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Teutonic Knights was not dull. To be sure, northern winters were long and dark, just as summers in the Holy Land were long and hot, but there was always much to do. As Voltaire remarked at the conclusion of Candide , work is the cure for poverty, vice and boredom. Without much question, the ultra-catholic priests and officers of the Teutonic Order would have agreed with that deist’s analysis of the human condition.
    Knights had duties in the order’s convents. The head of each convent had a title we can translate as castellan or commander, and he supervised all other officers. Some officers were important, such as the treasurer, who may or may not have been able to account for incomes and expenditures personally but who supervised men of burgher ancestry who understood the process. Most offices were minor, such as supervising the fields and horses, but each provided a means of determining which knights were responsible and easy to work with, who exercised good judgement, and who was to be passed over when promotions were discussed.
    There was a good deal of drinking every day, and even more during feast days and when visitors were present. The knights liked their beer and wine, especially the varieties from home. On the other hand, there were many fast days, and letters to the pope requesting exemptions from strict fasting for officers who were ill or aged demonstrate that they took these customary limitations seriously.
    Hunting was a passionate characteristic of the noble classes in general, and the Teutonic Knights were no exception. Later, when many of their castles lay in forests or on the edge of wildernesses, they were quite willing to enter into treaties with their enemies that provided hunters protection from ambush or attack. They maintained packs of dogs for chasing stags and aurochs, and they hired local warriors as guides in war, who – since only relatively few days of any year could be spent fighting – were most commonly employed as huntsmen.
    They learned the local languages. They probably did not attain the fluency and accuracy of modern scholars, but knights serving on the Lithuanian frontier had no trouble understanding pleas from what they believed were Polish women who had escaped their captors. Any knight working with native militia had better be able to give the basic commands, even when the natives were supposed to know the German words, and any knight on the road had better know the words for inn, food and beer. Fluency was especially important for those officers of the order, called advocates, who lived among the native Baltic peoples and trained their military units.
    Most knights entered the order as youths. Usually second or subsequent sons, they found service in a military order a useful and honourable career. Even if they did not win fame and high office, they knew that they would be cared for if injured and when they reached old age. Most importantly, they believed that they would ultimately be rewarded by the favour of Lady Mary and Her son, their Lord and Master. A few years of sacrifice would be rewarded with life everlasting. Martyrdom guaranteed this goal even for those who personally fell short of perfection in observing the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
    Not all the knights were saints. Not by a long bow-shot. A few were even repentant criminals. Medieval society had few alternatives to either forgiving criminals or executing them. Whippings, of course, were suitable to the lower classes, and a few individuals could be dumped at the bottom of a well, to dig out earth and stone until water was struck or their sentence was finished. But in general, incarceration was not practical. It was much better, society reasoned, to send repentant criminals to a convent where they could spend their days in rounds of prayer, work and sleep. Thus they might save their immortal souls while performing socially useful tasks. The Teutonic Knights were only one of many orders which accepted