The next Pope was Ugolino, cardinal bishop of Ostia, a kinsman of Innocent III., a man of the highest character, and an ardent upholder of the great Pope’s ideas. He had long been known as the special patron of St. Francis and St. Dominic (see chapter xviii.), and the most strenuous foe of all sorts of heretics. [Sidenote: The first struggle between Frederick and Gregory IX., 1227–1230.] Gregory IX. (this was the name he assumed) was already a very old man. But the fire of youthful enthusiasm still glowed within him, and his strong will and restless energy at once brushed aside the specious excuses that had so long deceived his predecessor. For the moment it seemed as if Frederick was at last in earnest for the Crusade. Bands of German, Italian, and French warriors gathered together in Apulia during the summer, and on 8th September Frederick himself took ship at Brindisi for the Holy Land. But pestilence had already decimated the crusading army, and after a few days Frederick put back at Otranto, alleging that a sharp attack of fever had necessitated his return. The Emperor soon recovered, but the Landgrave of Thuringia, the commander of his army, now died, and many of the survivors of the expedition went back to their homes. Frederick’s excuses availed him little with Gregory IX. On 29th September the Pope pronounced him excommunicate, and laid under interdict every spot wherein he might chance to tarry. This was the signal for a violent renewal of the ancient strife between Papacy and Empire. Gregory denounced the Emperor in threatening manifestos, and swarms of Mendicant Friars wandered throughout Italy, seeking to turn Frederick’s subjects from their allegiance to the forsworn, grasping, and profligate Emperor. Frederick did not shrink from the conflict. ‘No Roman Emperor,’ he declared, ‘has ever been so badly treated by a Pope. The Roman Church is so swollen with avarice that the goods of the Church will not suffice to satisfy it, and it is not ashamed to disinherit and make tributary emperors, kings and princes.’ For the moment Frederick was in the stronger position. The Pope’s emissaries failed to turn either Italy or Germany from its allegiance. The partisans of the Emperor stirred up a tumult in Rome, and at Easter 1228 Gregory was forced to take flight to Viterbo. [Sidenote: Frederick’s Crusade, 1228–1229.]