Daily Rules and Life in the Teutonic Order
The daily life of the Teutonic brethren was regulated by a complex and internally consistent body of statutes, customary laws, and liturgical calendars. The principal sources are the Statuten — the formal statutes of the Order, redacted at several points in the Order’s history — and the Gewohnheiten (customaries), which recorded the unwritten rules of the convent castle. The two sources were complementary: the Statuten set out the constitutional framework of the Order, while the Gewohnheiten filled in the practical details of day-to-day life that the Statuten could not cover. The detail of the formal statutes is treated in the related article on the Statuten of the Order, and the daily rhythm of meals and prayers is treated in the related article on meals and prayers in the convent.
The present article is concerned with the daily life of the brethren in the convent castle: with the liturgical round that structured the day, with the meals in the refectory that brought the brethren together, with the dormitory life that governed the brethren’s sleep, with the chapter of faults that maintained discipline, and with the work and recreation that filled the hours between the offices. The article is based, generally on the customary laws of the Prussian convent castles of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, supplemented by the earlier redactions of the Statuten and by the surviving account books of the Order’s various commanderies.
The Sources of the Daily Rules
The internal discipline of the Teutonic Order rested on three complementary sources. The first was the Rule of St Augustine, which was the constitutional foundation of the Order and which set out the basic principles of the common life. The second was the Statuten of the Order, which set out the constitutional framework, the duties of the brethren, the organisation of the convent, the conduct of the daily offices, and the procedures for the trial of brethren. The third was the Gewohnheiten, which recorded the practical customary laws of the various Komtureien and which filled in the details of convent life that the Statuten did not address.
The earliest surviving redaction of the Statuten is the so-called Statuten of 1260, which was a compilation of older rules and customs. The Statuten was redacted again in 1330, in 1357, and at several other points in the Order’s history. Each new redaction incorporated the accumulated customary laws of the Order and the constitutional practice of the chapter general, and each redaction was a substantial literary undertaking. The Gewohnheiten, by contrast, were not formally redacted at a single moment but accumulated over time, and the Gewohnheiten of any given Komturei were, a record of the local practice of that particular convent.
The sources are supplemented, for the late medieval period, by the Memorabilia of the Order: the notes, memoranda, and account books of the Komture, the treasurers, and the chaplains of the various commanderies. The Memorabilia provide a remarkable insight into the daily life of the brethren, and the historian of the Order is able, in many cases, to reconstruct the daily life of a particular convent castle in considerable detail from the surviving records of that convent.
The Canonical Hours
The day of the brethren was structured by the eight canonical hours of the Roman liturgy: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. The full office was sung, in choir, in the chapel of the convent castle, and the brethren were expected to attend in person unless excused by reason of illness, by reason of necessary service elsewhere, or by reason of a specific dispensation from the Komtur.
Matins was the night office, sung in the chapel at the appropriate hour of the night, in the small hours of the morning. After Matins the brethren returned to the dormitory for a brief rest, and they rose again for Lauds at dawn. The daytime offices of Prime, Terce, Sext, and None were sung at the customary hours of the day. Vespers was sung in the late afternoon, and Compline was sung at the end of the day.
A typical day in the convent castle included some five to seven hours of formal liturgical recitation. The brethren sang the psalter in the course of the week, the office of the dead was sung at the customary times, and the brethren were required to be present at the daily Mass and at the principal commemorations of the year. The priestly brothers bore the heaviest liturgical burden.
The Chapter of Faults
The chapter of faults (capitulum culparum) was a daily ceremony in the convent castle, held after the office of Prime. The chapter of faults was the principal instrument of internal discipline in the Order, and it was modelled on the customary chapter of faults of the older monastic orders. The brethren assembled in the chapter house, and one of the brethren, appointed by the Komtur, confessed his faults of the previous day. The Komtur, or his deputy, then pronounced the customary discipline: a specified number of psalms to be recited, a specified number of genuflections to be performed, or a specified period of fasting to be observed. The faults confessed in the chapter of faults were, generally minor faults of the daily life of the convent: arriving late at the office, talking in the dormitory, missing a meal, failing to recite the customary prayers, and so on.
The chapter of faults was supplemented, in the case of more serious faults, by a formal process of accusation, trial, and punishment. The procedures for the trial of brethren were set out in detail in the Statuten, and the punishments ranged from public penance in the chapel, through temporary deprivation of office, to imprisonment in the convent prison, to expulsion from the Order. The most serious faults — apostasy, heresy, murder, theft of Order property, and so on — were reserved for the chapter general of the Order.
Meals in the Refectory
The brethren’s meals were taken in the refectory of the convent castle. The refectory was a large hall, usually adjacent to the kitchen and the brewhouse, and it was furnished with long wooden tables and benches. The brethren sat according to a customary order, with the senior brethren at the high table and the junior brethren and the serving brothers at the side tables. The Komtur, or his deputy, presided at the high table, and a reader — usually a priestly brother — read aloud from a devotional book throughout the meal.
The meals were simple. The customary diet of the brethren was bread, beer, fish or salted meat, vegetables in season, cheese, and porridge. Meat was eaten only on Sundays, on feast days, and on certain other specified occasions; on the other days the brethren ate fish or vegetables. The beer was brewed in the convent brewhouse, and the bread was baked in the convent bakery. The brethren ate in silence, and conversation was forbidden. The Konventualmahl (the principal meal of the day) was taken at the customary hour, usually in the early afternoon, and the brethren ate a light supper in the evening.
The detail of the customary diet, the order of the tables, the discipline of the refectory, and the liturgical character of the meals is treated in the related article on meals and prayers in the convent. The meals were a substantial part of the daily life of the brethren, and the constitutions of the Order took care to ensure that the meals were sufficient for the brethren’s health, simple in accordance with the vow of poverty, and orderly in accordance with the monastic tradition.
Dormitory Life
The brethren’s sleep was in the dormitory of the convent castle, a large communal chamber on the upper floor of the convent castle. The dormitory was furnished with a row of narrow beds, separated by curtains, and each bed was provided with a straw mattress, a woollen blanket, and a pillow. The brethren slept in their habits, and the constitutions of the Order forbade the brethren from having any private property in the dormitory, including private beds, private chests, or private lights.
The dormitory was supervised by a Dormitor (dormitory monitor), appointed by the Komtur from among the more senior brethren. The dormitory monitor was responsible for the discipline of the dormitory: for ensuring that the brethren retired at the customary hour, for ensuring that the brethren observed silence in the dormitory, for ensuring that the brethren rose at the customary hour for Matins, and for reporting any breaches of the customary discipline to the Komtur. The dormitory was also the principal sleeping place for the brethren on the nights when they were in residence at the convent castle; the brethren who were away on military service, on diplomatic missions, or on other business of the Order slept in whatever accommodation was available, and the customary discipline of the dormitory did not apply to them.
The dormitory was a substantial part of the convent castle, and the architectural historians of the Teutonic Order have given close attention to the design of the dormitory in the major convent castles of the Prussian state. The dormitory of the Marienburg, the headquarters of the Order from 1309, was a large chamber some seventy metres long, capable of accommodating a substantial proportion of the Order’s senior brethren when the chapter general was in session.
Work, Study, and Recreation
The hours between the offices were filled with the work, the study, and the recreation of the brethren. The work of the brethren was of two principal kinds: the administration of the Komturei, and the military preparation of the brethren. The administrative work included the receipt of the Komturei’s revenues, the supervision of the dependent granges and towns, the administration of justice in the lower courts, the correspondence with the chapter general, and the account-keeping of the treasurer. The military preparation included the training in arms, the maintenance of the weapons and armour, and the conduct of the small-scale warfare of the Prussian frontier.
The study of the brethren was a central element of the daily life, particularly in the larger convent castles. The libraries of the larger convent castles were substantial, and the surviving catalogues of the libraries give a good insight into the range of reading of the brethren.
The recreation of the brethren was, by modern standards, very restricted. The constitutions of the Order forbade a wide range of amusements: hunting, hawking, gaming, and so on. The customary recreations of the brethren included walking in the convent garden, conversation in the cloister, and the occasional communal meal on a feast day. The constitutions of the Order took some account of the human need for rest, and the brethren were allowed a moderate amount of time for the recreation of body and mind.
The Annual Cycle
The daily life of the brethren was framed by the annual cycle of the liturgical year. The major feasts of the year — Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, the Feast of All Saints, and so on — were celebrated with appropriate solemnity, and the liturgical calendar shaped the daily life of the brethren in many ways. The Advent and Lenten fasts were observed with the customary rigour. The Ember Days, the Rogation Days, and the customary vigils were observed with fasting and with additional liturgical recitation. The Feast of the Dedication of the Order’s principal chapel, on 19 September, was a particular occasion for celebration.
The annual cycle also included the customary processions, pilgrimages, and commemorations of the Order. The brethren processed through the town on the principal feast days, the brethren made the customary pilgrimages to the Order’s principal shrines, and the brethren observed the customary anniversaries of the deceased brethren of the Order. The annual cycle gave the daily life of the brethren a rhythm that was both liturgical and seasonal, and the rhythm of the year , was the principal structuring element of the conventual life of the Order.
Sources
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Perlbach, Max, ed. Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens nach den ältesten Handschriften. Halle: Niemeyer, 1890.
- Strehlke, Ernst, ed. Tabulae ordinis Theutonici. Berlin: Weidmann, 1869.
- Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. London: Greenhill, 2003.
Related Reading
For the constitutional framework, see the parent pillar on the structure and daily life of the Order and the article on the hierarchy of the Order. For the formal statutes, see the article on the Statuten of the Order. For the daily rhythm of meals and prayers, see the article on meals and prayers in the convent. For the monastic foundation of the daily life, see the article on the Rule of St Augustine and the article on the three monastic vows. For the building in which the daily life was lived, see the article on convent castles. For the habit worn by the brethren, see the article on the black cross of the Order.