For almost 800 years the Templars have received a bad press. At the
time of their downfall in 1307 they were accused of crimes so
'horrible to contemplate' that they were 'set apart from all
humanity': crimes of devil-worship, blasphemy, sodomy and
treachery, with the added sins of avarice and pride. That they
were, in fact, innocent of these crimes is now received wisdom in
academic circles, but to the public at large the charges stand -
added to by the lunatic claims of modern conspiracy theorists and
pseudo-historians, for whom the Templars guarded variously the Ark
of the Covenant, the Shroud of Turin and the Holy Grail, worshipped
the embalmed head of Jesus, and kept secret the truth of his
marriage and children. Against this nonsense Read's book comes like
a breath of fresh air. Dismissing such modern lunacies, he sets the
Templars firmly in the context of their times and their primary
purpose: to safeguard the newly recovered Holy Land for pilgrims
and to keep it in Christian hands. And yet the foundation of his
book is not the 'Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ' themselves,
but the temple at Jerusalem from which they took their name. In
concise and elegant prose Read takes us through the history of the
temple and of the three religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- for whom it was a supreme religious symbol. The history of the
Templars is essentially the history of the Crusades, that long and
ultimately doomed struggle to wrest back the Holy Land from the
Muslim invaders who had seized it by force, and Read deftly
interweaves the two, guiding us with a sure hand through a maze of
political, ecclesiastical and dynastic rivalries and follies, and
through the parallel ebb and flow of the tides of war up to the
Templars' final defeat in 1291. Driven back to Europe, the final
act in the Templars' tragedy was their destruction at the hands of
the cynical and greedy Philip IV of France, and it is a tribute to
Read's skill that he can disentangle the strands of this complex
and sordid affair with such seeming ease. But his real success is
in showing the humanity of the Templars through their everyday
lives. Neither monsters nor supermen, they were simply inspired to
be both monks and warriors: to take up the cross and the sword in
defence of their faith. And in this they were second to none.
(Kirkus UK)
The Knights of the Temple of Solomon were a military and religious
order founded in Jerusalem by two French Knights after the First
Crusade. Its original purpose was to protect pilgrims from infidel
attack as they journeyed to the Holy Land. The Templars soon became
an expert military force and a powerful, wealthy order.Piers Paul
Read tells their story in the context of the Middle Ages, a period
of history in which high idealism and religious fervour were mixed
with unusual cruelty, greed and ambition.
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