DBWALTMAN

1190 - 1809


Scarcely less renowned than the Knights Templars, the Teutonic Knights
carried the spirit and traditions of the great military religious orders of
the Middle Ages far into the modern period. No earlier date for the
foundation of the order than 1190 is given on recognized authority, its actual
beginning, like that of the other orders of its kind, being humble and
obscure.

It appears that about 1128 a wealthy German, having participated in the
siege and capture of Jerusalem, settled there, and soon began to show pity for
his unfortunate countrymen among the pilgrims who came, receiving some of them
into his own house to be cared for. When the work became too great for him
there, he built a hospital, in which he devoted himself to nursing sick
pilgrims, to whose support he likewise gave all his wealth. Still the task
outgrew the means at his command, and in order to increase his charity he
began to solicit alms. While he took care of the men, his wife performed a
like service for poor women pilgrims.

Soon they were joined by many of their wealthier countrymen who had come
to fight for the Holy Land. Presently they "banded themselves together, after
the pattern of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and united the care of the
sick and poor with the profession of arms in their defence, under the title of
Hospitalers of the Blessed Virgin." These Teutonic Hospitalers continued their
work, in hospital and field, until the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in
1187

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