himself, he had nevertheless seriously limited his authority and hampered his Sicilian policy. It was not sound statecraft that promised freely in the hope of being able to repudiate the concession when he had obtained the end for which he affected to pay the price. Frederick seemed at first in earnest about the Crusade, but he again piled up delay upon delay. In 1221 Damietta was lost to the Christians (see chapter xix.), and the Pope, who felt that Frederick was responsible for this severe blow, mildly threatened him with excommunication; but Frederick soon talked him over, and it was agreed to postpone his Crusade until 1225. Though that term soon passed away, Frederick now contracted his second marriage, with Iolande or Isabella, daughter of John de Brienne, and the heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem. This match gave him a new and a more personal motive to undertake the promised adventure. Meanwhile papal legates had stirred up Germany with some purpose, and Hermann of Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, won over many of the princes. The eager Pope at last thought that Europe was again on the verge of making a real effort to redeem the recent failures. But the organisation of Sicily lay nearer the Emperor’s heart than the delivery of the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel. The establishment of the Saracens at Lucera was a curious comment on his crusading zeal, and directly threatened the neighbouring papal territories with infidel invasion at the very moment when Frederick was calling on the inhabitants of Spoleto, a fief of the Holy See, to render him military service. The new laws promulgated for his Southern dominions afflicted the clergy with severe disabilities, and gave the lie direct to the promises made after Frederick’s coronation. Moreover, in 1226 Frederick held a great diet at Cremona, where he renewed the ancient imperial claims over Lombardy. In their alarm the Lombard cities renewed their league, and blocked the roads by which the imperial troops could cross over the Alps from Germany. Frederick put the guilty cities under the imperial ban, and a German prelate declared an interdict over their lands. Honorius at last lost all patience. He pronounced the interdict invalid, and prepared to renew the ancient league between the Papacy and the Lombard cities. Despite the incredible forbearance of the Pope, the lying and chicanery of the Emperor had wantonly provoked a rupture. The death of Honorius in March 1227 precipitated the inevitable renewal of the old contest of Papacy and Empire.