Dante was no friend to several of the popes — Boniface VIII and Clement V, among others. He believed that popes who had meddled too deeply with political matters were guilty of the sin of "simony," literally the buying and selling of Church offices; but Dante's definition of the sin was broader than that. If you used your clerical position in order to enhance your political power, you were guilty, in Dante's view. That included the use of your authority to check the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, who usually was neither Holy nor Roman. So Dante noticeably refrains from praising those popes who tried to keep the Emperor in his place, including Innocent III and the brave reformer St. Gregory VII.
Contemporary indeed.
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