Chapter 4: Emperor-Pope
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We will consider these two cards together because tension between the temporal power of the Holy Roman Emperor and the religious authority of the Pope is a major political theme in the Commedia (Ragg 1907). We can take as a general principle that a symbol is important to Dante if it appears in all three major sections of the Commedia and this is certainly true of the Emperor and Pope. In an earlier work, Monarchia, Dante outlined his ideas on the separate and complementary authority of the temporal and religious leaders and was enraged that the Pope, Boniface VIII, would not cooperate with the Emperor, Henry VII.
Dante felt that the petty bickering among and within the Italian states would be stopped if the Emperor's authority were accepted (Bemrose 2000). As a result his treatment of emperors is gentle. I am not certain that I caught every mention, but by my count emperors are only mentioned once in the Inferno (10:119) while popes are mentioned five times (7:47, 11:8, 19:50, 19:53, 19:82). This includes the place specifically prepared for Boniface VIII (Inferno 19:53). Among the repentent in Purgatorio, emperors are mentioned five times (6:88, 6: 97, 7:6, 7:91, 10:73). Popes are only mentioned three times (16:98, 19:97, 24:21) including the comment that one of them died from overeating eels! Nice touch that!
Emperors are mentioned four times in the Paradisio (6:10, 6:57, 6:95, 30:136) and always with effusive praise. The popes are mentioned more often in the Paradisio (5:77, 6:16, 11:92, 12:88, 12:134, 15:144, 16:58, 17:50, 25:14, 27:22, 30:148) but, as we will see below, often with acrimony.
Images resembling the emperor occur in a number of illustrations, such as Figure 1 (~1445) . However, Henry VII himself does not appear since he was not yet dead in the temporal setting of the Commedia (Easter week, 1300). Instead, the emperor image is shown as other rulers, e.g., Solomon in Figure 2 (~1445).
Even though Henry VII does not appear in person, Beatrice (Paradisio 30:133-137) points out the throne prepared for him in heaven (Figure 3, early 15th century). So just as a place in hell is prepared for Boniface VIII, so a place is heaven is reserved for Henry VII.
In addition to the political role that Dante saw for the Emperor, there is also the symbolic role he plays in Joachim of Fiore's prophesies of the final times. We know that Dante studied philosophy and theology at the Franciscan school at Santa Croce and that he was acquainted with the teachings of Spiritual Franciscans such as Ubertino da Casale (Hawkins 1993). 
Through their teachings Dante knew of Joachim, whom he places in the fourth sphere of Paradisio with the other blessed wise men (Paradisio 12:140).
According to Joachim, the last age would be heralded by the rise of a great ruler who would reunite the Christian world. In Purgatorio 33:42-43, Beatrice prophesizes that a "515" will come to reform the Church. The number is usually interpreted as Latin, i.e., DXV, an anagram of DVX which translates as leader (Davis 1993). 
So the Emperor was an important apocalyptic symbol to Dante as well as being a political figure.
The Pope was also an important image for Dante and appears in a number of illustrations. Figure 4 (~1445) which shows the Pope holding open the books of the old and new testament. A particularly interesting illustration accompanies Paradisio Canto 6 with its story of the conversion of the Emperor Constantine by Pope Agapetus. Figure 5(~1445) shows the relationship between the Emperor and Pope that was so important to Dante, though I doubt he would have envisioned Henry VII kneeling before Boniface VIII!
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Dante delighted in representing the punishment of avaricious and unfaithful popes in the Inferno. In the 15th century, when the venom of the Inquisition had little sting in the Italian
city-states, illustrators reveled in Dante's descriptions (Figure 6, early
15th century). I can imagine the artist choking back a giggle as he represented
the pope in a hellish tomb (Figure 7, mid-15th century).
And couldn't we forgive an occasional guffaw from the woodcutter as he carved the Supreme
Pontiff's buttocks in Figure 8 (1487)?
The Popes in the Purgatorio fare a bit better. Dante has a fair colloquy with Pope Adrian V on the fifth level (Canto 19). But by the top of Mount Purgatory, Dante's anger reemerges. In Purgatorio Canto 32, Pope Clement V becomes the whore of Babylon in league with the giant (i.e., the French Monarchy) and has turned the Church into a seven-headed, 10-horned beast. The imagery of whore, giant, and beast are taken from Revelations 17-18. Thus, not only is the papacy condemned in the political layer of the poem, but the pope is identified with the Anti-Christ of Joachim's apocalyptic prophesies and the French monarchy with the temporal ally of the Anti-Christ (Emmerson 1981). Dante clearly believed, with the Spiritual Franciscans, that the end was near and Joachim's Anti-Christ and the emergence of a World Leader were coming true in his own times.
In the Paradisio, virtuous Popes are given their due. A few are praised. In Paradisio 27, a reverent Dante converses with the first Pope, St. Peter (Figure 9, mid 14th century). This image is of particular interest since Beatrice looks like the Empress and, with hand raised, even suggests the Papess! Figure 10 (~1445) shows an image of the pope that resembles the early Tarot cards showing, for example, two attendants.
But while some popes are praised, others do not fair as well. In Paradisio 9:132 the pope is symbolized as the shepherd turned into a wolf. Paradisio 18 denounces unfaithful popes, especially John XXII. Some of the most acerbic dialogue is put in the mouth of St. Peter (Paradisio Canto 27) who states that Boniface VIII has turned Rome into a sewer of stench. So although popes are mentioned more frequently in the Paradisio, Dante's underlying sympathies are still evident.
We should not leave the pope illustrations of Dante without noting some hints of a more modern interpretation. In some of the early images, such as Figure 11 (~1345), Virgil appears to resemble the pope both in the conical hat and the front of the robe. As guide and source of wisdom for Dante during most of his journey, the concept of Hierophant does not seem out of the question.
The multi-layered symbolic system becomes abundantly clear from our examination of the Holy Roman Emperor and Pope in Dante's Commedia and the illustrations of the poem. The Emperor and Pope represent actual persons, Henry VII and Boniface VIII. But simultaneously, the Emperor and Pope are mythic/apocalyptic symbols of the Good Leader and Anti-Christ of Joachim and Revelations. This multi-layered symbolism, being illustrated and read at the time the Tarot was designed, should warn us against any attempt to assign a simple, single-layered meaning to the early Tarot images.
In the 21st century we can only speculate what the 15th century card-player saw in the Emperor and Pope of the Tarot. But immersed in the continuing political conflict between the very real persons of the Emperor and Pope and knowing of Joachim's predictions and the symbolic characteristics ascribed by Dante, the card-players must have had deeper insights into the symbols than a modern viewer to whom these images are more mythic than imminent.
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