ABSTRACT
In the 1920s, Nikolaus Paulus published his magisterial study of the history of indulgences in the Middle Ages. In the case of Halle, the order's indulgences were intended to attract alms for the rebuilding of the commandery's houses. Indulgences are, of course, mentioned in several publications on the military orders, but there is no systematic account that analyses the worries of any particular order concerning its indulgences. Several manuscripts at Berlin, Vienna, and Philadelphia, most of them dating from the fifteenth century, contain a list of 'the Order's indulgences' which include numerous pardons, mostly granted by thirteenth-century popes. The 'indulgences of the Reise' were missing because they were of no particular interest to the Order's establishments outside the Baltic region. Innocent had written to the archbishop of Mainz about an earlier concession to the Teutonic Knights, granting them the right to recruit German crusaders for the war against the Prussians without public preaching.
