KNIGHTHOOD. 
Moors, and protect the country againft their daily in¬ 
roads. They bore alfo, for a time, the name of Knights 
of Mofrac, from a town of Caftile then in the poffeftion 
of the order ; after feveral difputes about their rights, 
they were at length united to the order of Calatrava. 
Authors vaiy much upon the badge ; but Palliott is pofi- 
tive, and fays that it confuted of a white crofs of five rays, 
which is not eafily underftood. They wore a red mantle; 
and in war they bore on one fide of their enfign the figure 
of the Virgin Mary,'and on the other the crofs of the order. 
XXXI. The Teutonic Order was once one of the 
moil powerful orders in the world, not only on account of 
the number and bravery of the knights of whom it was 
compofed, but alfo for its wealth, and its great repute as 
to piety as well as to political credit; but, not unlike all 
human inftitutions, it permitted the feed of diffenfion to 
grow in its bofom ; and, according to the word of him 
who was himfelf “the Word,” ( Every kingdom divided 
againjl itfelf is brought to deflation, Matth. xii. 25.) this 
inititution decreafed confiderably when its members, on 
account of the difference of religious tenets among them, 
feparated, and conftituted two diftinft branches of the 
lame ftem. 
The origin of the Teutonic Order was owing to a moft 
admirable fenfe of charity and pity for the fufferings of 
our fellow-creatures. After the taking of Jerufalem by 
the Chriftian allied army, a German gentleman and his 
wife, who both were excited by a true zeal of religious 
liofpitality, invited to their houfe the different pilgrims 
of all nations who came to vifit the holy city. They were 
rich and liberal; they were defirous of affording relief to 
the needy; and therefore determined to make the belt ufe 
poflible of riches by fharing their domeftic comforts with 
the poor and weary traveller, whofe devotion had carried 
him beyond the feas in order to bathe with his tears the 
facred places where hi$ Saviour had lived, bled, and rifen 
for our falvation. B*ing open to all, but especially to 
their countrymen, their houfe foon became a kind of hof- 
pital, or place of ordinary accefs, for whofoever wanted 
their afliftance. For the better accommodation of their 
guefts, they built near the houfe a fpacious chapel, at 
their own expence, and dedicated it, according to the cuf- 
tom of that time, to the Virgin Mary; a circumftance 
which gave origin to the title of Marian Knights, which 
afterwards the members of the order bore for a certain 
lapfe of time. 
This eflablifhment could not fail to increafe, as its 
principal objefl was charity and hofpitality, two moft ufe- 
ful fprings of relief in time, as that was, of want and per- 
fecution. Several other German gentlemen reforting there, 
for love of religion as well as to vifit the fick, and unit¬ 
ing themfelves, refolved to ere£t a kind of fraternity un¬ 
der the direction of a grand mailer, in imitation of orders 
which had been created before; they had confiderably in- 
creafed in number, piety, wealth, andefteem; and in 1191 
they ele£led their firil grand mailer, a man of the 
greateft refpedlability, Henry Walpott; and, at the requeft 
of the emperor Frederic, pope Celeltine III. in the firft 
year of his pontificate, confirmed the order. 
The rule, which St. Benedict had framed and publilhed 
under the name of Regula Monachorum, was at that time in 
high veneration in all the known world, and Celelline 
ordered the Teutonic knights to live under it; they 
accepted it with thanks, and repaid by their flrifl adher¬ 
ence to it, for along courfe of years, the benefits and ad¬ 
vantages which the obfervance of the rule bellowed upon 
them. 
Their ftatutes were limilar, in many inftances, to thofe 
of the knights Templars and Hofpitalers; it was however 
ordained (by a patriotic fenfe of attachment moft natural 
to the fubjedls of all nations, though it deviates from the 
more enlarged confiderations of general philanthropy), 
that no one Ihould be admitted unlefs he could prove him¬ 
felf to be a German or Dutchman by birth. We mull 
obferve here, that our ancient authors confound the name 
799 
of Dutchman with that of German, the firft being nearly 
the manner of pronouncing the original name of the Ger¬ 
mans, or Almans, in their own language. 
After Jerufalem had remained in the hands of the Chrif- 
tians about eighty-eight years it was taken again from them 
by the Saracens in 1184, fince which time it has never been 
recovered. The knights, finding their fituation there 
moft precarious, retired to Ptolemais, where they remain¬ 
ed till, this town being alfo forced to yield to the fuperior 
power of the enemy, they were invited back to their own 
country, about the year 1230, by Conrad duke of Swabia, 
who made over to them the property of the territory of 
Culm. Soon after, being grown very powerful, and repre- 
fenting to the emperor, that the Prullians, who were Hill 
then idolaters, made frequent inroads upon Saxony, they 
befought him for leave to make war againft them, upon 
condition that whatever they might take, by force of arms, 
Ihould be given to them for the maintenance of the order. 
Thefe knights, much encouraged by the promile of the 
emperor, who willingly acceded to their wilhes, con¬ 
quered the whole of Pruftia, and converted the nations 
who lived on the banks of the Viltula to the Chriftian faith. 
They built feveral towns: Elbing, Marienburg, Thorn, 
Dantzic, Koniglberg, owe to thefe brave men their foun¬ 
dation and maintenance ; and at length they fubdued Li¬ 
vonia. Their profperity, however, was not of Jong dura¬ 
tion; for, as we hinted above, the reform in religion ex¬ 
cited feuds and quarrels among the members of the aflo- 
ciation ; it divided itfelf into two branches, and the kings 
of Poland benefited by their dilfenfions. Pruftia revolted, 
and Cafimir IV. received the homage of the knights. At 
length, Albert marquis of Brandenburg, grand mailer 
of the order, abjured the Roman-catholic religion, abdi¬ 
cated the dignity of grand mafter, fubdued Pruftia, and 
expelled fuch of the knights as refufed to foUow his ex¬ 
ample. Then the exiled members of the order retired to 
Mariendal in Franconia. 
At firft the badge of the order confilted of a black crofs, 
voided with a crofs potence, worn on the breaft of a 
white mantle. John king of Jerufalem added thereunto 
a crofs double potence or. The emperor Frederic II. 
granted them the imperial eagle ; and St. Louis of France 
added to the crofs a chief azure, feme of fleurs-de-lis-or. 
Since the divifion of the order, the firft branch, being 
compofed of Roman-catholics, took the oath of celibacy, 
and have their chief place at Mergenheim in Germany, 
where they ufe to repair, in order to fettle the affairs of the 
order. The enfign worn by this branch is, according to 
French blazon, “ une croix patonce fable, furmontee d’une 
fleur-de-lis d’or;” overall, in the centre an efcutcheon or, 
charged with the imperial eagle fable ; and is worn pen¬ 
dent to a gold chain which is thrown round the neck. 
The fecond branch is compofed of proteftant knights ; 
their principal houfe is at Utrecht, where they keep their 
fecretary. Their method of election being rather Angular, 
and deviating much from that difinterelted fpirit of the 
ancient order, where money or favour had no influence 
upon the choice, we (hall mention fome particulars about 
it. The nobles of Holland, when they intend to propofe 
their fons to be received as knights into the order, repair 
to Utrecht, and enter the name of the candidate in the 
regilter, upon paying a large fum of money to the ufe of 
the poor maintained at the expence of the order; and the 
perfon whofe name is thus entered fucceeds in rotation. 
At the death of a knight, the candidate whofe name 
Hands firlt on the lift is lummoned to attend the chapter, 
and is obliged to bring indifputable proofs of his nobility 
for four generations both on the father and mother’s fide, 
without which he cannot be admitted, and the money de- 
pofited is confequently forfeited. This manner of prov¬ 
ing what is called the fixteen quarters of nobility is plainly 
exemplified in our treatife upon Heraldry, vol. ix. p. 
450. and the engraving, Plate XI. annexed to it. The 
enfign of this branch conlifts of a crofs pattee enamelled 
argeut, furmounted with another fable 5 above this crofs a 
ball 
