If the undaunted courage with which Frederick continued the war against the cities after his disaster before Rome deserves admiration, his infatuation is nevertheless deplorable. The hero might soon wish, like Alexander the Great, that he had never seen Italy, but had rather turned his arms against distant Asia. He was forced to leave Lombardy as a fugitive in the spring of 1168. While he exhausted the strength of the empire in the struggle with the stronger spirit of the age, the Pope formed an alliance with this spirit. A curious chain of circumstances placed the freedom of the republics under the protection of the Church, the freedom of the Church under the protection of the republics. It would have redounded more to the glory of the Church had the promotion of civic liberty been her own independent act. But while the popes made war on civic liberty in Rome, where it turned to the Emperor seeking protection from the Church, they at the same time favoured it in Lombardy, where the cities found a support in the Pope against the Emperor.