Note 156 — Chapter VI · SCOT TRANSLATES AVERROËS

Albertus Stadensis speaks of a heretical sect which appeared at Halle in 1248. They abused the clergy, the monastic orders and the Pope, but their preachers exhorted them to pray for the Emperor Frederick and his son Conrad, qui perfecti et justi sunt. Among the Albigenses and Cathari generally the word perfecti was used in a technical sense to indicate those who had been received into complete fellowship as opposed to the credentes who were still on probation. As applied therefore to the Emperor and his son it would seem to indicate at least certain leanings to these opinions on Frederick’s part. This might explain the action he certainly took in trying to detach the Sicilian clergy from the see of Rome and to set up a national or imperial church in which he pretended to the earthly headship.