History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 234, the Baltic, the Baltic Crusades, the Prussian Crusade Part 11, the four Bishoprics.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the re-emergence, then the demise of Bishop Christian, who, after four years in captivity, managed to escape the clutches of the

Prussian pagans, only to fall victim to church politics. In his desire to emulate the success of Bishop Albert in

Lavonia, Bishop Christian clashed repeatedly with both the Teutonic Order and William of Moderner, with the conflict

resulting in William of Moderner's decision to split Prussia into four separate Bishoprics. Now if you think that

splitting Prussia into four smaller Bishoprics is going to lessen the power of the church in Prussia and contribute mightily

towards the Teutonic Knights rising to a position of power within the Baltic Crusades unmatched by any other military order in any other

crusade, you would be right.

Now due to some hard work by Master Poppo, the head of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, by the year 1242, pretty much all of Prussia had been conquered.

And now, with these newly Christianized lands

neatly divided into four administrative districts,

it was time to appoint some new bishops to these positions.

As we stated in last week's episode, Bishop Christian was offered the first choice, but he died before making his decision, so all four

bishoprics were up for grabs.

I guess it's not really surprising to learn that people didn't seem to be

exactly knocking down doors in their haste to be appointed as a Prussian Bishop. Why? Well, because Prussia was still very much frontier country.

Castles were hastily being built and were popping up all over Prussia, but the reality

on the ground was that there were still pockets of rebellious pagan Prussians here and there.

Trading networks were still being established,

and while peasants were being brought in

...