The disappointment he nevertheless felt on this occasion may probably have encouraged Scot in his attachment to the court and to his new duties there as astrologer and physician, in which, as we have seen, he rose to such acknowledged eminence. Frederick did not, however, lose sight of his purpose to procure him preferment. The first application to Canterbury having met with no response it was renewed four years later in 1227, by Gregory IX., who in that year succeeded Honorius in the Chair of St. Peter. This new Pontiff was destined to become the Emperor’s most bitter and relentless foe, but as yet he remained on good terms with Frederick and inclined to show him favour. He seems to have made no difficulty in taking up the case of Michael Scot, and even added on his own account a eulogy meant to forward the scholar’s claim; representing him as a distinguished student, not only in Latin letters, but also of the Hebrew and Arabic languages.[236] So far as can be seen, however, the attempt of 1227 shared the fate of that which had been made in 1223. Canterbury gave no signs of acquiescence, and Michael Scot, for all his distinction, remained without the preferment which his friends so constantly sought to obtain for him. There is reason to think that from this time a change took place in the spirit of the philosopher. The natural chagrin he must have felt as it became plain that no position he could accept would be offered to him in the Church affected deeply his fine and sensitive nature. He soon passed into a brooding and despondent mood, which remained unaffected by all the praise and fame paid by the learned world as a tribute to his remarkable talents and achievements. It is in this change of temper to a morbid depression that we are to find the occasion and inspiring spirit of those strange prophetical verses which bear his name and which differ so widely from all the other productions of his pen.