Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia.
Dante Alighieri · en
XI.--Our adversaries further say that the Pope Hadrian[300] summoned
Charles the Great to his own assistance[301] and to that of the
Church, on account of the wrongs suffered from the Lombards in the
time of their king Desiderius, and that Charles received from that
Pope the imperial dignity, notwithstanding that Michael was emperor at
Constantinople. And therefore they say that all the Roman emperors who
succeeded Charles were themselves the "advocates" of the Church, and
ought by the Church to be called to their office. From which would
follow that dependence of the Empire on the Church which they wish to
prove.
[Footnote 300: A.D. 773.--(W.)]
[Footnote 301: "_Advocavit._"]
But to overset their argument, I reply that what they say is nought;
for a usurpation of right does not make right; and if it were so, it
might be proved in the same way that the Church is dependent on the
Empire; for the Emperor Otto restored the Pope Leo, and deposed
Benedict, leading him into exile to Saxony.[302]
[Footnote 302: Otto I. (964) deposed Benedict V. and restored Leo
VIII.]
XII.--But from _reason_ they thus argue: they take the principle laid
down in the tenth book of "_Philosophia Prima_,"[303] saying that all
things which belong to one genus are to be brought under one head,
which is the standard and measure of all that come under that genus.
But all men belong to one genus: therefore they are to be brought
under one head, as the standard and measure of them all. But the
Supreme Pontiff and the Emperor are men; therefore if the preceding
reasoning be true, they must be brought under one head. And since the
Pope cannot come under any other man, the result is that the Emperor,
together with all other men, must be brought under the Pope, as the
measure and rule of all; and then, what those who argue thus desire
follows.
[Footnote 303: Arist. _Metaph._ x. 1.--(W.)]
To overset this argument, I answer that they are right when they say
that all the individuals of one genus ought to be brought under one
head, as their measure; and that they are again right when they say
that all men belong to one genus, and that they are also right when
they argue from these truths that all men should be brought under one
head, taken from the genus man, as their measure and type. But when
they obtain the further conclusion concerning the Pope and the
Emperor, they fall into a fallacy touching accidental attributes.