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The short treatise de Monarchia of Dante is by far the most

remarkable of mediaeval ideals, and bears the impress of the

great genius in whom Italy and the Middle Ages are so vividly

reflected. It is the vision of an Universal Empire, which is

supposed to be the natural and necessary government of the world,

having a divine authority distinct from the Papacy, yet

coextensive with it. It is not 'the ghost of the dead Roman

Empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof,' but the

legitimate heir and successor of it, justified by the ancient

virtues of the Romans and the beneficence of their rule. Their

right to be the governors of the world is also confirmed by the

testimony of miracles, and acknowledged by St. Paul when he

appealed to Caesar, and even more emphatically by Christ Himself,

Who could not have made atonement for the sins of men if He had

not been condemned by a divinely authorized tribunal.