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TEUTONIC ORDER, THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 679 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TEUTONIC See also:ORDER, THE , or Teutonic Knights of St See also:Mary's See also:Hospital at See also:Jerusalem (Der deutsche Orden, Deutsche See also:Ritter) was one of the three See also:great military and religious orders which sprang from the CRUSADtS (q.v.). Later in See also:birth than the See also:Templars and Hospitallers, the Teutonic Order traces its first beginnings from the third Crusade. Already, indeed, in 1143 we hear of a hospital of Germans at Jerusalem, which See also:Celestine II. places under the See also:control of the Hospitallers, with the stipulation that the See also:prior and servants alone shall necessarily be of See also:German birth.' But it is amidst the privations and See also:plague which attended the See also:siege of See also:Acre, during the third Crusade, that the first certain beginnings of the Order appear. In the See also:winter of 1190-91 certain pious merchants from See also:Bremen and See also:Lubeck (towns with which the Order was still to be connected in the days of its later See also:history) laid the See also:foundations of a hospital in a ' Roh: icht, Geschichte See also:des Konigreichs Jerusalem, p. 242, See also:vessel which they had See also:drawn ashore.l Within a few years the See also:foundation apparently became attached to the German See also:Church of St Mary the Virgin at Jerusalem; and in See also:March 1198 (there being See also:present in the See also:Holy See also:Land a number of Germans, the See also:relics of See also:Henry VI.'s projected crusade), the great men of the See also:army and the See also:kingdom raised the brethren of the German Hospital of St Mary to the See also:rank of an order of knights. The See also:original members were thus ennobled; and henceforth it was the See also:rule that only Germans of See also:noble birth could join the Order. The Order was from the first, therefore, of a See also:national See also:character, unlike the See also:cosmopolitan orders of the Templars and Hospitallers; but in other respects it was modelled upon the same lines, and shared in the same development. Like the knights of other orders, the Teutonic knights lived a semi-monastic See also:life under the Augustinian rule; and in the same way they admitted priests and See also:half-See also:brothers (servientes) into their ranks. Like the other two orders, the Teutonic Order began as a charitable society, See also:developed into a military See also:club, and ended as something of a chartered See also:company, exercising rights of See also:sovereignty on the troubled confines of Christendom. Even in its last phase, the Order did not forget its original purpose: it maintained several great hospitals in its new See also:home on the See also:south-See also:east See also:shore of the Baltic, in addition to an hotel des invalides at See also:Marienburg for its sick or aged brethren. For a See also:hundred years (1191-1291) the headquarters of the Order were at Acre; nor was it until 1309 that, after a brief sojourn at See also:Venice, the seat of See also:government was transferred to Marienburg on the See also:Vistula. But See also:long before that date the Order had begun to find that its true See also:work See also:lay on the eastern frontiers of See also:Germany.

Perhaps it was See also:

Hermann von See also:Salza, the first great See also:grand See also:master of the Order (1210-1239), who originally conceived the See also:idea of transplanting the Order to the See also:west. At any See also:rate it was he who accepted the invitation of See also:Andrew of See also:Hungary that the Order should aid him with its resources against the Comans by whom he was threatened. In 1211 the Order received from the See also:king the See also:district of Burzenland in Transylvania. Towns arose and See also:agriculture began to flourish; but seeking to make itself See also:independent, the Order lost its lands, and disappeared from Transylvania. A new opportunity almost immediately arose on the See also:banks of the Vistula. Here See also:Christian, See also:bishop of See also:Prussia, who had received from the See also:Polish See also:duke of Masovia a See also:part of Kulmerland as a See also:fief, had founded the knightly Order of Dobrzin, and was attempting with its aid to subdue the heathens of Prussia. Unsuccessful in his See also:attempt, he invited the Teutonic Order to come to the See also:rescue, and bestowed on the Order See also:Kulm and some of the frontier towns in his territory, with such lands as it should conquer (1228). Thus the Order took its See also:place as the founder of one of the marks on the eastern frontier of Germany, and began to See also:play its part in that Drang nach Osten, which is perhaps the vitally important thing in the history of Germany from the 12th to the 14th See also:century. Since the days of Adolf of See also:Holstein and Henry the See also:Lion, a See also:movement of German colonization, in which farmers from the See also:Low Countries, merchants from Lubeck, and monks of the Cistercian Order all played their parts, had been spreading German See also:influence from the See also:Oder to the Vistula, from the Vistula to the Dwina—to See also:Prague, to See also:Gnesen, and even to See also:Novgorod the Great. Of this movement the Teutonic Order became, along with the Hanse, the chosen representative. It was not, indeed, the first knightly Order to gird itself for the task. Besides the knightly Order founded by Christian, there was already another still farther east, which had served as Christian's See also:model, the Knights of the See also:Sword of See also:Livonia.

This was an order founded by See also:

Albert, 3rd bishop of See also:Riga, in 1201, to serve as an See also:instrument, under his control, for the. See also:conquest of the land. But in 1237 the Knights of the Sword were merged into the Teutonic Order, and Livonia became a See also:province of the Order, with a master of its own under the grand master's control, just as, two years before, the Order had also absorbed the Knights of Dobrzin. 1 Rohricht, Geschichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem, p. 542. The relations of this new foundation to the German hospital mentioned in 1143 cannot be traced. In 1229 the Order began the conquest of Prussia, See also:founding fortresses at each step to See also:rivet its conquests (for instance, at See also:Thorn, named after Toron in See also:Palestine), much as the Anglo-See also:Normans had done in their conquest of See also:Wales. See also:Frederic II. gave the Order the rights of a See also:prince of the See also:Empire in its territories: See also:Conrad of Masovia gave it the whole of Kulmerland in 1230; while in 1234 the Order established its See also:independence of all authorities except the Papacy, by surrendering its territories to the Holy See and receiving them back again as a fief. The See also:pope gave to those who joined in the work of the Order the privileges of Crusaders; and the knights, supported by numerous donations and large accessions to their ranks, rapidly increased their territories. By 126o they ruled the eastern' See also:bank of the Vistula from Kulm to its mouth, and the See also:northern shore of the Baltic from the mouth of the Vistula to See also:Konigsberg. Livonia they held after 1237; and during the. 14th century they gained the Lithuanian territory of Samogitia, which lay between Livonia and their Prussian dominions, while they also added, to the west of the Vistula, Pomerellen and the Neumark (see under PRUSSIA). Already by the beginning of the 14th century these conquests had fundamentally changed the character of the Order.

It lost any connexion with the East: after the fall of Acre in 1291, the grand master (whose seat had been at Acre, while the German master (Deutschmeister) had controlled the Order in Germany) moved first to Venice, and then, in 1308, to Marienburg on the Vistula. Again, with the See also:

accession of large territories, the Order became a governing See also:aristocracy; the original care for the sick, and even• the later crusading zeal of the See also:period of conquest, gave way, when conquests were gained and See also:administration was needed, to the problem, half military, half See also:political, of governing a frontier See also:state. The statutes of the Order were altered to suit the new conditions, and a whole See also:system of administration arose. At Marienburg the grand master maintained a magnificent See also:court; See also:round him were the five great dignitaries of the Order, the Grand See also:Commander, the See also:Marshal, the Hospitaller, the Treasurer (Tressler) and the Keeper of the See also:Wardrobe (Trapier) to see to the clothing of the Order. There was a Landmeister for Livonia, and another (the Deutschmeister) for the German province, with his seat at See also:Mergentheim in See also:Swabia. Over each of the twenty districts of the Order was set a commander (Komtur), with the brethren of his See also:house at his See also:side as advisers. The commander was See also:bound by the See also:advice of his brethren; and in the same way the See also:general See also:chapter of the Order, consisting of the landmeisters and the great dignitaries, formed an advisory See also:board to the grand master in matters such as See also:treaties and See also:internal legislation. It was government by an aristocracy almost Venetian in character. The individual was merged in the Order: each See also:brother must pray four times in the See also:day, and four times at See also:night, and he must at all times pay an unquestioning obedience to his superiors. The Order was at once supreme ecclesiastical and political authority. There were no struggles of Church and State in its dominions: the state was also the church: the bishops and the canons of the four bishoprics (with the exception of See also:Ermeland) were priests of the Order. The lay subjects of the Order consisted of two classes; on the one See also:hand there were the conquered Prussians, in a position of See also:serfdom, bound in See also:time of See also:war to serve with the brethren in See also:foreign expeditions; on the other hand there were the German immigrants, both See also:urban and rural, along with the See also:free Prussians who had voluntarily submitted and remained faithful.

The towns were large and flourishing; as many as sixty arose in the period between 1233 and 1416, including Thorn and See also:

Elbing, See also:Danzig and Konigsberg (named after Ottocar of Bohemia, who took part in the See also:campaign during which it was founded). The towns possessed the rights of See also:Magdeburg, or (like Elbing) those of Lubeck; the most important of them soon came to join the Hanseatic See also:League. The Order only imposed customs duties: it levied no tolls within the land; and though its consent was necessary tifl any See also:change in municipal ordinances, it allowed the towns a large amount of self-government. The See also:concord of the Order with the towns and the Hanse was one great cause of its prosperite until the See also:close of the 14th century; and the rupture of that concord in the 15th century was largely responsible for its fall. This political and material strength enabled the Order to See also:weather the See also:storm by which the Templars were destroyed at the beginning of the 14th century. For a time, indeed, the Order lay under papal See also:sentence of See also:excommunication; but the transference of his seat to Marienburg at this time (1308) gave the grand master a basis from which he was able to make easy terms with the pope. Nor was the Order, during the 14th century, at all unfaithful to its original calling. Particularly under the grand master Winrich of Kniprode (1351-1382) it was the school of northern See also:chivalry, engaged in unceasing struggle to defend and extend See also:Christianity against the See also:heathen Lithuanian. To the brilliant court of Marienburg, not only a school of chivalry, but under Winrich's predecessor See also:Luther of See also:Brunswick, a See also:literary centre,' men came from all over See also:Europe to win their spurs. See also:John of Bohemia had fought by the Vistula: Henry of See also:Bolingbroke was of the goodly company; See also:Chaucer's perfect See also:knight had travelled in " Pruce and Lettowe." The neo-chivalry of the 14th century, in which a fantastic love of See also:adventure had displaced the finer and more ideal motives of the old chivalry, looked towards the Vistula and Marienburg. At the height of its See also:glory sudden and irretrievable ruin See also:fell upon the Order. The conditions which had made possible its prosperity now disappeared.

Externally, a See also:

Slavonic reaction came, and dealt heavy blows to the eastward advance of German See also:civilization. The Hussite movement, a victorious expression of See also:Czech See also:nationality, is contemporaneous with the loss of German dominion in Prussia; the See also:exodus of German students from Prague takes place a See also:year before the defeat of the Order at Tannenburg. The particular danger from the Slays of the See also:north-east arose from the See also:conversion of Lithuania, and the See also:union of converted Lithuania to See also:Poland. The conversion of Lithuania deprived the Order of its See also:mission: the union of Lithuania to Poland robbed it of the See also:security which it enjoyed while they were disunited, and gave new strength to Poland, a See also:constant enemy to the Order which had deprived it of any outlet on the Baltic. Internally, too, the Order suffered. The Hussite See also:wars, the feuds of Burgundian and See also:Armagnac, the renewal of the Hundred Years' War, all prevented it from See also:drawing new See also:blood from the west. But above all it lost See also:touch with its subjects. A religious order, largely composed of immigrants from abroad, could not permanently rule a state which had developed a national feeling of its own; and the native aristocracy, both of the towns and the See also:country, revolted against its dominion. The rebellious elements allied themselves instinctively with the Poles, who thus found the absorption of the greater part of the lands of the Order an easy task. Commercial See also:jealousy aided the See also:process: the Order had alienated the towns by entering into competition with their See also:trade; it had established a See also:monopoly of See also:amber and even, occasionally, of See also:corn; and its agents were spread as far afield as See also:Bruges. This commercial policy had indeed a deeper and more fatal effect than the See also:alienation of the towns; it secularized still further the brethren of the Order, and made them financiers instead of soldiers. Their finances were indeed excellent; they kept See also:regular accounts, and had already developed the See also:modern principle of separating the See also:civil See also:list from the expenses of the government; but when they brought the tables of See also:money-changers into the See also:temple, they were doing as the Templars had done before them, and were likely to suffer as the Templars had suffered.

The first See also:

blow struck at the Order, if it did not destroy its See also:power immediately, ruined its See also:prestige for ever. The defeat which the Polish king See also:Ladislaus inflicted upon the knights at Tannenberg in 1410 was crushing. It brought Ladislaus little immediate gain; but it stimulated the elements of unrest in Prussia to fresh activity. The discontented See also:clergy, especially ' Every house of the Order had two learned brethren, one learned in the See also:law, one in See also:theology. There were also elementary See also:schools, and municipal foundations in which Latin was taught, in the dominions of the Order.in Livonia; the towns, such as Danzig; the native aristocracy, organized in a league (the Eidechsenbund, or League of the See also:Lizard), all sought to use their opportunity. It was in vain that the heroic grand master, Henry of See also:Plauen (1410-1413) sought to See also:stem the See also:tide of disaster,; he was deposed by the chapter of the Order for his pains. The success of the Hussite raids in Germany gave fresh confidence to the Slays of Poland. The Order was at variance within itself; some of the houses of the brethren refused to obey the marshal, and the grand master quarrelled with the German master. Above all, there arose in 1440 the Prussian League (Preussischer Bund), in which the nobles and towns joined together, nominally for See also:common See also:protection of their rights, but really against the Order. The League naturally sympathized with Poland, not only because Poland was the enemy of the knights, but also because under Poland it hoped to enjoy the See also:practical See also:liberty which Polish anarchy already seemed to offer. The ultimate result was that in 1454 an See also:embassy of the League offered Prussia to the Polish king, and that, after many years of war, the See also:Peace of Thorn (1466) gave to Poland West Prussia, with Marienburg, Thorn, Danzig and other towns, in full See also:possession, and, while leaving East Prussia to the Order, made the Order the vassals of Poland for the territory which it retained. Henceforth the grand master was to sit in the Polish See also:diet on the See also:left of the king, and half of the knights of the Order were to be Polish.

From 1466 to 1526 grand masters of the Order ruled in East Prussia as vassals of Poland. But the master of the Livonian province and the German master would not obey a Polish See also:

vassal, and went their own way; the German master took the grand master's place as a prince of the Empire. The brethren of East Prussia, however, still sighed for independence; and they pursued the policy of choosing German princes to be grand masters of the Order, in the See also:hope of regaining liberty by their aid. See also:Frederick of See also:Saxony held the See also:office from 1498 to 1511; and he was succeeded by the See also:Hohenzollern Albert of See also:Brandenburg-Anspach. When Lutheranism arose, it spread rapidly in Prussia; Albert himself came into contact with Luther, and turning See also:Protestant he secularized his territories, and (1526) made them into an hereditary duchy, still held as a fief of the king of Poland. Few of the brethren resisted; and the Order quietly ceased from the land where for three hundred years it had had its being. Henceforth the Teutonic Order lived in Germany and in Livonia. The master of the latter province had beaten off an attack of the Russians in 1502, and secured a fifty years' peace. But in 1561 another master followed the example of Albert, and received See also:Courland as an hereditary fief from Poland. Henceforth the Order was confined to Germany alone. The German master—now grand master and German master in one —had his headquarters at Mergentheim in Swabia; the revenues of the states scattered throughout the twelve bailiwicks of Germany sustained him and his Order. The Order, clinging to its rights with the conservatism of an ecclesiastical See also:corporation, still maintained its claims to East Prussia, and pressed them tenaciously even against the See also:electors of Brandenburg them-selves, when they inherited the land on the failure of Albert's descendants in 1618.

The See also:

French Revolution finally deprived the Order of all its estates, and for a while of its existence. In 18o1 the bailiwicks to the west of the See also:Rhine were absorbed by See also:France; in 1809 the Order was entirely suppressed; and its lands went to the See also:secular principalities in which they lay. But in 1840 the Order was resuscitated in See also:Austria, where it now exists as a semi-religious See also:knighthood, closely connected with the Habsburgs. It has remembered its earliest See also:objects, and has of See also:late years engaged during war in the See also:ambulance service. " At the See also:foot of sunny vineyards," says See also:Treitschke, " the house of the Teutonic Order now stands at See also:Botzen; on its See also:door is still emblazoned the See also:black See also:cross—in the See also:middle of the See also:shield of the See also:Habsburg-Lorrainers." Whatever its connexion with the Habsburgs, the Order has its real heirs in the Hohenzollerns of Prussia. When Frederic the Great gained West Prussia by the first See also:partition of Poland (1702), he was uniting together once more the dominions of the Order, sundered since 1466; and it is the See also:kings of Prussia who. have inherited the Order's task of maintaining German influence on the banks of the Vistula.

End of Article: TEUTONIC ORDER, THE

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