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Teutonic Knights

About 1128 or 1129 a rich merchant of Germany who had taken part in the siege of Jerusalem, struck with compassion at the sight of the sufferings of the pilgrims, built a hospital for them, in honor of the Blessed Virgin. He was soon joined by others, with whom he organized an order on the model of the Hospitallers of St. John, to care for the pilgrims and protect them against the Saracens.

After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin they were constituted one of the military orders (1190 or 1191) and changed their name from 'Hospitallers of the Blessed Virgin' to 'Teutonic Knights of the Hospitality of the Blessed Virgin.' In AD 1190, there arrived in the camp one who completely changed the whole organization and objects of the Institution, and is properly regarded as the founder of the Order, such as it became in the days of its greatest power and glory. This was Frederic, Duke of Suabia, a younger son of the Emperor Frederic I (Frederic of the Red-beard, Barbarossa, as he was familiarly called), who had died whilst leading a force of German Crusaders to the Holy Land, in consequence of a chill which he had caught through plunging into the ice-cold waters of the river Cydnus in Cilicia, when over-heated with violent exercise; and who, according to a superstition not yet extinct, as it is said, in some parts of Germany, is supposed to be still lying under the waters of the river in a magic sleep, until the day when he will awake and put himself at the head of the whole German race, and lead them on to the conquest of the world.

They adopted a Rule similar to that of the Templars and the Knights of St. John. The rule which Celestine gave to this new Order was framed in accordance with that of the Augustinian Canons, which was considered to be more suitable for an active body, as the Teutonic Order was intended to be, than that of St. Benedict, which was better suited for a recluse and contemplative Order.

The Order, all the members of which were of necessity to be of German nationality, was divided into three classes or ranks. The members of the first class were termed Knights (Ritter corresponding to Chevaliers). These were all required to be of noble birth and descent. The second class comprised the Priests of the Obedience (i.e., Clergy bound by the rules of the Order), who performed the office of Chaplains, and discharged generally the priestly and clerical functions required by the general body, and continued to pay special attention to the care of the sick and wounded: and the third class consisted of Men-at-Arms-(Servientes ad Arma; equivalent to the Escuiers, Armigeri, or Esquires of the other Orders). These were not necessarily of noble blood, but were only required to be descended from burghers of repute, and composed the fighting infantry force, though, as the power of the Order increased, and their constant wars required larger bodies to fight their battles, much the greatest part of the forces that were engaged in the field on their side consisted of the vassals who owed them allegiance, and were bound to render them military service, in accordance with the feudal constitution under which they held their possessions.

In addition to these three classes, which comprised the members of the Order properly so called, there was a body of Associates, or oblati as they were called, who, without being regular members of the Order, gave assistance to it by gifts of men, money, or arms, and in other ways ; and received in return various privileges in connection with the Order, and were considered to be under its special guardianship and protection.

At the head of the whole body was a Supreme Chief, who was at first termed Master (Meister0. But as their power gradually expanded, this term was applied to the heads of the different provinces into which their dominions were divided, and thereupon the superior of the whole Order was distinguished by the title of Grand or High Master (Hoch-Meister, Magnus Magister). Under him were the Provincial Masters, the Governors of Provinces (Landmeister), and Commanders (Komture), and the usual officers, such as Marshal of the Forces, Chancellor, Treasurer, &c. And at the head of the smaller sections, into which their possessions were divided, were placed officers called Bailiffs, who managed the estates, and collected the revenues arising from the property belonging to the Order.

The Order received from the Pope the same privileges in matters ecclesiastical as had already been conferred on the Templars and Hospitallers of St. John : including exemption from all episcopal supervision, freedom from payment of tithes and other ecclesiastical dues, and other immunities and privileges which they enjoyed in common with those other Monastic bodies that had been constituted with the Papal sanction.

The knights took part at first in the struggle against the Saracens, then joined forces with another military order, the Knights of the Order of Christ in Livonia, which had been founded to fight against the pagan nations of the Baltic. in the year 1230 the Duke of Masovia, one of the petty chieftains of Northern Germany, sent the most pressing solicitation to the Knight's Master, Herman von Salza, begging him to come with all his knights, and such other forces as he could collect, to the aid of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Poland, who were being most grievously harassed, and threatened with extermination by a savage and idolatrous pagan race known as Prussians. The whole of this extensive region was occupied by a number of tribes, of very different nationalities, nearly all of whom were barbarous and uncivilized in their manners, idolatrous in their religion, and of the most cruel and savage habits.

In attempting to reduce these savage tribes to order, it had been the policy of the Emperors, the successors of Charlemagne, to establish, as their conquests progressed, boundary provinces along the line of their advance, which were guarded by a ring of fortified posts that formed at once a strong defence for those on the inside, and a starting-point for further incursions into the regions on the outside, still occupied by the barbarian tribes around. These frontier provinces were known by the name of "Marks" or, as we more generally call them, "Marches" (such as the Marches of Wales), meaning a line drawn between the civilized and the uncivilized districts, much in the same way as the term "The Pale" was used in Ireland to designate the fortified inclosure which separated the Norman and English invaders from the wild Irish natives of the surrounding district. Over each Mark was placed an officer, called a Mark-Graf (or, as generally represented, a Margrave).

Von Salza would not undertake the enterprise until he had consulted both Pope and Emperor, and had obtained from them, not only a hearty approval of his design, but had also received from them a solemn gift, in full sovereignty, of all the territory which the Order might be able to conquer from the Prussians: a gift which, seeing that Prussia did not in any way belong to the donors, was not altogether so generous and selfdenying as the Bull and Charter by which it was conferred would seem to imply. Von Salza, thus fortified with the sanction of the two greatest ecclesiastical and civil authorities, at once set about the task with characteristic energy and vigor. The Conquest of Prussia took exactly fifty-two years (from 1231 to 1283) to accomplish : and the whole course of the proceeding was just like the advance of the rising tide upon a shelving shore.

While thus devoting themselves specially to the war against these pagans, they did not cease to take a part in the Crusade against the Saracens in Palestine. After the conquest of Prussia had been completed there occurred a short lull in their European contests, which left the Order at leisure to give assistance in the defence of Acre, the common headquarters of all the three great Orders, and the last stronghold of the Crusaders in Palestine. The siege was a most terrible one, and ended in 1291 with the complete defeat and expulsion from the Holy Land of all the Christian forces. The Templars and Hospitallers of St. John retired to Cyprus. The Teutonic Knights removed their headquarters to Venice, where they remained for 20 years, under the idea that they might still be required to give aid in the efforts which it was contemplated might yet be made for the recovery of the kingdom of Jerusalem ; and it was only when it had become certain, to them at least, that the day for such enterprises was over, and that the proper area for exhibiting their prowess was the pagan, or only partially Christianized region in and about their own recently acquired dominions, that they removed to Marienburg, on the Vistula, which they made the capital of Prussia, and surrounded with extensive and powerful fortifications.

The period of comparative inaction which followed the conquest of Prussia, and the retirement of the Order from Palestine, however, did not last long. They soon became involved in other and more serious troubles, partly domestic and partly external, which lasted, with occasional interruptions, for about 150 years. The domestic troubles, which concerned their ecclesiastical status and privileges, affected principally their province of Livonia. The actual origin of these dissensions is not very clear ; but it is pretty certain that it was in fact a struggle for supremacy between the Archbishops of Riga and the Knights of the Teutonic Order; neither of which potentates was willing to submit to the supremacy of the other.

The struggle with Poland and its allies, that lasted for upwards of 150 years, was nothing less than a life and death contest for supremacy or extermination. The way in which this struggle came about was this :-In the year 1309, Mestwin, the last Duke of Pomerania, died without leaving any legitimate issue, and thereupon the Poles, on various pretexts, laid claim to his succession, and took possession of the lands comprised in his Duchy. The Knights took up arms and made themselves masters of the disputed territory ; and to emphasize their resolution to retain the mastery over it, they built a new city at Dantzic to be the capital of the newly acquired region. The whole course of events during those 150 years ran in a cycle that was repeated over and over again, always in the same order, until the final blow that crushed one of the contending bodies beyond the power of further resistance. In this year, 1382, a marriage was arranged between Jagellon, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Hedwige, the Queen of Poland; thus uniting the forces of the two greatest and most powerful enemies of the Order.

Jagellon, with a combined force of Poles, Lithuanians, Samogitae, Russians, and Tartars, amounting to upwards of 120,000 men, invaded the Provinces of Prussia, the Teutonic Knights, with a force of 83,000 men-at-arms, met them in the plains of Tannenberg, on the 15th of July, 1410, and then ensued the most tremendous battle that the Order had ever been engaged in. the Grand Master was killed, and the tide of battle completely turned against his followers. Notwithstanding their crushing defeat at Tannenberg, however, the Order still retained sufficient power to offer a vigorous resistance to the attempts of Jagellon and his successors to seize and hold the Duchy of Pomerania and as much of Prussia as he could lay hands on.

Casimir, the then King of Poland, received their homage; and after a contest which lasted for twelve years, which cost the lives of 300,000 men, and during which no less than 18,000 villages were burnt and the inhabitants rendered homeless, compelled the Knights, in the year 1466, to submit to a most disastrous treaty, under which Prussia was divided into two parts. Of these, the Western, which comprised the long disputed Duchy of Pomerania, was ceded to the King of Poland, whilst the Eastern was allowed to remain under the rule of the Order, but only on condition that they should render homage for it to the Kings of Poland as the legitimate suzerains and over-lords of that sadly curtailed dominion.

Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg, who before his election was not a member of the Order, was elected Grand Master in the year 1511, in pursuance of that fatal policy which induced the Knights to appoint to that high office persons of princely rank or connections, under the mistaken idea that they would secure the assistance of their powerful relatives in the attempts that the Order were constantly making to retrieve their terrible losses. The result, however, was most ruinous to the Order. For instead of promoting the interests of the body over which they were invited to preside, these Princely Masters made the position to which they were called only the means of advancing their own private interests, and regarded the Grand Mastership of the Order as nothing but an ornamental addition to the high dignities with which they were already invested.

In the year 1525, after the expiration of the truce with Poland - having himself privately embraced the doctrines of Luther, the Grand Master, after some negotiations, concluded a treaty with the King of Poland, his uncle, the superior sovereign under whom the Knights held their Prussian dominions as a fief, by which it was agreed that all that part of the territory of Prussia, which was then ruled by the Order, should be converted into a secular Duchy, of which Albert was to be recognized as the hereditary Duke, with the succession secured, not only to his lineal, but to his collateral heirs, upon condition that he and his successors would accept investiture of this new-created duchy from the kings of Poland, as their lawful over-lords and suzerains. This having been completed, Albert at once threw off the habit, and renounced his obedience to the rules of the Order, openly professed Lutheranism, and expelled the Catholics from his duchy. The order was divided, one part following the grand master in his apostasy, the other taking up the cause against the Protestants.

The Teutonic Knights ceased to enjoy the status of a princely power, and lost all political influence and importance. The possessions held by them were divided into districts, called Bailiwicks. One of the most valuable of these, that of Sicily, was taken from them in 1489, before their loss of Prussia and Livonia. And another of them, that of Utrecht, established its independence in about the year 1600. The remaining Bailiwicks, eleven in number, were the following, namely:- (1) Elsass (Alsatia) and Burgundy; (2) Austria; (3) Coblenz; (4) Etsch or Tyrol; (5) Franconia; (6) Hesse ; (7) The Netherlands; (8) Westphalia; (9) Thuringia; (10) Lotharingen (Lorraine); and (11) Saxony.

Having lost their former Capital -of Konigsberg, the Order transferred their headquarters to Mergentheim in Franconia. They still continued the fatal policy of electing to the Grand Mastership, scions of the great Imperial and Princely families of Germany, with the consequence that these highly born dignitaries considered the possession of the Grand Mastership chiefly as an ornamental addition to their many other distinctions, rather than as imposing upon them any serious duties of converting or exterminating Pagans and Paganism.

The supply of Pagans to convert, or exterminate and despoil, beginning now to run short, the Knights had much fewer opportunities of performing those feats of arms, which in bygone days had rendered them so formidable. And this circumstance so far diminished the inducement to join their ranks, that it became more and more difficult to find sufficient recruits to keep up their numbers to anything like their former amount, or to give such training, by engaging in actual warlike enterprises, to those who did serve in their forces, as their old conflicts, whether domestic or external, had afforded.

The Knights did, indeed, occasionally furnish some contingents to the forces of the emperors when engaged in their wars with pagan foes abroad or heretic rebels at home; and, notably, they supplied an auxiliary force to John Sobieski, the king of their old foe Poland, on that memorable occasion when, in the year 1683, he raised the siege of Vienna, and thereby repeated for Eastern Europe that deliverance which nearly a thousand years before Charles Martel had wrought for Western Europe by the Battle of Tours, thereby putting an effectual and final stop to the further spread over Christian Europe of that deluge of Mahometanism which was threatening to overwhelm it.

The Order drooped and dwindled until, by the end of the eighteenth century, it had no longer strength to resist the vigorous attacks made upon it by the great Napoleon, who, in the year 1801, boldly seized and annexed to France all the Bailiwicks belonging to the Order situate to the west of the Rhine ; and in 1809, in the plenitude of his power, absolutely extinguished the Order, and distributed all its remaining possessions (with the exception only of the Bailiwick of Utrecht, which retained its independent existence) amongst those of the neighboring German states that he permitted to continue to exist.

And thus this once immensely powerful and redoubted Order had nothing left but to point to the relics and memorials of its former greatness-the cathedrals and churches, the castles and palaces, the cities and towns, and fortresses that it had built or founded, now lying in ruins or in the hands and under the dominion of strangers, and to exclaim with him who, at the enthronization of a Pope, scatters a handful of flax upon a blazing torch as an emblem of the transitory nature of all human splendours as he utters the warning cry, "Eheu ! Sic transit gloria mundi."

The order survived, however, as an order of hospitallers in Austria. There were 20 professed knights, who were bound to celibacy, and 30 knights of honor, not so bound. Both classes of knights must be of noble birth. The grand master was always one of the imperial archdukes. The order had charge of 50 parishes, 17 schools, 69 hospitals, for the service of which it supports two congregations of priests and four of sisters. Its members also do ambulance work in war-time. There was a Protestant branch of the order in Holland. In the year 1840 a pretence was made of resuscitating the Teutonic Order. And a very meritorious body, bearing indeed its name, but having no sort of claim to identify itself with the Order, was formed for the purpose of giving assistance to the sick and wounded, both in war and in peace.

There is no comparison between the impression made upon mediaeval history and the mark left upon the institutions of our own times by the Teutonic Order, and the effects in similar matters produced by the institutions of the Templars or the Hospitallers. For whereas the Templars have left behind them only a few churches-mostly in ruins, and the Hospitallers, besides this, have been indirectly the cause of handing over the sovereignty of the Island of Malta to the British Crown, the Teutonic Order, besides numerous other provinces of considerable importance and extent, were the actual founders of that great State of Prussia.