186 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



have heard of this charge from, these active and 

 bitter detractors ? Our conclusion from their silence 

 is therefore neither far to seek nor hard to defend. 

 These tales, we must hold, were not current in the 

 lifetime of Michael Scot, nor for many years after. 

 They had no foundation in fact, but were the fancies 

 of the following generation, and thus passed into 

 the settled tradition which has ever since per- 

 sistently associated itself with the philosopher's 

 name. 



But this conclusion raises another question. 

 How did such a tradition arise, and what were the 

 points of attachment to which these stories clung ? 

 The ground for the legend of Michael Scot would 

 seem to have been prepared by the close connection 

 between him and his master the Emperor Frederick 

 ii. Every student of those times knows well the 

 storm of invective and the weight of calumny which 

 fell upon that great monarch as the consequence of 

 his feuds with the See of Rome. He was officially 

 declared to be no Christian but the mystic Beast 

 of the Apocalypse, vomiting blasphemies. He was 

 accused of having produced the apocryphal work 

 De Tribus Impostoribus. His private life became 

 the subject of grave scandal and repeated censure. 

 Men were taught to believe that he revelled in a 

 harem of Saracen beauties, and was addicted to 

 infamous immorality, as well as to forbidden arts. 

 These accusations were current, not only in 

 Frederick's own lifetime, but long afterwards. They 

 may be studied at large in the Papal Epistolaries, 1 

 and a striking example of their current popular 

 form is found in the following barbarous lines which 



1 See especially the circular letter of Gregory ix., anno 1239. 



