DANTE S TREATISE OX GOVERNMENT. 237 



A magnificent tribute ! if it w ere only true. Both Cicero and 

 Dante believed it to be true. 



In the third book we have a single thesis defended in the same 

 way by a series of arguments in i6 chapters, appealing strongly 

 to the principles held in common by all men then. He shows that 

 the Emperor holds his power immediately from. God. and withia 

 his proper sphere, has no superior on earth. 



On a superficial \ icw these may seem academic theses of anti- 

 cuarian interest chiefly. But such a hasty judgment would miss 

 their profound importance both at the time and for all time. For 

 behind these innocent propositions lies the whole question of the 

 relation between Church and State — a question of perennial 

 interest, though it has quite a different form now. 



Dante takes for granted that part of the theory of these rela- 

 tions which was common ground among lawyers and politicians 

 in the Middle Ages. One of the most recent investigators in this, 

 field* has given us this ground of agreement in the form of a free 

 translation from Stephen of Tournai, a Canonist of the Twelfth 

 Centur}- : " In the one commonwealth and under the one king there 

 are two peoples, two modes of life, two authorities and a two- 

 fold organisation of jurisdiction. The commonwealth is the 

 Church, the king is Christ, the two peoples are the two orders in 

 the Church, that is, the clergy and the lait}-, the two modes of 

 life are the carnal and the spiritual, the two authorities are the 

 priesthood and the kingship, the twofold organisation is the 

 divine law and the human. Give to each its due and all things; 

 will be brought into agreement." 



But with this much agreement, there was still ample room for 

 combat in theory and practice. The exact limits of the two juris- 

 dictions was a field of frequent battle. But there was a graver 

 issue than anything of this kind. Admitting that the Emperor 

 had a field of government w^hich was exclusively his own, how 

 did he come by it? Was it inherent in his office, i.e., did it follow 

 from the nature of things? In other words : was his power imme- 

 diately from God in this sphere? Or did he receive it mediately 

 through some other delegate of Heaven? This was one of the 

 debated points, which had a practical bearing on many acts of 

 government. 



Then politics intruded, as so often happens, upon the theo- 

 retical question and obscured it. Amongst the lawyers there 

 were Guelphs and Ghibellines as these were in the field of battle 

 and in the council chamber. The Ghibellines were the Emperor's- 

 party backed by the nobilitv, and they stood for the feudal privi- 

 leges. The Guelphs were the Pope's party, the National party 

 of Italy opposed to the ImperialTsfs, they were supported by the 

 people and stood for the rights of the tree cities. 



It was only natural that, in the heat of the frav, extremists 

 on either side should exaggerate the claims of the head of their 

 party. There were some canonists (only two have been discovered 

 before the middle of the thirteenth century) who held that the 



• " A History of Medi.-eval Political Theory," by R. W. & A. J. Carlyle. 



p. 198. 



