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DANTE ALIGHIERI

DANTE ALIGHIERI

pp. 198-203

Authors

, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics, , Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, , Professor of Political Theory and International Relations, St. Andrews University
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Summary

DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265–1321), Italian poet and author of the Divine Comedy. Dante served his native city, Florence, as a councilor and ambassador until he ended up on the wrong side in the turbulent civil conflicts of the period. Exiled from Florence, he abandoned politics for poetry, supported by patrons in Verona, Ravenna, and other Italian cities. In his Monarchy (c. 1320), Dante defends the medieval ideal of a single authority for the entire world. Only such an authority, he argues, can guarantee the universal peace and liberty that is required if human beings are to fulfill their potential.

From Monarchy

Firstly therefore we must see what is meant by ‘temporal monarchy’, in broad terms and as it is generally understood. Temporal monarchy, then, which men call ‘empire’, is a single sovereign authority set over all others in time, that is to say over all authorities which operate in those things and over those things which are measured by time. Now there are three main points of inquiry which have given rise to perplexity on this subject: first, is it necessary to the well-being of the world? second, did the Roman people take on the office of the monarch by right? and third, does the monarch's authority derive directly from God or from someone else (his minister or vicar)?

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