The question of how the issuers of the charter for Kulm and Thorn, who were the highest dignitaries of the German Order, conceived of their authority has already been raised in historiography. However, previous studies of the charter have paid little attention to the influence of canon law on its text, despite the fact that its issuer was a religious community. This raises the question of whether, and to what extent, the norms of this law were taken into account by the Order as a subject of authority. An important research question is also the extent to which the privilege took into account the religious charisma of the German Order as a source of its authority. It is known that elements of this charisma were present in the chancery language used by the Order as a subject of authority in the 13th century. These questions are at the heart of our research.
