of virulent abuse of the Emperor as a traitor, an apostate, and a
robber; but even before he received this letter Gregory had condemned
what he chose to consider as a monstrous attempt to reconcile Christ
and Belial, and to set up Mahomet as an object of worship in the
temple of God. "The antagonist of the Cross," he wrote, "the enemy of
the faith and of all chastity, the wretch doomed to hell, is lifted up
for adoration, by a perverse judgment, and by an intolerable insult to
the Saviour, to the lasting disgrace of the Christian name and the
contempt of all the martyrs who have laid down their lives to purify
the Holy Land from the defilements of the Saracens."

But Frederick, in his turn, could be firm and unyielding. He returned
from Jerusalem to Joppa, from Joppa to Ptolemais; and there learning
that a proposal had been made to establish a new order of knights, he
declared that no one should, without his consent, levy soldiers within
his dominion. Summoning all the Christians within the city to the
broad plain without the gates, he spoke his mind freely about the
conduct of the Patriarch and the Templars, with all who aided and
abetted them, and insisted that all the pilgrims, having now paid
their vows, should return at once to Europe. On this point he was
inexorable. His archers took possession of the churches; two friars
who denounced him from the pulpit were scourged through the streets;
the Patriarch was shut up in his palace; and the commands of the
Emperor were carried out.

Frederick returned to Europe, to find that the Pope had been stirring
up Albert of Austria to rebel against him, and that the papal forces
were in command of John of Brienne, who may have been the author of
the false news of Frederick's death, and who certainly proclaimed
himself as the only emperor. To the Pope, Frederick sent his envoys,