432 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Under papal sanction, crusade followed crusade. The Livonians received their first knowledge of Christianity through Meinhard, d. 1196,1 who had been trained at Segeberg. He had been preceded by Bremen merchants and set forth on his mission in a Bremen merchant vessel. He was ordained bishop of the new diocese of Uexkull whose name was changed in 1202 to the diocese of Riga.
Meinhard's successor, the Cistercian Berthold, sought at first to win his way by instruction and works of charity, but was driven away by violence. He returned in 1198, at the head of a crusade which Ccelestin had ordered. After his death on the field of battle his successor, bishop Albert of Apeldern, entered the country in 1199 at the head of another army. The lands were then thrown open to colonists. With the sanction of Innocent III., Albert founded the order of the Brothers of the Sword. Their campaigns opened the way for the church in Esthaonia and Senegallen. In 1224 the see of Dorpat was erected, which has given its name to the university of Dorpat.
Eastern Prussia, lying along the Weichsel, was visited in 1207 by the German abbot, Gottfried. Two of the native princes were converted by Christian, a monk from Pommerania, donated their lands to the Church, and travelled to Rome, where they received baptism. Christian was made bishop of Prussia between 1212 and 1215. An invitation sent to the Teutonic Knights to aid in the conversion of the tribes was accepted by their grand-master, Hermann of Salza, in 1228. In 1217 Honorius III. had ordered a crusade, and in 1230 Gregory IX. renewed the order. The Teutonic Knights were ready enough to further religious encroachment by the sword, promised, as they were, a large share in the conquered lands. From 1230 to 1283 they carried on con tinual wars. They established themselves securely by build ing fortified towns such as Kulm and Thorn, 1231, and Konigsberg, 1255. A stream of German colonists followed
1 Gregory IX., as late as 1237, calls this people pagans, pagani Livonice. Potthast, 10383.
§ 75. MISSIONS AMONG THE MOHAMMEDANS. 433
where they conquered. In 1243 Innocent IV. divided Prus sia into four sees, Kulm, Pomesania, Sameland, and Ermeland. It was arranged that the bishops were to have one-third of the conquered territory. In 1308 the German Knights seized Danzig at the mouth of the Weichsel and a year later established their headquarters at Marienburg.1 By the battle of Tannenberg, 1410, and the Peace of Thorn, 1466, they lost Prussia west of the Weichsel, and thereafter their possessions were confined to Eastern Prussia. The history of the order closed when the grand-master, Albrecht of Brandenburg, accepted the Reformation and made the duchy hereditary in his family.
§ 75. Missions among the Mohammedans.
Two important names are associated with the missions among the Mohammedans, Francis of Assisi and Raymundus Lullus, and with their labors, which were without any permanent results, the subject is exhausted. The Crusades were adapted to widen the gulf between the Christians and the Mohammedans, and to close more tightly the ear of the followers of the False Prophet to the appeals of the Christian emissary.
Franciscan friars went in 1213 to Morocco and received the martyr's crown, but left no impression upon the Moham medans.2 St. Francis made his tour to Syria and Egypt in 1219, accompanied by eleven companions. The accounts are meagre and uncertain.3 Francis landed at Acre and pro ceeded to the crusading camp under the walls of Damietta, where he is represented as preaching before the sultan and to the Mohammedan troops. The story is told that the
iRanke, VIII. 469, regards the fabric of the Teutonic Knights as having offered the only effective check against the invasion of Central Europe by the Mongols.
2Miiller, Anfdnge des Minoritenordens, 207 sqq., has set this mission beyond doubt.
8 Jacob of Vitry, Hist. Occ., 32, and Giordano di Giano are our chief authorities. Sabatier, in his Life of Francis , accepts the testimony, but dis misses the tour in a few lines. 2*