nd the Emperors was never settled, but
after a while the two enemies learned to leave each other alone.

In the year 1278, Rudolph of Hapsburg was elected Emperor. He did not
take the trouble to go to Rome to be crowned. The Popes did not object
and in turn they kept away from Germany. This meant peace but two
entire centuries which might have been used for the purpose of internal
organisation had been wasted in useless warfare.

It is an ill wind however that bloweth no good to some one. The little
cities of Italy, by a process of careful balancing, had managed to
increase their power and their independence at the expense of both
Emperors and Popes. When the rush for the Holy Land began, they were
able to handle the transportation problem of the thousands of eager
pilgrims who were clamoring for passage, and at the end of the Crusades
they had built themselves such strong defences of brick and of gold that
they could defy Pope and Emperor with equal indifference.

Church and State fought each other and a third party--the mediaeval
city--ran away with the spoils.

THE CRUSADES

BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS TOOK THE
HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE
TRADE FROM EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING

DURING three centuries there had been peace between Christians and
Moslems except in Spain and in the eastern Roman Empire, the two states
defending the gateways of Europe. The Mohammedans having conquered Syria
in the seventh century were in possession of the Holy Land. But
they regarded Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great as
Mohammed), and they did not interfere with the pilgrims who wished
to pray in the church which Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor
Constantine, had built on the spot of the Holy Grave. But early in the
eleventh century, a Tartar tribe from the wilds of Asia, called the
Seljuks or Turks, became masters of the Mohammedan state in western Asia
and then the period of tolerance came to an end. The Turks took all of
Asia Minor away from the eastern Roman Emperors and they made an end to
the trade between east and west.

Alexis, the Emperor, who rarely saw anything of his Christian neighbours
of the west, appealed for help and pointed to the danger which
threatened Europe should the Turks take Constantinople.

The Italian cities which had established colonies along the coast
of Asia Minor and Palestine, in