Purgatory Canto XVI. The Divine Comedy is one of Dante’s great collections of poems. It portrays many themes such as love, suffering, justice, fate and free will. As we move on to the Purgatory, Dante has strict views about his political vision, and we see that through his encounter with Marco Lombardo in Canto XVI. Dante and Virgil encounter Marco in a smoke filled space. Marco Lombardo is a courteous and well informed person as he serves as a center point for Dante’s ideas about human responsibility, free will, political institutions. In Canto XVI of the Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are traveling as they encounter smoke that was “too much to bear” (Pur. XVI 7). Through the blinding smoke, Dante hears the voice of a soul under the name Marco Lombardo. Marco agrees to help Virgil and Dante escape from this smoke infested space. As Marco guides Virgil and Dante through the space, Marco tells of a problem that has been haunting him.
“the world, indeed, as you have just declared,
Is destitute of every virtue known, swarming with evils, ever breeding more. “(Pur. XVI 58-60)

Marco is essentially saying that the world is swarming with evils which consequently give rise to more evils. These evils are created by people not exercising their free will and decision making to aid them in their decisions.
“You men on earth attribute everything to the spheres’ influence alone, as if with some predestined plan they moved all things
If this were true, then our Free Will would be annihilated: it would not be just to render bliss for good or pain for evil.
The spheres initiate your tendencies:
Not all of them –but even if they did,
You have the light that shows you right from wrong,
And your Free Will, which, though it may grow faint
In its first struggles with the heavens, can still surmount all obstacles if nurtured well.
You are free subjects of a greater power,
A nobler nature that creates you mind,
And over this the spheres have no control.
(Pur. XVI 67-81)

In the excerpt above, Marco Lombardo is going against the notion that heaven accounts for every one of Man’s actions. According to Marco, man has his share of free will. There is no predestined actions that are supposed to happen just because you were born as you. Heaven may set your appetites or interests in motion, but it does not force them against man. It is ultimately man’s free will that determines whether to act or not to act on these impulses. It is the fact that everyone has free will, and if God didn’t think that humans were capable of free will, then we would have never received it in the first place. If we had no free will, we would be similar to drones and robots that simply follow orders from their superior. Marco states that we must use our mind to judge the situation and differentiate between good and evil. As we move on throughout the poem, Marco talks about political corruption on man. God has given them an intelligent mind and free will, but people tend to selfish and often look to their own success or interest that solely benefit themselves. Lombardo urges for the need to have a strong ruler in order to contain and curb people’s selfish tendencies.
“Men, there, needed the restraint of laws, needed a ruler able to at least discern the towers of the True city. True, the laws there are, but who enforces them?
No one. The shepherd who is leading you
Can chew the cud but lacks the cloven hoof.
And so the flock, that see their shepherd’s greed
For the same worldly goods that they have craved,
Are quite content to feed on what he feeds.
As you can see, bad leadership has caused
The present state of evil in the world,
Not Nature that has grown corrupt in you.
On Rome, that brought the world to know the good,
Once shone two suns that lightened up two ways:
The road of this world and the road of God.
The one sun has put out the other’s light;
The sword is now one with the crook---and fused
Together thus, must bring about misrule,
Since joined, now neither fears the other one.
If you still doubt, think of the grain when ripe---
Each plant is judged according to its seed. (Pur. XVI 94-114)

In the above excerpt, Dante criticizes the Political Corruption that is happening during his time. In lines 98-100, Marco talks about a shepard that can chew the cud but lacks the cloven hoof. What Marco is saying is that the rulers of his time, such as the pope, do not see the aspect of maintaining the difference between the church and the state. This excerpt shows the corruption that the leaders during Dante’s time acted. During, Dante’s time, the church and state were supposed to be separate, but with corruption they 2 entities often became into one. This is a result of wealthy figures and politicians often buying the churches with their wealth. Marco blames the socials evils on bad leadership. He expects leaders to lead people in the right direction. He wants a leader that can overcome the selfishness that many leaders of that time do not have, and use that in leading people in the right direction with their decision making.
Also in the excerpt, Marco gives a example of Rome and how there were two suns, one showing the world’s path and another showing god’s path. I believe that these 2 suns represent the church and state. “One Sun has put out the other’s light” means that they once used to separate but now with corruption these two entities have basically become into one. Marco says that this brings about “misrule” because these entities have to be separate. Power and religion should not mix because then your actions will tend to base on your religious affiliation. Marco states that “neither fears the other one”. These powers were supposed to a sort of Checks and Balances of power, but instead they formed into one.