Gregory

Profile

Saint Gregory the Great, pope of the Church, is cited by Dante in the tenth canto of Purgatory, where the inscription on the second terrace, among the examples of the proud, recalls the virtue of justice. The note to verse 75 specifies that the exalted virtue depicted there spurred Pope Gregory to his great victory over God: with his prayers and his weeping he obtained forgiveness for Trajan, whose justice and clemency had become legendary. The episode is narrated in the Lives of Gregory written by Paul the Deacon and John the Deacon, texts widely circulated in the Middle Ages. Dante fully accepted the legendary tradition, believing that Trajan had truly saved himself and placing him in Paradise among the righteous spirits. Gregory is also recalled in canto XXVIII of Paradise, among the blessed who laugh at their own earthly error concerning the order of the angelic choirs.