friend in the North. John withdrew from Continental politics to
be beaten more decisively by his barons than he had been beaten in
Poitou or at Bouvines.

Frederick II, was now undisputed King of the Romans, and Innocent III
had won another triumph. By the Golden Bull of Eger (July, 1213)
Frederick had already renewed the concessions made by Otto to the
Church, and promised obedience to the holy see. In 1216 he pledged
himself to separate Sicily from the Empire, and establish his son
Henry there as king, under the supremacy of the Church. But, like his
other triumphs, Innocent's victory over the Empire was purchased at no
small cost. For the first time, a German national irritation at the
aggressions of the papacy began to be distinctly felt. It found an
adequate expression in the indignant verses of Walther von der
Vogelweide, protesting against the priests who strove to upset the
rights of the laity, and denouncing the greed and pride of the
foreigners who profited by the humiliation of Germany.

Amid all the distractions of western politics, Innocent III ardently
strove to revive the crusading spirit. He never succeeded in raising
all Europe, as several of his predecessors had done. But after great
efforts, and the eloquent preaching of Fulk of Neuilly he stirred up a
fair amount of enthusiasm for the crusading cause, and, in 1204, a
considerable crusading army, mainly French, mustered at Venice. It was
the bitterest disappointment of Innocent's life that the Fourth
Crusade never reached Palestine, but was diverted to the conquest of
the Greek empire. Yet the establishment of a Catholic Latin empire at
Constantinople, at the expense of the Greek schismatics, was no small
triumph. Not disheartened by his first failure, Innocent still urged
upon Europe the need of the holy war. If no expedition against the
Saracens of Syria marked the result of his efforts, his pontificate
saw the extension of the crusading movement to other lands. Innocent
preached the crusade against the Moors of Spain, and rejoiced in the
news of the momentous victory of the Christians at Navas de Tolosa. He
saw the beginnings of a fresh crusade against the obstinate heathen on
the eastern shores of the Baltic.

But all these crusades were against pagans and infidels. Innocent made
a much greater new departure when he proclaimed the first crusade
directed against a Christian land. The Albigensian crusade succeeded
in destroying the most dangerou