DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3825#0103
GERMANY. 95
exposed to the restless intrigues of the Papal court,
to remain long in peace. Frederic steered a manly
course through the difficulties which every where
assailed him. He was an able and active monarch,
a skilful general, and a shrewd politician ; one who
would (like many of his successors) have been a far
greater prince if he had not been encumbered by the
oppressive appendage of Italian possessions and dig-
nities. He caught the religious as well as chivalric
feeling of the age ; but experience taught him to di-
stinguish his efforts in the holy wars above those of
his predecessors, by greater prudence and a more
discerning policy. Germany for a long time resisted
the infatuation of the first Crusaders, and laughed at
the needy crowds who thronged across its plains to
their discomfiture : but Conrad was at last preached
into joining the second crusade, after repeated and
determined opposition to the calls of St. Bernard. In
that expedition Frederic served, and was a witness of
the disastrous consequences of improvident zeal. The
Saxon historian says, " Si non fuit bona, praedicta ex-
peditio, pro dilatatione terminorum vel commoditate
corporum, bona tamen fuit ad multarum salutem ani-
marum." [Otto Frising. de Gestis Frider. I. Imp.
lib. 1. c. 60.] and we may add, that it taught Fre-
deric, if he could not resist the torrent of zeal, at
least to temper and direct it by prudence. Accord-
ingly, that part of the third crusade which he led
exposed to the restless intrigues of the Papal court,
to remain long in peace. Frederic steered a manly
course through the difficulties which every where
assailed him. He was an able and active monarch,
a skilful general, and a shrewd politician ; one who
would (like many of his successors) have been a far
greater prince if he had not been encumbered by the
oppressive appendage of Italian possessions and dig-
nities. He caught the religious as well as chivalric
feeling of the age ; but experience taught him to di-
stinguish his efforts in the holy wars above those of
his predecessors, by greater prudence and a more
discerning policy. Germany for a long time resisted
the infatuation of the first Crusaders, and laughed at
the needy crowds who thronged across its plains to
their discomfiture : but Conrad was at last preached
into joining the second crusade, after repeated and
determined opposition to the calls of St. Bernard. In
that expedition Frederic served, and was a witness of
the disastrous consequences of improvident zeal. The
Saxon historian says, " Si non fuit bona, praedicta ex-
peditio, pro dilatatione terminorum vel commoditate
corporum, bona tamen fuit ad multarum salutem ani-
marum." [Otto Frising. de Gestis Frider. I. Imp.
lib. 1. c. 60.] and we may add, that it taught Fre-
deric, if he could not resist the torrent of zeal, at
least to temper and direct it by prudence. Accord-
ingly, that part of the third crusade which he led