The Rule of St Augustine in the Order
The Rule of St Augustine was the constitutional foundation of the Teutonic Order for the entire span of its history as a religious institution. The Rule was adopted under Pope Innocent III, between 1198 and 1205, in the form in which it had been transmitted to the new orders of canons regular of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and it was supplemented, in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, by a substantial body of customary law and statute that governed the daily life of the brethren in considerable detail. The Augustinian vocation of the Order was, in its own time, a controversial one, and the Order was, on several occasions in the thirteenth century, to defend its right to the Augustinian title against the older monastic orders, the mendicants, and the secular clergy. The defence was, in the end, successful, and the Augustinian vocation of the Order remained central to the Order throughout its history.
The Augustinian Vocation
The Rule of St Augustine is, in its original form, a short document, of fewer than a thousand words in the standard recension, and it was originally composed by St Augustine of Hippo in the late fourth or early fifth century for the use of a community of clergy living in common. The Rule sets out, in austere and unsystematic terms, the basic principles of the communal religious life: the love of God, the love of neighbour, the rejection of private property, the practice of prayer and meditation, the discipline of the common refectory and dormitory, and the obligation of mutual correction among the brethren. The Rule was not, in its original form, a detailed constitutional document, and it allowed a substantial degree of flexibility in the development of supplementary customs.
The Rule was rediscovered in the eleventh century, in the context of the Gregorian reform of the Western Church, and it was adopted, in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, by a number of new communities of canons regular — the Victorines in Paris, the Premonstratensians in northern France, and a number of smaller foundations in Germany and Italy. The Augustinian canons regular were, in this period, a new form of religious life, distinct from the older monastic orders (the Benedictines, the Cistercians, the Carthusians) and from the new mendicant orders (the Franciscans, the Dominicans). The Augustinian vocation combined the monastic elements of the common life, the choral office, and the rejection of private property with the canonical elements of pastoral care, preaching, and the service of the parish church.
The Teutonic Order was placed under the Rule of St Augustine by the papacy under Innocent III, between 1198 and 1205, in the months following the bull of Celestine III of 1198 which had recognised the fraternity as a militaris religio, and the Rule remained the constitutional foundation of the Order for the rest of its history. The Augustinian vocation of the Order was a controversial one from the start. The older monastic orders viewed the canons regular with a measure of suspicion, as a comparatively recent innovation that lacked the antiquity of the Benedictine and Cistercian traditions. The mendicant orders, which were emerging in the early thirteenth century, viewed the Augustinian canons as a competitor for the same pool of charitable donations and the same field of pastoral activity. The secular clergy viewed the exempt canons regular with a degree of jurisdictional resentment, on the grounds that the exemption of the orders from episcopal control was an infringement of the ordinary authority of the diocesan bishop.
The Order’s defence of its Augustinian vocation was generally conducted on constitutional rather than theological grounds. The Order pointed to the papal confirmation of its Augustinian status, and to the long list of privileges that the papacy had granted the Order in the course of the thirteenth century. The Order also pointed, with some justice, to the substantial difference between its own religious practice and that of the secular canons who staffed the cathedrals and collegiate churches of Latin Christendom. The Order was, in practice, a monastic institution of a quite strict kind, and the Augustinian title was, in the Order’s case, a constitutional label rather than a description of a typical canonical life.
The Statuten and the Customary Laws
The flexibility of the Rule of St Augustine allowed the Order to develop, in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a substantial body of customary law and statute that governed the daily life of the brethren in considerable detail. The principal collection of these statutes is known, in the German form, as the Statuten, and it exists in a number of redactions dating from the mid-thirteenth to the late fifteenth centuries. The Statuten were, the practical constitution of the Order, and they regulated the reception of novices, the conduct of the chapter, the administration of the convent, the management of the commanderies, the conduct of military service, the discipline of faults, and the procedure for the election of the grand master.
The development of the Statuten was the work of the chapters of the Order. The chapters were the principal legislative assemblies of the Order, and they were attended, in principle, by the grand master, the principal officers of the Order, the Landmeister of the principal territorial divisions, and a representative selection of the brother-knights and the priest-brothers. The chapters met, in the early years, in the Order’s principal houses in the East, in the Empire, and in the Baltic, and they issued, on a regular basis, regulations and ordinances that were, in time, collected and codified in the Statuten.
The customary laws of the Order supplemented the Statuten with a substantial body of practice that was not, legislative in character. The customs of the Order regulated the liturgical life of the brethren (the celebration of the Mass, the recitation of the office, the observance of the feasts of the Order’s calendar), the domestic life of the convent (the conduct of the meals, the dress of the brethren, the management of the common property), and the discipline of the chapter of faults (the procedure for the accusation, the trial, and the punishment of offences against the Rule and the Statuten). The customary laws of the Order were, a practical expression of the Augustinian vocation, and they were, an integral part of the religious life of the brethren.
The Daily Offices
The liturgical life of the Order was centred on the celebration of the canonical hours. The brethren were obliged, by the Rule and the customs, to attend the celebration of the entire office — Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline — and the celebration of the office was, in the Order’s houses, the principal public event of the day. The office was sung in choir, in accordance with the Use of the Order, and it was supplemented by the celebration of the conventual Mass and by a substantial number of private Masses that were said, in the chapels of the Order’s houses, for the intentions of the brethren and the benefactors of the Order.
The Use of the Order was generally derived from the Cistercian Use, with some local modifications. The Order had, in the early years, a substantial institutional connection with the Cistercians, and the early grand masters had sought, on several occasions, to incorporate the Order into the Cistercian filiation. The incorporation was, in the end, refused by the Cistercian General Chapter, on the grounds that the military vocation of the Order was incompatible with the strict Cistercian discipline, and the Order was, in consequence, obliged to develop its own Use, modelled on the Cistercian but with substantial adaptations to the requirements of the military vocation.
The liturgical life of the Order was, in the Prussian and Livonian houses, an important part of the Order’s public presence. The Order’s churches were, in many cases, the largest and the most impressive buildings in the towns and cities of the Order’s territories, and the celebration of the office in these churches was a central element in the Christianisation of the surrounding population. The Order’s churches were, in their architecture, a mixture of the Cistercian, the Gothic, and the Brick Gothic styles, and they were, in many cases, decorated with the Order’s black cross and the heraldic arms of the grand master and the principal commanders.
The Three Vows
The religious life of the brethren was structured by the three monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. The vows were taken, in a formal ceremony of profession, after a period of probation as a novice, and they were, in the Order’s case, binding for life. The breach of any of the three vows was, in the Order’s discipline, a grave fault, punishable by suspension from the Order’s offices, by imprisonment, by public penance, or, in the most serious cases, by expulsion from the Order.
The vow of chastity obliged the brethren to abstain from sexual activity of any kind, and the breach of the vow was, in the Order’s discipline, one of the most serious offences that a brother could commit. The Order’s practice was stricter than that of the secular clergy, and the Order’s discipline in cases of incontinence in the Middle Ages, a matter of considerable repute.
The vow of poverty obliged the brethren to renounce all private property. The brethren were, in principle, the owners of nothing, and the Order’s properties were, in law, the property of the Order as a corporate body. The practice of the vow of poverty was, in the Order’s case, modified by the substantial wealth of the Order’s commanderies and the considerable sums of money that the brethren, in some periods, had at their personal disposal. The Order’s discipline in cases of private ownership was, in the Middle Ages, a matter of considerable variation, and the Order’s practice was, in the late Middle Ages, the subject of substantial criticism by the more austere reformers of the observant movement.
The vow of obedience obliged the brethren to submit, in all things lawful, to the will of their superiors. The vow was, in the Order’s case, the most characteristic of the three, and it was the principal source of the Order’s military effectiveness. The brethren were obliged, by the vow, to obey the orders of their commanders in all matters of military service, and the discipline of the Order on campaign was, in consequence, exceptionally strict.
Sources
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Forey, Alan. The Military Orders: From the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992.
- Strehlke, Ernst, ed. Tabulae ordinis Theutonici. Berlin: Weidmann, 1869.
Related Reading
For the founding of the Order at Acre, see the article on the founding. For the Statuten of the Order, see the article on the Statuten in the Order structure cluster. For the black cross and the Order’s symbols, see the article on the Order’s symbols. For the customary laws of the Order, see the article on Augustinian customs. For the three vows, see the article on the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. For the institutional life of the Order, see the pillar on Order structure.