First of all, the great change wrought in Europe by the Crusades was beginning to be felt by all classes of society. The attempt to retain possession of Palestine, which lasted nearly two hundred years,--from the march of the First Crusade in 1096 to the fall of Acre in 1291,--cost Europe, it is estimated, six millions of lives, and an immense amount of treasure. The Roman Church favored the undertaking in every possible way, since each Crusade instantly and greatly strengthened its power; yet the result was the reverse of what the Church hoped for, in the end. The bravery, intelligence and refined manners of the Saracens made a great impression on the Christian knights, and they soon began to imitate those whom they had at first despised. New branches of learning, especially astronomy, mathematics and medicine, were brought to Europe from the East; more luxurious habits of life, giving rise to finer arts of industry, followed; and commerce, compelled to supply the Crusaders and Christian colonists at such a distance, was rapidly developed to an extent unknown since the fall of the Roman Empire. [Sidenote: 1256. GROWTH OF INDEPENDENT SECTS.] As men gained new ideas from these changes, they became more independent in thought and speech. The priests and monks ceased to monopolize all knowledge, and their despotism over the human mind met with resistance. Then, first, the charge of "heresy" began to be heard; and although during the thirteenth and a part of the fourteenth centuries the Pope of Rome was undoubtedly the highest power in Europe, the influences were already at work which afterwards separated the strongest races of the world from the Roman Church. On the one hand, new orders of monks were created, and monasteries increased everywhere: on the other hand, independent Christian sects began to spring up, like the Albigenses in France and the Waldenses in Savoy, and could not be wholly suppressed, even with fire and sword. The orders of knighthood which possessed a religious character, were also established during the Crusades. First the Knights of St. John, whose badge was a black mantle with a white cross, formed a society to guard pilgrims to the Holy Land, and take care of the sick. Then followed the Knights Templar, distinguished by a red cross on a white mantle. Both these orders originated among the Italian chivalry, and they included few German members. During the Third Crusade, however (which was headed by Barbarossa), the German Order of Knights was formed, chiefly by the aid of the merchants of Bremen and Lübeck. They adopted the black cross on a white mantle as their badge, took the monkish vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, like the Templars and the Knights of St. John, and devoted their lives to war with the heathen. The second Grand-Master of this order, Hermann of Salza, accompanied Frederick II. to Jerusalem, and his character was so highly estimated by the latter that he made him a prince of the German Empire.