able to understand the meaning of the prophecy and to become by its means converted to Christianity.

Such then is the principal idea which regulates the nature and the limits of the Vergil of the Divina Commedia. Dante has his one well-known idea for the better ordering of mankind; he aspires not merely to perfect himself, he aspires also to realize that ideal of human society which he considers to be most in harmony with the laws of justice, morality, and religion, and hence most adapted for the development of the individual. The distinction between spiritual and temporal, between Pope and Emperor, forms the basis of this idea, which in its turn forms the basis of the Divina Commedia. Eneas and Paul have been Dante's two predecessors on his journey, and at the bottom of the universe he finds associated, as the worst sinners of whom it is possible to conceive, the betrayers of Christ and of Cæsar. This order of things is represented, not as a project of Dante's own, but as a fact determined by the will of God, made evident in great part by reason and by history, and confirmed by faith; it appears therefore as the ideal which Dante finds present to the minds of all the honest dead, and especially of his guides. It is evident that all that part of this ideal which referred to the Empire and the Temporal Power would be included in the knowledge of Vergil, and would appear in his works literally as well as allegorically. Vergil, historically, was a contemporary of the good Augustus and of the peaceful beginnings of the Empire, and withal near in time to that great event, whereby Providence was preparing Rome to become

lo loco santo

U 'siede il successor del maggior Piero;

he was, besides, the singer of universal empire. But in addition to this, he had also written allegorically of the contemplative life, and had in this respect too understood the most perfect order of human society. It would be as unjust, therefore, to say that Vergil represents in Dante only the imperial idea, as it would be to maintain that the Divina Commedia contains nothing but Dante's political views. The historical character of Vergil could not fail to bring him into close connection with the idea of the Empire, but this idea, which was in Dante's case the outcome of profound speculation, was necessarily also contained in the symbol of Vergil, because, according to Dante, human reason was necessarily bound to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Roman empire and the perfection of his great ideal for the regeneration of society.

An examination of mediæval tradition, with the view of discovering to what extent it had preceded Dante in associating Vergil with the imperial idea, will show that here too the great poet found nothing but the bare elements upon which to work. The idea of the empire was, as we have seen, common in the Middle Ages, and had been the aim of many princes, but none of them had, like Dante, developed this idea into a political theory having its basis in a vast system of speculation which included the whole history of mankind. It would be vain to search in the Middle Ages for any other writer in whom Vergil and the imperial idea are historically and philosophically so closely combined as is the case in Dante.

VIII

STRUCTURE AND MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PURGATORY1

To

PURGATORY is a steep mountain of surpassing height, on the only land rising out of the sea in the southern hemisphere. Like Hell, it was formed when Lucifer and his followers were cast out of Heaven. escape him the earth rushed up to form this mountain, and left void the cavern through which Dante ascended (Inf. xxxiv. 125). It is the exact antipodes of Jerusalem and Mount Calvary, rises beyond atmospheric changes, and is crowned by the Earthly Paradise, scene of man's fall and symbol of blessedness of this life.2

In the literal sense the Purgatorio is the essential Purgatory of separated spirits, expiating and exorcising, paying the debt of temporal punishment that remains after the guilt has been forgiven, purging away the material element after the formal element has been remitted. In the allegorical sense it represents the moral purgatory of repentant sinners in this world; and has for subject man, by penance and good works, becoming free from the tyranny of vice, attaining to intellectual and moral freedom. . . . Dante spends part of four days, with three nights, in this portion of his pilgrimage; for Purgatory is the symbol of the

1 E. G. Gardner, Dante, Temple Primers, pp. 101 ff.
2 Vide pp. 239-242.

8 Vide p.

287.

X Oderisi da Gubbio Omberto Provenzan Salvani