The establishment and development of St Elizabeth's Hospital as intended by the Teutonic Order at the turn of the 15th century

Abstract

The Teutonic Order exercised a dominant impact on social and religious relations in late 14th-century Gdańsk through taking initiatives in terms of new religious foundations. One such undertaking – St Elizabeth's Hospital – reveals the way in which the co-existence in the city and its monastic lords was eroding. The facts presented in the article demonstrate a crisis in the Order, which compromised itself in terms of its religious function. In the Gdańsk community this might have been one of the stimuli to take a decision to seek liberation from the rule of the Order.