ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the mentality and spirituality of the chronicler are of special importance. The chronicler's aim was to create a 'group-image' of the Prussians. The hostility of the crusader is perceived from the very beginning: 'Prussians had no idea of God. There are some curious moments in it, which have been discussed by some historians, such as the underlying criticism of the Teutonic Order itself, but, in general, the chronicler's approach is well known and typical for a crusader. As far as the Teutonic Order's feasts are concerned – especially the Ehrentisch that became more frequent in the second half of the fourteenth century – they can be regarded primarily as ceremonial. The mental frontier is a borderline between two mentalities that cannot interpenetrate each other. Not only was Peter von Dusburg separated by the mental frontier from what he described, but he was approaching what is called 'the national stereotype'.
