But Others Treat of Higher and More Serious Themes, and Show us a Man Deeply Engaged in the Political and Religious Life of his Day. He was a Warm Lover of his Country, but He Does not Hesitate to Rebuke and Satirize his Countrymen, Whether Clergy or Laity, for their Faults and Shortcomings. In the Great Struggle Between the Pope and the Emperor, He is Heart and Soul on the National Side, and Writes Such Stern Reproofs and Bitter Epigrams on the Head of the Church, as Startle us from one of Its Sons. But He is an Earnest Christian, Sometimes Lamenting his Own Sins with Simple Penitence, Sometimes Expressing a Strong and Manly Faith. He Preaches the Crusade, and So Heartily that He Refuses the Meed of a Poet's Praises to the Archangels Themselves, if they Come not to the Succour of Christendom.