Commentary Par XII 37-39

The 'troops' obviously form the Church Militant, now led by the newly approved mendicant orders, expensive to rearm, since it took the blood of the apostles to accomplish that task (see Aversano [Aver.2000.2], p. 53, for reasons to prefer this gloss to that which insists the reference is to Christ's blood, an interpretation unopposed since the earliest days of the commentary tradition; Aversano refers the reader to [Par XXVII 40-45] for confirming evidence).  Despite that, the soldiers, apparently, still lack resolve.