THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
what every other order failed to accomplish, the erection of an independent state. After the fall of Acre in 1291 the capital of the order was removed to Venice, and in 1309 to Marienburg in Prussia.
The spread of the Christian religion and the germanization of the land were carried on simultaneeously. Peasants from Lower Saxony and Westphalia transformed the lands into fertile grain fields, and by the side of the castles of the order arose numerous towns with a German population, which grew rich through an extensive commerce. Between the knights and the inhabitants of the cities cordial relations prevailed and the order itself derived great wealth from its trade. The strength of the order was due to its rigorous discipline and its excellent organization. At its head was the grand master, who was limited in the exercise of his powers by a council of the other high officials, among them the chief hospitaler and the treasurer. The supreme power was vested in the grand chapter of the order which elected the grand master and exercised its power of punishment and deposition. Each house of the order was under the authority of a commendator (Komthur) and a number of houses constituted a province at the head of which stood the Land-Komthur. Eligible to membership in the order were Germans only of legitimate birth, showing the arms of four ancestors, pure in morals and unstained in honor. The discipline in the houses was strict, the life simple. Unquestioning obedience to superiors was the highest duty and every transgression was punished severely. Flight in battle or intercourse with the heathen was punished by expulsion. The order also embraced clerical brethren for the performance of religious duties, and sisters, whose work lay especially in the hospitals. The principal hospital in Prussia was situated at Elbing and in Germany at Nuremberg.
The order attained the height of power in the second half of the fourteenth century. In the peace of Kalisch Little Pomerania was acquired from. Poland and with the acquisition of the Danish possessions in Esthonia its authority extended along the entire Baltic coast. It became also the great power in the Baltic Sea. In 1398 its fleet took Gotland from the Vitalian Brethren and in 1404 it acquired Wisby. By the purchase of Neumark its connection with the empire was established. In this very time of glory, however, powerful forces of decay had begun to work. In place of the rigorous discipline and simplicity of old appeared luxury and ostentation. Party strife sapped the strength of the order and the relations of friendship between knights and citizens had disappeared. Moreover, with the rise of Poland appeared a formidable rival to the German influence. In 1386 Jagello, Grand Prince of Lithuania, became king of Poland. War soon broke out with the knights, and on June 15, 1410, on the plain of Tannenberg the forces of the order were crushingly defeated; all its great officers perished, and the power of the order was annihilated at one blow. It was saved from destruction by the heroism of Count Henry of Plauen, who held Marienburg against the Poles to such good effect that the peace of Thorn in 1411 left the possessions of the order almost unimpaired. Internal anarchy, how-
ever, hastened the end. In 1440 a part of the knights and the cities organized the Prussian League in opposition to the main order and in a civil war which followed the league gained possession of more than fifty towns and offered to place the country under the suzerainty of Poland. Finally, by the peace of Thorn in 1466, West Prussia was incorporated with Poland, while East Prussia was granted to the grand master as a Polish fief. In Germany, too, decay had overtaken the order so that no help could be derived for the defense of the possessions in Prussia. In 1525 Albert of Prussia (q.v.), elected grand master of the order, transformed its possessions into a hereditary duchy, held of the king of Prussia. In 1561 Gerhard Kettler, following the example of Albert, received Livonia as a fief from Poland with the title of duke of Courland and Semigallia.
The subsequent history of the order, restricted to its possessions in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, possesses little interest. By the treaty of Pressburg in 1805 the presidency of the order was vested in the house of Austria, and within the next few years its territories in South Germany and on the Rhine were transferred by Napoleon to the governments within which they lay. As a purely Austrian order it was reorganized in 1809 and confirmed by Pius IX. in 1871. Its activity is now restricted to its original service, the care of the sick in war and in peace. (G. UhlhornI".)
Bibliography: For list of periodical articles consult: O. Rautenberg, Ost- und Westpreussen. Ein Wegfuhrer durch die Zeitschriftlitteratur, Leipsic, 1897. Consult further: E. Hennig, Die Statuten des deutschen Ordens, Konigsberg, 1806; Scriptores rerum Prussicarum, i. 3 sqq., 291 sqq., Leipsic, 1861; Codex diplomaticus ordinis S. Marios Theutonicorum, ed. J. H. Hennes, 2 vols., Mainz, 1846-51; K. von Schlozer, Die Hansa und der deutsche Ritterorden, Berlin, 1851; J. Voigt, Geschichte des deutschen Ritterordens, 2 vols., Berlin, 1857-59; B. Dudik, Des Lohen deutschen Ritterordens Munzsammlung in Wien, Vienna, 1858; A. L. Ewald, Die Eroberung Preussens durch die Deutschen, 4 vols., Halle, 1872-85; F. C. Woodhouse, Military Religious Orders of the Middle Ages, London, 1879; F. de Salles, Annates de Vordre teutonique, Paris, 1887; M. Perlbach, Die Statuten des Deutschordens, Halle, 1890; M. Oehler, Geschichte des Deutschen Ritterordens, vol. i., Die An f tinge des Ordens bis zum Eintritt in den Preussenkampf, Elbing, 1908.
TEUTSCH, GEORG DANIEL: German Lutheran; b. at Schassburg (290 m. e.s.e. of Budapest), Transylvania, Dec. 12, 1817; d. at Hermannstadt (72 m. s.s.e. of Klausenburg) July 2, 1893. He studied at Vienna and Berlin, 1837-39; was instructor at the Evangelical gymnasium at Schassburg, 1842-1850; and rector, 1850-63; preacher at Agnetheln and dean of the ecclesiastical district of Schenk, 1863-67; and Evangelical bishop in Hermannstadt, 1867-93. Teutsch was the leader for German institutions among the Saxons in Transylvania, particularly in education and religion. He was instrumental in defending and maintaining the autonomy of his church and its schools against the encroachments of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches, and the Magyar influence; and he was active, both before and after becoming bishop, in its internal organization and promotion. As a preacher he was eloquent and persuasive. He wrote Urkundenbuch der evangelischen Landeskirche in