One day, in December, 1146, he was celebrating mass at Spire, in presence of the emperor and a great number of German princes.  Suddenly he passed from the regular service to the subject of the crusade, and transported his audience to the last judgment, in the presence of all the nations of the earth summoned together, and Jesus Christ bearing his cross, and reproaching the emperor with ingratitude.  Conrad was deeply moved, and interrupted the preacher by crying out, “I know what I owe to Jesus Christ:  and I swear to go whither it pleaseth Him to call me.”  The attraction became general; and Germany, like France, took up the cross.

[Illustration:  Preaching the second crusade——­13]

St. Bernard returned to France.  The ardor there had cooled a little during his absence; the results of his trip in Germany were being waited for; and it was known that, on being eagerly pressed to put himself at the head of the crusaders, and take the command of the whole expedition, he had formally refused.  His enthusiasm and his devotion, sincere and deep as they were, did not, in his case, extinguish common sense; and he had not forgotten the melancholy experiences of Peter the Hermit.  In support of his refusal he claimed the intervention of Pope Eugenius iii.  “Who am I,” he wrote to him, “that I should form a camp, and march at the head of an army?  What can be more alien to my calling, even if I lacked not the strength and the ability?  I need not tell you all this, for you know it perfectly.  I conjure you by the charity you owe me, deliver me not over, thus, to the humors of men.”  The pope came to France; and the third grand assembly met at Etampes, in February, 1147.  The presence of St. Bernard rekindled zeal; but foresight began to penetrate men’s minds.  Instead of insisting upon his being the chief of the crusade, attention was given to preparations for the expedition; the points were indicated at which the crusaders should form a junction, and the directions in which they would have to move; and inquiry was made as to what measures should be taken, and what persons should be selected for the government of France during the king’s absence.  “Sir,” said St. Bernard, after having come to an understanding upon the subject with the principal members of the assembly, at the same time pointing to Suger and the Count de Nevers, “here be two swords, and it sufficeth.”  The Count de Nevers peremptorily refused the honor done him; he was resolved, he said, to enter the order of St. Bruno, as indeed he did.  Suger also refused at first, “considering the dignity offered him a burden, rather than an honor.”  Wise and clear-sighted by nature, he had learned in the reign of Louis the Fat, to know the requirements and the difficulties of government.  “He consented to accept,” says his biographer, “only when he was at last forced to it by Pope Eugenius, who was present at the king’s departure, and whom it was neither permissible nor possible for him to resist.”  It was agreed that the French crusaders should form a junction at Metz, under the command of King Louis, and the Germans at Ratisbonne, under that of the Emperor Conrad, and that the two armies should successively repair by land to Constantinople, whence they would cross into Asia.