[86] Vide Dante, Inferno, canto iv.
[87] The fact that the work was most in repute in the Eastern Church, and that several of the leading Western fathers wrote of it in disparaging terms, may possibly be held to militate to some extent against this ascription.
[88] This passage, so thoroughly Dantesque, reminds us curiously of chapters 9 and 12 of the Vita Nuova. Indeed, the little episode might almost be termed a painting of Dante and Beatrice executed by one of the primitives. In like manner, the passage that ensues recalls the reproaches which Beatrice addressed to Dante on meeting him in the Earthly Paradise at the close of the Purgatorio.
[89] Herein the plan of the work accords to some extent with that of the Book of Enoch.
[90] Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. xvi. p. 480.
[91] Two Latin versions, together with the account of the pseudo-John, are translated in vol. xvi. of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library.
[92] Using the word ‘people’ in its wider sense, not as equivalent to the popolaccio, for there were persons of rank and culture among the early converts, but as distinguished from those who were in high station, or were remarkable for learning.
[93] De Legibus, II. xiv. 36.
[94] See Plutarch’s Consolatory Epistle to his Wife.
[95] Plutarch: On Superstition, On the Tardy Vengeance of God, On the Impracticability of a Happy Life on Epicurean Principles. Lucian: Philopseudes, De Luctu.