the same infallibility which he had, both in matters of right and fact. Dante would probably understand Infallibility as rational Catholics do, as an acknowledgment that much greater reverence is due to decrees of the church than to those of any civil authority, and that they should be unquestioned and implicitly submitted to; but that in being human they must necessarily be fallible, and that therefore, in extreme cases of error, they may undergo revision, and even be reversed by a General Council*; but that, in most cases, when erroneous, it is wiser to allow them to be neglected and quietly to expire than formally to abrogate them†.

Dante exposes the fallibility of a Pope in another instance, where Zinelli cannot plead, as in the case of Anastasius, that the action is to be judged as that of a mere individual, for here it is the employment of the power of the keys, in all its plenitude, for the purpose of deceiving and seducing to the commission of crime. The scandal is exorbitant, and can hardly be excused by any good Catholic, though he must admire the excellent moral that is made to flow from it, and the lesson it conveys in rightly understanding and estimating absolutions and plenary indulgences.

The Pope is Boniface the Eighth, and the person whom he tempts to sin is Guido da Montefeltro, a celebrated general, who, after much vicissitude of fortune, finally retired from the world, and in 1297 took the vows of a Franciscan friar. Dante encounters his spirit, enveloped in a flame of fire, in

As was decided at the Council of Constance, 1414.
As in the Papal decisions against the Copernican system.

the gulph of evil counsellors, and thus addresses him, and prevails on him to relate his story:

"Ora chi se' ti priego che ne conte," &c.
Dante-"And who art thou, I prythee, tell me now;
Be not less gentle than the rest ;- so may
Thy name on earth uphold a lofty brow."
Then, when in its peculiar way had roar'd
The fire awhile, its top was seen to play
This way and that;-anon a blast it pour'd.
-"If I believed my answer would be made

Guido da Montefeltro

Inf. xxvii. 55.

To one who ever could the world regain,
This flame should rest in peace, nor more be sway'd;

But since no living soul, if true it be

What I have heard, e'er left this gulph of pain,—
Fearless of infamy, I answer thee.

crime;

A soldier once-I next around me tied
St. Francis' cord, in hopes to purge my
And truly had those hopes been verified,
But that the mighty Priest, whom evil take,
Allured me to my sins a second time;
And how, and why, I will relation make.
While flesh and bone encompass'd me around,
(My mother's gift,) my deeds resembled less
The lion than the fox :-such skill profound
In stratagems I show'd, and play'd my game
With so much wily craft and subtleness,
The world's far limits sounded with my fame.
But when I saw that time of life begin,
When every man, the port approaching, ought
To coil the ropes and take the canvass in ;—
What first had pleased me, irksome seem'd to grow;

And to repentance and confession brought,

I had been blest ;-alas, how wretched now!

The haughty prince of modern Pharisees*,

*Boniface VIII.

Who near the Lateran his fierce warfare waged*,
And not with Moors or Jewish enemies,

(For all were Christians whom his vengeful hand
Opposed; and none had Acre's walls besieged,
Or e'er had traffick'd in the Sultan's land +,)
Regarded not his own exalted state
And holy office, nor my sacred cord,
Which should the form it girds attenuate :-
But, as of old, to cure his leprosy,
Silvester was by Constantine implored ;-
So in a more commanding tone did he

Bid me to cure the fever of his pride :
Counsel he ask'd, but as he seem'd to jest,
To his demand an answer I denied.

Again he said to me: Be not afraid

I do absolve thee; tell the means, how best

May Pellestrino in the dust be laid‡.

Heaven, as thou know'st, I have the power at will
To lock or unlock; hence the keys are twain,
Which erst my predecessor prized so ill.'
Then had his cogent arguments full sway,
When silence could procure me little gain;
And I O Father, since you wash away
The sin which now it needs I must commit ;-
Large be your promise your performance slack §-

Thus will you triumph in your lofty seat.'
When I was dead,- to bear my soul away
Saint Francis came; but lo! a Demon black
Exclaim'd: Forbear-nor take my lawful prey;
Down must he go to where my servants are,

* Waged with the Colonna family.

+ Not renegades who fought for the Sultan, or assisted him for payment with supplies.

A fortress belonging to the Colonna family.

§ "Get Pellestrino and the Cardinals Colonna into your power by fair promises, then destroy both." Which was done. See Landino's Comment.

Because he has of fraud the adviser been,

Since which, my hand hath held him by the hair.

Nought but repentance ever can absolve;—

But to repent, and yet incline to sin,

A contradiction would in terms involve.'

Oh with what anguish from him did I bound,

When seizing me, he said, 'Perhaps you thought

I was not a logician so profound*!'"'

Wright.

Upon this indecorous and unsparing lampoon, in which Franciscans and Syrian renegades come in for their share of the poet's satire, Foscolo observes:-"Che il vecchio celebrato per lunga esperienza 'd' accorgimenti e di coperte vie' cadesse a occhi aperti nello stratagemma teologico; non trovo testimonianza se non questa una. Al Muratori non rincresceva d'accoglierla; ma la rafferma solamente con la parafrasi latina di Benvenuto da Imola; e la traduce lunga com' è, per concludere: Non c'è obligazione di credere questo fatto a Dante, persona troppo ghibellina, e che taglia da per tutto i panni addosso a Papa Bonifacio, tuttochè ancora Giovanni Villani ci descriva questo Pontefice per uomo di larga coscienza+.""

Dante might perhaps approve the doctrine of Papal infallibility as we do the maxim that "the Sovereign can do no wrong," from its tendency to preserve a habit of respect, which is peculiarly necessary in a religion that admits not private judgment in matters of faith, and constitutes the Pope a tribunal for the final decision of all Scriptural con

* Voltaire's wicked and humorous version of this story, "Je m'appelais le Comte de Guidon," &c., is known to every one.

Annali, an. 1299.

troversies;-a measure conducive to peace, the great object of all government, and useful at least in silencing theological disputes among ministers of the same Church. The submission of private judgment in religion is enforced in many passages of the Commedia, of which it may not be uninteresting to produce some examples; but a few preliminary observations seem desirable. In Dante's journey through the spiritual worlds there is a change of hierophants, as was practised in the Eleusinian mysteries*. Virgil, the representative of heathen philosophy, is his guide through the Inferno and Purgatorio, as far as the terrestrial paradise, where, on the appearance of Beatrice, he vanishes. Beatrice, the symbol of Christian philosophy, and more especially of theology, then becomes his guide, and conducts him through the Paradiso to the Empyreum; there vanishes, having first commended him to St. Bernard, the symbol of contemplation, who finally brings him to the accomplishment of all his desire,

* Professor Rossetti is the first commentator who has shown how intimately acquainted Dante must have been with all that had been handed down by authors respecting the ceremonial of initiation in the ancient mysteries, and how exact a representation of it is given in the Commedia, in the progress of Dante himself through the realms of spirits, between the opening of the Inferno and the last lines of the Paradiso, between his being lost in the

Selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte,

Che nel pensier rinnova la paura,"

Inf. i. 5.

and his being permitted to know the ineffable bliss of the beatific vision, when