free will, individual responsibility, and leadership, to name a few......"
This quotation is taken from Danteworlds, a commentary on the poem by Guy P Raffa, that I used, along with others. As such, it goes well beyond the literal, and so, besides providing quick points of reference, it offers the reader the opportunity to dig deeper, should they feel the need.
Now apart from the reasons given by Raffa, as to why we might want to study The Divine Comedy, to say nothing of its literary merit, I had another reason for being interested. For me, (and without intending any morbidity whatever), every day is a preparation for death, and in that context, I was, in some respects, confronting my past. But in telling you this, I must tell you also, that I accept, without qualification, that The Divine Comedy does not represent, "revealed truth." Instead, it is a work of fiction, that for Dante, was rooted in things personal, and that, in the final analysis, for him represented the return of the soul to God.
And how could it have been other than a work of fiction, when Dante, who has been busy assigning souls to Hell, to Purgatory and to Paradise, (including some of his contemporaries), cautions us against presuming to know who is saved and who is damned.
In Paradise, (in Jupiter), we are made aware of the presence of souls from the pre-Christian era, men such as the Roman Emperor Trajan, and Ripheus, who lived a thousand years before Christ. Through their practice of virtue, Dante has placed them among the "Just Rulers", and asserted that Ripheus was Baptized in Christ. It is a complex passage, that deals with the vexed question of predestination; in which Dante, in support of his point of view, draws on no less an authority than that of Thomas Aquinas. And having made his case on behalf of those, born before the time of Christ, who were redeemed, Dante, in this tercet, is reminding us of a truth that applies as much to himself, as to the rest of us:
"And you, mortals, hold yourselves back
From giving judgement's; for we, who see God,
Do not yet know who all the elect are;"
(Paradise.XX: (20) 133-35)
And almost by way of an aside, (and again taken from Raffa), is this, a small detail in support of The Divine Comedy, that is as profound as it is ironic It is to the effect that the celebrated nineteenth century Italian poet, Giouse Carducci, expressed surprise, that no-one among his fellow countrymen, had got around to erecting a marble statue to Cante de Gabrielli, in one of their piazzas. Why? Because it was Cante, who, on a contrived charge of corruption, had Dante, (in his absence), exiled from Florence, with the proviso that were he ever caught within the city, he would be burned at the stake. An unjust act, the consequences of which, not even Dante could have foreseen: The Divine Comedy; his masterpiece, and hard won triumph over adversity.
And all this came about at a time when Italy was an amalgam of provinces and city-states, with the events that led to Dante's banishment, just another chapter, in the long struggle for political power and supremacy, that involved, not just the obvious civil powers, but the papacy; and in particular that of Pope Boniface VIII, whom Dante held personally responsible for his own misfortune and that of Florence. Hence, and by a literary slight of hand worthy of Boniface himself, Dante, having set the Comedy in the period of Easter 1300, (when Boniface was still alive), foretells his arrival in Hell and, of a like fate for his successor, Pope Clement V.
When Dante stops in Hell to converse with Pope Nicholas III, a simonist, (who is upside down in a hole with his feet on fire), Nicholas mistakenly thinks that Dante is Boniface. As for Pope Clement V, originally from Bordeaux, it was he who moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. And each new arrival, we are told, will push those already there and upside-down, deeper into the hole:-
Then we came to the fourth embankment;
Turned and went down along the left side
To the narrow, perforated strip at the bottom
The benign master [Virgil] did not set me down
From his side, until we had reached the opening
Of the one who waved his legs so much in torment.
"Whoever you may be, unhappy spirit,
Who, upside-down are stuck in like a stake"
I began, "say something if you can."
I stood there like the friar who confesses
The treacherous killer who, fixed in position,
Calls him back so that death may be delayed.
And he cried: "Are you standing there already?
Boniface, are you already standing there?
My information was out by several years.
Are you so sated with your wealth
For the sake of which you shamefully and deceitfully
Took the beautiful lady [the Church] and made havoc of her?"
(Hell. Canto XIX: (19) 40-57)
__________
And in respect of Pope Clement V, this, from the upside-down Nicholas:
Because after him will come from towards the west [France]
From uglier malefactions, a lawless shepherd
Who will be fit to cover both of us.
(Hell. Canto XIX: (19) 82-84)
__________
So, who then was Dante, and what was going on in his life?Cacciaguida
In Paradiso, (Paradise) Cantos XV-XVIII (15-18), we are introduced to Dante's great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida, he is in Mars, that region of Paradise reserved for Holy Warriors. From him we learn, among other things, that the family name Alighieri came from his wife, that he was baptized at the baptistery in Florence, and that he fought and was killed in the ill fated, Second Crusade, under Emperor Conrad III; and given the other details that Cacciaguida provides, this takes Dante's known ancestry back to somewhere between 1091 and 1100. But Dante has another use for him also, for Cacciaguida foretells Dante's fate:
"Contingency which does not stretch beyond
The limits of your material world,
Is all set out before the sight of God:
But does not on that account become necessity
Any more than a ship which is drifting downstream
Drifts as it does because a man sees it.
From God there comes into sight for me,
As sweet organ music comes to the ear,
The time which is in preparation for you.
As Hippolytus was driven out of Athens
By his implacable and perfidious stepmother,
So it will be with you, who must leave Florence.
This is willed and is already plotted,
And soon will be brought about by him who devises it
In the place where Christ is bought and sold every day. [Rome]
It will as usual be the injured party
Which gets the blame; but when vengeance comes
It will bear witness to the truth which orders it.
You will leave everything you love most dearly;
This is the arrow which is loosed first
From the bow of exile.
You will learn how salt is the taste
Of other people's bread, how hard the way
Going up and down other peoples stairs."
(Paradise. Canto XVII: (17) 37-60)
________
This final tercet is especially poignant, foretelling as it does, how Dante, an exile and having no home of his own, will be dependent on the good will and patronage of others, an experience that will be tinged with bitterness, "salt", and lonely, in the context of other people's "stairs". By contrast, the opening tercet reminds us that while God sees all, there is nothing inevitable about what happens to us; that in general, and in the context of free will, what happens is determined by the choices we make. And in the allusion to Pope Boniface VIII, "in the place where Christ is bought and sold every day," clearly, he will be held accountable for his actions. And though in the first instance, Dante might get the blame, in the end, (justice), will prevail.
Beatrice
But without doubt, the most significant thing in the unfolding of The Divine Comedy was, that Dante, at the age of twelve fell in love with Beatrice who was nine; a truth borne out when Beatrice takes the place of Virgil in Purgatory and accompanies Dante through the regions of Paradise, at one point chastising him, while at others, prompting and guiding him, and appearing ever more beautiful as they progress toward the Empyrean: to the presence of God.
About 1285 Dante married Gemma di Manetto Donati. As was the custom, he had been promised to her at the age of 12 and though they went on to have four children, it was Beatrice who became pivotal to his poetry. So distraught was he at Beatrice's death in 1290, that Dante threw himself into the study of Latin literature, as well as the writings of St. Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Franciscan and Dominican monks respectively). In all of this, Beatrice was the driving force; and as his love for her was spiritual, it is suggested, that what he was doing in Italian poetry was developing the concept of courtly love; an idealized view of love, personified in Beatrice; an idea that already existed in France and Provance, and that would later find its way into Elizabethan English literature.
In The Divine Comedy, we are first made aware of Beatrice in "Dark Wood," (Hell. Canto II (2)) but not before we have made the acquaintance of Dante, who, "Half way along the road we have to go," [of life] is "Bewildered," "lost," and vulnerable, to the wild beasts that he is encountering along the way. Seeing Virgil, though he does not yet know who or what he is: (human or a shade), Dante cries out "Have pity on me..." And it is at this point and from Virgil that we learn of the journey that Dante will have to make to be saved:
The course I think would be the best for you,
Is to follow me, and I will act as your guide,
And show a way out of here, by a place in eternity,
Where you will hear the shrieks of men without hope
And will see the ancient spirits in such pain
That every one of them calls out for a second death;
And then you will see those who, though in the fire, [Purgatory]
Are happy because they hope that they will come,
Whenever it may be to join the blessed;
Among whom you may climb [towards Heaven] but if you do,
It will be with a spirit more worthy than I am;
With her I will leave you, when I depart:
[Hell, Canto 1:112-123}
But fearing that he might not be up to the task, (Inferno, Canto 2), Dante seeks reassurance from Virgil, who, recognizing that his spirit is "touched by cowardice," tells him, that he has been sent by Beatrice.
Fearing that Dante might be lost forever, Beatrice comes to Virgil in Limbo and not above the use of flattery, compliments him on his earthly renown as a poet, after which, and appealing to his patriotic spirit, she reminds him that besides being fellow poets they are both Italian. And continuing in the same vein, and perhaps with a degree of humour, Dante let's it be known that it is not just one woman in Heaven who is worried about him, but three: the Virgin Mary, (though she is alluded to rather than named), who summoning St. Lucy, had sent her to Beatrice, and who, when she confronted her, was in chastising mood:
She said: "Beatrice, you who are a glory of God,
Why do you not help him who loved you so greatly
That for your sake he left the common crowd?
Do you not hear his pitiful complaint?
Do you not see the death he is struggling with
By that river over which the sea is powerless?"
(Hell, Canto II: [2] 103-108).
__________
Brunetto Latini
Now in developing an understanding of who Dante was, and what was going on in his world, we cannot overlook the influence of Brunetto Latini. He is in Hell, among the sodomites, but when Dante meets him, his response is not judgemental, but one of fellow feeling, compassion and a willingness to acknowledge the debt of gratitude that is owing to his former guardian, and mentor:
When we encountered a troop of spirits
Who came along the bank, and each one of them
Looked at us, just as one might do at nightfall,
Looking at someone under a new moon;
And narrowed their eyes, which were turned in our direction,
As an old tailor does, threading a needle.
Eyed in this way by this company,
I was recognized by one of them, who seized me
By the edge of my cloak, and cried: "How marvellous!"
And, when he stretched out his arms to me,
I fixed my eyes upon his scorched appearance
So that his burnt face should not prevent
The recognition of him by my intellect;
And, bending my face towards his,
I answered him; "Are you here, ser Brunetto?"
And he: "O my dear son, be not displeased,
If Brunetto Latini comes back with you
A little way, and lets the file [other shades] go on."
I said to him: "With all my heart, I beg you;
And if you want me to sit down with you,
I will, if he who goes with me [Virgil] is content."
"O my dear son," he said, "if one of this troop
Stops for a moment, he lies for a hundred years
Without protection from the fire that strikes him.
So go on: and I will follow below you;
Then I will go back to my band,
Who go weeping for their eternal losses."
(Hell, Canto XV: [15] 16-42)
And later:
"If I had my way entirely," so
I answered him, "you would not yet have been
Put under ban from natural humanity;
For my mind is transfixed, and my heart stabbed,
By the dear, kind, paternal image of you,
When you were on earth, and time and again
Instructed me how man may be eternal:
And what pleasure I had in that, as long as I live,
It is appropriate that my tongue should show."
(Hell, Canto XV: [15] :79-87)
And just as it is implied in this last tercet, that Dante can gain immortality in his poetry, ["be eternal"] that sentiment is echoed by Brunetto Latini, who, as they part, reminds Dante of his great encyclopedic work, Li Livres dou Trésor, ("The Treasure"), in which he too lives, and from which Dante had gained, and can still gain so much.
At a different level in this canto, Dante is speaking not just for himself, but for a younger generation of Florentine's, who were indebted to Brunetto Latini, not just for the breadth of his knowledge, but for making it accessible. An exile in France and Spain, Latini returned to Florence in 1266, and though he was an accomplished citizen in other respects, as a leading intellectual, he sought to inspire a younger generation, of whom Dante was one, in a new approach to literature: one that would be thought provoking, and ultimately, as good literature should be, to the benefit of Florence. Or put another way, so as to make Florence great; an idea of usefulness encapsulated in the writings of the Roman philosopher Cicero (106-43 BC): who was of the view that eloquence, whether it be in speaking or writing, was only useful to society to the extent that it was accompanied with wisdom. And the fact that Brunetto Latini's Trésor, "Treasure", was a a repository of classical citation, and written in a vernacular language, (French, as opposed to Latin or Greek), gave Dante access to the works of other great literary figures such as the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and the Roman polymath, Seneca. And interestingly, as Raffa explains to his students, Dante was indebted to Brunetto for "the allegorical poem in Italian, Il tesoretto ("The Little Treasure") " many of the features of which, found their way into The Divine Comedy.
Political factions: Guelphs and Ghibellines and Pope Boniface VIII
Now if we are to continue asking the question; Who was Dante and what was going on in his world? we have to turn to politics, and in particular to the principal protagonists, the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Guelph were artisans and merchants from the cities, who supported the papacy in its claim to the rightful exercise of absolute power, that is, authority in matters temporal as well as spiritual; an idea fiercely resisted by the nobility: those powerful rural families who made up the Ghibellines.
As for Pope Boniface VIII, from his point of view, there was no doubt whatever as to where power lay, as he made clear in Unam Sanctam, a bull, (proclamation), published in 1302, in which he asserted that, "It was absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff." So concerned was Dante about this claim, that several years after Boniface's death in 1303, he wrote De Monarchia, a treatise refuting Boniface's claim, and upholding the rights of monarchy. So, if we are to understand how it was that Dante, a Guelph, with the Guelph tradition of allegiance to the papacy, ended up, (so to speak), on the wrong side of the argument, we must take a step back.
When the Guelphs having defeated the Ghibellines, came to power in Florence in 1266, and continued in power there (with some qualification), until 1301, their victory was as the result of a military alliance between France and the papacy. So it would seem somewhat ironic, that their defeat, when it came in 1301, was as the result of yet another alliance between France and the Pope; in this instance involving the ambitious Charles of Valois, (brother of King Philip IV of France) and Pope Boniface VIII. As for the qualification, having defeated the Ghibellines for a second time in 1289, the Guelphs in the late 1290's split into factions, that became known as White and Black. At the heart of this divide (and though it was expressed in terms of rival Florentine families), was the political ambitions of the Pope. What the White Guelphs (Dante was now one of them), wanted, was a return to the old Roman idea of political power residing in the Emperor and in the city-state, a system that in turn, would recognize the spiritual authority of the pope. And in coming to this, the White Guelphs were taking a stand not just against the political ambitions of Boniface, but also against the ruthless nature of that ambition.
For a large part of his life, Boniface, who had lived in and around the papacy, functioned as something of an aid, diplomat, and enforcer in the service of several popes, during which time he had travelled and acquired personal wealth through the acquisition of benefices. Regarded as ambitious, he was also implicated in the abdication of Pope Celestine V, who, on succeeding him as Pope, Boniface had imprisoned in the Castle of Fumone, where he died a year later at the age of 81. And as someone who was in dispute with a number of rulers, and the Colonna family of Rome in particular, he was remembered for his ruthlessness: for his destruction in 1298 of the city of Palestrina, the home of the Colonna family. Having given an assurance that the city would be spared if it surrendered peacefully, which it did, he had it razed to the ground and covered in salt, just as the Romans had done to Carthage 1500 years previously. As for the White Guelphs: with all this known to them, and Florence placed under papal interdict, and a request that Charles of Valois be allowed to enter the city, supposedly to help to resolve the dispute between the warring factions, the White Guelphs were alarmed.
It was against this broad background that Dante, a prior, (one of twelve magistrates who governed Florence), set off as part of an embassy to Rome, in the hope that through negotiation they might steer Florence clear of the Pope's wider political ambitions; but to no avail. Recognizing Dante's stature, Pope Boniface VIII detained him in Rome, while the rest of the delegation returned to Florence, by which time all was lost. Charles of Valois had entered Florence, and with the Black Guelphs, (the Pope's allies), taking control in the city; they took their revenge on the White Guelphs and Dante, tried in his absence, was exiled from Florence.
A complex allegory, central to The Divine Comedy, is Dante's religious faith, his loathing of corruption and injustice, and his love and concern for Italy, all of which are reflected in his outpouring against the demise of Italy, when he observes the joyful reunion, in Purgatory, between Virgil and Sordello, a fellow poet, who also came from Mantua, Virgil's birthplace..
But before we get to Dante's invective, at a point where he is discussing with Virgil the value of prayers of intercession, we are reminded of some of those who have died violent deaths. Among them, Ghino di Tacco, a notorious bandit of noble blood, who had assassinated a judge, probably Benincasa da Laterina, who had sentenced one of his relatives to death in 1297. And Count Orso degli Alberti, murdered by his cousin. And not forgetting Sordello himself, a troubadour poet, with a chequered career, who is thought to have died violently.
As for the images that Dante uses to describe his beloved Italy, they are stark: a ship without a master in a storm, a brothel, and a place that has squandered its inheritance, by failing to build a just and civil society on the foundations laid by the Roman Emperor Justinian, (d, 565 AD) who had taken on the monumental task of codifying Roman law. Instead, Italy carries on like a riderless horse, out of control and with no sense of purpose or direction. This, the image of the empty saddle, it is suggested, is an oblique reference to the absence from Italy of the Holy Roman Emperor Albert of Hapsburg, (a moral deficit for Italy if you like), who like his father Rudolph 1, ignored tradition and never came to Italy to be crowned. And if we read the tercets below carefully, it is clear that Dante makes the connection between the ineffectiveness of the law, the absence of the Emperor, and the ambition of the Church, as all contributing to the malaise. There are other pertinent reference in the passage, but none, perhaps, in the context of violent death, more stark, than where Dante appears to be alluding to the assassination of Albert's oldest son, Rupert, in 1307 and his own murder by his nephew in 1308 (Lines 100-02) which I have highlighted:
O enslaved Italy, a place of grief,
A ship without a master in a great storm,
Not mistress of provinces, but a brothel!
That noble mind was so ready,
Merely on hearing the sweet name of his city,
To give a welcome to his fellow citizens;
And now your living children are always at war;
People thrown together within the same wall and ditch
Cannot live without biting one another.
Wretched country, look around your shores,
On every coast, and then into your heart
And see if any part enjoys peace.
What is the good of the Justinian code
To rein you in with, if the saddle is empty? [the Emperor's
There would be less shame if you were without it. absence]
And you people, who are supposed to be devout [rulers of the Church]
And to let Caesar sit well in his saddle,
If you understand properly what God prescribes, [Matthew 22, 21]
Observe how this animal has grown vicious
For not having been corrected with spurs
Since you laid your hands upon the bridle.
O Albert the German, you who have abandoned
Her who has become untamed and wild, [Italy]
When you should have been astride the saddle,
May a just judgement fall from the stars above
Upon your blood, strange and for all to see,
Such that it may be feared by your successor:
Because you and your father, preoccupied
By your greed there in Germany, have permitted
The garden of the empire to be turned into a desert.
Come and see, you who are negligent, [Feuding families]
Montagues, and Capulets, Monaldi, and Filippeschi:
One lot already grieving, the other in fear.
Come, you are cruel, come and see the distress
Of your noble families, and cleanse their rottenness,
And you will see how dark Santafior is.
Come and see your Rome, which is in tears,
Widowed and alone, and calls day and night:
"My Caesar, why do you not bear me company?"
Come and see how the people love one another!
And if you are unmoved by pity for us!
Come and see what shame you have incurred.
And if it is allowed me, supreme Jove,
You who were crucified for us on earth,
Are your just eyes turned in another direction?
Or is it preparation in the depth
Of your counsel, for some future good
Which is quite hidden from our understanding?
For all the cities of Italy are full
Of Tyrants, and any lout who chooses
To play with parties can become Marcellus. [a demagogue]
My Florence, you may be well content
That this digression has nothing to do with you,
Thanks to your people who exert themselves so.
Many have justice in their hearts and keep it there,
So that they don't let fly without reflection;
But your people have it on the tip of their tongues.
Many refuse to take public appointments;
But your people answer the call eagerly
Without being asked, and cry, "I am ready to serve!"
Now rejoice, for you certainly have good reason:
You who are rich, at peace and so judicious:
If I speak truth, the facts are plain enough.
Athens and Sparta who were law-givers
In ancient times, and were so civilized,
Gave only a faint hint how to do things,
Compared with you, who make so many clever
Arrangements that, by the middle of November,
You have used up all you earned in October.
How many times in the years that you remember,
Have you changed laws and coinage, offices, customs,
And even brought in new inhabitants.
And if you see yourself in a clear light,
You will see that you resemble a sick woman
Who cannot stay quiet upon her bed.
But twists and turns all the time to ease her pain.
(Purgatory, Canto: VI: [6] 76-151)
_______________
© Cormac McCloskey
Notes: In The Divine Comedy Limbo is in the First Circle of: Hell, but it is a place set apart from Hell proper: that place to which the damned have been consigned in a condition of eternal damnation and suffering. Virgil comes from Limbo. With its, "tranquil pleasant atmosphere", it is "the eternal abode of spirits from the pre-Christian world who led honourable lives, as well as other worthy non-Christian adults and the souls of unbaptised children . . ." (Raffa).
Note: "Revealed truth" In saying that The Divine Comedy does not represent "revealed truth" I am saying that while Dante makes various claims in respect of Divine involvement and about the nature of his actual spiritual experience, these claims, if they have any actual merit, are private revelation, and not on a par with the Bible and the teaching authority of the Church, to whom the fullness of truth has been given by God and whose task it is, to preserve it, in its fullness, and to pass it on, in its entirety, to future generations until the end of time.
The Divine Comedy Part 3 on Wednesday next 22nd :
Origin and structure of the poem and something of the sources that Dante drew on: Virgil, Saint Paul, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and with a passing reference to Plato and Saint Augustine
__________
The sources listed below were referenced, and in most instances, used, in the composition of these blogs:
The Divine Comedy
Translated by C.H. Sisson
Introduction and Notes: David H. Higgins
(Oxford World's Classics)
Oxford University Press (2008)
ISBN: 978-0-19953564-4
Dante: The Divine Comedy
I: Hell
Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers
Penguin Classics (1953) edition
The Complete Danteworlds
A Reader's Guide to the Divine Comedy
Guy P. Raffa
University of Chicago Press (2009)
ISBN:10: 0-226-70270-7
The De Monarchia Of
Dante Alighieri
Edited With Translation And Notes
by Aurelia Henry (1904)
Printed in Great Britain
by Amazon.co.uk Ltd
Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol's 1,3,7,11,14 and 28
in respect of a variety of related topics (1991 edition)
Vol 14: Aristotle. 28: Thomas Aquinas
Aristotle
A very Short Introduction
by Jonathan Barnes
Oxford University Press (2000)
ISBN: 978-19-285408-7
BBC Radio 4 archive
In Our Time, 17th September 2009
"Melvyn Bragg discusses the life, works and enduring influence of the medieval philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, with Martin Palmer, John Haldane and Anabel Brett." here
Bloom's Modern Critical Views
Editor, Harold Bloom
Chelsea House Publishers,
Philadelphia U.S.A. (2004)
ISBN: 0-7910--7658-X
The Poetics of Conversion
by John Freccero
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London England (1986)
ISBN: 0-674-19225-7 (alk, paper (cloth)
ISBN: 0-674-19226-5 (paper)
Saint Augustine
City of God
Penguin Books 2003
ISBN-13: 978-8-14-044894-8
Evangelii Gaudium
The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis
The Word Among Us press 2013
ISBN : 978-1-59325-262-5Penguin Books 2003
ISBN-13: 978-8-14-044894-8
Evangelii Gaudium
The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis
The Word Among Us press 2013
(1) Wikipedia unam sanctam
Virgil (40-19BC) Regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets
(2) Wikipedia, for an excellent broad sweep of The Divine Comedy, go here
(3) De Monarchia:
Boo II: XIII In the chapter headed "Christ in dying confirmed the jurisdiction of
the Roman Empire over all humanity" Dante argues the case for the Roman Empire being the lawful authority by which Christ was put to death (lawful, in the sense of being ordained by God) and at XIII.4 he writes "Wherefore let those who pretend they are sons of the Church cease to defame the Roman Empire, to which Christ the Bridegroom gave his sanction both at the beginning and at the close of his warfare. And now I believe, it is sufficiently obvious that the Roman people appropriated the Empire of the world by Right."
Wikipedia
Image of Pope Boniface VIII from Time Lists
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