The Monarchia Controversy: An Historical Study with Accompanying Translations of Dante Alighieri's Monarchia, Guido Vernani's Refutation of the "Monarchia" Composed by Dante, and Pope John XXII's Bull Si fratrum (review)

Anthony Cassell's book is a magisterial edition of Dante's political treatise, and it comes at a time when discussions about the meaning of empire or the relative political power of religious groups in some countries, including our own, are on the forefront of current events and academic reflection. Besides arguing for the autonomy of the political vis à vis the church, the treatise contains the kernel of ideas that were literally ahead of their time. I am referring to the possible intellect that, together with the libero arbitrio, argues that humans are responsible for their own destiny, as we will see later in Valla, Pico, Machiavelli, and Vico. In fact, the notions of individual freedom, of ethical responsibility, of coherence with principles of civil law, and concord or balance between the spiritual and the material, as Dante expounded them in the Monarchia, did finally take root in Europe, though most had to wait for the Enlightenment.

As a specialist in this area of study, Cassell is known for his impeccable scholarship and critical thoroughness. The critical apparatus is imposing; there does not seem to be name or concept or textual variant, both of primary and secondary texts, which the author has not consulted. The organization of the volume is also well laid out. The first 105 pages are taken with Cassell's own "Dante's Monarchia and Vernani's Refutation in Context," which begins with a "Prolegomena: The Crisis and Its Major Players" that reads like the beginning of a great historical novel. And indeed, the complex and compelling characters are named Dante, Pope John XXII, Ludwig IV, Bertrand de Pujet, and Can Grande della Scala. Among the highlights, in the first chapter, "Tiara and Scepter," the key position occupied by Innocent III and his bull Venerabilem of 1202 in establishing as given, as law, that "the papacy had inherited all of Christ's 'royal' (regia) authority as both 'priest and king in the order of Melchisedech' . . . into a sweeping doctrine" (5). We are also made aware of the influence of the decretalists, which began with Gratian's codification of patristic texts, the decretum gratiani, as well as the role played by Ugoccione da Pisa, codifier of the doctrine known as "dualitas" or "dualism," which argued for the total independent origin of the two realms, secular and ecclesiastical government. Another great codifier of the terms of the dispute but theoretical antagonist is Hugo of St. Victor, an Augustinian responsible for developing the tradition of the temporal power of the pope. This ideology was continued by Alexander of Hales and Henry of Susa, "the extremist known as the 'Father of Canons'" (17), until we get to Dante's contemporary, Giles of Rome, who in fact was curialist and advisor to Boniface VIII. Dante's invectives against the pope become all the more justified when we learn that the bull Unam sanctum of 1302 would soon be included in the Corpus iuris canonici. John XXII's notorious Si fratrum, translated and annotated by Cassell, "written in mid-April [sic] and promulgated on March 31, 1317" (21) (the "April" may be a typo), went as far as to say that anyone who claimed the title without papal approval was excommunicated.

The second chapter, "Dante in the Eye of the Storm," gives a rich reconstruction of the historical dynamics of the time, when Dante was in exile. It is argued that perhaps Dante was even in France for a year or two, where he might have studied the arguments of the "dualists" more thoroughly. In preparing us for a close reading of Dante's political masterpiece, Cassell makes...