110 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



of censure. In 1215 Robert de Coupon published 

 a statute in that university by which the name of 

 Mauritius Hispanus, understood by Renan to mean 

 Averroes, was associated with those of David of 

 Dinant and Almaric of Bena the French Pantheists 

 of the day, and all men were warned to have nothing 

 to do with their writings under pain of censure. In 

 spite of these enactments five years had not passed 

 since the date of the latter proclamation, before the 

 commentaries of Averroes were rendered into Latin 

 and the secrets of his remarkable philosophy laid 

 open to the scholastic world. 



The credit of this bold and successful enter- 

 prise belongs, it would be hard to say in what 

 proportions, to the Emperor Frederick n. and to 

 Michael Scot his faithful servant. Frederick had 

 indeed every reason to feel an interest in the works 

 of Averroes. 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 

 Kkely 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 Provencal knights who formed 

 his train when he came to Sicily there must 



