The disintegrating speculations of an influential school of criticism in Germany were making their way among English men of culture just about the time, as is usually the case, when the tide was turning against them in their own country.
In the midst of the frequent changes of pope which went on during these years, and the political vicissitudes of Italy, Hildebrand took such measures as .enabled him to checkmate the opposition of the Roman barons by turning against them, now the armed force of the Normans, now the influence of the German king.'
Thus at the end of 1860, the very time when he had hoped that his personal policy was to rally round him once for all the whole of France, and assure the future of his dynasty, he saw, on the contrary, that it was turning against him his strongest supporters.
