De Monarchia (with R. W. Church's essay on Dante)

Summary

De Monarchia is Dante's Latin treatise on universal temporal government, written in exile and generally dated between Henry VII's expedition into Italy (1310-1313) and the years when Dante was finishing the Paradiso. In three books it asks three questions: whether a single temporal monarchy is necessary for the well-being of the world, whether the Roman people acquired the office of empire by right, and whether the emperor's authority comes directly from God or through the pope. The library text is the volume published by Macmillan in 1878 (dated 1879 on its title page): Dean R. W. Church's essay on Dante, first printed in the Christian Remembrancer in 1850, followed by his son F. J. Church's translation of De Monarchia from Karl Witte's 1874 Latin text, with Witte's notes. Book I argues from Aristotle that the proper work of the human race as a whole is to bring into act the full power of the human intellect, in thought and then in action, and that this work requires universal peace. Where many things are ordered to one end, one must rule, so mankind, like a household, city or kingdom, needs one supreme ruler who can judge between quarrelling princes. Such a monarch, having nothing left to desire, would be most free from greed and so most just, and under him men would be most free, since freedom of the will is God's greatest gift. Dante ends the book by recalling that Christ chose to be born under Augustus, when the whole world was at peace. Book II argues that the Roman people won their empire by right, not force alone: they were the noblest people, descended from Aeneas; their empire was helped by miracles; their heroes, such as Cincinnatus, Fabricius, Camillus and Cato, sacrificed private good to the common good; nature fitted them to rule; and God's judgment gave them victory in the contest for empire. Christ confirmed the empire's authority by being enrolled under Augustus' edict and by suffering under Pilate, Tiberius' deputy. Book III answers the arguments of those who make the emperor depend on the pope: the sun and moon, Levi and Judah, Samuel and Saul, the Magi's gifts, the keys given to Peter, the two swords, the Donation of Constantine and Charlemagne's coronation. Constantine, Dante replies, could not alienate the empire, nor could the Church receive it. Man has two ends, happiness in this life and eternal life, and so needs two guides, the emperor leading by philosophy and the pope by revelation. Dante closes by asking Caesar to show Peter the reverence a first-born son owes his father. Church's essay, which fills more than half the volume, describes the factions of Florence, Dante's life and exile, and the design, language and spirit of the Divine Comedy.

Plot or Argument

• R. W. Church's Notice and essay on Dante

  Church explains that the essay first appeared in 1850 and that his son's translation, made from Witte's second edition, was added at the publisher's request. The essay narrates the Guelf and Ghibelline wars and the feud of Blacks and Whites in Florence, Dante's love for Beatrice, his public career and exile, and then studies the Commedia: its scheme of the three worlds, its realism and its imagery, its use of the Italian vernacular, and its moral seriousness. Church finds the idea of De Monarchia present in the poem but denies that it is the key to the Commedia, whose purpose is to impress on the mind the issues of good and evil.

• Book I, chapters 1–4: the end of mankind and the need for peace

  Dante proposes to explore an unknown truth useful to all. Every association has an end; the end of the whole human race is to actualize the full power of the possible intellect, first in speculation and then in action. Because individuals grow wise in quiet, mankind does its proper work best in the tranquillity of peace, which was the angels' song to the shepherds and Christ's greeting.

• Book I, chapters 5–11: unity, judgment and justice

  When several things are ordered to one end, one must direct the rest, as in a person, a household, a village, a city and a kingdom. Mankind should be one under one ruler as the universe is under one God. Disputes between equal princes need a supreme judge. Justice is strongest under a monarch, because one who possesses everything has no greed to oppose it.

• Book I, chapters 12–16: freedom, fitness and the peace of Augustus

  The first principle of freedom is freedom of will, judgment unforced by appetite; it is God's greatest gift, and men are freest under a monarch who exists for their sake. The best-qualified ruler orders others best; what can be done by one is better done by one. Dante cites the universal peace under Augustus as Paul's fullness of time, and laments the rending of the seamless robe since then.

• Book II, chapters 1–6: Rome's right to empire

  Dante confesses he once thought Rome ruled by force alone but now sees providence in it. What God wills is right; Rome as the noblest people, descended from Aeneas, deserved preference. Miracles such as the shields from heaven and the geese of the Capitol helped Rome. Roman heroes like Cincinnatus, Fabricius, Camillus, Brutus, Mucius, the Decii and Cato sought the common good, and so the end of right.

• Book II, chapters 7–13: nature, ordeal and the testimony of Christ

  Nature ordained Rome to rule, and the outcome of the contest among Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians and Romans shows God's judgment, as does single combat fought with right intention. Christ by being born under Augustus' edict acknowledged Roman authority, and by dying under Pilate's sentence confirmed its jurisdiction over all mankind, for otherwise Adam's sin would not have been punished in him.

• Book III, chapters 1–11: the hierocratic arguments answered

  Dante names three classes of opponents: the pope and churchmen moved by zeal, others moved by greed, and the decretalists who rank papal decrees above Scripture and councils. He answers the allegory of the sun and moon, the birth of Levi before Judah, Samuel's deposition of Saul, the Magi's offerings, the power of binding and loosing, the two swords of Luke, the Donation of Constantine and Pope Hadrian's summoning of Charlemagne, arguing that each proves less than his opponents claim.

• Book III, chapters 12–16: the empire's authority comes directly from God

  The empire existed and had full authority before the Church, so the Church cannot be its cause. The Church has power to give it neither from God, nor from itself, nor from any emperor, and such power is contrary to its nature, which is modelled on Christ who said his kingdom is not of this world. Man has two ends, the beatitude of this life and of eternal life, and needs two guides, emperor and pope. The emperor's authority flows directly from God, yet Caesar owes Peter the reverence of a first-born son.

Characters

• Dante Alighieri, author

  Florentine poet and exile who argues as a philosopher for a universal emperor whose authority comes from God.

• Aristotle ('the Philosopher'), chief authority

  Whose Politics, Ethics and Metaphysics supply the principles of Dante's deductions in Book I.

• Augustus, exemplary monarch

  Under whose rule, Dante writes, the world was everywhere at peace when Christ chose to be born.

• Aeneas, founder of Roman nobility

  Virgil's hero, whose virtue and noble descent Book II cites as proof that the Romans deserved empire.

• Constantine, emperor of the Donation

  Whose supposed gift of imperial authority to the Church Dante argues was beyond his power to make.

• Henry VII of Luxembourg, historical background

  Emperor whose expedition into Italy (1310-1313) Dante supported in his letters; many scholars connect the treatise with it.

• R. W. Church, essayist

  Victorian churchman and Dean of St Paul's whose long essay on Dante's life and Commedia opens the volume.

Lessons

• Peace as the condition of human flourishing

  Dante argues that mankind as a whole has a work to do, the full use of the intellect in thought and action, and that this work requires peace. He grounds his political argument in the angels' song at Bethlehem and Christ's greeting, so that civil order serves the highest human goods.

  • What is the proper work of the human race in Book I, and why does it need peace?
  • How does Dante use the angels' message to the shepherds in his argument?
  • Is universal peace possible without a universal government? What would Dante say?

• Freedom of will and freedom under law

  Dante defines freedom as judgment that is not forestalled by appetite and calls it God's greatest gift. He argues that citizens under a just monarch are free because the ruler exists for their sake, not they for his. Political freedom, on this account, depends on right order rather than the absence of rule.

  • How does Dante define freedom of the will in Book I, chapter 12?
  • Why does he say the free person exists for his own sake and not for another's?
  • How does Dante's idea of freedom compare with modern ideas of liberty?

• Two ends, two guides

  Book III teaches that man is ordered both to happiness in this life and to eternal life, and that God has provided two authorities for these ends. The emperor rules by philosophy and the moral virtues; the pope leads by revelation and the theological virtues. Each receives authority from God, and neither should absorb the other.

  • What are the two ends of man in Book III, chapter 16, and how is each reached?
  • Why does Dante insist that the emperor's authority comes directly from God?
  • How does the final sentence about Caesar and Peter qualify Dante's argument?

• Reading history as providence

  In Book II Dante reads Roman history as the working of divine providence, through miracles, the virtue of Roman heroes, and the birth and death of Christ under Roman authority. The book invites students to consider how a Christian may see God's hand in the rise of nations.

  • What changed Dante's mind about whether Rome ruled by force alone?
  • Which Roman heroes does he cite, and what virtue does each show?
  • How does Augustine's view of Rome in the City of God differ from Dante's?

Context

Dante wrote in a divided Italy where Guelf and Ghibelline factions fought over the rival claims of pope and emperor. Pope Boniface VIII's bull Unam Sanctam (1302) had asserted that the temporal sword is subject to the spiritual, while canon lawyers and papal writers argued that emperors received their authority through the pope. Henry VII of Luxembourg's descent into Italy in 1310, his imperial coronation in Rome in 1312 and his death in 1313 revived and then dashed the hopes of those who looked to the empire for peace. Dante drew on Aristotle, Virgil, the Roman historians and scholastic theology to argue for a universal but limited temporal authority.

Composition

The date of De Monarchia is disputed. Witte, whom Dean Church follows in his Notice, placed it before Dante's exile, but most later scholars date it to the years of Henry VII's expedition (c. 1310-1313) or to about 1317-1318, citing a reference in Book I to what the author had said in the Paradiso. The library volume, published by Macmillan in 1878 (title page 1879), prints R. W. Church's essay on Dante from the Christian Remembrancer of January 1850 and F. J. Church's translation from Witte's second edition of 1874, which Church believed to be the first English translation.

Reception

The treatise was used by supporters of Louis of Bavaria in his conflict with Pope John XXII, and around 1329 the papal legate Cardinal Bertrand du Poujet had copies burned at Bologna, while the Dominican Guido Vernani wrote a refutation. It was later placed on the Index of Prohibited Books. Modern readers have studied it for its account of a universal community of mankind and the separation of temporal from spiritual authority; scholars disagree over how far Dante subordinates the emperor to the pope in his closing sentence, and over how his views relate to Aquinas and to the political vision of the Divine Comedy.

Comparisons

• the-divine-comedy

  The Comedy dramatizes the two guides of Book III: Virgil leads Dante through Hell and Purgatory to the earthly paradise, and Beatrice leads him to the heavenly one; Justinian's speech in Paradiso VI retells the providential history of the Roman eagle defended in Book II.

• de-regno

  Aquinas's On Kingship, which Dean Church's Notice recommends comparing, also argues that rule by one best preserves unity and peace, but subordinates kings to the priesthood in matters touching the final end, a point on which Dante insists the emperor's authority comes directly from God.

• city-of-god

  Augustine treats Rome's empire as won largely through love of glory and judges its peace as an earthly good useful to the pilgrim city; Dante, while sharing the doctrine of two ends, reads Roman history as positively willed by God.

• the-aeneid

  Book II quotes Virgil repeatedly on the nobility of Aeneas and his ancestors and wives, taking the Aeneid's promise of an empire without end as testimony to Rome's providential right.

• politics

  Dante begins from Aristotle's teaching that every community aims at an end and that a household, village and city each need a ruling element, and extends the argument to the whole human race.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The three questions announced at the start of each book, and how the final chapter of Book III answers all three.
• Dante's use of Aristotle in Book I: every community has an end, and where many are ordered to one end, one must rule.
• The appeal to the birth of Christ under Augustus in Book I, chapter 16 and Book II, chapter 12.
• The list of opponents' arguments in Book III and the method Dante uses to answer each, often by distinguishing senses of a word.
• In Church's essay, the account of Florentine factions that explains why Dante longed for a peacemaking emperor.

Key terms and names

Temporal monarchy

In Dante's sense, a single government over all mankind in things of this life, the empire; not the rule of a king over one nation.

Possible intellect

The Aristotelian power of the mind to receive all intelligible forms; Dante says the whole human race together must bring it fully into act.

Donation of Constantine

A document, later shown by Lorenzo Valla to be a forgery, in which Constantine was said to have granted the pope authority over the western empire; Dante, accepting it as real, denies that Constantine had power to make it.

Hierocratic theory

The view of papal writers and canonists that temporal rulers receive their authority through the pope, which Book III opposes.

Two swords

The swords of Luke 22:38, read by papal writers as the spiritual and temporal powers both held by the Church.

Guelfs and Ghibellines

The Italian factions loosely associated with the papacy and the empire; Church's essay describes their wars in Florence.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What three questions do the three books of De Monarchia answer?
2. Comprehension What reasons does Book II give for saying the Roman people acquired their empire by right?
3. Comprehension How does Dante answer the argument from the sun and the moon in Book III, chapter 4?
4. Interpretation Why does Dante think a universal monarch would be the most just of rulers?
5. Interpretation How do the two ends of man in Book III, chapter 16 support the claim that the emperor's authority comes directly from God?
6. Interpretation Dean Church says the idea of De Monarchia is no key to the Commedia. What does he think the poem's purpose is, and do you agree?
7. Big Question Should spiritual and temporal authority be separate, and if so, how should they relate to each other?
8. Big Question Would a single government of the whole world bring peace, or new dangers?

Faith Connections

• Luke 2:1-14 (Scripture)

  Augustus' decree that all the world should be enrolled and the angels' song of peace on earth are central to Dante's argument in Books I and II that Christ honoured the Roman peace by being born under it.

• Matthew 22:21 (Scripture)

  Christ's command to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's underlies Dante's distinction between the emperor's and the pope's spheres.

• John 18:36 (Scripture)

  Dante cites Christ's words to Pilate, 'My kingdom is not of this world,' in Book III, chapter 15 to argue that power to confer temporal authority is contrary to the Church's nature.

• Augustine, City of God V (Church Fathers)

  Augustine teaches that God gave the Romans their empire as a reward for their civic virtues and love of glory; Dante's Book II goes further in treating Rome's rule as positively willed by God.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The human race has a proper work that requires universal peace. Where many are ordered to one end, one must rule, so mankind needs a single temporal monarch, who would also be most just and would make men most free. God willed that the Romans should hold this office, as miracles, Roman virtue, God's judgment in their victories and Christ's birth and death under Roman authority show. The empire existed with full authority before the Church and cannot receive authority from it. Therefore the emperor's authority comes directly from God, though the emperor owes the pope filial reverence.

Rhetorical device: syllogism. Dante sets out his opponents' arguments as major and minor premisses and then denies one premiss: in Book III, chapter 10, he grants that the empire cannot be held without the Church's gift only if Constantine could give it, and then destroys that minor premiss by arguing that no one may use an office to do what is contrary to that office.

Debate: Resolved: That temporal rulers receive their authority directly from God and not through the Church.

Memory Work

this liberty, or this principle of all our liberty, is the greatest gift bestowed by God on mankind

Two ends, therefore, have been laid down by the ineffable providence of God for man to aim at

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain Dante's argument in Book I that mankind needs a single temporal ruler. Identify the premiss you find strongest and the one most open to doubt.

Comparison with De Regno: Compare how Aquinas in On Kingship and Dante in De Monarchia describe the relation between temporal rulers and the priesthood. Where do they agree, and where does Dante depart from Aquinas?

Medical Lens

A political and theological treatise with a literary essay; it has no medical content beyond figures of speech, such as Dante's description of mankind as sick in understanding and affection.

Creative Prompts

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation in 1312 between Dante and a papal canon lawyer about the sun and the moon, each giving the strongest reading of the image.

• Classroom

  Put Book III, chapter 9 into a formal syllogism and have students identify exactly where Dante says his opponents' reading of the two swords goes wrong.

• Essay

  Dante says man has two ends and needs two guides. Explain his argument and show how the Divine Comedy gives the same idea poetic form through Virgil and Beatrice.

• Fiction

  Imagine Dante in exile at Verona hearing the news of Henry VII's death in 1313. Write the scene as he looks over the manuscript of his treatise.

Further Reading

• Monarchy (trans. Prue Shaw), Dante Alighieri

  The Cambridge translation with introduction and notes.

• The Holy Roman Empire, James Bryce

  Recommended by Dean Church in his Notice for its account of the medieval idea of empire.

• The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

• Dante as a Political Thinker, Alexander Passerin d'Entrèves

• The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years, 1833-1845, R. W. Church

  Dean Church's best-known book, for readers interested in the essayist.