• The commentary of Benvenuto da Imola upon this passage is too striking to be omitted here. The reader may imagine the impression it produced upon the audience when the Professor first read it publicly in his lectures at Bologna, in 1389, eighty-eight years after Dante’s death, though this impression may have been somewhat softened by its being delivered in Latin:⁠— “Here Peter Damiano openly rebukes the modern shepherds as being the opposite of the Apostles before-mentioned, saying, ‘Now some one to support them on each side The modern shepherds need’; that is to say, on the right and on the left; ‘And some to lead them, So heavy are they’; that is, so fat and corpulent. I have seen many such at the court of Rome. And this is in contrast with the leanness of Peter and Paul before mentioned. ‘And to hold their trains,’ because they have long cloaks, sweeping the ground with their trains. And this too is in contrast with the nakedness of the aforementioned Apostles. And therefore, stung with grief, he adds, ‘They cover up their palfreys with their cloaks,’ fat and sleek, as they themselves are; for their mantles are so long, ample, and capacious, that they cover man and horse.