iv,  cap.  ai,  I.  37: —

"Tra  lor  cosi  per  cattivo  si  danna
II  misero  Giovanni  lor  delflno,
Che  rifiutd  I'  onor  di  tanta  manna,
Come  i  in  inferno  papa  C  el  est  i  no."


Canto  lit.         lieaiiini's  im  Ike  Inferno.
^7


poor-apiriledness  made  the  great  renouncement,     i^
I  forthwith  understood,  and  felt  assured,  that  this
was  the  company  of  those  caitiffs  displeasing  alike
to  God  and  to  His  enemies.
Among  the  Commentators  there  is  great  difference
of  opinion  as  to  the  identity  of  the  person  signified
by  Dante  in  the  above  passage.  Some,  among  whom
is  Benvenuto,  take  him  to  be  Esau,  who  made  the
great  renunciation  of  his  birthright,  but,  as  Scartazzini
points  out,  Dante  is  particular  in  specifying  that  the
personage  is  one  \vhom  he  knew  by  sight.  The  same
objection  forbids  our  accepting  the  opinion  of  those
who  maintain  that  Dante  is  indicating  the  Emperor
Diocletian,  who  abdicated  his  throne  in  his  old  age.
