The credit of this bold and successful enterprise belongs, it would be hard to say in what proportions, to the Emperor Frederick II. and to Michael Scot his faithful servant. Frederick had indeed every reason to feel an interest in the works of Averroës. His mind was naturally keen and of a speculative cast. He showed little inclination to subject his curiosity to the restraints of custom or ecclesiastical authority, and was thus at least as likely as any of the wise and noble of his day to indulge his passion for what promised to be both original and curious. We are to remember also that he stood in close relation with the peculiar religious opinions already noticed, which were then so prevalent both in south-eastern France and the adjoining parts of Spain. His brother-in-law, who died so suddenly at Palermo, was Count of Provence, and, whatever place the unfortunate Alphonso may have held with regard to the heresy so common in his dominions, we may feel sure that among the host of Provençal knights who formed his train when he came to Sicily there must have been some at least who were adherents of the Albigensian party. No religious opinion ever made so striking a progress among the wealthy and noble as this, and none was ever commended in a way more fit to win the sympathy and interest of a youthful monarch inclined to letters and gallantry. The doctrine of the Albigenses was in fact a late revival of the _Gnosis_ of Alexandria. It flattered the pride of those who desired distinction even in their religion. Its representatives and advocates were no repulsive monks or sour ascetics but men of birth and breeding, who excelled in manly exercises, and were famous for their success in the courts of love and in the _gay saber_. It would not have been wonderful if Frederick himself had become an Albigensian. He is known to have caught a taste for Provençal poetry if nothing more, and it is certain that he remained, to the close of his life, and even beyond it, a grateful and sympathetic figure among those who, after the great persecution, still represented Albigensian doctrine.[156] Something of this may have been due to the influence of his wife Constantia, whose father, Don Pedro of Aragon, had fallen gallantly in 1213 under the walls of Murel, during an expedition in which he led the Spanish chivalry to aid the Counts of Toulouse and Foix the champions of the Albigensian party. The probability that the Emperor had early felt an interest in Averroës is confirmed by a curious statement of Gilles de Rome,[157] who tells us that the sons of the Moorish philosopher received a cordial welcome from Frederick and lived in honour at his Court. Renan indeed finds reason to doubt the truth of this statement,[158] yet we may remember that the chronicler could not in any case have ventured upon it unless the Emperor’s sympathy for Averroës had been matter of common knowledge.