Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia.Dante Alighieri
Philosophy
Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia.
Dante Alighieri
Church and state -- Early works to 1800; Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321; Italy -- Politics and government -- 476-1268
Therefore we must recognise that it is one thing to be another's
vicar, and that it is another to be his messenger or minister, just as
it is one thing to be a doctor, and another to be an interpreter. For
a vicar is one to whom is committed jurisdiction with law or with
arbitrary power, and therefore within the bounds of the jurisdiction
which is committed to him, he may act by law or by his arbitrary power
without the knowledge of his lord. It is not so with a mere messenger,
in so far as he is a messenger; but as the mallet acts only by the
strength of the smith, so the messenger acts only by the authority of
him that sent him. Although, then, God did this by His messenger
Samuel, it does not follow that the Vicar of God may do the same. For
there are many things which God has done and still does, and yet will
do through angels, which the Vicar of God, the successor of Peter,
might not do.
Therefore we may see that they argue from the whole to a part, thus:
Men can hear and see, therefore the eye can hear and see: which does
not hold. Were the argument negative, it would be good: for instance,
man cannot fly, therefore man's arm cannot fly. And, in the same way,
God cannot, by his messenger, cause what is not to have been,[290] as
Agathon says; therefore neither can his Vicar.
[Footnote 290: As quoted by Aristotle, _Ethics_, vi. 3.--(W.)]
VII.--Further, they use the offering of the wise men from the text of
Matthew, saying that Christ accepted from them both frankincense and
gold, to signify that He was lord and ruler both of things temporal
and of things spiritual; and from this they infer that the Vicar of
Christ is also lord and ruler both of things temporal and of things
spiritual; and that consequently he has authority over both.
To this I answer, that I acknowledge that Matthew's words and meaning
are both as they say, but that the inference which they attempt to
draw therefrom fails, because it fails in the terms of the argument.
Their syllogism runs thus: God is the lord both of things temporal and
of things spiritual, the holy Pontiff is the Vicar of God; therefore
he is lord both of things temporal and of things spiritual. Both of
these propositions are true, but the middle term in them is different,
and _four_ terms are introduced, by which the form of the syllogism is
not kept, as is plain from what is said of "the syllogism
simply."[291] For "God" is the subject of the major premiss, and "the
Vicar of God" is the predicate of the minor; and these are not the
same.
[Footnote 291: Arist. _Anal. Prior._, or rather, the _Summulæ Logicæ_,
l. iv., of Petrus Hispanus.--(W.)]
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