Von Cronberg hailed from a rather poor family of knights from
Kronberg Castle near
Frankfurt. He joined the Teutonic Order in 1497 and held the post of a tax collector in the
Komturei of
Mergentheim from 1499. He became the Komtur of Frankfurt in 1504. During the times of his predecessor,
Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, von Cronberg was the
legate to King
Sigismund I (the Old) of Poland. In 1517, he founded the
Brotherhood of St. Sebastian and, in 1526, he was chosen
Deutschmeister (the Master of the
German branch of the Order). In 1525, when Albert had converted to
Lutheranism and was
excommunicated, von Cronberg declared himself the next Grand Master. His claim was based on a
statute of
Werner von Orseln from the 14th century, which stated that in the case of the absence of the Grand Master, the Master of one of the other branches of the Order would resume the position. However, this decision was met with some resistance from the Master of the
Livonian branch,
Wolter von Plettenberg, who also laid a claim to this function. The conflict was averted by Emperor
Charles V, who settled the matter in 1527 in favour of von Cronberg, declaring him "Administrator of the Office of Grand Master". Also, the claim of the Grand Master to Albert's
Duchy of Prussia was renewed. As no control could be exercised there, the Grand Master's seat was moved from
Königsberg to the seat of the Deutschmeister in southern Germany,
Mergentheim, near
Würzburg. From 1530, von Cronberg dedicated himself to save the Catholic character of the Order. He was unsuccessful, however, in preventing further
secularization of the Teutonic Order in the
Holy Roman Empire, with increasingly more knights breaking the oath, by conversion to
Protestantism or disobedience to the Catholic Grand Masters. == References ==