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It was this memory that supported for centuries the fiction of the universal Roman Empire when in reality it existed no longer. Dante's De Monarchia deduced the theory of this empire conceived as the unity of a strong state.
In the 'De Monarchiâ' Dante bases a theory of universal government upon a definite conception of the nature and the destinies of humanity.
From the principles raised by Hildebrand and contested in the struggles of this duel, we may date those new conceptions of the two chief powers of Christendom which found final expression in the theocratic philosophy of the Summa and the imperial absolutism of the De Monarchiâ.
And as regards temporal power she adds perhaps borrowing the idea from Dante’s De Monarchia, and anticipating Napoleon’s dream that in order to ensure peace on earth, it is necessary that one supreme ruler should reign over the whole world. “La sua volontade e nostra pace,” sang a soul in Dante’s heaven of the Moon the lowest in the celestial system when questioned whether it was content with its lowly place.
Lorenzo Valla's famous declamation against the Donation of Constantine, which appeared during the pontificate of Nicholas, contained these reminiscences of the 'De Monarchiá': 'Ut Papa tantum vicarius Christi sit et non etiam Cæsaris ... tune Papa et erit et dicetur pater sanctus, pater omnium, pater ecclesæ.
And as we have seen, it is enshrined nine centuries after Claudian in the splendid eloquence of the De Monarchia, and yields such spent, such senile life as they possess, to the empires of Hapsburg and Bourbon.
See Plato's Republic; Aristotle's Politics, Cicero's De Republica; Thomas Aquinas' Of the Government of Principles; Dante's De Monarchia; Machiavelli's Prince; Jean Bodin's Of the Commonwealth; Hobbes' Leviathan; Filmer's Patriarcha; Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity; Locke's Civil Government; J.J. Rousseau's Social Contract; Bentham's Fragment on Government; J.S. Mills' Representative Government.
Nor would it here be right to omit some notice of the essay 'De Vulgari Eloquio, which, considering the date of its appearance, is no less original and indicative of a new spirit in the world than the treatise 'De Monarchiâ. It is an attempt to write the history of Italian as a member of the Romance Languages, to discuss the qualities of its several dialects, and to prove the advantages to be gained by the formation of a common literary tongue for Italy.
These are noticed in the Holy Scriptures; and it is upon their warrant that men have supposed no fifth monarchy or universal empire possible in an earthly sense; but that, whenever such an empire arises, it will have Christ for its head; in other words, that no fifth monarchia can take place until Christianity shall have swallowed up all other forms of religion, and shall have gathered the whole family of man into one fold under one all-conquering Shepherd.
These things caused the theorists, and particularly the Roman lawyers, no little trouble. It was difficult to reconcile the unity of the imperium with the multiplicity of kings. Some had recourse to the theory of delegation, and this seems to be the theory of the De Monarchia of Dante. But there was one contemporary of Dante who said a wise thing, prophetic of the future.
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