Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/115

 FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 65 lives to the preservation of the Holy Places and the protection of pilgrims. Had they faithfully adhered to the statutes which he drew up for their conduct, the exhibition of zeal which they were designed to make might have been as blessed to Christendom as their arrogance was cursed. A few years before his death, Bernard had the gratification of seeing one of his own disciples raised to the papal chair, as Pope Eugenius III. The new pontiff recognized his master's authority no less than before his accession, and Bernard's counsel and influence were repeatedly used in his behalf. But the over-activity of the good abbot too soon decayed the slender strength which his firm will had wrested, as it were, from death in a hand-to-hand struggle that lasted for more than forty years. Always sickly, frequently reduced to the brink of the grave, yet perpetually at work, his constitution gave way in 1155, at the age of sixty-three. His last act was worthy of his life. He was on a dying-bed when a discord broke out between the nobles and the burghers of the town of Mentz. Bernard rose, and once more entered the arena of strife with the olive- branch of peace in his hand. The proud barons and the angry citizens listened humbly to his gentle words, and shrank from the mild glances of those eyes which his biographers scarcely ever mention without calling dove-like. The tur- bulence of passion was hushed, and Bernard returned to die. The filial tears of his disciples at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation, followed him to the grave. About twenty years after his death a decree of canonization awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how it has been disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to recogmze his merit as that name which the rev- erence of the Church has further bestowed on him the last of the Fathers. FREDERICK BARBAROSSA By LADY LAMB (1121-1190) seems almost incredible that no history should exist of the child- hood and early life of an emperor of such note as " Barbarossa ; " yet, in spite of most diligent search, we have been compelled al- most to renounce one of the most pleasing tasks of a biographer, which consists in making acquaintance with a hero in his infancy, and through childhood and youth following his career to fame and glory. So far as we have been able to discover, no trace, except a few dry data, exists of " Frederick of the Red Beard," until we find him setting out with his un- cle, Conrad III., in the spring of 1147, to join the second crusade against the Saracens. The date of his birth is given as 1 1 2 1, his father being Duke Frederick of Hohenstauffen (surnamed " le Borgne ") and his mother Judith, daughter of