The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Dante’s Portrayal of Prophesied Papal Apostasy

DANTE ALIGHIER (1265-1321), Italian poet and one of the great writers of all time, was born in Florence. While Dante was still a boy, his father died, and his mother placed him with the philosopher Latini, who gave him a liberal education at Bologna, Padua, and Naples. Dante became proficient in theology, as well as in languages, painting, and music. At eighteen he was already winning wide recognition with his sonnets. In childhood he had developed a deep but unreciprocated affection for Beatrice, who married a nobleman. She died in 1290 at the age of twenty-four. Filled with sorrow, Dante took refuge in intensive study. (Portrait of Dante appears on p. 70.) PFF2 21.1

Florence was the predominant power in central Italy at the time, and head of the Guelphic League. Dante was born just before the liberation of the city. His family belonged to the Guelphs, and he took a strong stand against all lawlessness and external interference with Florentine affairs. He entered public life in 1295, was elected one of the six priors in 1300, and participated in the civil war between the irreconcilable Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1301 Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip of France, entered Florence with 1,200 horsemen. Joined by others, he burst open the prisons and drove the priors out of their palace. Dante, one of the first victims, was banished from Florence, and the rest of his life was spent in political exile. ¹² PFF2 21.2

Dante stood on the threshold of a new era. He reproved the “Supreme Pastor of the West.” ¹³ What artists endeavored to portray in the pseudo-Joachim Pope Book, Dante put into verse, not sparing the popes. In fact, Döllinger declares him to have been a Joachimite. ¹⁴ PFF2 21.3

1. DIVINE COMEDY THE DIRGE OF DEPARTING AGE

“‘Rome, that turned it unto good,
Was wont to boast two suns, whose several beams
Cast light on either way, the world’s and God’s.
One since hath quench’d the other; and the sword
Is grafted on the crook; and, so conjoin’d,
Each must perforce decline to worse, unawed
By fear of other.
.....
“‘The Church of Rome,
Mixing two Governments that ill assort,
Hath miss’d her footing, fallen into the mire,
And there herself the burden much defiled.’” ¹⁸ PFF2 22.1

Dante developed his Divine Comedy into a theodicy, rep resenting the divine philosophy of the world’s story. It was a terrific indictment of his times. According to Döllinger, The Divine Comedy was “the boldest, most unsparing, most incisive, denunciatory song that has ever been composed.” ¹⁹ PFF2 22.2

2. POWERS OF STATE NOT DERIVED FROM CHURCH

Dante’s De Monarchia is a fundamental discussion of the relation of temporal and spiritual powers in which he insists that they are of equal rank, and that the empire derives its authority directly from God, and existed before the Christian church. Maintaining the necessity of civil power for the preservation of justice, freedom, and unity, Dante attributes the authority of the Holy Roman Empire to Aeneas and Caesar, holding that it was God’s will for the Romans to rule. The question he raises is, Does that power come directly from God, or through some vicar, the successor of Peter? PFF2 23.1

This he answers negatively by denying spiritual supremacy, and positively by arguments for temporal superiority. In the conflict between the Papacy and imperial power the imperialists made effective use of his arguments. The treatise was ad mired by one group and abhorred by the other. Burned as heretical, in the sixteenth century it was placed by Roman authorities on the Index as a prohibited book. ²⁰ PFF2 23.2

In strong, bold strokes Dante disposes of the papal contention, reducing the arguments to syllogisms that he overthrows. “I proceed to refute the above assumption that the two luminaries of the world typify its two ruling powers.” ²¹ First, man was not in existence when they were created; second, they began to minister to man while he was still in the state of innocency, without need of such governmental direction as was later necessary. Therefore the assumption fails. Then, turning to the argument of Peter and the keys, and again putting it in the form of a syllogism which he disproves, he says: PFF2 23.3

“Therefore I conclude that although the successor of Peter has authority to bind and loose in accordance with the requirements of the prerogative granted to Peter, it does not follow, as they claim, that he [the Pope] has authority to bind and loose the decrees or statutes of Empire, unless they prove that this also belongs to the office of the keys. But we shall demonstrate farther on that the contrary is true.” ²² PFF2 23.4

After a discussion of the attitude of the early Christians, he declares, “We have stated and rejected the errors on which those chiefly rely who declare that the authority of the Roman Prince is dependent on the Roman Pontiff.” ²³ And after an extended argument Dante presents this conclusion: “It is established, then, that the authority of temporal Monarchy descends without mediation from the fountain of universal authority.” ²⁴ PFF2 24.1