The political role of the cult of the Virgin Mary in Teutonic Prussia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Elements of the cult of the Virgin Mary were of great importance in the system of political views set forth by the intellectual élite of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. They were meant for the expression of the aspirations and needs of the Order as a territorial master. The Teutonic Knights presented Mary as an active symbol to stand up to the Order's external and internal enemies. The feudalized cult of St Mary was designed to strengthen the Order's political position and authority in Prussia as well as its subjects' loyalty by providing them with models of faithfulness. However, the Teutonic model of faith and piety did not comply with the transformation of Christianity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Impairment of the subjects'loyalty to the Order after the end of the fourteenth century, which led to their obedience being renounced in the middle of the fifteenth century, may thus have been a result of the changes in the religious life characteristic of the epoch

Ancient history · Cult · Faith · Fifteenth · Obedience · Order (exchange · Piety · Political science · Politics · Theology · Worship · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical and Cultural Studies of Poland · History · Law · Medieval European History and Architecture · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies

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