Lateran

Description

The Lateran is mentioned by Dante in two passages of the poem. In Inferno XXVII 86, in the speech in which Guido da Montefeltro recalls the events of his own life, the expression "war near the Lateran" alludes to the Lateran palace as the historic seat of the papacy and of the pontifical court, a setting of political and factional struggles that directly touched the pontiffs. In Paradiso XXXI 35, within the description of the celestial court, Dante mentions the Lateran again in a comparison of the highest prestige, linking the magnificence of the blessed to the grandeur of the Roman apostolic see. Authorized critical notes further confirm that the Lateran ecumenical council of 1215 is cited as a historico-dogmatic point of reference in the commentary on Canto IV of the Inferno, with regard to the article of the Creed on the descent into Hell.