Having made an alliance with Christian II., king of Denmark, and interfered to protect the Teutonic Order against Sigismund I., king of Poland, Maximilian was again in Italy early in 1516 fighting the French who had overrun Milan.
It has an Evangelical church, two Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue and an old convent, now used as a lunatic asylum, and also the remains of a castle built in the 14th century by the Teutonic Order.
It was doubtless one of the Friends who sent forth anonymously from the house of the Teutonic Order in Frankfort the famous handbook of mystical devotion called Eine deutsche Theologie, first published in 1516 by Luther.
The latter, corresponding substantially to the present province of West Prussia, remained subject to Poland until 1309, when it was divided between Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order.
Later in birth than the Templars and Hospitallers, the Teutonic Order traces its first beginnings from the third Crusade.
