278 Free Spirit, heresy of
this and revolted in 1234, Frederick suppressed his ris-
ing; threw him into prison, where he died in 1242; and
replaced him as king in 1238 with his second son, Con-
rad IV (r. 1250–54). From this time on he made little
attempt to exercise any real authority in Germany. His
only significant subsequent action dealing with Germany
was his grant of a charter to the TEUTONICKNIGHTS, for
their attack on and occupation of East PRUSSIA, which
they took from the kings of POLAND.
CONFLICTS WITH THE PAPACYIn Italy, however, Pope Gregory IX still refused to accept
Frederick’s domination of the north and excommunicated
him. When his papal opponent died in 1241, Frederick
reacted with military force to prevent a new pope from
being elected for two years and finally by procuring the
election of a apparently Ghibelline or proimperial pope,
INNOCENTIV (r. 1243–54). Innocent IV, however, soon
broke with Frederick and fled from Italy to LYON, where in
1245 he held a great church council that condemned Fred-
erick as the ANTICHRIST. The efforts of that pope to enlist
French and English support against the HOHENSTAUFEN
ruler, however, failed, and a war dragged on in Italy.
Frederick, relying on his able illegitimate sons and
lieutenants, fought against the continuing resistance of
the cities of Lombardy and the PAPALSTATES. His army
was badly defeated near Parma in 1248. By 1250, just as
he was beginning to try again, he died suddenly on
December 13 at Castle Fiorentino in Apulia. He left a
number of illegitimate sons in Italy as his heirs, such as
MANFRED, Enzo (ca. 1220–72), and Philip of ANTIOCH,
and one legitimate successor, the young Conradin
(1252–68) across the Alps in Germany.
LEGACYFrederick’s character has long fascinated historians and
biographers. He was married three times, first happily to
Constance of Aragon, next to Yolanda of Jerusalem, and
finally to Isabel of England. His real later love was Bianca
d’Agliano, of a branch of the Piedmontese marquesses of
Lancia, with whom he carried on a lengthy relationship
and who bore him several children. He had two legiti-
mate sons and numerous illegitimate ones. He was
reputed, probably with some justification, to have kept a
harem in Palermo. This lifestyle seemed to his contempo-
raries more Islamic than Christian. He maintained a force
of Muslim mercenaries and amazed his contemporaries
by traveling with a private zoo. Although he remained
formally a Christian, he was more tolerant and skeptical
than his age was ready to accept. In the cosmopolitan
atmosphere of his Sicilian court, Arabic, Jewish, and
BYZANTINEcultures were highly prized.
Frederick was an important patron of the arts
throughout his entire reign. A poet himself, he prized
southern French poetry highly, and he welcomed
TROUBADOURpoets when, after the ALBIGENSIANCrusade,
they fled to his court. Through the influence of these
poets, a new poetry was composed in the Sicilian vernac-
ular tongue. He was also interested in art and architec-
ture, and during his reign a classical artistic revival took
place, anticipating that of later RENAISSANCEItaly.
Frederick spoke a number of languages, and in 1234
he founded the University of NAPLES, the first state-
sponsored university in western Europe. He was much
attracted to rationalist and scientific ideas and was said to
have conducted a series of experiments to determine
how digestion took place, using the stomach contents of
executed criminals as his evidence. He also tried isolating
children at birth to discover what language they would
speak if untaught. Some of his enemies made these exper-
iments appear cruel to discredit Frederick. An enthusias-
tic falconer also, he wrote the book On the Art of Hunting
with Birds,which was the most detailed scientific exami-
nation of ornithology written until the 19th century.
See alsoCRUSADES; HUNTING AND FOWLING; PAPACY.
Further reading:Salimbene da Parma, The Chronicle
of Salimbene de Adam,trans. Joseph L. Baird, Giuseppe
Baglivi, and John Robert Kane (Binghamton: Medieval &
Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1986); David Abulafia,
Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor (London: Penguin,
1988); Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz, Frederick the Second,
1194–1250,authorized English version by E. O. Lorimer
(London: Constable, 1931); James E. Powell, trans., The
“Liber Augustalis” or Constitutions of Melfi by the Emperor
Frederick II for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1231(Syracuse,
N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1971); William Tronzo,
ed., Intellectual Life at the Court of Frederick II Hohen-
staufen,Studies in the History of Art, 44 (Washington,
D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994); Thomas Curtis Van
Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immuta-
tor Mundi(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972).Free Spirit, heresy of This was a 14th-century heresy
linked with anarchistic deviants, sexual license, and the
subversion of clerical authority. In 1312, the Council of
Vienne denounced in its decree number 28 a seemingly
new heresy. Its followers were portrayed as putting them-
selves on a high level of perfection and certainly outside
clerical control or mediation with GOD. They were some-
times called BEGHARDSand Beguines. In their alleged con-
cept of freedom of spirit, they claimed not to be “subject
to human obedience nor obliged to any commandments
of the church since, they said, ‘where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom’ (2 Cor 3.17).” They were also accused
of lack of reverence to the host, disrespect for the value of
fasting and the sacraments, spiritual elitism, and the idea
of an attainment of a personal perfection or divinization
that put them above worldly moral obligation, among
other things. By the time of the promulgation of these
conciliar decrees by Pope JOHNXXII in 1317, a violent
persecution had already been undertaken against those