Melchizedek

Profile

In the Heaven of Saturn or in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, Charlemagne recalls the solicitude with which the ancient kings watched over their peoples, and at Par. VIII 125 he remembers that, even if in different forms, before Abraham others exercised functions of guidance: "a different Melchizedek and a different one he." The verses do not describe the scene nor place the figure in a precise point of the celestial kingdom, but cite it solely as a historical and typological example, distinct in function and in time from Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High, who led Abraham into the promised land. The authorized notes, dedicated to the passage on the social life of men, clarify only the demonstrative intent of the tercet: to show, with the recollection of figures such as Melchizedek, the historical variety of governments willed by providence. The entry adds no chronological data nor further placement, limiting itself to what the verses and the notes document.