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taken by fever, the soldiers died like flies, their agony made worse by the
innumerable insects that buzzed around them or swarmed over their bodies. The
regular hospital units, particularly the Knights of Saint John (better known as the
Hospitallers), were overburdened and, moreover, favored their own nationals, the
French and English. The Germans were left to their own devices.
Seeing that the situation was intolerable and would last indefinitely--the siege
showed no sign of ending soon, and no monarch was coming east to demand that
his subjects be better cared for by the established hospitals--a number of middle
class crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck decided to found a hospital order that
would care for the German sick. This initiative was warmly seconded by the most
prominent of the German nobles, Duke Friedrich of Hohenstaufen. He wrote
to his brother, the Emperor Heinrich VI, and also won the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
the Hospitallers, and the Templars over to the idea. They recommended to Pope
Celestine that he approve the new monastic order, and he did so. The brothers were
to do hospital work like the Hospitallers and to live under the Templar rule. The
new foundation was to be named the Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the
Germans in Jerusalem. The name given the new Order implied a connection with
an older establishment, one now practically defunct, but in fact there seems to have
been no direct relationship. The members of the new Order avoided this tie, lest
they fall under the control of the Hospitallers, who held supervisory rights over the
older German hospital. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have discouraged visitors
and crusaders from believing that their Order had a more ancient lineage. Everyone
valued tradition and antiquity. Since many religious houses indulged in pious
frauds to assert a claim to a more illustrious foundation, it is easy to understand
that this new hospital Order would be tempted to do the same.
Pope Clement III (1187- -1191) apparently approved the Order
by the BullQuotiens postulatur of February 6, 1191 and, within a
few years, the Order had developed as a Religious Military
institution.
The Order was taken under Pope Celestine III's (1191--1198)
protection on December 21, 1196, with the name of the
"Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem." The name
is possibly the only connection with the earlier German hospital
that was founded on the first twelfth century XII in Jerusalem,
to give assistance to German-speaking pilgrims, but ceased to
exist after the famous Saladin had conquered Jerusalem in 1188, putting an end to
Christian domain to the city also considered Holy by the Muslims.
In 1197, when the next German crusading army came to the Holy Land, it found the
hospital flourishing and rendering invaluable service to its fellow-countrymen. Not
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 99 of 200