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The Medieval Church · c. 1312–1317
Monarchy
Monarchia
Dante Alighieri · 1265–1321
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What it is
Three books arguing that a universal empire is necessary for peace, that Rome held its authority by right, and that the emperor receives it from God directly and not through the pope.
Why it lasted
The classic argument for the independence of secular authority, burned publicly in 1329 and placed on the Index in the sixteenth century.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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