Stupor Mundi - Frederick II (1215-1250)

Frederick's Significance

A. Frederick was not only a freethinker but something of a cynic. He supposedly remarked that there were three great frauds in history - Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Although such statements may have startled people, his own subjects were more directly affected by his policy of religious toleration (except for heretics) within his realms. The Church was naturally incensed by this insult to the One True Faith, by Frederick was willing to oppose the Church in almost anything. He used his power to create a completely secular government, a feat without parallel in the history of the middle ages. Within his lands, he established a written constitution that guaranteed the rights of his subjects and was instrumental in promoting the development of Roman law and representative institutions in southern Italy.

B. He was remarkably learned and seemed inclined to experiment rather than rely on authorities or the use of logic. He spoke several languages, was a composer of music, and supported the arts in his court. He provided refuge for some of the troubadours fleeing the devastation attending the Albigensian Crusade and they, with his encouragement, lay the bases for the lyric quality of the Italian language, a quality later exemplified by Dante. Frederick himself preferred to observe nature and, it has been claimed, was the first of the stream of naturalists who contributed so much to the development of science. Frederick wrote and illustrated a superb little book entitled The Art of Hunting With Birds. His illustrations are clearly the product of a long and organized observation of birds in flight. It was for this accomplishment that Frederick has been accorded the title of first scientific ornithologist. Not all of his scientific bent was exercised such unacceptionable ways; he often engaged in bizarre physical experiments. With Frederick one never knows whether what one reads in sources from the period is an honest attempt to tell the truth about him, a fantastic bit of gossip, or a downright lie. It seems agreed, though, that perhaps the thing that gained him the most fame among with populace was the fact that he refused to travel anywhere without his harem and his zoo - both of which were exceedingly well-stocked with beautiful and exotic creatures.

Tesauro de la Universidad de Kansas

The Manicheans saw in the search for the evil itself the beginning of the transformation. This search was an act of cognition. What is the origin of evil? Evil is in the first instance a displaced good. What in one sphere or at one time is right and good, is evil in another sphere or at another time.

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com.au/Articles/Churchs%20War%20on%20the%20Cathars.html