The Divine Comedy

Throughout the Middle Ages, politics was dominated by the struggle between the two greatest powers of that age: the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.Each claimed to be of divine origin and to be indispensable to the welfare of mankind. The cause of this struggle was the papal claim that it also had authority over temporal matters, that is, the ruling of the government and other secular matters.In Dante's time, there were two major political factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.Dante found a symbol who represented the two key institutions: the papacy and the empire, destined by God to save mankind.