In 1253 we find Rhodolph heading a foray of steel-clad knights, with their banded followers, in a midnight attack upon the city of Basle.  They break over all the defenses, sweep all opposition before them, and in the fury of the fight, either by accident or as a necessity of war, sacrilegiously set fire to a nunnery.  For this crime Rhodolph was excommunicated by the pope.  Excommunication was then no farce.  There were few who dared to serve a prince upon whom the denunciations of the Church had fallen.  It was a stunning blow, from which few men could recover.  Rhodolph, instead of sinking in despair, endeavored, by new acts of obedience and devotion to the Church, to obtain the revocation of the sentence.

In the region now called Prussia, there was then a barbaric pagan race, against whom the pope had published a crusade.  Into this war the excommunicated Rhodolph plunged with all the impetuosity of his nature; he resolved to work out absolution, by converting, with all the potency of fire and sword, the barbarians to the Church.  His penitence and zeal seem to have been accepted, for we soon find him on good terms again with the pope.  He now sought to have a hand in every quarrel, far and near.  Wherever the sounds of war are raised, the shout of Rhodolph is heard urging to the strife.  In every hot and fiery foray, the steed of Rhodolph is rearing and plunging, and his saber strokes fall in ringing blows upon cuirass and helmet.  He efficiently aided the city of Strasbourg in their war against their bishop, and received from them in gratitude extensive territories, while at the same time they reared a monument to his name, portions of which still exist.  His younger brother died, leaving an only daughter, Anne, with a large inheritance.  Rhodolph, as her guardian, came into possession of the counties of Kyburg, Lentzburg and Baden, and other scattered domains.

This rapidly-increasing wealth and power, did but increase his energy and his spirit of encroachment.  And yet he adopted principles of honor which were far from common in that age of barbaric violence.  He would never stoop to ordinary robbery, or harass peasants and helpless travelers, as was constantly done by the turbulent barons around him.  His warfare was against the castle, never against the cottage.  He met in arms the panoplied knight, never the timid and crouching peasant.  He swept the roads of the banditti by which they were infested, and often espoused the cause of citizens and freemen against the turbulent barons and haughty prelates.  He thus gained a wide-spread reputation for justice, as well as for prowess, and the name of Rhodolph of Hapsburg was ascending fast into renown.  Every post of authority then required the agency of a military arm.  The feeble cantons would seek the protection of a powerful chief; the citizens of a wealthy town, ever liable to be robbed by bishop or baron, looked around for some warrior who had invincible troops