38 Most peasants in Central Europe were poor. There were degrees of poverty, of course, but those reflected more than the condition of servitude. Climate, weather, war, disease, and price fluctuations were important too. Livonia was far to the north, with poor soil and a short growing season. Moreover, the loss of personal freedom was occurring throughout the region at this time – in Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. In contrast, serfdom was disappearing in the West.
39 Even knights who preferred Roman Catholicism could see that the need for church reform was pressing, and since the Council of Trent had not yet been called there was general despair that the papacy would begin to deal with the Church’s most pressing problems. Worse, no one could see how conservative ecclesiastical reforms in Germany would help Livonia politically.
40 Almost no knights had ever been recruited in Prussia or Livonia, lest they find ways to foster the interests of their secular relatives. This policy was relaxed in Livonia in the fifteenth century, but even there the few recruits were usually from families recently brought east from Westphalia by relatives who held high office and could promise them swift advancement.
41 Readers may wish to consult: William Urban, ‘Rethinking the Crusades’, Perspectives (the newsletter of the American Historical Association) 36/7, October 1998, pp.25 – 9; and ‘Victims of the Baltic Crusade’, Journal of Baltic Studies 29/3, Autumn 1998, pp.195 – 212. The latter was awarded the Vitols Prize of the AABS for best article published in the JBS that year.
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