' iv. 143). But in the following
century--mainly, no doubt, because he was chosen as the patron of
certain strongly heretical movements, such as those instigated by the
arch-rationalist Frederic II--he came to be regarded as the precursor of
Antichrist, if not that personage himself: being credited with the awful
blasphemy of having spoken of the founders of the three current
religions--Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad--as "the three impostors."
Whatever truth there may be in this, so much is certain, that
infidelity, in the sense of an utter disbelief in Christianity as a
revealed religion, or in any sense specially true, dates from the
thirteenth century, and is due in large measure to the influence of
Averroes. Yet he was a great favorite with the Franciscans, and for a
time exercised a profound influence on the universities of Paris and
Oxford, finding a strong admirer even in Roger Bacon. His thought was
also a powerful element in the mysticism of Meister Eckhart and his
followers; a mysticism which incurred the censure of the Church.

Thus both the leading forms of heresy which characterized the thirteenth
century--naturalism with its tendency to magic, astrology, alchemy,
etc., etc., and mysticism with its dreams of beatific visions, its
self-torture and its lawlessness (see Goerres, 'Die Christliche
Mystik')--were due largely to Averroes. In spite of this, his
commentaries on Aristotle maintained their credit, their influence being
greatest in the fourteenth century, when his doctrines were openly
professed. After the invention of printing, they appeared in numberless
editions,--several times in connection with the text of Aristotle. As
the age of the Renaissance and of Protestantism approached, they
gradually lost their prestige. The chief humanists, like Petrarch, as
well as the chief reformers, were bitterly hostile to them.
Nevertheless, they contributed important elements to both movements.

Averroism survived longest in Northern Italy, especially in the
University of Padua, where it was professed until the seventeenth
century, and where, as a doctrine hostile to supernaturalism, it paved
the way for the study of nature and the rise of modern science. Thus
Averroes may fairly be said to have had a share in every movement toward
freedom, wise and unwise, for the last seven hundred years. In truth,
free thought in Europe owes more to him than to any other man except
Abelard. His last declared follower was the impe