The ocean-carrying trade was almost wholly in the hands of foreigners, the government wisely refraining from an attempt to develop an occupation for which its citizens had no natural aptitude.
In the monothelite controversy then raging he acted with cautious reserve, refraining at least from express condemnation of the Typus of Constans II.
However, it must also be remembered that, throughout the whole of his career, Gould consulted the convenience of working ornithologists by almost invariably refraining from including in his folio works the technical description of any new species without first publishing it in some journal of comparatively easy access.
It is said that at least Bernardo del Nero would have been spared had Savonarola raised his voice, but, although refraining from any active part against the prisoners, the prior would not ask mercy for them.
He concentrated all his energies on the government and defence of northern and eastern Germany, leaving the southern and western districts to profit by his example, while his policy of refraining from interference in the affairs of the other duchies tended to diminish the ill-feeling which existed between the various German tribes and to bring peace to the country as a whole.