TACK 
 
 IL GRAN RIFIUTO, 
 
 WHAT IT WAS, WHO MADE IT, AND HOW FATAL 
 
 TO 
 
 DANTE ALLIGHIERI. 
 
 A DISSERTATION ON VERSES FIFTY-EIGHT TO SIXTY-THREE OF THE 
 THIRD CANTO OF THE INFERNO. 
 
 BY 
 
 H, C. BARLOW, M.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, HER LAMENT AND VINDICATION; 
 
 LETTERATURA DANTESCA; 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TRUBNER & CO. 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1862.
 
 IL GRAN RIFIUTO. 
 
 Poscia ch'io v' ebbi alcun riconosciuto, 
 
 Guardai, e vidi 1' ombra di colui 
 
 Che fece, per viltate, il gran rifiuto. 
 Incontanente intesi, e certo fui, 
 
 Che quest' era la setta dei cattivi, 
 
 A Dio spiacenti ed a' nemici sui. 
 
 INFERNO, canto iii, verses 58 to 63. 
 
 IN that dread roar of cries, and sighs, and shrieks, 
 and groans, and curses which the vault of Hell re- 
 echoed as Dante approached the margin of its dark 
 abyss, was heard a sound of wail so overwhelming, 
 that the Poet paused to ask his conductor who they 
 were whom grief thus overcame. He is told they are 
 the shades of those who had done neither good nor 
 evil, who had lived without blame and without praise, 
 and that they are mingled with the quire of wicked 
 angels, who, in the celestial rebellion, neither fought 
 for God, nor against Him, "ma per se foro". Then, 
 looking around him, Dante sees a long troop of souls 
 preceded by a flag rushing through the starless air 
 with great rapidity , and having recognised several of 
 these whom he had personally known, his attention 
 is drawn to one in particular, whom he no sooner 
 
 209839,'J
 
 4 
 
 perceives than, immediately, he is aware who and 
 what they are 
 
 la setta de' cattivi 
 A Dio spiacenti ed a' nemici sui. 
 
 There is here a progression in turpitude. First come 
 those contemptible beings who leave no name either 
 for good or for ill, and are envious of all who do. 
 Next we have the depraved cowardly angels, and, in 
 the same category of baseness with them, are these 
 "cattivi" hateful alike to God and to his enemies, 
 the distinct representative of whom is that nameless 
 individual 
 
 Che fece, per viltate, il gran rifiuto. 
 
 Dante never divulged who this person was; he is the 
 type of a sect for which the Poet expresses the ut- 
 most contempt, and who are equally displeasing to 
 God and to his enemies. Not even his own son Pietro 
 knew who this shade was meant for, he only believed 
 that it was intended for Celestin V., who, from a 
 praying recluse, having been raised, much against his 
 will, in 1294, to the dignity of Pope, was craftily in- 
 duced by the Cardinal Gaetano, for the good of the 
 Church and of his own soul, to renounce it, which he 
 speedily did, and returned to his hermit mode of 
 living. This pious soul, well known for his sanctity 
 as Pietro da Morrone in the Abruzzi, was not only 
 revered in his lifetime for holiness of character and 
 power of working miracles, but in 1313, was made a 
 Romish Saint.
 
 Modern commentators are satisfied with holding 
 Celestin to be the person intended, but it was not so 
 with them of old. The writer of the Ottiino will not 
 venture on his own authority to affirm that Celestin 
 is meant, and refers to him only with "vuole alcun 
 dire". Boccaccio remarks "Chi costui fosse non si 
 sa assai certo." He mentions two opinions, one, that 
 Pietro Morrone was meant, another, that Esau, who 
 sold his birth -right, was intended, but prefers the 
 former, seeking to excuse Dante for putting a saint 
 in Hell, by remarking that he had not been canonized 
 when Dante wrote. This excuse, however, will not 
 now serve, for it has been shown that the Inferno, as 
 we have it now, was not finished till after 1313. 
 Benvenuto da Imola is very positive that Dante neither 
 did nor could mean Celestin "Sed breviter, quidquid 
 dicatur, mihi videtur quod auctor nullo modo loquatur 
 nee loqui possit de Ccelestino. Primo quia licet Cce- 
 lestinus fecerit maximam renunciationem, non tamen 
 ex vilitate fecit, immo ex magnanimitate." In this 
 opinion the majority of commentators are agreed, and 
 it was also that of Petrarca, than whom there could 
 not be a better judge. In his "Trattato di vita soli- 
 taria", he praises Celestin for this act "che per no- 
 bilta d'animo, e non per vilta, haves se abbandonato il 
 mondo, e se fosse dato alia contemplatione di Dio" 
 (see the passage as noticed by Daniello). 
 
 In the "Nidobeatina" we read as an original note, 
 not found in the "Vendeliniana" "Non e da credere 
 che Dante intendesse di questo , Fra Piero , lo quale e
 
 6 
 
 canonizato per Santo. Ma intese di Diocletiano Im- 
 peratore, che rifiuto 1'Imperio, secondo Eutropio" 
 (lib. ix). Buti also protests against ascribing "vil- 
 tate" to Celestin "ma quanto alia verita non fu cosi, 
 che per vilta rinunciasse, ma per vera umilta" Lan- 
 dino suggests that the Poet may have left this an 
 open question, not intending any one individual in 
 particular. Venturi objected to Esau, chiefly because 
 aUuded to in Pard. viij, 130, as characteristic of re- 
 probates, and since Dante could not have known 
 him; but though, with Vellutello and Daniello, he 
 thought that Celestin was meant, yet he considered his 
 renunciation as the result of greatness of mind, not 
 of vilta. Volpi in naming Celestin had also doubts on 
 the subject, adding "come alcuni vogliono". Gio- 
 vanni Villani, Machiavelli, and others who have 
 written about Celestin, have regarded him with ve- 
 neration, and spoken of him with respect. During 
 his lifetime he was much sought after for his sanctity, 
 and many desired to follow the rules of the order of 
 Celestins which he established. When he had passed 
 the full measure of human life, at the age of 79, or 
 as others state 72, he was certainly unfitted by his 
 years, no less than by his retired and meditative 
 habits , for the government of the church to which he 
 had been chosen. 
 
 After his abdication, as many Christians held him 
 to be the true Pope and his successor an usurper, 
 Bonifazio put him in prison, where he soon died, not 
 without suspicion of having been murdered, and when
 
 the body, which, by the Pope's orders, had been 
 buried deep to avoid discovery, was brought to light, 
 a nail was found to have been driven through the skull 
 (see Bosso 'Storia d'ltalia', V. xv, 1. v, c. 12). 
 
 As Bonifazio VIII became Dante's political enemy, 
 the resignation of Celestin has been regarded as having 
 had a remote influence on the ruin of the Poet and 
 his party. But Celestin in renouncing an office for 
 which he was unfitted and never ought to have been 
 chosen, acted conscientiously, and showed that he 
 preferred the good of the church, and of his own soul 
 above all worldly considerations. What he did was 
 done for the love of God, and therefore he cannot be 
 intended as the type of those who are especially hate- 
 ful to Him. The state of mind which the rules of his 
 order inculcated, divine contemplation, was surely 
 too intimately associated with Dante's own heaven, 
 for him to personify their author as the chief of the 
 cattivi. We must remember that Dante was himself 
 a contemplative theologian. Well may Barcellini, in 
 his "Industrie Filologiche " , exclaim "On what 
 grounds could Dante, who merits the title of Theo- 
 logical Poet, imagine that, by his rinunciation , Ce- 
 lestin sinned like that wicked and slothful servant 
 whom we read of in the Gospel." 
 
 In fact it is not probable that the individual here 
 alluded to by Dante was a member of any religious 
 order. The Poet no where shows a vindictive anti- 
 pathy to the religious orders. It is believed, at one 
 time, that he had the intention of joining them. But
 
 8 
 
 these "cattivi" with their capo squadro are the special 
 objects of his most withering scorn. What this shade 
 was, so also were they, for all followed the same 
 banner, which was not that of the Church. 
 
 Dante left on record, that he considered his election 
 to the office of Prior of the Republic , which he held 
 from June 15th to August 15th, 1300, to have been 
 the occasion and beginning of all his troubles. This 
 was nearly six years after Bonifazio became Pope. 
 He does not charge the pontiff with having originated 
 them, much less his emissary Carlo di Valois, but 
 rather his fellow citizens, 
 
 Li cittadin della citta partita. 
 
 It is to the discordia prevailing among these, and 
 more especially to the conduct of la parte selvaggia, 
 the Bianchi, or moderate Guelfs, with whom Dante 
 was associated, in opposition to the Neri, who were 
 the more violent and dangerous, and the consequent 
 excesses of the latter 
 
 Con la forza di tal che teste piaggia, 
 
 that Dante ascribes the proscription of himself and 
 his party. 
 
 Where Dante does bestow a passing notice on 
 Celestin, it is free from bitterness of spirit (Inf. xxviii, 
 105-8). Bonifazio speaking of him is made to say, 
 that his predecessor had little love for the keys , and 
 did not care to keep them a simple fact well con- 
 trasted with his own greediness, who loved these
 
 keys so well , that he sought them with fraud and re- 
 tained them by violence. 
 
 The political sense of the Divina Commedia has 
 opened up to us at the commencement of the poem a 
 space of time extending over several years. There is 
 here an allegorical sketch of the most important period 
 of the Poet's political career, and we might well ex- 
 pect that those persons whose conduct had been fatal 
 to his prospects and his political hopes would, in some 
 way, figure on the scene. This seems necessary to 
 give to the tableau that completeness which the sub- 
 ject required. In the regions of Hell, the Poet has 
 recourse to prophetic prevision, a faculty of the 
 damned which affords him an unfailing means of over- 
 taking offenders living at the period of the vision ; but 
 in the ante-infernal region, and before Acheron is 
 passed, this mode is not available. Living characters 
 here occur to mind, who are too intimately associated 
 with the political allegory to be omitted, and they are 
 alluded to as nameless shades. This hypothesis is 
 borne out by analogy, and confirmed by history. 
 
 The "cattivo coro degli angeli", as is here related, 
 lost their state and place in heaven through their pu- 
 silanimous neutrality. The "cattivi" fell from a similar 
 cause. The former were those who would not, when 
 required , support the authority of the divine govern- 
 ment; the latter, by analogy, are those who would not, 
 at a critical moment, support the government of the 
 Florentine Republic. We must not lose sight of the 
 historical character which Dante has given to his
 
 10 
 
 introduction, the things there alluded to have reference 
 to passing events. 
 
 Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villani, the contem- 
 poraries of Dante, who also took part in these events, 
 state in their Chronicles, that, to the pusilanimous 
 neutrality of the party Bianchi, with w r hich Dante was 
 connected, all the misfortunes which overwhelmed 
 him and them were owing. 
 
 The recognized head of this party was Messer Vieri 
 de' Cerchi, who, with his wealth, family, and sup- 
 porters , was the most potent person in the Republic, 
 virtually ruled the authorities, and having the people 
 also on his side, possessed all the necessary means of 
 controling the course of events, had his courage and 
 capacity been equal to the occasion. But they were 
 not: in these qualities himself and his family signally 
 failed, and the historians charge both them and him 
 with the identical guilt "viltate", which involved the 
 Bianchi and their recreant chief in all the horrors of 
 a present Hell , and the prospects of a future one. 
 
 The head of the Neri was Messer Corso Donati, a 
 nobleman of reckless and unprincipled character, and 
 much in favour with the Pope. He was the personal 
 enemy of the Cerchi, and treated Messer Vieri with 
 insulting arrogance. The contest between the two 
 parties threatened to involve Florence in the greatest 
 disasters. Dante sought to prevent them by banishing 
 the chiefs of each. The Pope had previously sent for 
 Messer Vieri to Rome, exhorting him to become 
 friends with his opponent; on this occasion, says
 
 11 
 
 Villani, he showed so little judgement, and so much 
 obstinacy and strangeness of manner, affirming he 
 was at enmity with no one, that the Pope took much 
 oft'ence both against him and his party (Vill. 1. viii, 38). 
 When other efforts at pacification had failed, and the 
 Bianchi were exposed to the vengeance of their ene- 
 mies, aided by Carlo di Valois and his French ca- 
 valry, the Cerchi were exhorted by the Signori to 
 defend themselves and their party, but they would 
 not, Messer Vieri de' Cerchi not only refused, but set 
 so bad an example, shewing an utter want of confi- 
 dence in himself and his friends, that the people were 
 discouraged, the rulers remained helpless, and the 
 city was subjected to all the horrors of a town taken 
 by assault. A bold and patriotic policy would have 
 prevented these evils. Florence had sufficient means 
 to set Carlo di Valois with his troop of twelve hundred 
 cavalry at defiance, and to put down Messer Corso, 
 and only needed an energetic leader to direct her 
 arms. Dante, who had gone to the Pope as ambassa- 
 dor, was detained by him in Rome, for Bonifazio well 
 knew that the Poet's presence in Florence would have 
 defeated his treacherous schemes. The Cerchi showed 
 themselves arrant cowards "ma i savi uomini di- 
 ceano: E' son mercatanti, e naturalmente sono vili, 
 e i loro nemici sono maestri di guerra e crudeli uo- 
 mini" "e volendo i Cerchi signoreggiare, furono 
 signoreggiati" (Dino Compagni 1. i, 27). Dino ex- 
 pressly states that the power and influence of the 
 Cerchi were so great in Florence, that they might
 
 12 
 
 easily have obtained the Signoria, which they were 
 counselled to do, but they refused "piu per vilta che 
 per pieta" (Dino 1. i, 19). And this is confirmed by 
 Villani who states "per lo seguito grande che aveano 
 i Cerchi, il reggimento della citta era quasi in loro 
 podere" (1. viij, 38). Politically they were "di 
 grande affare, possenti e di grandi parentadi, e ric- 
 chissimi." Personally they were "niorbidi, salva- 
 tiche, e 'ngrati, siccorne gente venuti in piccol tempo 
 in grande stato e podere" (Vill. 1. viii, 38). Dante 
 himself did not love them, and it was from principle 
 rather than personal affection that he joined their 
 party, which was that of the people , by whose aid he 
 hoped to preserve the peace of the Republic. He had 
 once attempted to form a third party which should 
 embrace both moderate guelfs and ghibelins, but not 
 succeeding he joined the Bianchi "accorgendosi che 
 per se medesimo non poteva una terza parte tenere, 
 la quale giusta, la ingiustizia delle altre abbattesse, 
 con quella si accosto, nella quale, secondo il suo giu- 
 dizio, era meno di malvagita" (Boccaccio). 
 
 On the 15th October 1301, new priori came into 
 office at Florence, of whom Dino Compagni was one. 
 The Neri pretended to aid them with their advice, 
 and, though suspected, were listened to "we gave 
 them good words," says Dino, "when we ought to 
 have been sharpening our swords" (1. ii, 31). At- 
 tempts at reconciliation were regarded as covert acts 
 of treachery. "La gente che teriea co' Cerchi, ne 
 prese vilta, dicendo: Non e da darsi fatica, che pace
 
 13 
 
 sara. E i loro avversari pensavano pur di compiere 
 le loro malizie" (ibid.). 
 
 When Carlo di Valois and his followers had entered 
 Florence, the Signori elected forty citizens of both 
 parties to consult for the safety of the state. Those 
 who intended evil remained silent "gli altri aveano 
 perduto il vigor e" (Dino). "Baldino Falconieri, uomo 
 vile, dicea: Signori, io sto bene, perch' io non dormia 
 sicuro: mostrando vilta a' suoi avversari." Messer 
 Lapo Salterellf, a bianco odious to Dante (Pard. xv, 
 128), sought to obtain favour of the Neri by blaming 
 the Signori. In another place Dino exclaims of him 
 "0 Messer Lapo Salterelli, minacciatore e battitori de' 
 rettori, che non ti serviano nelle tue questioni, ove 
 t'armasti? in casa i Pulci, stando nascoso." Messer 
 Manetto Scali, however, did arm his people and for- 
 tify his palace, but was cajoled into inactivity by the 
 Spini (see Dino 1. ii, 34. 35. 45). Even after Carlo 
 di Valois had thrown off the mask of pretended good 
 will, and Corso Donati with his reckless rabble had 
 burst into the city, the pusilanimous Cerchi would do 
 nothing to oppose him. Messer Sciatta de' Cancellieri, 
 captain of the Florentines, offered, with three hundred 
 horse, to go and seize Corso, but Vieri de' Cerchi 
 replied, "let him come" trusting to the people for 
 protection, but the people were without a leader and 
 dispirited (Villani 1. viii, 48). "I Neri, conoscendo i 
 nemici loro vili e che aveano perduto il vigore, s'avac- 
 ciarono di prendere la terra" (Dino 1. ii, 38). The 
 horrors began : pilage, arson, and murder. The Priori
 
 14 
 
 ordered the great bell over their palace to be sounded, 
 but it was of no avail "perche la gente sbigottita 
 non trasse di casa i Cerchi. Non usci uomo a cavallo 
 ne armato." "I Cerchi si rifuggirono nelle loro 
 case, stando colle porte chiuse " (1. ii, 41.42). The 
 Cerchi were paralysed by fear and avarice "tra 
 per la paura e per 1'avarizia, i Cerchi di niente si 
 providono, e erano i principali della discordia. E 
 per non dar mangiare a' fanti , e per loro vilta, 
 niuna difesa ne riparo feciono nella'loro cacciata" 
 G. ii, 45). 
 
 Dino Compagni, who shared the Poet's policy, 
 shared his feelings also, and long and bitter are his 
 execrations on those faint hearted citizens, who like 
 the "cattivo coro degli angeli", in this hour of fiery 
 trial, would do nothing for the defence of the Republic 
 and themselves. "0 malvaggi cittadini, procurator"! 
 della distruzione della vostra citta, dove 1'avete con- 
 dotta!" Messer Berto Frescobaldi was indebted to 
 the Cerchi for the loan of a large sum of money. 
 Dino exclaims "Ove Ii meritasti? ove comparisti?" 
 And of Manetto Scali, a relative of the Cerchi, who 
 was induced to do nothing, he says "ove prendesti 
 1'arme? ove e il seguito tuo? ove sono i cavalli co- 
 perti? Lasciastiti sottomettere a coloro, che di niente 
 erano appresso a te." And to the people he says 
 "And you popolani who desired to obtain the offices 
 of the government, and to reap the honours, and to 
 occupy the palaces of the rulers , where was your de- 
 fence, blaming your friends and praising your ene-
 
 15 
 
 mies, and that merely to save yourselves" "sola- 
 mente per campare!" (1. ii, 45. 46). 
 
 Can we doubt, after these details, who the cattivi 
 were, "che mai non fur vivi" and who he was, 
 their type and chief 
 
 Chefece, per viltate, il gran rifiuto. 
 
 M. Fauriel in his "Vie de Dante", has, in few 
 words, stated the substance of this unpardonable con- 
 duct (vol. i, p.' 176). "Le peuple florentin avait couru 
 aux armes au premier eclat de ces hostilites; mais 
 personne ne se presenta pour le commander. Les 
 chefs du parti des Blancs, les Cerchi, avaient rejete 
 toutes les propositions courageuses qui leur avaient 
 ete faites, et ne songeant qu'a eux (per se foro) s'e- 
 taient contentes de se fortifier dans leurs palais. Les 
 prieurs etaient des homines incapables de prendre un 
 parti vigoureux, et autour desquels chacun hesitait a 
 se ranger." Had the Cerchi acted like brave and re- 
 solute men, Florence would have escaped the miseries 
 that followed the government would not have passed 
 to the creatures of the Neri Messer Cante Gabrielli 
 would not have been made podesta six hundred 
 citizens would not have been sent into exile and 
 Dante would have been spared the misfortunes that 
 befell him. But Messer Vieri refused to do his duty, 
 and therefore all these things followed. Well might 
 this be called 'the great refusal', for such indeed it 
 was by its fatal effects.
 
 16 
 
 An attentive consideration of the entire passage, 
 Inf. iii, 52-63, suggests these reflections. Several of 
 the souls which followed the restless banner were 
 well known to Dante, a circumstance in favour of 
 their being Florentines, once his fellow citizens. They 
 all gathered to it, as one troop. This insegna has a 
 meaning, and was not that of the Church, nor, as 
 Buti suggests, "della carnalita". 
 
 Dante says 
 
 correva tanto ratto 
 
 Che d'ogni posa mi pareva indegna. 
 
 If any of those who followed this banner were Flo- 
 rentines, it is probable that they all were, for it was 
 one troop, distinguished by its proper ensign. The 
 banner therefore was probably the ensign of the Flo- 
 rentine Republic. Its restlessness would go far to 
 transform this probability into a certainly, for such 
 was the character of the government 
 
 Quanta volte del tempo che rimembre 
 
 Legge, moneta, e uficio , e costume 
 
 Hai tu mutato, e rinnovato membre! 
 E se ben ti ricorda, e vidi lume, 
 
 Vedrai te simigliante a quella inferma, 
 
 Che non puo trovar posa in su le piume, 
 Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma. (Purg.vi, 145-151.) 
 
 This might all be summed up in the movement of 
 the flag 
 
 Che d'ogni posa mi pareva indegna. 
 
 The troop of souls which followed the banner was so 
 long, that the Poet says he could not have thought
 
 17 
 
 death had slain so many. This cannot be meant in 
 reference to all mankind from the beginning of the 
 world, which would be absurd, but to a certain class 
 of persons only, to those whose banner this was; Dante 
 could not have believed that so many of these were 
 dead. After he had recognized several of them, he per- 
 ceives the shade of him who for want of courage and 
 of confidence in his own powers and resources , made 
 a most disasterous refusal, for such his words imply. 
 
 This individual he does not name, any more than 
 the others whom he knew, probably because, like the 
 "cattivo coro degli angeli", they had not died, and 
 therefore the Poet might well be surprised to see so 
 many of them here, as if they had. When he per- 
 ceives the shade of this person he knows at once who 
 they all are, "la setta de' cattivi" displeasing alike to 
 God and to his enemies, and whom Dante, in his 
 soul, abhorred. 
 
 The word viltate is used by the Poet in the sense 
 of cowardice, and is applied by him to those of whom 
 better things had been expected; it is the opposite to 
 " ar 'dire e franchezza ". Thus Virgil reproves the faint 
 heartedness of Dante, when, doubting of his own 
 powers to sustain the perils of the proposed voyage 
 through Hell, he seems disposed to decline the under- 
 taking. Virgil, perceiving his motive, says 
 
 L'anima tua e da viltate offesa. 
 
 And when he had related the celestial assistance on 
 which Dante might reckon, he exclaims
 
 18 
 
 Perche tanta viltd nel cuore allette? 
 Perche ardire e franchezza non hai? 
 
 But a still more remarkable passage in which viltate 
 is used in the sense of shameful timidity, or cowardice, 
 is that where the Poet alludes to the pusilanimous 
 conduct of Frederic, King of Sicily, who had joined 
 the Ghibelin League, but on the death of the Emperor 
 Henry VII, refused to continue his support, declined 
 to become its chief, and would not accept the signoria 
 of Pisa 
 
 Vedrassi 1'avarizia e la viltate 
 Di quel che guarda 1'Isola del fuoco, 
 Dove Anchise fini la lunga etate. (Purg. xix, 130-3.) 
 
 This , iii fact , is so applicable to the shade of him , 
 Che fece, per viltate, il gran rifiuto, 
 
 that some expositors have supposed the King of Sicily 
 to be here intended , but Frederic did not die till years 
 after Dante, in 1337, nor is it probable that the Poet 
 here alludes to him. 
 
 The Abbate Barcellini proposed the brother of 
 Giano della Bella, to whom, on the latter having been 
 driven from Florence, the people had recourse as his 
 successor, but who refused to be their leader. The 
 Padre Lombardi, w r ho doubted if Dante had ever 
 seen Celestin, following up this view, named M. Tor- 
 rigiano de' Cerchi. Recently , the Editor of the Com- 
 mentary by Buti has suggested Augustulus, "colla de- 
 posizione del quale morl fra noi la maesta del romano 
 imperio", but this, I think, is wandering far away
 
 19 
 
 from the intention of the Poet, we might as well go 
 back to the older hypothesis of Diocletian. 
 
 The sense of the word "cattivi", here used by 
 Dante, is vili, with an especial reference to dis- 
 loyalty, as is shown by the context. The "cattivo 
 coro degli angeli", who were neither loyal nor re- 
 bellious, were disleali e vili, and sought only to save 
 themselves, "per se foro". So "la setta de' cattivi" 
 were uoinini disleali e vili, and hence are mingled 
 with them. They were cowards , without energy of 
 character, and lost to every sense of public duty. 
 Now this, as we have seen, was precisely the character 
 of the Florentine Bianchi, especially of those who 
 followed the Cerchi, Dino Compagni ascribes vilta to 
 them all. They acted not the part of men , they had 
 lost all manly vigour; Dante declares they never had 
 any "che mai non fur vivi." Dante and Dino are 
 here agreed, "la setta de' cattivi", of the former, cor- 
 respond to the "malvagi cittadini" of the latter, the 
 most conspicuous among whom was the faint hearted 
 and disloyal Messer Vieri de' Cerchi. He and they 
 were equally displeasing to the opposite parties , God 
 and his enemies. Like the "cattivo coro", they would 
 fight for neither one nor the other, "ma per se foro". 
 In a political sense they were alike hateful to the 
 Grhibelins and the Guelfs, to the Emperor and the 
 Pope. Dante, who held the pusillanimous in abomi- 
 nation, had a supreme contempt for them all; this 
 we can well understand from his own frank and fer- 
 vent character.
 
 20 
 
 E quel che piu ti gravera le spalle, 
 Sara la compagnia malvagia e scempia, 
 Con la qual tu cadrai in questa valle. (Pard. xvii, 61-3.) 
 
 When Dante completed his Inferno, it is more than 
 probable that Messer Vieri de' Cerchi had departed 
 to the region of shades. He was a man passed the 
 middle age at the battle of Campaldino in 1289, where 
 he commanded a body of Florentine Cavalry. Villani 
 relates, that, although suffering in one of his legs, 
 possibly from gout, being required to name those 
 of his own sesto who should first attack the enemy, 
 he named only himself, his son and his nephews, or 
 grandsons (nepoti) (lib. vii, c. 130). Now, if he had 
 grandsons old enough to take the field in 1289 , he 
 must then have been upwards of sixty, and it is not 
 probable, therefore, that his life extended much be- 
 yond the year 1302, when he would have been nearly 
 four score. But admitting that the Chronicler meant 
 the nephews of Messer Vieri, who was the head of 
 the family (though his naming them for the action of 
 greatest danger, along with himself and son, would 
 imply that he considered them as his own) even on this 
 showing, he may well be supposed to have been nearly 
 fifty, and thirteen years afterwards to have entered 
 at least his sixtieth year, so that as it has been shown 
 that the Inferno was not finished till after the death 
 of Pope Clement V, in 1313, it is much more pro- 
 bable than not, that Messer Vieri de' Cerchi was then 
 also among the departed. But to return to the 
 "cattivT.
 
 21 
 
 On the confines of Hell , these outcasts are carried 
 along with an irresistable whirling motion, headed by 
 a banner that disdains any rest. 
 
 Dante often assigns punishments with a sort of 
 poetic justice drawn from the special offences com- 
 mitted. Those who with shameful quiescence and 
 cowardly torpidity, in the hour of extreme peril, in- 
 stead of coming forth like living, energetic men, to 
 the support of the government and the defence of 
 their city, skulked and hid and kept out of the way, 
 who shut themselves up in their houses, and even 
 pretended to be friends with their enemies, these fear- 
 stricken Florentines, dead to reason, which is always 
 on the side of duty, and therefore destitute of their 
 proper life, for, as saith the Master, "vivere e ragione 
 usare", these "cattivi", scared by false inferences, 
 and neglecting alike their obligations and their inter- 
 ests, who would not rally to the rescue of the Re- 
 public, and gather round the banner of the Gon- 
 faloniere, are here for ever rushing after it as if 
 nothing could stop them. And that conspicuous, well 
 known figure 
 
 Che fece, per viltate, il gran rifiuto, 
 
 is their nameless chief, whose refusal to defend the 
 party Bianchi was the ruin of the Poet. Well might 
 Dante recognize him again, and thus know who and 
 what the souls in that long troop of loathsome slug- 
 gards were, by Heaven rejected and by Hell refused. 
 Thus , in a few significant verses , Dante has given
 
 22 
 
 an epitome of that political revolution which it is 
 necessary to bear in mind, in order to understand the 
 full meaning of his exordium. And he has done so 
 in the way most congenial to his own lofty spirit, 
 pointing distinctly to the individual who, more than 
 any other, deserved the character which he has so 
 forcibly drawn, but whom he would not name, righty 
 judging his name unworthy of record in Italy's im- 
 perishable Book. 
 
 ONORATE L'ALTISSIMO POETA.
 
 Merlin, printed by linger Brothers, Printer* tu the Kinp.
 
 A 000 049 609 1