althy trunk. The very foundation of the new
society stood in contrast with the ascetic gloom of the former church
philosophy. The highest praise was now to be "gay and joyous in chaste
moderation"; life, vigor, beauty, courtly elegance in form and
countenance and speech marked the gentleman and the lady of the age. The
eye was delighted by beautiful features and lovely expression; by
stately appearance, fine movements, harmonious rhythm and dance, by
splendid processions and courtly functions. Grace, charm, and loveliness
were ardently sought: the commonplace and the vulgar were avoided as
rustic and ridiculous.

The Hohenstaufens are the impersonation of romantic chivalry. There is
in all of them, especially in Frederick II. (1212-1250), a profound
romantic tendency, a thirst for heroic greatness, glory, immortality. A
vein of poetry pulses through their history, "to develop which says
Scherr will be reserved perhaps to some future German Shakespeare." The
power of Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) raised the nation to an
intellectual elevation which created imperishable works of art and
poetry. Glorious, though fruitless expeditions to Italy and crusades to
the Orient extended mightily the limited horizon of the Germans:
Southern and Oriental beauty penetrated the monachism of the North. The
Italian and Sicilian courts of Frederick II. were thronged with the
fairest ladies of Orient and Occident. Saracen beauties were
intermingled with the loveliest women of the German and Roman and Greek
world. All were bent upon gallantry, and song and poetry were the common
accomplishments. The Orient once more fertilized the Occident; the
fulness of Oriental fancy and symbolism poured over the Germans romance,
wisdom and love, passion and vice, and cast a roseate bloom over the
coarse actuality of the death struggle between Empire and Papacy,
idealizing the "blood and iron" services of German warriors on Southern
and Eastern battlefields.

The struggle for the Holy Sepulchre blended Christian monachism and
Christian chivalry in the spiritual orders: the Knights Templars, the
Knights of Saint John, the Teutonic Order. Their holy vows taken in the
presence of ladies and princes "to honor and defer to the Church, to be
true and obedient to the sovereign or feudal lord, to conduct no unjust
feud, to defend widows and orphans," characterize sufficiently the ideal
of their mission. The rules of honor are laid down in the new word
Court