The Knights Templar

Moriarty

Ive been generally intrested in the knights templar for quite a while, with little nuggets of information that ive picked up here and there. My intrest has been piqued, so what im looking for now is a book that covers them well. Im posting here because the literature forum doesnt get half as much traffic as this forum does, so hopefully ill have a better chance of finding somone thats read a book on the topic and can suggest it.

Ive done the requisite search on amazon, but there doesnt appear to be many well-reviewed books on the subject around. Im only intrested due to idle intrest, and as such im not looking for a book that gets anal on the whole subject, just something that i can pick up and read if i get bored. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Manach

An interesting branch of Church History which I alss have not studied.
There is a book by Katherine Kurz, the fantasy writer, "Tales from the Knights Templar", where a collection of authors have come together to write short stories about their history. I never got around to reading it, but it looks interesting from a quick flick thru.

DapperGent

You should read Foucault's Pendulum it's a novel but it's centred around some people who muck about with the Templar stories to create a grand conspiracy theory and in the process gives you a lot of well written accurate history.

It's a fantastic read and has piqued my interest in the Templars, who as we all know control the affairs of this Earth through their subterreanean machinations.

Panda

Look for a book called "Ruled by Secrecy",

has interesting stuff about the knights templar and illumati and other ancient groups.

most of them stem down to the secret organisations of today, funny enough.

DeVore

Theres a fair bit of info on them surrounding the freemasons (about which I am now pratically an authority haha).

http://www.templarhistory.com/

struck me as a good resource as I investigated stuff about the masons and surrounding "orders". Its "pro" as in its supportive of the order but its not rabidly so and their info cross-checked with independant historical info from other sources. (always a good idea to cross check independantly so qualify how believeable a source is for information you CANT cross-check).

There seems to be a disconnect between the original templars and the modern day groups who claim heritage from them. In the 1700's there seems to be a lull in activity only to restart in the 1800's again. Some groups claim direct descendancy from them while others accept that they are merely "inspired by them". The latter tend to be the less insane

Fascinating topic though, on many levels (historical, sociological, psychological etc). Are you interested in the historical order or the modern day incarnations of it?

DeV.

Specky

By the time I'd finished reading Foucault's Pendulum I couldn't remember what was true and what was not!

Brilliantly written though and a lot of leads on the Templars

Hobbes

Originally posted by Specky
By the time I'd finished reading Foucault's Pendulum I couldn't remember what was true and what was not!

Brilliantly written though and a lot of leads on the Templars

Was I the only one who got the book?

The point wasn't what was true and what wasn't. It was more to show how easy it is to create credible history from lies and other parts of history, and that there were numerous fruitcakes out there that would believe it.

I would take most of what was in FP's book with a grain of salt.

Gambler

Check out the hiram key (History of the Freemasons that goes into the Knights Templar connection )

DeVore

Got a link or a starting point?

DeV.

Specky

No Hobbes, you certainly weren't the only person to get the book, but that was my exact point. There were so many "near truths" in the book and they were knitted into each other so neatly that after finishing the book I found it hard to distinguish between things I knew before reading the book and things I'd "learned" whilst reading the book.

Read the Hiram Key too, also very very interesting book and talks about a lot more than just the Templars.

Dun

Hiram Key at Amazon. Looks interesting, though the third reviewer seems to think it's a bit sensationalist.

plastic membrane

Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. It goes into the theory that Christ survived the crucifixion, and that an offshoot of the knights played a part in the conspiracy. Whether true or not its a good, but barmy read..

DeVore

What we have to remember is ... are we talking about the modern day "Knights Templar" (embodied by several various groups from the mildly eccentric Knight Masons to the plain weird Rosecrucian to the even weirder groups out there that claim descendancy from them) or are we talking about the historical Knights Templar who formed part of the crusades and were pretty brutally culled by the Catholic church for their troubles.

Btw, the freemasons claim no heritage from the Templars as it happens, they claim heritage (and a tenuous one at that) from the stonemasons who built the cathedrals in the wake of the crusades.

<muse>

Frankly I find the whole thing a bit odd...I mean, who cares where you claim heritage from... you either are doing a "Good Thing [tm]" or you are doing an "Evil Thing[tm]" and I'll judge you on that basis.

For example I've said before that I have a mate who is in the freemasons (on another thread). I'm helping him build a community centre in the Saint Theresa's Gardens area. IMHO this is a Good Thing (I'm kinda in favour of communities as you might have guessed.)

Now there are a number of Masons helping us. They seem like perfectly nice blokes actually. In fact almost disturbingly normal. I kinda thought they would be, I dunno, weird or something...

In fact, they find ME weird. (Ummm.. which is probably true now that I think about it...)

Anyway, they arent claiming credit for the centre, they arent going to only let masons kids in there or anything, in fact I dont think they really told anyone. So I'm perfectly happy to help them and have them help us build this thing.
So they could claim they are from Mars and so long as they get me 20 computers for the computer room they are alright Martians in my book!

</muse>


Bah... must not ramble on.

DeV.