in a magnificent and spacious palace, called "Le Temple," until their tragic end under Philip the Fair, in 1310.

Although the Hospitaler Brothers gave all possible attention to pilgrims, irrespective of their nationality, their good-will was frequently of little service, from the difficulty they found in making themselves understood; and this was particularly the case when they came in contact with Germans. To remedy this defect, a number of pious persons founded a German hospice, in 1128, and placed it under the direction of the grand master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (A. D. 1143). But even this arrangement was found inefficient, as in many instances, and notably during the siege of Acre, the Germans were neglected. Touched with pity for their sufferings during this siege, certain merchants of Bremen and Lübeck extemporized a hospital by throwing up a few tents made out of the sails of their vessels, under which the sick and plaguestricken were temporarily sheltered and cared for. This was the humble beginning of the national hospice founded later on at Jerusalem, and to which the already existing branch was affiliated. The house was served by German hospitaler brothers. Such was the origin of the Order of Teutonic Knights of St. Mary of Jerusalem. Henry of Walpot was made their first grand master, in 1190. Only Germans of noble birth were admitted to membership, the founders having been probably ennobled before being enrolled. The members were at first all laymen, but priests were afterward admitted as chaplains. There were also added, about 1221, a class of half-brothers, similar to the serving brothers of the Templars and Hospitalers. The habit of the order was a white mantle, with a black (fess) cross.1

ple. The round church which bears their name was dedicated by Heraclius, Patriarch of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, in 1135, and the chancel was consecrated in 1240. (TR.)

1 Jac. de Vitriaco, c. 66. Hennig, Statutes of the Teutonic Order, Koenigsbeig, 1806. Petri de Duisburg (about 1236), Chronic. Pruss. sive Hist. Teut. Ord., ed. Hartknoch, Jenae, 1679, 4to. Duelli Hist. Ord. equit. Teut., Viennae, 1729 f. Voigt, Hist. of Prussia until the Fall of the Teutonic Order, Koenigsberg, 1827 sq., 9 vols. †Watterich, Establishment of the Teutonic Order, Lps. 1857.

VOL. II-45

So important were the services rendered by the order that it obtained the approval of Celestine III., and received many marks of favor from Henry, King of Jerusalem, and from the clergy and nobility of his kingdom. After the capture of Damietta by the Crusaders, in 1219, to which the Teutonic knights materially contributed, large tracts of land in Prussia were given to the order, and the duty assigned them of protecting the Christians of those countries against the attacks of their pagan neighbors. To them do the cities of Thorn, Culm, Marienwerder, Rheden, Elbing, Koenigsberg (A. D. 1232-1255), and many others owe their origin.

After the fall of Acre, the first seat of the order, the grand master removed to Venice, and thence, in 1309, to Marienburg, on the Vistula. In the course of the thirteenth century the Knights conquered Prussia, Livonia, Courland, and other adjoining territories. Warriors from every quarter of Europe, in that and the following century, gathered under their standard, among whom were Henry IV. of England, accompanied by three hundred knights and men-at-arms. Their vast conquests, including the territory lying between the Oder and the Baltic, with a population of between two and three million, raised the order to the rank of a sovereign power. Its decline commenced in the fifteenth century, and its fall was hastened partly by internal discussions and partly by the attacks of neighboring states, particularly Poland and Lithuania.

Albert of Brandenburg, who was chosen grand master in the hope that he might reconquer the territories that had been taken from the order by Sigismund of Poland, ended an unsuccessful war against that prince by passing over to Protestantism and forming the territories of the order in East Prussia into a duchy, to be held by himself and his successors. Those of the Knights who remained faithful to the Church and to their order chose, Mergentheim, in Suabia, as their residence, and their grand master was recognized as a spiritual prince of the empire.

By the peace of Presburg (1805), the Emperor of Austria came into possession of the rights and revenues of the grand master, and when the order was abolished by Napoleon, in 1809, the lands belonging to it, lying in the several kingdoms

of Europe, passed to their respective sovereigns. The order still continues to preserve a nominal existence in Austria."

The Brothers of the Sword in Livonia (1202) were an order very similar to the Teutonic Knights, to whom they were affiliated in 1237. Belonging to the same class were the orders of St. Jago, Alcantara, and Calatrava, in Spain and Portugal.

§ 247. Mendicant Orders-St. Dominic and St. Francis of

Assisi.

Vita St. Dominici, by his successors, Jordanus and Humbertus, the fifth general (Bolland. m. Aug., T. I., p. 358 sq.) Constitt. fratr. ordin. Praedicator., in Holsten., T. IV., p. 10 sq. Ripoli et Bremond, Bullar. Ord., Praed. 1737 sq., 6 T. f. Mamachii, aliorumque ann. Ordin. Praed., Rom. 1754. A. Touron, la vie de saint Dominique de Guzman, etc., Paris, 1739. †* Lacordaire, les Ordres religieux et notre temps, Paris, 1839. The same, Vie de saint Dominique (Germ., Landshut, 1841; 2 ed. carefully revised, Ratisbon, 1871). Caro, Vie de saint Dominique (Germ., Ratisbon, 1854). Hurter, Vol. IV., p. 282-312. Vita St. Francisci, by Thom. de Celano, 1229, then complemented, in 1246, by Leo Angelus and Ruffinus; above all, by Bonaventura (Bolland. m. Octbr., T. II., p. 683 sq.) Opp. St. Franc., with several supplements, especially the Vita a Bonaventura ed. by von der Burg, Cologne, 1849. Regula in Holsten-Brockie, T. III. Cf. Luc. Wadding, Ann. Minor. until 1540, Lugd. 1625 sq.; 8 T. f. to 1564; Romae, 1731, 19 T. f. †Vogt, St. Francis of Assisi, Tübg. 1840. E. Chavin de Malan, Hist. de St. François d'Assisi (1182–1226), Paris, 1841 (Germ., Munich, 1842). Daurignac, St. Francis of Assisi (German by Clarus, Innsbruck, 1866). Hurter, Vol. IV., p. 249–282.

This period, so prolific in institutions of every sort, also gave birth to the Mendicant orders, a species of spiritual chivalry still more generous and heroic than that of which we have just treated, and unique in history. Their mission was a difficult one, but they accomplished it well. Many causes combined to call them into existence. In proportion as the Church grew wealthy her discipline relaxed, and dan

1 Vide Chambers' Cyclopedia, art. Teut. Knights. We here state, on good authority, that the Archduke Maximilian, who died, a couple of years ago, at the age of eighty-four, seriously thought of applying the remaining revenues of the order to the founding of a bishopric at Troppau for Austrian Silesia. Negotiations were going forward in Rome, but William, the son and successor of the archduke, in the office of grand master, refused to surrender the property. (TR.)

2 Pott, De gladiferis s. fratribus milit. christ., Erlang. 1806.

gers menaced her on every side; the shortcomings of the secular clergy were conspicuous and numerous, and the bulk of the people much preferred to their perfunctory services the ministrations of men animated by the apostolical spirit and leading the lives of ascetics; the Cathari, the Albigenses, the Waldenses, and such rigorists, counting upon the laxity of the secular clergy on the one hand, and the discontent of the laity on the other, were daily growing more dangerously aggressive in the assertion or their own claims; and, finally, the monks were now taking a greater share than heretofore in the education of youth and the care of souls. All these causes concurred to call forth a new order of men, who, while surpassing the sectaries in austerity, self-denial, and penitential exercises, removed by this very fact the objections of heretics, provided amply for the religious wants of the people, and constituted an organized and effective religious chivalry to resist the assaults of those enemies of the Church who could be met in no other way. When their effectiveness became apparent, directly monastic activity took a wider range, and, after the pattern of the military orders, included the functions of the monk and the priest. The problem thus presented to the Church was taken up at the opening of the thirteenth century, and thrown into practical shape by two men equally eminent in intellectual endowments and spiritual gifts. While each solved it in his own way, they were both attached to each other by the closest friendship.1

Dominic, a member of the powerful house of Guzman, was born in the year 1170, at Callaruega (Calahorra, in Old Castile), a village in the diocese of Osma. While pursuing his studies in the university of Valencia, he was distinguished by a spirit of charity and self-sacrifice, and by his example exer

1 As the legend runs, Dominic and Francis, while still unknown to each other, chanced to be in Rome at the same time. Dominic, while engaged in prayer one evening, had a vision, during which Christ appeared to him in the guise of an angry judge. Presently the Blessed Virgin presented to her Divine Son two men, who pleaded with Him to stay His justice and spare a degenerate world. One of these mediators he recognized as himself, but the other was unknown to him. Seeing Francis the next morning, in a church at prayer, Dominic at once recognized him as the person seen in the vision, and from this time forth the most tender friendship existed between them,

cised a salutary influence on those about him. After spending four years at this seat of learning, he was ordained priest by Diego, Bishop of Osma, and soon after admitted among the canons regular.

Dominic's mind was constantly occupied with projects for alleviating human misery. Diego, being a man of severe character, and ardently devoted to the good of the Church, found in Dominic one after his own heart. He took the young priest with him on a mission which he made to the south of France in the interest of his king, and, while there, the two saw and fully appreciated the danger to the Church from the sectaries, who were then spreading rapidly in that country, and both resolved to spend their energies in checking the advance of heresy. In 1203, they made a second journey to Southern France, and found there the Cistercian monks whom Pope Innocent III. had dispatched to convert the sectaries. Observing their pomp and magnificence, which contrasted strangely with the abstemious life and poverty of the heretical leaders, Diego stated in the council of Montpelier, convened to consider this affair, and to which he had been invited, that if they would successfully accomplish their mission, they must put aside all the state and circumstance of a triumphant church, and set about converting the heretics in the simplicity and poverty of apostles. His advice was followed; the missionaries put away everything inconsistent with poverty, traveled barefoot from place to place, and occupied themselves in preaching and disputing with the sects. Diego directed their movements, and, after laboring three years in this way, returned to Spain, and died on his journey homeward (1205 or 1206). He was thus prevented from carrying out a project he had much at heart-of organizing an efficient corps of missionaries to labor in this field; but his idea was taken up and realized by Dominic, whose experience, acquired during a long residence among the sectaries, gave him special qualifications for the work. When the Bishop of Osma was about to return to Spain, he placed the missionaries under the direction of Dominic. One by one they deserted their posts, and the faithful Spanish priest was left to labor almost single-handed. Undeterred, he went

4