Geburt aus dem Tod. Der Kaiserschnitt an Verstorbenen in der abendländischen Kultur

archive keeping and discipline in houses of the Military Orders-the subject of Part III-will interest those studying institutions of care and relief, through comparative emphasis on the variety of organizational tasks which underpin the ability to support and deliver care to the poor and needy. Some of the Houses were formidable institutions which became involved in diplomatic and state-building ventures, and especially at Europe's borders. Material from Bohemia and Frisia, studied by Karl Borchardt and Johannes Mol respectively, extends the study of the Orders into new regions. The students of the Military Orders have traditionally been more aware than most scholars of the material aspects of existence in warfare and fortification, financial support and architectural setting. This volume continues the trend of alertness to material culture, which is also emphasized in Jonathan Riley-Smith's introduction and applied in articles such as those by Sven Ekdahl on Prussia and Fotini Karassava-Tsilingiri on Rhodes. The Military Orders-like most medical and welfare institutions-were complex bodies which attracted the idealistic but also bred institutionally overbearing officers. They attracted pious donors but were also used by patrons to achieve awkward and demanding objectives. An overwhelming amount of their energy was spent on maintaining their lands, estates, and dependents as great corporate landowners.3 Evidence of their medical and welfare activities appears in most cases studied here to have been only a small part of their business. If their "mission statement" was indeed "fighting for the faith and caring for the sick", then their move into arenas far from the Levant and its pilgrims was bound to erode the second part of that dictum. Yet the pious association, and the motivation which it could elicit in those who joined the Military Orders were clearly appreciated by European rulers over centuries. Christoph Maier demonstrates the roles that some Houses could continue to play even in areas which were reformed and which closed down religious houses in the sixteenth century, while Johannes Schellakowsky demonstrates the Orders' rulership within the Prussian state in the eighteenth century. Helen Nicholson has edited well this volume of diverse pickings, which no review can summarize. It rewards consultation not only by medieval historians, but by those interested and intrigued by the viability and malleability of institutions of care and relief.