Heroes of Modern Europe

								

service for a man outside the Church.  Frederick bade the pious
Mussulmans continue the prayers they would have ceased through
deference to a Christian ruler.  He had thrown off all the
superstitions of the age except the study of astrology, and was a
scholar of wide repute, delighting in correspondence with the learned.
The Arabs did not admire Frederick's person, describing him as unlikely
to fetch a high price if he had been a slave!  He was bald-headed and
had weak eyesight, though generally held graceful and attractive.  In
mental powers he surpassed the greatest at his house, which had always
been famous for its intellect.  He had been born at Palermo, "the city
of three tongues"; therefore Greek, Latin, and Arabic were equally
familiar.  He was daring in speech, broad in views, and cosmopolitan in
habit.  He founded the University of Naples and encouraged the study of
medicine; he had the Greek of Aristotle translated, and himself set the
fashion in verse-making, which was soon to be the pastime of every
court in Italy.
The Pope was more successful in a contest waged with tongues than he
had proved on battle-fields, which were strewn with bodies of both
Guelf and Ghibelline factions.  He dined in 1230 at the same table as
his foe, but the peace between them did not long continue.  In turn
they triumphed, bringing against each other two armies of the Cross,
the followers of the Pope fighting under the standard of St Peter's
Keys as the champion of the true Christian Church against its
oppressors.
Pope Innocent IV, who succeeded Gregory, proved himself a very cunning
adversary.  He might have {17} won an easy victory over Frederick II if
the exactions of the Papacy had not angered the countries where he
sought refuge after his first failures.  It was futile to declare at
Lyons that the Emperor was deposed when all France was crying out upon
the greed of prelates.  The wearisome strife went on till the very
peasants had to be guarded at their work by knights, sent out from
towns to see that they were not taken captive.  It was the day of the
robber, and all things lay to his hand if he were bold enough to grasp
them.  Prisoners of war suffered horrible tortures, being hung up by
their feet and hands in the hope that their friends would ransom them
the sooner.  Villages were burned down, and wolves howled near the
haunts of men, seeking food to appease their ravening hunger.  It was
said that fierce beasts gnawed through the walls of houses and devoured
little children in their cradles.  Italy was rent by a conflict which
divided one province from another, and even placed inhabitants of the
same town on opposite sides and caused dissension in the noblest
families.
The Flagellants marched in procession through the land, calling for
peace but bringing tumult.  The Emperor's party made haste to shut them
out of the territory they ruled, but they could not rid the people of