[85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party.
[86] An interdict means that priests are to refuse sacred offices to all in the community, who are thus virtually subjected to the minor excommunication.
[87] Guido died soon after his return in 1301. He had suffered in health during his exile. See Inf. x. 63.
[88] Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282.
[89] Purg. xx. 76.
[90] Witte attributes the composition of the De Monarchia to a period before 1301 (Dante-Forschungen, vol. i. Fourth Art.), but the general opinion of critics sets it much later.
[91] Inf. vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied.
[92] Dante’s authorship of the letter is now much questioned. The drift of recent inquiries has been rather to lessen than to swell the bulk of materials for his biography.
[93] Parad. xvii. 61.
[94] Purg. xxiv. 82.