lodging for him than Acre: and accordingly during his long
Mastership (A.D. 1210-1239), he is mostly to be found there, and
not at Acre or Jerusalem.

He is very great with the busy Kaiser, Friedrich II., Barbarossa's
grandson; who has the usual quarrels with the Pope, and is glad of
such a negotiator, statesman as well as armed monk. The usual
quarrels this great Kaiser had, all along, and some unusual.
Normans ousted from Sicily, who used to be so Papal: a Kaiser NOT
gone on the Crusade, as he had vowed; Kaiser at last suspected of
freethinking even:--in which matters Hermann much serves the
Kaiser. Sometimes he is appointed arbiter between the Pope and
Kaiser;--does not give it in the Kaiser's favor, but against him,
where he thinks the Kaiser is wrong. He is reckoned the first
great Hochmeister, this Hermann von der Salza, a Thuringer by
birth, who is fourth in the series of Masters: perhaps the
greatest to be found there at all, though many were considerable.
It is evident that no man of his time was busier in important
public affairs, or with better acceptance, than Hermann.
His Order, both Pope and Emperor so favoring the Master of it, was
in a vigorous state of growth all this while; Hermann well proving
that he could help it better at Venice than at Acre.

But if the Crusades are ended,--as indeed it turned out, only one
other worth speaking of, St. Louis's, having in earnest come to
effect, or rather to miserable non-effect, and that not yet for
fifty years;--if the Crusades are ended, and the Teutsch Order
increases always in possessions, and finds less and less work,
what probably will become of the Teutsch Order? Grow fat, become
luxurious, incredulous, dissolute, insolent; and need to be burnt