摘要
作者研究維吉爾、但丁、塔索與米爾頓四位史詩詩人，旨在分析他們作品中政治與宗教的關係。對這四位詩人而言，古羅馬帝國為放諸四海而皆準的帝國典範。對維吉爾而言，即將奠定的羅馬城為世界帝國光榮的縮影。朱比特與朱諾衝突的和解攸關和諧政治體系的建立。在「神曲」特別是在「王國論」中，但丁調和教皇國與神聖羅馬帝國的關係。對但丁而言，屬靈國度是屬於教皇的，如同世間國度是屬於皇帝一般。無此二者，一個和平與安定的世界帝國即無實現的可能。以塔索來說，「耶路撒冷的解放」代表基督徒十字軍征服近東回教徒的軍事行動。塔索藉著十字軍征服聖地，有意重述亞提安戰役（「伊尼德」第八書）。塔索之維吉爾式帝國統一設計有著雙重意義，一為反對宗教改革並試圖在教皇的權威下維持基督教的統一性，二為表達出意大利統一的願望。對米爾頓而言，他不僅視羅馬為古羅馬帝國的遺產和教皇權力的象徵，且妨礙英國清教徒革命。人們認為太天主教化的英國國教會與史圖爾特王朝通力合作抑制在國教會內進一步政治與宗教改革的訴求。從他的主要二部詩「失樂園」和「復樂園」中，米爾頓視撒旦為邪惡的擴張主義者，且將其與史圖爾特國王相提並論，此國王企圖將國教會的正統教義擴及全國並阻礙英國國協的形成。雖然米爾頓對維吉爾式的帝國典範有所修正，但其目標與維吉爾有部分雷同之處，那就是建造和鞏固未來的國家。

Abstract
My intention in studying these four major epic poets, Vergil, Dante, Tasso and Milton, is to analyze the relationship of politics to religion in their works. For all four poets the universal empire is modeled on that of Rome. For each, however, empire has a slightly different meaning. For Vergil the future Rome is a microcosm of the grandeur of the macrocosmic empire. The reconciliation between Jupiter and Juno is essential to the constitution of the political cosmos. In the Divina Commedia, and especially the De Monarchia, Dante harmonizes the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. For him the spiritual dominion is to the Holy See what the temporal dominion is to the emperor: without both, a peaceful and stable universal empire would be unobtainable. For Tasso the Gerusalemme Liberata represents the Christian crusaders’ campaign to conquer the Muslim Near East. Tasso, in the representation of the crusaders’ conquest of the Holy Land, deliberately recapitulates the battle of Actium (in Aeneid 8). The purpose of Tasso’s Vergilian scheme of imperial unification is two-fold. On the one hand, it opposes the Reformation and attempts to maintain the unity of Christian faith under papal authority. On the other hand, it expresses the desire for a unified Italy. For Milton, Rome, representing Roman imperial legacy and papal power, jeopardized the Puritan revolution in England. For the Church of England, considered too Catholic by most Puritans, cooperated with the Stuart monarchy to restrain religious and political appeals for further reform in the Church. In Milton’s two major poems, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain’d, Satan, as a diabolic expansionist, is compared to the Stuart king who seeks to extend nationwide the orthodox religious teachings of the Church and to sabotage the coming of the English Commonwealth. Although Milton revises the Vergilian model of empire, he nonetheless partakes of Vergil’s aim to constitute and fortify a future nation.

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