51


Per  quests  andata,  ♦  onde  gli  dai  tu  vanto,  25

Intese  cose,  che  furon  cagione
Di  sua  vittoria  e  del  papalc  ammanto.
Thou  sayeat  that  (jEneas)  the  father  uf  Sylvius,
while  still  subject  to  corruption  (i.e.  living),  went
to  the  iniiDortal  world,  and  was  there  in  (he  flesh.
Wherefore  if  the  Adversary  of  all  evil  (God) — con-
sidering the  mighty  outgrowth  that  was  to  issue
from  him  {^neas,  namely,  the  Roman  hmpire),
and  the  who  (the  Roman  people),  and  the  what
{i.e.  their  greatness)— was  gracious  to  him,  it
does  not  appear  unmeet  for  a  man  of  intelligence :
since  he  (tineas)  was  chosen  in  the  limpyrean
Heaven  to  be  the  progenitor  of  great  Rome  and
its  fimpire :  the  which  (Rome)  and  the  which
(Empire) — if  one  would  speak  the  truth — were  or-
dained as  the  holy  place  where  sits  the  successor
of  Peter  the  supreme.  During  this  journey,  for
which  thou  gives!  him  due  honour  (in  the  .lineiil),
he  learned  things  which  were  the  cause  of  his  vic-
tory {over  Turnus)  and  of  the  Papal  Mantle.
Dante  wishes  it  to  be  understood  that  the  great
[deeds,  and  the  heroes  that  made  Rome  famous,  were
preparation  to  render  her  worthy  to  become  at  a
future  time  the  seat  of  the  pontifical  dignity,

Dante   next   argues   that    because   St.   Paul    was
(caught  up  to  Heaven  while  alive,  that  is  no  reason
vhy  he  (Dante)  should  be  able  to  go  there,  for  St,


*  Per  questa  andata,  otidt  gli  dai  lu  vanio,  etc. :  Dante  is  rc'
'ferring  to  Virgil's  description  of  the  entrance  to  Hades,  in  M


VI,  127-131  :—

"  Noctes  atque  dies  palet  airi  Janua  Dilis,
Sed  revncare  f;radum,  supcrasque  vvadere  ad  auraa.
