Bishop Stubb's estimate of the crusades in his lectures on and Modern His tory," delivered as professor at Oxford, has now come to be the accepted view. were the first great effort of mediaeval life to go be yond the pursuit of selfish and isolated ambi tions; . . . they failed in their direct ob ject, but that is only what may be alleged against almost every great design which the Great Disposer of events has molded to help the world's progress; for the world has grown wise from the experience of failure rather than by the winning of high aims. . . . They brought out the love for all that is heroic in human nature, the love of freedom, the honor of prowess, sympathy with sorrow, perseverance to the lase' Besides they touched men's hearts and minds so deeply that they stimulated them to their highest activity and as a result the cru sading generations and those which immediately followed them succeeded in accomplishing more great things that the world will never willingly let die than any other. They were a great mani festation of the power of the spirit of man, and while they brought immense material losses to Europe and entailed almost innumer able evils, they immense good. : The political hero of the time is Arnold of Brescia, born about 1100 and executed 1155, who came into enduring fame about the mid dle of the century. The Italian cities were at this time just developing independent republi can existence under consuls with a senate and an assembly of free citizens. Arnold, a disciple of Abelard, campaigned for and obtained the re-establishment of the Roman republic. The Pope was deposed, a senate of 56 members was formed, the ancient letters S.P.Q.R. reappeared in the public documents, and the republic be came a fact. Every city of any importance throughout Italy,' except in the kingdom of Naples, followed the example and took on a republican form of government. The emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa, looked jealously at this spread of the spirit of democ racy and crossed the Alps to assert his rights in the peninsula. Italy welcomed him with naive confidence that he would confirm the established order. The emperor proceeded to use all his power against the young municipal republics. He restored the Pope and Arnold of Brescia was executed. When Frederick returned to Italy in 1158, reaction against him throughout Italy was general and when he attempted to place imperial officials over the Italian towns, many of them revolted. Frederick laid siege to Milan, which held out for two years and then yielded only to famine. The Milanese were compelled to destroy their carroccio which car ried their standard of independence and the town itself was totally destroyed, many of the neighboring cities which bore old grudges being permitted to wreak their vengeance upon it. Frightfulness, instead of crushing the spirit of the Italian cities, aroused their patriotism. The league of the Lombard cities was formed and Frederick had to lead his forces into Italy six times. On his fifth expedition he was defeated by the Lombards at Legnano (1176) and was compelled at the peace of Constance to re nounce all his claims over the Italian cities. Between the Italian cities and his own turbu lent nobles, Frederick was almost constantly at war during a long life which was to end in gloriously in the Third Crusade.
The league of the Italian cities to preserve their liberties was one of the first confederacies organized in the modern spirit. Formed as the result of the conflict with the German emperor, they were unfortunately the scene of bitter con flicts between two parties among the Italians themselves, the Guelphs and the Ghibbellines, these being the Italian forms of the German names, Well and Waiblingen. The Welfs or
Guelphs were the Papal and popular party op posed to the Ghibhellines, the imperial and aris tocratic party. The Welfs were so called from Welf I of a powerful family in the time of Charlemagne. Waiblingen was the name of an estate not far from Wurtemburg belonging to the House of Hohenzollern, hence its use as a rallying cry of the emperor's party at the bat tle. The names Guelph and Ghibbelline are said to have been first used as war cries at the battle of Weinsburg in 1140 in which the Hohenstauffen emperor, Conrad III, conquered Welf VI. The names lost their significance in Germany to a great extent to become extremely important in Italy and there continued to des ignate bitterly antagonistic parties till the end of the 15th century. The first Lombard League included all the cities from Venice to Piedmont. Henry the Lion, chief of the Welfs, had re fused to follow the emperor, hence the adop tion of the name of the opponents of the em peror in Italy. The success of the effort of the league against Frederick led to its formation in the following century once more and brought the Italians their first appreciation of what a united Italy might mean.
Bishop Stubbs declared that the greatest man of the century in his influence on his own and subsequent times was Bernard of Clari vaux (1090-1153). At the age of 23, after an education which had awakened in him a taste for literature and tapped a vein of poetry, Ber nard, wearied of the trifles of life, with 30 young noblemen of Burgundy who shared his feelings, asked for admission to the monastery of Citeaux, where the rule of Saint Benedict was being re-established in all its old-time rigor. Bernard responded so well to the monastic dis cipline that only three years later, Stephen, the abbot of Citeaux, sent him at. the head of a group of religious to found a new monastery in the Vale of Bitterness (Absinthe) in the diocese of Langres. Bernard renamed the place Claire Vallee, or Clairvaux, Bright Val ley, and his own name has had this for epithet ever since. Bernard though so deeply intent on mortification that his health was threatened by it, and the regime at Clairvaux was so austere that it would seem forbidding, had a marvelous attraction for men and numbers flocked to him. Even his father and six brothers came to share the peace and happiness of his religious life at Clairvaux. The monastery became so crowded that over and over again bands of monks had to be sent out for new foundations.
Here Bernard wrote his great books which are still often consulted and have been re printed in most of the modern languages in our generation. Here he delivered his homilies and from here the letters were written which influenced his times so deeply and reveal the man to us. The poetic tendency of his earlier years was now turned to sacred poetry and Bernard wrote some of the most beautiful of hymns. He became known as Doctor Melliflu ous. He was famous in philosophy and theol ogy as well, and it was he who answered Abe lard so effectively and yet with so ,little of acerbity that that distinguished university man felt that nothing more could be said. Bernard and Abelard became reconciled and Abelard be came a monk at Cluny and a teacher in the school of the monastery. When the crusade of the middle of the century was to be preached, Bernard was felt to be the man of all others to lead it, and his voice stirred multitudes to take lip the cross, and wonders attested by all who heard him enhanced his influence. The failure of the crusade to accomplish all that he hoped embittered the close of Bernard's life. The selfish pettinesses of men face to face with a great good work made him realize how little he could really touch them.