Commentary Purg X 76

Having been told of Gregory's 'great victory,' we are now told in what it consisted: the pope has saved a (dead) pagan emperor.  The way the text is handled reminds us of Dante's continuing hostility to the Church's insistence on the hierocrat position, in which the emperor is seen as totally dependent upon the Church for his authority.  Gregory's intervention for a great Roman emperor has, in Dante's eyes, a different style and sets a better standard.