"" Fondata in casta ed umil povertate, Ricchezze tante? or Costantin non torna; Ma tolga il mondo tristo che 'l sostene." The apparent anti-papal spirit of these sonnets cannot be surpassed. Many of his epistles are in the same strain*; yet who has ever called the religious principles of Petrarch in question, or believed him the enemy of papacy? The satire of Boccaccio is still more abundant, licentious and poignant. These three illustrious geniuses, in a manner contemporaries, men of very different character, but in unison on this one theme, formed the great triumvirate whose writings most powerfully nourished the seeds of the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century, and, unwittingly, of Protestantism and the hydra Dissent. There is yet an inquiry to be made. Was there at that period an extreme Ghibelline party in Italy to whom no satire or outrage upon the sovereign pontiff, the chief of the Guelphs, could appear too violent, and whose anti-papal views were directed to changes of a bolder cast than the mere correction of notorious clerical abuses? Was it of the members of such a party, or of reformers wise, bold and temperate, that the supposed sect, the Setta d'Amore, was composed? Professor Rossetti maintains that such a sect existed; that it had a secret object and a conventional language, of which he has discovered the key; that it was constituted on the plan of the ancient mysteries, and had a ceremonial which originated in Egypt, and is handed down to us in the rites of modern masonry; that Dante was a member of this sect, and that his figurative journey through the three regions of the spiritual world is a picture of his own Initiation, which is obscurely indicated in the Vita Nuova, and fully developed in the Commedia ; and further, that the Beatrice of the Vita Nuova, Convito and Commedia, is a personification of the summum arcanum, the secret object of that society. We immediately and anxiously ask, what then was the supposed secret object of these Freemasons of the thirteenth century? Did it resemble that of the continental masons five hundred years later, as exposed by Barruel* and Robison†, or may we hope that it is characterized in the old verses given by Picart? "Fidèle à Dieu, fidèle au roi, A sa patrie, à sa bergère; Loyal au jeu, ferme au tournoi, Plein d'indulgence pour son frère, Tendre ami de l'humanité, Esclave de la vérité, C'est à ces traits que nous reconnaitrons Les véritables Francs-Maçons." These are inquiries and doubts that are forced upon us by the perfectly original ideas of Professor Rossetti, which he has * Mémoires du Jacobinisme, 1793. + Proofs of a Conspiracy, 1793. Cérémonies Religieuses, 1723. supported with great learning and eloquence, in his Comento Analitico della Commedia' and 'Lo Spirito Antipapale del Medio Evo'; but as yet his system has failed to convince the critics, and has met with formidable opposition. A new work of his, La Beatrice di Dante,' is about to appear, and is impatiently looked for both by friends and opponents of his interpretation of Dante, who are unanimous in their admiration of his talents, and equally desirous of further information on many points connected with his novel idea of the amatory poetry of the Middle Ages. Of this new work we hope he may say, "Vedrai Beatrice; ed ella pienamente Ti torrà questa e ciascun altra brama." (Purg. xv. 77.) In the mean time, without adverting to his peculiar views, it may not be unprofitable to show the foundation of our own, by giving a few extracts from Dante, which are intended to establish his veneration of the Church of Rome, his respect and deference towards its head, his abhorrence of schism, his religious and political liberality, and his desire of the correction in the Church of abuses only, and the restoration of its primitive virtue. Dante, in the epistle sent to Kan Grande along with the Paradiso, says, "The end of the work and its parts may be considered more than one, inasmuch as it concerns what is of nearer or remoter interest; but laying aside all subtle investigation, it may be said briefly, that the end of the whole work and of each part is to deliver those who are living in this world from their state of misery, and to direct them to a state of happiness. Finis totius et partis esse posset multiplex, scilicet propinquus et remotus. Sed omissa subtili in d vestigatione, dicendum est breviter, quod finis totius et partis est, removere viventes in hac vita de statu miseriæ, et perducere ad statum felicitatis." He thus expressly declares that the ideal, spiritual world, peopled by the souls of the dead, represented in the Commedia, is also a picture of the world of the living, viewed under three different conditions; under its actual state of misery (Inferno), its imaginable future state of amendment (Purgatorio), and finally, in a state of happiness (Paradiso). The Commedia is understood in this double sense by the excellent old commentator Eenvenuto da Imola : "Materia sive subjectum hujus libri est status animæ humanæ tam vivente corpore quam a corpore separatæ. Qui status universaliter est triplex; sicut auctor facit tres partes de toto opere. Quædam enim anima est cum peccatis; et illa, dum vivit cum corpore, est mortua moraliter loquendo, et sic est in Inferno morali: dum est separata a corpore est in Inferno essentiali, si obstinata insanabiliter moriatur. Alia anima est quæ recedit a vitiis: ista dum est in corpore, est in Purgatorio morali, seu in actu pœnitentiæ in quo purgat sua peccata: separata vero est in Purgatorio essentiali. Alia anima est quæ est in perfecto habitu virtutis, et jam vivens in corpore est quodammodo in Paradiso quia est in quadam felicitate quantum est possibile in hac vita miseriæ: separata autem est in Paradiso cœlesti ubi est vera et perfecta felicitas, ubi fruitur visione Dei."* In an indirect manner Dante declares his Inferno to be Italy; for the city of Dis (Inf. c. viii.) is clearly Florence †, and the Pozzo centrale di Malebolge (Inf. c. xxxi.) is as * Ozanam, p. 77. + Com. Anal. v. i. p. 260. |