CHAPTER III.

Wars-Ecclesiastical disputes-Scenes of violence-A right estimate of the Middle Ages-The Teutonic Order at its zenithThe battle of Tannenburg-The doctrines of Huss spread—The Council of Constance-Persecution-The plague-Unpopularity of the Order Marienberg besieged-The Order retires to Konigsberg-Luther attacks the Order-The Grand Master resigns, and becomes a Lutheran-Dismemberment of the Order. "The knights' bones are dust,

And their good swords are rust,

Their souls are with the saints we trust."

COLERIDGE.

THE next half-century was a period of general prosperity and advance for the Order. It was engaged almost incessantly in war, either for the retention of its conquests, or for the acquisition of new territory.

There were also internal difficulties and dissensions, and contests with the bishops. In A.D. 1308, the Archbishop of Riga appealed to Pope Clement V., making serious charges against the Order, and endeavouring to prevail upon him to suppress it in the same way as the Templars had lately been dealt with. Gerard, Count of Holstein, however, came forward as the defender of the knights. A formal inquiry was opened before the Pope at Avignon, A.D. 1323. The principal charges brought forward by the Archbishop were, that the Order had not fulfilled the conditions of its sovereignty in defending the Church against its heathen enemies; that it did not regard excommunications; that it had offered

insolence to the Archbishop, and seized some of the property of his see, and other similar accusations. The Grand Master explained some of these matters, denied others, and produced an autograph letter of the Archbishop's, in which he secretly endeavoured to stir up the Grand Duke of Lithuania to make a treacherous attack upon some of the fortresses of the knights. The end of the matter was that the case was dismissed, and there is little doubt that there were serious faults on both sides.

The times were indeed full of violence, cruelty, and crime. The annals abound with terrible and shameful records, bloody and desolating wars, and individual cases of oppression, injustice, and cruelty. Now a Grand Master is assassinated in his chapel during vespers; now a judge is proved to have received bribes, and to have induced a suitor to sacrifice the honour of his wife as the price of a favourable decision. Wealth and power led to luxury and sensuality, the weaker were oppressed, noble and bishop alike showing themselves proud and tyrannical. There are often two contradictory accounts of the same transaction, and it is impossible to decide where the fault really was, when there seems so little to choose between the conduct of either side.

The conclusion seems forced upon us, that human nature was in those days much the same as it is now, and that riches and irresponsible authority scarcely ever fail to lead to pride and to selfish and oppressive treatment of inferiors.

When we gaze upon the magnificent cathedrals that were rising all over Europe at the bidding of the great of those times, we are filled with admiration, and disposed to imagine that piety and a high standard of religious life must have prevailed; but a closer acquaintance with historical facts dissipates the illusion, and we find that then as now good and evil were mingled.

The history of the Order for the next century presents little of interest. In A.D. 1388, two of the knights repaired to England by order of the Grand Master, to make commercial arrangements with this country, which had been rendered necessary by the changes introduced into the trade of Europe by the creation of the Hanseatic League. A second commercial treaty between the King of England and the Order was made in A.D. 1409.

The Order had now reached the summit of its greatness. Besides large possessions in Germany, Italy, and other countries, its sovereignty extended from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland. This country was both wealthy and populous. Prussia is said to have contained 55 large fortified cities, 48 fortresses, and 19,008 towns and villages. The population of the larger cities must have been considerable, for we are told that in A.D. 1352, the plague carried off 13,000 persons in Dantzic, 4000 in Thorn, 6000 at Elbing, and 8000 at Konigsberg. One authority reckons the population of Prussia at this time at 2,140,800. The greater part of these were German immigrants, since the original inhabitants

had either perished in the war or retired to Lithuania.

Historians who were either members of the Order or favourably disposed towards it, are loud in their praise of the wisdom and generosity of its government; while others accuse its members and heads of pride, tyranny, luxury, and cruel exactions.

In A.D. 1410, the Teutonic Order received a most crushing defeat at Tannenberg from the King of Poland, assisted by bodies of Russians, Lithuanians, and Tartars. The Grand Master, Ulric de Jungingen, was slain, with several hundred knights, and many thousand soldiers.

There is said to have been a chapel built at Grünwald, in which an inscription declared that 60,000 Poles and 40,000 of the army of the knights were left dead upon the field of battle. The banner of the Order, its treasury, and a multitude of prisoners fell into the hands of the enemy, who shortly afterwards marched against Marienberg and closely besieged it. Several of the feudatories of the knights sent in their submission to the King of Poland, who began at once to dismember the dominions of the Order and to assign portions to his followers.

But this proved to be premature. The knights found in Henry de Planau a valiant leader, who defended the city with such courage and obstinacy that, after fifty-seven days' siege, the enemy retired, after serious loss from sorties and sickness. A series of battles followed, and finally a treaty of peace was signed, by which the Order gave up some portion of its territory to Poland.

But a new enemy was on its way to inflict upon the Order greater and more lasting injury than that which the sword could effect. The doctrines of Wicklif had for some time been spreading throughout Europe, and had lately received a new impulse from the vigorous efforts of John Huss in Bohemia, who had eagerly embraced them, and set himself to preach them, with additions of his own.

Several knights accepted the teaching of Huss, and either retired from the Order or were forcibly ejected. Differences and disputes also arose within the Order, which ended in the arrest and deposition of the Grand Master, A.D. 1413. But the new doctrines had taken deep root, and a large party within the Order were more or less favourable to them, so much so that at the Council of Constance, A.D. 1415, a strong party demanded the total suppression of the Teutonic Order. This was overruled; but it probably induced the Grand Master to commence a series of persecutions against those in his dominions who followed the principles of Huss.

The treaty that had followed the defeat at Tannenberg had been almost from the first disputed by both parties, and for some years appeals were made to the Pope and the Emperor on several points; but the decisions seldom gave satisfaction or commanded obedience. The general result was the loss to the Order of some further portions of its dominions.

Another outbreak of the plague, in A.D. 1427, inflicted injury upon the Order. In a few weeks no less than 81,746 persons perished.