The Medieval Church · c. 1312–1317
Monarchy
Monarchia
Dante Alighieri · 1265–1321
What it is
Three books arguing that a universal empire is necessary for peace, that Rome held its authority by right, and that the emperor receives it from God directly and not through the pope.
Why it lasted
The classic argument for the independence of secular authority, burned publicly in 1329 and placed on the Index in the sixteenth century.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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