Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/707

 DANTE

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DANTE

vMirk at this epoch centres round his rime, or lyrical
 * \nio, he counts his exile an honour. His Hterary


 * ins, more particularly round a series of fourteen


 * iii:,ini or odes, amatory in form, but partly allegori-

il iiid didactic in mc;uiing, a splendid group of poems

wliirli connect the "Vita Nuova" with the "Divina

1 liiiiinedia". Early in 1304 he seems to have gone

I" Hologna. Here he began, but left unfinisheil, a

i.iiin treatise, "De Vulgar! RIor|uentia", in which he

ill 'riiiits to (liscover the ideal Italian language, the

noM. st form of the vernacular, and then to show how

!i liould be employed in the composition of lyrical

" " 1 1 y. Even in its unfinished state, it is a most

it'iiiiiiating book to all who wish to understand the

iril form of the Italian canzone. On 10 March,

the Florentine exiles were expelled from Bo-

In August we find Dante at Padua, and

"Ml weeks later in Lunigiana, where, on 6 October,

'II H ted as the representative of the Marquess Fran-

-I liino Malaspina in making peace between his

' and the Bishop of Limi. About this time

OS) he began the "Convivio", or "Banqui't",

I ! i:m prose, a kind of popularization of Scholast ic

i I I i^iiphy in the form of a commentarj- upon his

liiiMii'i'M odes already mentioned. Only four of the

liM' II projected treatises were actually written, an

I action and three commentaries. In allegorical

III they tell us how Dante became the lover of

iiphy, that mystical lady whose soul is lovt'

nni « ho.se body is wisdom, she "whose true abode is

in the most .secret place of the Divine Mind".

All certain traces of Dante are now lost for some years. He is said to have gone to Paris some time between 1.307 and 1309, but this is open to question. In November, 1308, Henrj- of Luxemburg was eleiliil emperor as Henry VII. In him Dante .saw a po.ssilile healer of the wounds of Italy, a renovator cif Christen- dom, a new "Lamb of God" (the expression is the poet's) who would take away the sins of the workl. This drew him back again into the tempestuous sea of politics and the life of action. It was probably in 1309, in anticipation of the emperor's coming to Italy, that Dante wrote his famous work on the monarchy, "De Monarchia", in three books. Fear- ing lest he "should one day be convicted of the charge of the buried talent", and desirous of "keep- ing vigil for the good of the world", he proceeds successively to show that such a single supreme temporal monarchy as the empire is necessary for the well-being of the world, that the Roman peo- l)le acipiired imiversal sovereign sway by Divine right, and that the authority of the emperor is not di'pi'ndent upon the pope, but descends upon him directly from the fountain of universal authority, which is God. Man is ordained for two ends: bles.sed- nes.s of this life, which consists in the exercise of his natur.al powers and is figured in the terrestrial par.a- dise; Ijlesscdne.ss of life eternal, which consists in the fruition of the Divine aspect in the celestial paradise, to which man's natural powers cannot ascend without the aid of the Divine light. To these two ends man must come by diverse means: "For to the first we attain by the teachings of pliilo.sophy, following them by acting in accordance with the moral and intellec- tual virtues. To the second by spiritual teachings, which transcend human reason, as W(^ follow them by acting according to the theological virtues." But, although these ends and means are made plain to us by human re:uson and by revelation, men in their cupidity woulii reject them, were not they restrained by bit and rein. "Wherefore man had need of a two- fold directive power according to his twofold end, to wit, the .Su|irenie Pontiff, to lead the human race in accordance with tilings revealed, to eternal life; and the ICinperor, to<lirect the human race to temporal felicity in accordanci; with the teachings of philos- ophy." It is therefore the special duty of the

emperor to establish freedom and peace "on this threshing floor of mortality". Mr. Wicksteed (whose translation is quoted) aptly notes that in the "De Monarchia" "we first find in its full maturity the general conception of the nature of man, of govern- ment, and of human destiny, which was afterwards transfigured, without being transformed, into the framework of the Sacred Poem".

The emperor arrived in Italy in September, 1310. Dante had already aimoimceti this new siuirise for the nations in an enthusiastic letter tn the princes and peoples of Italy (Epist. v). He paitl homage to Henry in Milan, early in 1311, and was nuieh gratified by his reception. He then pa.ssed into the Casentino, probably on some imperial mission. Thence, on 31 March, he wrote to the I'lorentine Government (Epist. vi), "the most wicked I'lorentines within", denounc- ing them in unmeasured language for their opposition to the emperor, and, on l(i .\i)ril, to Henry (Epist. vii), rebuking him for his delay, in-ging him to proceed at once against the rebellious city, "this dire plague which is named Florence". By a decree of 2 Septem-

(Church of rianta Croce, FIorenr.e)

ber (the reform of Baldo d'Aguglione), Dante is in- cluded in the list of those who are permanently excepted from all amnesty and grace liy the com- mune of Florence. In the spring of 1312 he seems to have gone with the other exiles to join the emperor at Pisa, and it was there that Petrarch, then a chiUl in his eighth year, saw his great predecessor for the only time. Reverence for his fatherland, Leonardo Bruni tells us, kept Dante from accomiianying the imperial army that vainly besieged Florence in Sep- tember and October; nor do we know what became of him in the ilisintegration of his party on tlu? em- peror's death in the following August, 1313. A vague tradition makes him take refuge in the convent of Santa t'roce di Fonte Avellana near Gubbio. It w.as possibly from thence that, after the death of Clement V, in 1314, he wrote his noble letter to the Italian cardinals (Epist. viii), crying aloud with the voice of Jeremia.s, urging them to restore the papacy to Rome. A little later, Dante was at Liieca under the protec- tion of UguccioiK' della Kaggiuol.i, a r.hlbelliiie soldier who had temporarily made himself lord of that city. Probably in consequence of his association with Uguccione the Florentines renewed the sentence of death .against the poet ((> Nov., 131.5), his two .sons being inelud<'il in the ccmdemnation. In I31(i .several decrees of amnesty were passed, and (although Dante was undoubtedly excluiled under a jirovision of 2 June) .som(^ attenqit w;is made to get it extended to him. Tlu^ poet's answer w.as his famous letter to an mmamed Florentine friend (Epist. ix), absolutely refusing to return to his country under shameful conditions. He now went again to Verona, where he