attained than the King took a
mean advantage of the knights, and resumed possession of the country
which they had converted from a desert to a fruitful and valuable
district. The consequence was that the wild tribes renewed their
invasions, and the reclaimed country once more lapsed into desolation.
Then again the King made the border country over to the knights, who
speedily reasserted their rights, and established a settled government
and general prosperity in the dominion made over to them. This grant
and some others that followed were confirmed to the order by the bull
of Pope Honorius III in 1222.

A few years after this the Duke of Poland asked the aid of the order
against the pagan inhabitants of the country that was afterward
Prussia. These people were very savage and barbarous, and constantly
committed horrible cruelties upon their more civilized neighbors,
laying waste the country, destroying crops, carrying off cattle,
burning towns, villages, and convents, and murdering the inhabitants
with circumstances of extreme atrocity, often burning their captives
alive as sacrifices to their gods. The grand master consulted with his
chapter and with the Emperor on the proposed enterprise, and finally
resolved to enter upon it, the Emperor undertaking to secure to the
order any territory that they might be able to conquer and hold in
Prussia. Pope Gregory IX, in 1230, gave his sanction to the
expedition, and conferred on those concerned in it all the privileges
accorded to crusaders.

In the following year an army invaded Prussia and erected a fortress
at Thorn, on the Vistula, on the site of a grove of enormous oaks,
which the inhabitants looked upon as sacred to their god Thor. This
was followed, in 1232, by the foundation of another stronghold at
Culm. A successful campaign followed, and the castle of Marienwerder,
lower down the Vistula, was after some reverses and delays
successfully built and fortified. The grand master then established a
firm system of government over the conquered country, and drew up laws
and regulations for the administration of justice, for the coining of
money, and other necessary elements of civilization. Other fortified
places were built which gradually developed into cities and towns. But
all this was not effected without many battles and much patient
endurance, and frequent defeats and checks.

Nor did the knights forget the spiritual needs of their heathen
subjects. Mission clergy