Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-5mhkq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-22T23:27:58.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Throne of the Emperor Henry in Dante's Paradise and the Mediaeval Conception of Christian Kingship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Theodore Silverstein
Theodore Silverstein
Affiliation:
University of Kansas City
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Nowhere has Dante offered more ample evidence of his faith in the Roman imperium and admiration of the Emperor Henry VII than in a brief passage of six lines in the thirtieth canto of the Paradiso. There, beyond the limits of the corporeal spheres in the heaven which is pure light, surrounded by the saintly splendors of the City of God, Beatrice directs the poet's gaze to a vacant seat among the thrones of the blessed:

E'n quel gran seggio a che tu li occhi tieni

Per la corona che già v' è su posta,

Prima che tu a queste nozze ceni

Sederà l' alma (che fia giù agosta)

De l' alto Arrigo, ch' a drizzare Italia

Verrà in prima che ella sia disposta.

(vv. 133–138)

And the power of these lines is consolidated by contrast with the bitter condemnation of Pope Clement V, which directly follows them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 1939 , pp. 115 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1939

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 La divina commedia, ed. Grandgent, C. H. (revised ed., Boston, 1933), p. 942Google Scholar, n. 134.

2 See Apoc. iv, 4 et passim and Psalms ix, 7. Christian iconography, moreover, offers many instances of thrones, called etimasia, prepared for the Judgment with crown, cross, lamb, roll and gospels: see, among other works on the subject, Cabrol and Leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, art. Etimasie; and Kraus, Realencyclopädie der christlichen Altertümer, I, 432. These thrones appear to be an adaptation from similar pagan insignia, examples of which are found in connection with what the Romans called sellisternium and derived from the Greeks: see Taylor, Lily Ross, ‘A Sellisternium on the Parthenon Frieze?’ Quantulacumque, Studies Presented to Kirsopp Lake (London, 1937)Google Scholar, especially pp. 262 ff. They are evidently related to the thrones used widely in Greek cult; for which see Furtwängler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, ed. Sellers (1895), pp. 429 ff. For the association of the throne and other insignia of rank with kings, it is particularly important to note that, according to Diodorus Siculus (xviii, 61,1) Eumenes, secretary to Alexander the Great, set up, after his master's death, a golden throne, adorned with the king's diadem, scepter and armor before which Alexander's generals offered sacrifice, and that (xvi, 92,5) at the marriage of Philip of Macedon's daughter an image of Philip seated on a throne was carried into the theatre among the twelve other thrones for the gods.

3 Distinc. VI, cap. x (Ed. J. Strange, Cologne, 1851, I, 364)Google Scholar. See D'Ancona, A., ‘I precursori di Dante,’ in his Scritti danteschi (Firenze, 1912–1913), pp. 62–63Google Scholar, n. 3; D'Ovidio, F., ‘Fonti dantesche, I: Dante e san Paolo,’ Nuova antologia, 4to serie, LXVII (1897), 237–238Google Scholar (reprinted in his Studii sulla D. C, Milano-Palermo, 1901, p. 355; and Caserta, 1931, II, 85); and La D. C, ed. Grandgent, p. 942, n. 133.

4 Visio Tnugdali, ed. Albrecht Wagner (Erlangen, 1882), p. 54Google Scholar. Cf. D'Ancona, loc. cit., D'Ovidio, loc. cit., and Grandgent, p. 942, n. 133.

5 Legenda sancti Francisci, cap. vi, § 6 (S. Bonaventurae opera omnia, Ad Claras Aquas: Ex type. Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1898, VIII, 521)Google Scholar. Cf. Cosmo, U., ‘Le mistiche nozze di Frate Francesco con Madonna Povertà,’ Giornale dantesco, VI (1898–1899), 101–102Google Scholar. The visionary is unnamed; for his identification as Pacificus, see Bonaventurae opera, loc. cit., n. 6.

6 S. Bonaventurae opera, VIII, 521: ‘Sedes ista unius de ruentibus [id est angelis cadentibus — VIII, 521, n. 7] fuit et nunc humili servatur Francisco.’ In Caesarius the throne is for the simple friar Engilbert and the entire episode occurs in a section of praise de virtute simplicitatis. Similarly the throne in Tundale is intended for an unnamed and humble Irish friar; Wagner, p. 54.

7 See my article ‘Did Dante Know the Vision of St. Paul?’ Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, XIX (1937), 231Google Scholar ff.; and ‘The Passage of the Souls to Purgatory in the Divina Commedia,’ Harvard Theological Review, XXXI (1938), especially 61–63Google Scholar.

8 The St. Gall Text (St. G), § 29: Silverstein, Visio sancti Pauli (Studies and Documents, ed. Kirsopp, and Lake, Silva, no. IV, London, 1935), pp. 140–141Google Scholar. Grandgent, p. 942, n. 133, refers to the Syriac version, which, of course, Dante could not have known, but which provides us with assistance in solving a textual problem of some importance for this passage as it is related to the Divina Commedia. For the completer surviving form of the Latin Long Text (P), printed by James, M. R., Apocrypha anecdota, I (Texts and Studies, II, no. 3, Cambridge, Eng., 1893), pp. 26–27Google Scholar, varies significantly from the text quoted above, and James's emendations obscure further the empty throne motif: ‘Et conuersus me uidi tronos aureos positos per singulas portas, et super eos (uiros habentes) diademas a ureas (et) gemas: …Et interrogaui angelum et dixi: Domine, quis est super tronum? Et respondens angelus dixit mihi: Ii troni eorum sunt qui bonitatem et intellectum hababant eordis et semetipsos stultos fecerunt propter dominum deum….’ The extant Greek text, which is abbreviated, omits this passage (Tischendorf, C., Apocalypses apocryphae, Leipzig, 1866, p. 54Google Scholar, § 28), but the mutually independent testimony of the Syriac (Perkins, Justin, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, VIII [1864], 201Google Scholar; Ricciotti, G., L'Apocalisse di Paolo siriaca, Brescia, 1932, I, 63Google Scholar, § 29), the Coptic (Wallis Budge, E. A., Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, London, 1915, p. 536Google Scholar and pp. 1055–56) and another late mediaeval Latin form (the ‘Vienna Fragment,’ in Silverstein, Visio sancti Pauli, p. 151) confirms the fact that P has suffered editorial modification. Moreover, there is conclusive evidence (Silverstein, p. 59) that it was the normal type of text represented by St. G. which circulated in the late Middle Ages and affected the history of the current abbreviations in Latin and the vernaculars.

Another work in which Dante might have found ample reference to empty thrones as seen by a living visitant to the Otherworld, is the Ascension of Isaiah, which circulated in the Middle Ages in two Latin versions (L1 and L2); The Ascension of Isaiah, ed. Charles, R. H. (London, 1900)Google Scholar, Introduction, § 6, pp. xviii-xxi. Only L2 now survives for the pertinent passages: vii, 22; viii, 26; ix, 10–13, 18, 24–26; xi, 40 (ed. Charles, pp. 109,117–118, 120, 122,123–124,138). Moneta, Adversus Catharos et Waldenses, ed. Riechlinius (1742), p. 218, discussing the heretical sect known as the Cathari, offers, a hint as to the circle in which the book was especially used in Dante's time. See Charles, p. xi, n. 1.

9 S. Bonaventurae opera, VIII, 521.

10 xxii, 24–30. Cf. Mark x, 35–45.

11 For the line along which the commentaries chiefly moved see, among others, St. Jerome, Comm. in Evang. Matth., III, xx (Migne, Patrologia latina, XXVI, 149–150); Paulus Diaconus, Homilia LXXXIV (Migne, XCV, 1251); Bede, In Matth. evang. exposit., III, xx (Migne, XCII, 89); Rabanus Maurus, Comm. in Matth., VI, xx (Migne, CVII, 1031–1032); S. Bruno Astens, Comm. in Matth., IV, xxi, § 83 (Migne, CLXV, 239–240); Radulph Ardens, Homiliae, XXVI (Migne, CLV, 1403–1406); Peter Comestor, Hist, schol., cap. cxiii, ‘In Evangelia’; Bede, In Lucae evang. expos., VI, xxii (Migne, XCII, 598–599); Albertus Magnus, In Marci evang., ad loc., and In Matth., ad loc; St. Thomas Aquinas, In Matth. evang. expos, (ed. Parma, 1860, X, 188); Aquinas, Catena aurea in Matth. evang., cap. xx (ed. Parma, XI, 401), and Catena aurea in Luci evang., cap. xxii (XII, 229). St. Thomas's compilations provided easy access to relevant excerpts on these passages from several of the Greek fathers also, i.e., Theophylactus, Chrysostom, Basil, Origen.

12 See especially Albertus Magnus, In Evang. secundum Lucam, xxii, 25 (Opera omnia, ed. Borgnet, xxiii, 681–682), whose exposition is a tissue of relevant quotation and comment on the activities of kings in general: ‘“Reges gentium.” Hoc est, qui secundum jura Gentium, quae tamen a Deo sunt, ”reges” sunt, hoc est, qui alios, leges utiles et honestas condendo, regunt: quia si aliter facerent, non reges sed tyranni vocarentur. Illi ergo tales reges ”dominantur eorum,” hoc est, dominium exercent superpositionis in eos. Dominus enim cum severitate coercet subditos…. “Et qui potestatem habent super eos.” Jure ordinatam per gladium coercendi malos ad laudem bonoram, ”benefici vocantur,” quia ad litteram multis benefaciunt. Tamen quaedam Glossa dicit: “Qui potestatem habent largiendi, benefici vocantur” ….’

13 In addition to the references to Proverbs in the passage next quoted in the text above from Bishop Jona, see especially the Jewish Encyclopedia, art. Compassion, for the ethical notions on which the Hebrew conception of leadership was based.

14 Cap. iii (Migne, CVI, 288). Cf. Hincmar of Rheims, Migne, CXXV, 833, 835.

15 Tractatus, I, vii, ‘De humilitate,’ Migne, XI, 320–321. Cf. St. Hilary, Migne, loc. cit., note: ‘David enim et propheta et rex, erat humilis antea et abjectus, neque convivio patris sui dignus, sed Deo complacuit: unctus in regem est, aspiratus est in prophetam. Non insolescit in regno, non odiis commovetus, persequentem seamat, inimicorum mortes honorat, incestuosis et parricidalibus parcit. Imperator contemnitur, pater laeditur, propheta vexatur: ultionem non ut propheta orat, vindictam non ut pater sumit, contumeliam non ut imperator exsequitur.’

16 Decretorum libri XX, XV, xxxix, Migne, CXL, 905–906.

16a Besides Jona and Hincmar, see particularly Abbo of Fleury (ca. 990), in Recueil des historiens de France, par les Benedictins de Saint Maur (nouv. ed., Delisle, L., Paris, 1869 et seq.), X, 627Google Scholar; and the Sixth Council of Paris, canons, ii, 1 (P. Labbé, Sacrosancta concilia, Venice, 1729, IX, 746 ff., and Mansi, Concilia, Venice, 1769, XIV, 574 ff.), which incorporates Jona's treatise. For a twelfth-century picture of this continuing ecclesiastical-patriarchal conception of royalty, see John of Salisbury, Policraticus, iv, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8; v, 6; vi, 20, 24, 25, 27, et passim. Cf. Dickinson, John, ‘The Mediaeval Conception of Kingship and Some of its Limitations, as Developed in the Policraticus of John of Salisbury,’ Speculum, I (1926), 308CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.

17 Test. Benj., IV, in Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphis veteris testamenti (2nd ed., Hamburg, 1723), I, 781; reprinted from J. E. Grabe, Spicilegium ss. patrum, vol. I (Oxford, 1698). Benjamin's words lose none of their relevance to the present inquiry from the fact that his figure is limited to the other element of our two-fold eschatological motif, the crown of compassion rather than the throne of justice.

18 De reg. princ, II, xv, Thomae, S.Aquinatis opuscula selecta (Paris, 1881), III, 316–317Google Scholar. For the influence on Dante see my article, ‘On the Genesis of De Monarchia, II, v,’ Speculum, XIII (1938), 326Google Scholar ff. The authorship and date of the work, the opening of which is ascribed to St. Thomas, are treated conclusively by Marius Krammer in the introduction to his edition of the Determinatio compendiosa (Fontes iuris germanici antiqui, Hannover and Leipzig, 1909) and Grabmann, Martin, ‘Ein Selbstzeugnis Tolomeos von Lucca für seine Autorschaft an der Determinatio compendiosa de iurisdictione imperii,’ Neues Archiv, XXXVII (1911–1912), 818–819Google Scholar.

19 Visio Tnugdali, ed. Wagner, pp. 43–44. Cf. the Latin poem, Wagner, p. 99, vv. 1256–1271, and the German Albers Tnugdalus, pp. 168–170, vv. 1597 ff. In the Latin text printed by Villari, P., Antiche leggende e tradizioni che illustrano la Divina commedia (Pisa, 1865), pp. 16–17Google Scholar, the king is incorrectly named Tormac, t and c being readily confused in ms. The entire incident is omitted from Villari's Italian version; Antiche leggende, p. 44.

Here also may be mentioned the remarkable account in the tenth-century Visio Karoli Crassi of the ‘Roman’ emperors seated on their jewelled thrones in Paradise: ‘Cumque cerneret comes meus in tanto pavore esse spiritum meum, dixit ad me: “sequere me ad dexteram partem luculentissimae vallis paradisi.” Et gradientes contemplatus sum ingenti claritate cum gloriosis regibus sedere Hlotharium meum avunculum super lapidem topasion mirae magnitudinis, coronatum diademate pretioso, et juxta eum filium ejus Hludogvicum similiter corona ornatum; vidensque me cominus accersivit me, blanda voce magna dicens:” Karole, succesor meus nunc tutius in imperio Romanorum, veni ad me. Sapio quoniam venisti per poenalem locum, ubi est pater tuus fraterque meus positus in thermis sibi destinatis; sed per misericordiam Dei citissime liberabitur de illis poenis, sicut et nos liberati sumus meritis sancti Petri sanctique precibus Remigii, cui Deus magnum apostolatum super reges et super omnem gentem Francorum dedit.’” (Hariulf, Chronique de l'abbaye de Saint-Riquier, III, xxi, ed. Lot, F., Collection de textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire, Paris, 1894, pp. 147–148Google Scholar.) Though this passage contains no reference to the tradition of royal justice and compassion, the direct association of the incident with the Roman imperium would have made it particularly attractive to Dante. For Dante's possible knowledge of the Visio see my note, ‘Inferno, XII, 100–126, and the Visio Karoli Crassi,’ MLN, November, 1936, pp. 449–452.

20 Dialogorum liber IV, cap. xxxvi, Migne, LXXVII, 384–388. Edmund Gardner (ed.), The Dialogues of Saint Gregory, surnamed the Great, transl. P. W. [1608] (London and Boston: Philip Lee Warner, the Medici Society, n.d.), p. 274, nn. to pp. 223–226, observes briefly the ultimate connection of this passage with Dante but not with Cormach.

21 Ed. Monaci, Ernesto, in Fonti per la storia d'Italia (Rome, 1887), p. 73Google Scholar.

22 De civ. Dei, Praefatio.

23 De institutione regia, Migne, CVI, 293–295.

24 See n. 18 above.

25 Determ. compend., capp. xxi-xxiii (ed. Krammer, pp. 42 ff.). Cf. De reg. princ, III, capp. iv-vi (Opusc. select., III, 326 ff.).

26 Ed. Rostagno, Enrico, in Le opere di Dante (Firenze, 1921), pp. 376–377Google Scholar. See my article, ‘On the Genesis of De monarchia, II, v,’ especially pp. 330 ff. To the discussion there of pietas = humanitas and the instances referred to especially on p. 331, nn. 3–5, and p. 332, nn. 1–3, should be added the following examples, which have particular interest for the history of the word, since those quoted in the DuCange Glossarium and the Godefroy Dictionnaire are few and relatively late: St. Zeno (3rd or 4th century), Tractatus, I, iii, § iv (Migne, XI, 285):’ in pauperos miserosque sua necessitate neglecta pietatis largitur et furtim semina spargit’; and Tractatus, I, x, § v: ‘Sed haec non ad vos, fratres, quorum largitas provinciis omnibus nota est, quorum pia semina totius quodam modo orbis per membra jactantur.’ The Merovingian epitaph of one Epaefanius, in Blant, E. Le, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle (Paris, 1856–1865)Google Scholar, no. 407: ‘pius pauperibus.’ Petrus Damianus (11th century), Opuscula, LVII, De principiis officio in coercitione improborum (Migne, CXLV, 825): ‘noxiae pietatis imaginem a te procul exclude, et erga populum, qui tibi commissus est, satage semper justitiam custodire’; and (Migne, CXLV, 826–827): ‘et Deus illi non paternae, sed quod majus est, viscera maternae pietatis impendat? Ut qui stans pro pupillis et viduis adversus impiorum nequitias dimicat, ipse tanquam lacteola soboles sub confoventibus se divinae pietatis uberibus requiescat’; and: ‘Multi nempe falsae pietatis errore decepti, unde se Deo placere insipienter autumnat, inde adversus eum crudeliter pugnant; et ex eo merentur iram, unde se adepturos opinati sunt gratiam; et dum aliis veniam falsae pietatis impertiunt, ipsi motum divinae indignationis incurrunt.’ See also Hugutio of Pisa, Magnae derivationes (12th century), MS. Laud 626, f. 136: ‘Pius -a -um: religiosus, misericors, benignus, propitius….’ For Dante's knowledge of Hugutio, see Toynbee, Paget, ‘Dante's Latin Dictionary,’ Dante Studies and Researches (London, 1902), pp. 97Google Scholar ff.

27 Epistole, VI, vi, 25, ed. Pistelli, Ermenegildo, in Le opere di Dante (1921), p. 425Google Scholar; ‘non sua privata sed publica mundi commoda sitiens….’

28 VII, iv and v, ed. Pistelli, pp. 427–428; V, i, 4, p. 420; VII, viii, 29, p. 429; VII, ii, 10, p. 427.

29 V, iii, 7, ed. Pistelli, p. 420. See also V, ii, 6: ‘prope est qui liberabit te de carcere impiorum; qui percutiens malignantes in ore gladii perdet eos...’; and V, iii, 10: ‘nonne relapsornum facinora vindicabit…?’

30 Virgil is directly referred to (Ep. VII, i, 6, ed. Pistelli, p. 426), but not Lactantius. Cf., however, the passages in the Epistles (particularly VI, iii) and Paradiso xxx with Divin. inst., V, De justitia, capp. vi and vii, where the injustice of darker times is said to be the result of human cupidity and the return of the Golden Age to depend on the restoration of justice at the coming of Christ. Critics have been in doubt about whether Dante knew Lactantius, but this is from nothing more definite than the failure hitherto to discover satisfactory positive evidence.

31 Cf. Ep. V, iv, 14, ed. Pistelli, p. 420.