With far different feelings did Father Omehr behold the formidable battalia.

He knew that the pomp of war, if often sung by poets, is oftener chronicled in hell.

In the beautiful language of the age, he had been taught that "Peace is the language of heaven, for Christ, who came from heaven, spoke that language, saying, '_Pax vobis!_' It is the language of Angels, who cried, exulting, '_In terra pax!_' It is the language of the Apostles, who thus greeted every house they entered: '_Pax huic domui_'" Were the hasty and unscrupulous penmen of our generation to draw their information from the writings of the Saints, instead of from martial legends or miserable perversions even of these, they would find the spirit of the Ages of Faith eminently pacific, and could be induced so to represent it.

At least, the Church, the teacher and the regenerator of Europe, breathed nothing but "Peace!" Many holy doctors went so far as to condemn hunting, as being calculated to make men love war.

And even the war-cry of the red-crossed knights was: "_Mansuetudinem quaerimus et non bella!_" The nobles of the empire, the principal prelates who remained faithful to Rome, and the Papal legates, Siccard, Patriarch of Aquileia, and Altmann, Bishop of Passau, were assembled within the town in solemn council.