A Latin Church became also a fortress; and the fortress soon expanded into a German town, and these crept every year farther and farther into the East.

In order to quell the resistance of native Finns and Slavs, there was created, and authorized by the Pope, an order of knighthood, called the "Sword-Bearers," with the double purpose of driving back the Slavonic tide which threatened Germany and at the same time Christianizing it.

These were the "Livonian Knights," who came from Saxony and Westphalia, armed _cap-a-pie_, with red crosses embroidered upon the shoulder of their white mantles.

Then another order was created (1225), the "Teutonic Order," wearing black crosses on their shoulders, which, after fraternizing with the Livonian Knights, was going to absorb them--together with some other things--into their own more powerful organization.

Russia had no armed warriors to meet these steel-clad Germans and Livonians.