His contemporaries called him “stupor mundi”,
the astonishment of the world. Indeed, Frederick II
of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) was an uncommon monarch.
This Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily and Germany,
was also a leader of the Sixth Crusade, although in 1227
Pope Gregory IX excommunicated him for failing to honor
his crusading campaign. Still, after returning to Italy,
Frederick renewed soon his crusading drive and
in the following summer he sailed from Brindisi
to the Holy Land. This, since Frederick was
an excommunicate, made the pope even more irate
and he excommunicated the emperor again.
Nevertheless, in March 1229 Frederick was crowned
as King of Jerusalem. He was quite a blasphemous ruler
who held that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were
“impostors”. Shocked to his core, Pope Gregory IX
called the emperor an Antichrist. Frederick had a life long
conflict with the papacy. Charged with contempt,
in 1245 the Hohenstaufen sovereign’s struggle with
the Church brought him additional excommunication,
this time by Pope Innocent IV.
Frederick was an educated man. He spoke a number
of languages, among them Latin, Greek, Arabic,
Sicilian and Old Germanic. Besides, he was also
a scholar and patron of the arts and literature.
As a matter of fact, the Sicilian School of Poetry
under his sponsorship contributed to the development
of the modern Italian language. Furthermore, he was
an expert on falconry and even authored a book
on the subject.
Interestingly enough, the emperor was also known for his
extravagant travels with a host of odd companions,
which included conjurors, acrobats, eunochs, slave girls,
camels, lions and elephants.
An exceptionally malevolent character,
Frederick had an exceedingly wicked mind and
a cruel curiosity that prompted him to carry out
sadistic scientific experiments on humans.
The Italian Franciscan Monk, Salimbene di Adam
had recorded the horrendous scientific trials
of Frederick, which included disembowelling people
in order to see the contents of their stomachs,
or to detect the departure of their soul.
In another atrocious experiment the emperor ordered
to separate a group of babies from their mothers.
Then the infants had been placed under the care
of nannies who were instructed to be completely silent
in their contacts with the children. The caregivers were
not allowed to coo or to speak with the children and
werealso forbidden to show affection. The nannies
refrained from tenderly nurturing, petting and cuddling
the children.
In conducting this experiment the emperor wanted
to find out which was the first language of humans.
His research goal was to determine if the original
language of people was Hebrew, Greek or Latin?
Unfortunately, Frederick never got an answer
because it never occurred to his brutal mindset
that touch, affection and love are basic human needs
necessary for our survival. Children cannot
develop and grow without tender touch,
without nourishing and intimate affection,
without warm-hearted and devoted love.
All the children who participated
in this dreadful scientific experiment
died as a result of their horrible ordeal.
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