ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the thirteenth century a new military order, later called the Order of the Sword Brothers, was created in Livonia to support the mission and crusade in that region. The Christian mission to Livonia had originally aimed at preaching the Gospel to the heathen and converting them to Christianity by means of the 'spiritual sword'. In the summer of 1203, Theodoric went to Rome to give Innocent III notice of the achievements gained by Bishop Albert's preaching and by the hard work of the many pilgrims in Livonia. The dispute between Albert and the Militia Christi grew worse as a result of further military conquests undertaken by Christians against the heathen and, in October 1210, the situation was brought to the attention of Innocent III. To defend their rights against the archbishop, the Teutonic Knights turned to the two letters Innocent III had issued in 1210.
