ABSTRACT
As a result of the massive participation of Frisians in the crusades, the military orders were able to acquire a considerable amount of property in the Frisian lands. Before the middle of the fourteenth century, the Order of St John and the Teutonic Order had no less than twenty-one houses in the long but narrow strip of coastal lands along the North Sea between the isle of Texel and the German Bight. 1 Most of these commanderies were convents that had begun as double monasteries, developing either into nunneries with a small number of priests and lay brothers, or into houses with a male population, including priest brethren active as pastors in dependent parishes. The present paper is thus about priests, parish ministers, sisters, and lay brothers. 2 From what regions had these originated? What do we know about their careers?
