Spiritual Power vs. Earthly Power Theme Analysis

One of the more challenging aspects of Purgatorio is that the poem is replete with figures from Dante’s native Florence, Italy—both historical figures and people that Dante himself knew. While most of these figures remain obscure to modern readers, they provide real-world examples of how pervasive sin is and how necessary purgation (cleansing from sin) is for corrupt individuals and societies. In other words, though allegorical, Purgatorio was certainly intended as a contemporary critique. This is especially true when Dante attacks leaders of the church of his day. By portraying church leaders as sinners susceptible to worldly corruptions, Dante argues that his society blended spiritual authority with earthly power in ways that tended to harm everyday people—even eternally.

In his discussion of humanity’s inborn inclination to sin, Dante also highlights government as a necessary force to restrain human misbehavior. However, he’s well aware that earthly power—made up as it is by human rulers—is not infallible. Even the papacy, the rulers of the Catholic Church, are flawed. Marco Lombardo (a 13th-century Venetian whose soul Dante encounters in Purgatory) discusses the ideal ruler, who helps point sinful people heavenward. Because of sin, humanity needs “law […] to apply this brake, / A king is needed, with the skill to see / the towers of that true city[.]” By “that true city,” Marco means that earthly leaders should submit to God’s eternal rule and guide people accordingly. However, in practice, this seldom happens. In fact, spiritual rulers fail just as political ones do—and often, they fail because they conflate their spiritual duties with earthly ones. Marco goes on, “The laws are there. Who sets his hand to these? / There’s no one. For the shepherd out ahead, / though he can chew the cud / has not split hooves.” This imagery refers to an allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, particularly the Israelite priests’ responsibility to distinguish between clean and unclean animals. In short, Dante uses the image of the “shepherd” who “has not split hooves” to refer to a church hierarchy that doesn’t sufficiently distinguish between spiritual power and worldly power. The result is that, when the people see that their shepherds are mainly concerned about the world’s goods, they cannot be expected to aim any higher themselves: “So—as you may well see—bad government / is why the world is so malignant now.” If those who are meant to guide others’ souls cannot stay spiritually focused, how can their flocks be solely blamed?

Dante even uses the 13th-century Pope Adrian as his primary example of the sin of covetousness—in Adrian’s case,  a sin taking the specific form of ambition. He portrays Adrian as a Pope who become so enamored of earthly power that he seldom looked heavenward. Now, Adrian must spend time in Purgatory (the place where sins are cleansed before souls are admitted to Heaven) lying prone in the dust, unable to look to Heaven (“Because our eyes were fixed on earthly things, / at no point raised to look towards the heights, / so justice sinks them here within the earth”). Far from being immune to earthly sins, even popes are prime examples of them—and they’re perhaps especially susceptible to them, Dante suggests. Even more jarringly, near the end of Purgatorio, Dante describes the papacy in general as a “vixen” lusting madly for earthly power.

Part of a faction known as the White Guelphs, which favored Florentine independence from papal rule, Dante suffered exile for his political beliefs—so writing about them in the Divine Comedy was a high-stakes move for him. He doesn’t refrain from naming names of real-life figures with whom his readers would surely have been familiar. By far Dante’s biggest complaint, though, is that the spiritual rulers of his day, by going astray themselves, endanger the souls of those they’re meant to serve. He believes that by mixing political ambition with spiritual leadership, the church hierarchy fails in its duty guide humanity. Instead, it models an unholy preoccupation with earthly rewards, which ensnares vulnerable souls all the more.