Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
who supplied the want of regular hospitals by opening their tents before Acre for the reception of their sick and wounded countrymen . A large number of Knights joining this benevolent association , the Duke of Suabia seized the occasion to incorporate them , for the
national honour , into a regular order of religious chivalry , in avowed imitation of the Templars and Hospitallers . The papal authority approved of the design , invested the new order with the same privileges as its elder co-fraternities , and ordained the rule of St . Augustine for its government . A white mantle with a black cross was
appointed as the garb of the brotherhood , who were divided into three classes—noble cavaliers , priests , and sergeants— -all to be exclusively of German race ; and thenceforth , under the title of the Teutonic Knights of St . Mary of Jerusalem , the Order worthily aspired to an equality in exploits and honour with the two great martial fraternities already established in Palestine .
The deeds of the Teutonic Knights having been always performed in conjunction with the other Orders , this body does not appear individually prominent during the Crusades , until the arrival of the Emperor Frederick II . in Palestine . That monarch had quarrelled with the pontiff Gregory IX ., who excommunicated him ; and while labouring under that sentence , in defiance of the Pope ' s hostility , he , with a small force , embarked for Palestine . The causes of his
subsequent rapid success , m the face of every obstacle which the Pope , with unrelenting enmity , continued to offer to his enterprise , must still be numbered among the unsolved problems of history . The Pope not only prohibited the Knights of the religious Orders from serving under the banner of the excommunicated prince , but actually despatched envoys to the Sultan to dissuade him from negociating
with a leader whom the Christians disowned . Undismayed by this iniquitous persecution , which , perhaps more than any event of the times , exposes the unprincipled policy of the papal see , Frederick boldly took the field against the infidels . The Knights Templars and Hospitallers obeyed the prohibition of the Pope , until their natural generosity , or a sense of shame , combined probably with a dislike
of inactivity , induced them first to follow his march , and finally to co-operate indirectl y with the force which acknowledged his command . The national spirit of the Teutonic Knights had effectually prevailed over their dread of papal censure ; and at their head , with the scanty force of his own soldiery , the emperor advanced from Acre , occupied and refortified Jaffa , and approached Jerusalem . At this juncture , and without any signal defeat of the Moslems , or any
explicable motive on the part of the Sultan for concessions so important , we find authentic records of a treaty by which free access to the holy city , together with the possession of Bethlehem , Nazareth , and other places , was restored to the Christians , and a peace for ten years concluded between them and the Saracens . To signalize the acquisition of these favourable terms , so honourable and so unexpected , Frederick resolved to celebrate his coronation at Jerusalem with a splendour and solemnity befitting the occasion . Under the pretext , however
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
who supplied the want of regular hospitals by opening their tents before Acre for the reception of their sick and wounded countrymen . A large number of Knights joining this benevolent association , the Duke of Suabia seized the occasion to incorporate them , for the
national honour , into a regular order of religious chivalry , in avowed imitation of the Templars and Hospitallers . The papal authority approved of the design , invested the new order with the same privileges as its elder co-fraternities , and ordained the rule of St . Augustine for its government . A white mantle with a black cross was
appointed as the garb of the brotherhood , who were divided into three classes—noble cavaliers , priests , and sergeants— -all to be exclusively of German race ; and thenceforth , under the title of the Teutonic Knights of St . Mary of Jerusalem , the Order worthily aspired to an equality in exploits and honour with the two great martial fraternities already established in Palestine .
The deeds of the Teutonic Knights having been always performed in conjunction with the other Orders , this body does not appear individually prominent during the Crusades , until the arrival of the Emperor Frederick II . in Palestine . That monarch had quarrelled with the pontiff Gregory IX ., who excommunicated him ; and while labouring under that sentence , in defiance of the Pope ' s hostility , he , with a small force , embarked for Palestine . The causes of his
subsequent rapid success , m the face of every obstacle which the Pope , with unrelenting enmity , continued to offer to his enterprise , must still be numbered among the unsolved problems of history . The Pope not only prohibited the Knights of the religious Orders from serving under the banner of the excommunicated prince , but actually despatched envoys to the Sultan to dissuade him from negociating
with a leader whom the Christians disowned . Undismayed by this iniquitous persecution , which , perhaps more than any event of the times , exposes the unprincipled policy of the papal see , Frederick boldly took the field against the infidels . The Knights Templars and Hospitallers obeyed the prohibition of the Pope , until their natural generosity , or a sense of shame , combined probably with a dislike
of inactivity , induced them first to follow his march , and finally to co-operate indirectl y with the force which acknowledged his command . The national spirit of the Teutonic Knights had effectually prevailed over their dread of papal censure ; and at their head , with the scanty force of his own soldiery , the emperor advanced from Acre , occupied and refortified Jaffa , and approached Jerusalem . At this juncture , and without any signal defeat of the Moslems , or any
explicable motive on the part of the Sultan for concessions so important , we find authentic records of a treaty by which free access to the holy city , together with the possession of Bethlehem , Nazareth , and other places , was restored to the Christians , and a peace for ten years concluded between them and the Saracens . To signalize the acquisition of these favourable terms , so honourable and so unexpected , Frederick resolved to celebrate his coronation at Jerusalem with a splendour and solemnity befitting the occasion . Under the pretext , however