Amazing that someone that led crusades was actually a sceptic. Atheists are always pointing to the crusades as evidence of religion’s violent history, yet Frederick II was a non-Christian leading the way. Of course the Pope and all of Christendom wanted him to go to war and reclaim the holy land. Another interesting, yet horrible, trivia about Frederick II: he executed individuals convicted of treason by having them boiled in molten lead. Dante refers to Frederick’s ‘lead cloaks’ in the Inferno in the eight circle of hell while visiting the fosse in which hypocrites are punished by wearing heavy coats that are shiny on the outside but heavy lead on the inside.
