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Wednesday, June 10, 2020

The Knights Templar; The History And Myths Of The Legendary Military Order
by Sean Martin
https://archive.org/details/martintheknightstemplarthehistoryandmythsofthelegendarymilitaryorder2004/page/n7/mode/2up
Publication date 1987
Topics knights templar, freemasonry
In the book Martin covers the history of what had become the most powerful military religious Order of the Middle Ages. Formed to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land following the success of the First Crusade, the Templars rapidly gained wealth, lands and influence and were answerable only to the Pope. In addition to having a fearful military reputation, they invented the modern banking system still in use today. Seemingly untouchable for nearly two centuries, the Templars fell from grace spectacularly after the loss of the Holy Land: in 1307, all Templars in France were arrested on charges of heresy, homosexuality, denial of the cross and devil worship. The Order was suppressed by the Pope in 1312, and Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was burnt at the stake.

The Trial Of The Templars
by Malcolm Barber
https://archive.org/details/malcolm-barber-the-trial-of-the-templars
Publication date 1978

Dungeon, Fire And Sword, The Knights Templar In The Crusades - John J Robinson
by John J. Robinson
https://archive.org/details/Dungeon_Fire_and_Sword/page/n9/mode/2up
Publication date 1992

Topics Middle Ages, Crusades, Christianity, Knights TemplarOver the past thousand years, the bloodiest game of the king-of-the-hill has been for supremacy on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon. This book recounts the stirring saga of the Knights Templar, the Christian warrior-monks who occupied the sacred Mount in the aftermath of the butchery of the First Crusade. Recruited to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience intended to lead only to martyrdom on the battlefield, they were totally dedicated to the pious paradox that the wholesale slaughter of non-believers would earn the eternal gratitude of the Prince of Peace. The Templars amassed great wealth, which they used to finance their two hundred years of war against Muslims on the desert, in the mountains, and up the broad sweep of the Nile valley. The Templars' reward for those two centuries of military martyrdom was to be arrested by pope and king, tortured by the Inquisition, and finally decreed out of existence. But their legend and legacy just would not die. In telling the incredible story of the Knights Templar, the author's clear explanation of the cultural and religious differences among the Templars' enemies and friends in the Middle East gives fresh understanding of the people who populate this restless region. Here are the Sunnies and the Shiites, the Kurds and Armenians, the Arabs and Turks, who figure so prominently in today's headlines. The similarity of their antagonisms today and those of eight hundred years ago are often so striking as to be eerie. Dungeon, Fire & Sword is a brilliant work of narrative history that can be read as an adventure story, a morality play, or a lesson in the politics of warfare.