TETJTATES. Teutates, the " god of the people," was one of the names given by the ancient Celts to a god who corresponded to the Roman Mercury. He is men tioned by Lucan (c. A.D. 60) with Taranis, the god of thunder, and Esus (q.v.), as a deity who demanded human sacrifices. Reinach and Anwyl point out that these were local deities. They did not constitute, as has been supposed, a Celtic Trinity. See Anwyl; Reinach, 0. TEUTONIC KNIGHTS. The Teutonic Knights were a German military-religious order that arose during the Crusades. In 1190, during the siege of Acre, some German merchants provided a hospital for wounded' Christians called the Hospital St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem. The persons connected with the hospital then formed themselves into a religious order like the Brothers of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist (see HOSPITALLERS). This order became in a few years a military order, the Order of the Teutonic Knights, and was approved by the Pope in 1199. " The Knights, in addition to the usual monastic vows, bound themselves to tend the sick and wounded and wage incessant war upon the heathen " (Chambers). In 1240 they were
invited by the Duke of Masovia in Poland to help him defend his frontiers against the heathen Prussians. In 1252 they were strengthened by amalgamation with the Order of Christ or Brethren of the Sword, which had already taken possession of Livonia. Acting together, they " became possessed of all the territory between the Vistula and the Memel, the coast-line reaching from Narva, on the Gulf of Finland, to the south-western point of Pomerania " (Schaff-Herzog). They acted with great harshness, but gradually civilized the country. In the fifteenth century they lost much of their territory, and in 1525 they were driven from the country. In 1509 Napoleon I. formally abolished the order. See William Benham; Schaff-Herzog; the Oath. Diet.; Chambers's Encycl.