Section 990

by which the provinces of Pomesania, Pogesania, Erm- land, and Natangen submitted to the order and promised conversion. The neophytes obtained all civil rights, were allowed to enter the ecclesiastical state, and to become members of regular congregations. These civil and other rights were forfeited by their eventual apostasy. The legate having put the question as to what worldly laws the neophytes wished to have introduced, and what tri- bunals they would most willingly recognise, they declared for the legislation of the Poles : this they were granted by the order. On being taught by the legate that all men were equal, they promised to give up their heathenish customs as to the burial of the dead, and those various ceremonies in which the distinctions of rank were pre- served even after death, and to bury their dead in Chris- tian cemeteries. They also promised to renounce polyg- amy; that no one should in future sell his daughter to another man in matrimony, nor buy a wife for himself or his sou : that nobody should henceforward marry his mother-in-law, or the widow of his brother, nor any per- son standing to him in a degree of relationship prohib- ited by the canon, without a'license from the pope. No child should be admitted to inherit his or her parents' estate if the matrimony of the latter had not been of such a description as to satisfy the exigencies of the Church. The killing or exposing of children was prohibited; the baptism of the uew-born, within a short period, was made obligatory. As it was a consequence ofttae want of eccle- siastics and of churches that many children had remain- ed unchristened, the parents promised to present them all for baptism in the course of a month. Such as should in- fringe upon these prescriptions, or who refused baptism for themselves, were to have their goods confiscated, to be themselves coveted with a slight, garment, and ex- pelled from the territory of the Christians. The Pome- sanians promised to build thirteen churches from that time to the next Whitsuntide, the Warmiaus promised six, the Natangians three; each church to be properly fitted out with its ornaments, chalices, books, and other implements. It was agreed upon thai it the neophytes failed to construct the churches promised by them, the knights should be empowered to levy a tax on their es- tates and build the churches themselves, even if it should be necessary to recur to violent means. They promised to attend worship, at least on Sundays and holydays. The order, iu their turn, promised to furnish the churches with priests and estate in the course of a year. Most mi- nute and careful provisions were made for the mainte- nance of the ecclesiastics. The neophytes further prom- ised to keep the fasts prescribed by the Church, not to do any hard work on Sundays and holydays, to confess their sins at least once a year, to partake of the Lord's Supper at Easter, and, in general, to submit their conduct to the directions and teachings of the clergy. They pledged themselves to bring every year the dime into the grana- ries of the order; to defend the persons, honor, and rights of the order; to keep aloof from any treasonable practices against it, and to denounce such plots if they were known to them. The order had always, even dur- ing the excitement of the war, borne in mind the highest. aim of their labors, the establishment and expansion of Christianity. Honorius III had committed to bishop Christian the care of establishing bishoprics, but he did not even succeed in fully organizing the bishopric of Culm. In 1236 Gregory II had enjoined on his legate to divide the new countries into dioceses, and to establish three bishops in them. In a bull of Oct. 1, 1243, the pope informed Christian that he had divided Prussia into four bishoprics, Culm being one of them. Christian was in- vited to make choice of one of these bishoprics, but to content, himself, according to the treaty concluded with the order, with one third of the land. Bishop Christian died in 1243 or 1244. His death greatly facilitated the leg- ate's discharge of his duties, who now had full powers to do as he deemed fit. The first diocese was to include the land of Culm, as far as it is bounded by the rivers Vistula, Dreweuz, and Ossa, with the addition of the district of Lobau; the so-called Sassenland and the territory of Gilgenburg belonged also to the first diocese. The sec- ond diocese was bounded by the rivers Ossa and Vistula and the lake of Drausen, and reached upwards to the banks of the Passable or Passarge River: it comprised Quidiu and Zanthis, and was called the diocese of Pome- sania. The third diocese was bounded west by the Frische-Haff, north by the Pregel River, or the Lipza, south by the Drausen Lake and Passable River, and ex- tended east to the boundaries of Lithuania. This was the diocese of Ermland. A fourth diocese was to com- prise the yet independent countries bounded west by the Baltic Sea, north by the Memel, south by the Pregel, and east by Lithuania. This was subsequently called the dio- cese of Samland. The legate, on April 10,"l244, assembled at Thorn the most distinguished clergymen of the neigh- boring countries— the archbishop of Gneseu, the bishops of Breslau, Leszlau, and Plock, a number of Polish ab- bots, the most considerable of the Teutonic Knights, and other men of high standing — to take their advice on the constitution to be introduced into the new bishoprics. The Dominican Heidenreich (the faithful assistant of bishop Christian), who had been over ten years busy in