About this time the Christian monarchy in Jerusalem began to be threatened with overthrow by the Saracens, and the Pope, Eugene III., responded to the appeals for help from the Holy Land, by calling for a Second Crusade. He not only promised forgiveness of all sins, but released the volunteers from payment of their debts and whatever obligations they might have contracted under oath. France was the first to answer the call: then Bernard of Clairvaux (St. Bernard, in the Roman Church) visited Germany and made passionate appeals to the people. The first effect of his speeches was the plunder and murder of the Jews in the cities along the Rhine; then the slow German blood was roused to enthusiasm for the rescue of the Holy Land, and the impulse became so great that king Konrad was compelled to join in the movement. His nephew, the red-bearded Frederick of Suabia, also put the cross on his mantle: nearly all the German princes and people, except the Saxons, followed the example. [Sidenote: 1147.] In May, 1147, the Crusaders assembled at Ratisbon. There were present 70,000 horsemen in armor, without counting the foot-soldiers and followers. All the robber-bands and notorious criminals of Germany joined the army for the sake of the full and free pardon offered by the Pope. Konrad led the march down the Danube, through Austria and Thrace, to Constantinople. Louis VII., king of France, followed him, with a nearly equal force, leaving the German States through which he passed in a famished condition. The two armies, united at Constantinople, advanced through Asia Minor, but were so reduced by battles, disease and hardships on the way, that the few who reached Palestine were too weak to reconquer the ground lost by the king of Jerusalem. Only a band of Flemish and English Crusaders, who set out by sea, succeeded in taking Lisbon from the Saracens. During the year 1149 the German princes returned from the East with their few surviving followers. The loss of so many robbers and robber-knights was, nevertheless, a great gain to the country: the people enjoyed more peace and security than they had known for a long time. Duke Welf of Bavaria (brother of Henry the Proud) was the first to reach Germany: Konrad, fearing that he would make trouble, sent after him the young Duke of Suabia, Frederick Red-Beard (Barbarossa) of Hohenstaufen. It was not long, in fact, before the war-cries of "Guelph!" and "Ghibelline!" were again heard; but Welf, as well as his nephew, Henry the Lion, of Saxony, was defeated. During the Crusade, the latter had carried on a war against the Wends and other Slavonic tribes in Prussia, the chief result of which was the foundation of the city of Lübeck. [Sidenote: 1152. KONRAD'S DEATH.]