The Statutes of the Teutonic Order

I now turn to the internal and constitutional framework which enabled the Teutonic Knights to carry out their diplomatic, charitable and military functions. To begin discussion on this subject it is necessary firstly to examine the history and composition of the Order's statutes. These regulations were intended to be the blueprint for the institution's structure and they defined the responsibilities of the major officers. The first surviving version has been dated to c.1264 and comprises three main parts (the rule, laws and customs) as well as the subsidiary sections (the prologue, vigils, calendar, Easter tables and genuflections).

The first reference to these statutes can be found in accounts of the Order's militarisation in 1198 when it was granted elements of the Hospitaller and Templar rule. Hospitaller statutes covering the care of the sick and the support of the poor were spliced with Templar regulations concerning clerics, soldiers and other brethren to create a hybrid which drew upon the strengths of both institutions. As Sterns has shown, over time the Teutonic Knights began to edit and adapt these regulations and in 1244 Innocent IV granted his permission for them to remove clauses which were of no further use to them. In c.1251 Eberhard of Saone delivered a list of new instructions to the Order's commanders in Elbing. These demands not only attempted to develop the existing regulations but mentioned, for the first time, the three major subsections: the rule, laws and customs.