I agree with Tim. It seems that as a supporter of Frederick II, son of
Frederick Barbarosa, Ezzelino must have been anticlerical to put it mildly.
His imperial protector Frederick II was excommunicated three times
(1227,1239,1245). Wouldn't once be enough? Nevertheless the "donkey"
mentioned in an earlier posting I think was a reference  Ezzelino made to
anyone believing "Mussato who wrote that I was the son of the devil and if
you believe such nonsense you are a donkey that will follow any carrot
dangled before your nose." (from Canto LXXII). We have seen similar
attempts.
    I once saw a guy sitting on a busy street corner in San Francisco in the
full lotus position. He was dressed in the robes of a Bhuddist monk, and he
held a fishing pole in his hands from which hung a carrot on the line
exactly in front of his own face. The person I was with, who I think had
never been out of Canton, Ohio, insisted on stopping to see this typical San
Francisco phenomenon, and as she was about to ask with a puzzled look upon
her face what this guy was doing, a couple of well-dressed San Francisco
business men passed by, and I heard the one say to the other rather
matter-of-factly,  "He must have bet on the Lakers".
    Someone brought up the possibility that in the Canto LXXII, the
reference to the "Florentine" could be meant Dante. What were Dante's
sentiments concerning the Guelphs and Ghebellines? The line indicates
sympathy toward the Ghebelline case. And does Sigismondo's paganism play
into this conflict?
    Please excuse the donkey-carrot divertimento.

CDM