§ 44. THE FIRST COUNCIL OF LYONS. 197
by appealing to the judgment of Christendom. With an enlightenment above his age, he gave toleration to Jew and Mohammedan.
In his conflict with the pope, he was governed, not by animosity to the spiritual power, but by the determination to keep it within its own realm. In genuine ideal opposition to the hierarchy he went farther than any of his predecessors.1 Dollinger pronounced him the greatest and most dangerous foe the papacy ever had.2 Gregory and Innocent IV. called him " the great dragon " and declared he deserved the fate of Absalom. And yet he did not resort to his grandfather's measures and set up an anti-pope.3 Perhaps he refrained from so doing in sheer disdain.
It has been surmised that Frederick was not a Christian. Gregory charged him specifically with blasphemy. But Frederick as specifically disavowed the charge of making Christ an impostor, and swore fealty to the orthodox faith.4 If he actually threw off the statement of the three impostors as charged, it must be regarded as the intemperate expression of a mood.5 Neander expresses the judgment that Frederick denied revealed religion. Schlosser withholds from him all religious and moral faith. Ranke and Freeman leave the
1 Ranke, VIII. 369 sqq. 2 Akademische Vortrage, III. 213.
3 Cardinal Rainer's letter as given by M. Paris, Luard's ed., V. 61-67 ; Giles's trans., II. 298 sqq. Peter the Lombard, writing to one of his pres byters, says ecclesia Romana totis viribus contra imperatorem et ad ejus destructionem, Breholles, V. 1226.
4 For the charge, that he denied the incarnation by the Virgin Mary and other charges, see above and BrSholles, V. 459 sq. ; M. Paris, Luard's ed., III. 521.
6 The statement was floating about in the air. It is traced to Simon Tornacensis, a professor of theology in Paris, d. 1201, as well as to Fred erick. A book under the title De tribus impostoribus can be traced into the sixteenth century. It produced the extermination of the Canaanites and other arguments against the revealed character of the Bible and relegated the incarnation to the category of the myths of the gods. See Herzog, Enc. IX. 72-75; and F. W. Genthe, De impostura religionum, etc., Leipzig, 1833; Benrath's art. in Herzog, IX. 72-75 ; Renter, Gesch. der Aufklarung im M.A., II. 275 sqq.
198 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1216-1294.
question of his religious faith an open one. Hergenrother makes the distinction that as a man he was an unbeliever, as a monarch a strict Catholic. Gregorovius holds that he cherished convictions as sincerely catholic as those professed by the Ghibelline Dante. Fisher emphasizes his singular detachment from the current superstitions of his day.1 Huillard-Breholles advances the novel theory that his move ment was an attempt to usurp the sovereign pontificate and found a lay papacy and to combine in himself royalty and papal functions.
Frederick was highly educated, a friend of art and learning. He was familiar with Greek, Latin, German, French, and Arabic, as well as Italian. He founded the University of Na ples. He was a precursor of the Renaissance and was himself given to rhyming. He wrote a book on falconry.2 It was characteristic of the man that while he was besieging Milan in 1239, he was sending orders back to Sicily concerning his forests and household concerns, thus reminding us of Napo leon and his care for his capital while on his Russian and other campaigns. Like other men of the age, he cultivated astrology. Michael Scott was his favorite astrologer. To these worthy traits, Frederick added the luxurious habits and apparently the cruelty of an Oriental despot. Inherit ing the island of which the Saracens had once been masters, he showed them favor and did not hesitate to appropriate some of their customs. He surrounded himself with a Saracenic bodyguard3 and kept a harem.4
1 Med. Emp., II. 163.
2 Ilanke calls it one of the best treatments of the Middle Ages on the sub ject. For Frederick's influence on culture and literature, see Breholles, I. ch. 9. Also Fisher's Med. Emp., II. ch. 14, "The Empire and Culture."
8 This bodyguard was with him on his last campaign and before Parma.
4 Of his cruelty and unrestrained morals, priestly chroniclers could not say enough. See Kington, II. 474 sqq. He was legally married four times ; Amari, in his History of the Mohammedans in Sicily, calls him a "baptized sultan." For Frederick's relation to the Mohammedans, see Breholles, I. 325-375.