Constantine

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Constantine is mentioned in the Commedia in two principal passages. In Inferno XXVII, 94, Dante recalls the episode of his conversion, reporting that «come Costantin chiese Silvestro» entered into that act from which the wealth of the Church originated. In Paradiso VI, 1-3, Justinian opens his speech recalling that «poscia che Costantin l'aquila volse / contr'al corso del ciel», that is, turned the imperial insignia in the direction opposite to the celestial motion, transferring the seat of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium, an event accomplished in 330. Dantesque notes specify that with this act Constantine «dette al papa il primo dominio temporale». His figure is thus evoked by Dante as the architect of the donation that made the Church politically powerful, the cause – according to Dante's vision – of corruption. Dante distinguishes Constantine's good personal intention, and his own conversion, from the negative historical effects of the deed, configuring the emperor as a providential hinge between the history of the Empire and that of the Church.