Barbara Frale gives us an explosive, exhaustively researched history of the medieval world’s most powerful military order, the Templars. At its height, the Order of the Knights Templar rivaled the kingdoms of Europe in military might, economic power, and political influence. For 700 years, the tragic demise of this society of warrior-monks amid accusations of heresy has been plagued by … controversy, in part because the transcript of their trial by the Inquisitionwhich held the key to the truthhad vanished.
Templar historian Barbara Frale happened to be studying a document at the Vatican Secret Archives when she suddenly realized that it was none other than the long-lost transcript! It revealed that Pope Clement V had absolved the order of all charges of heresy. The Templars chronicles the spectacular rise and fall of the organization against a sweeping backdrop of war, religious fervor, and the struggle for dominance, and finally lifts the centuries-old cloak of mystery surrounding one of the world’s most intriguing secret societies.
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The Templars covers a much tread path in Medieval history in recent years. In many ways it’s an excellent corrective to the DaVinci Code genre.
I thought this was a good book, but a little too heavily weighted on the history of the Popes and the internal workings of the church. I did learn quite a bit though, so it’s worth a read.
I think that, given the knowledge of the author, this book is a little shallow. I enjoyed what I learned, but I kept finding myself wanting more detail and more in-depth information. Overall worth reading, but left me wanting to know more.
This book does a great job of covering the Knights Templar. I really enjoy history and have never read a book that covers the subject as thoroughly as this one does.
I expected more of a story line than a research paper.
Historical facts made interesting, describes their appearance, how they had to behave, what they were allowed to own and the politics of the time. Most informative.
I wanted to read this because my father was a present day a Knight Templar and I like history.
Very well written, but no earth shaking reveals. The Templar history very much is known history. Still very well written as a summary.
A well written and researched account of Templar history
Helped me understand the reasons for the molestation conducted by priests.
Best read by those with some basic knowledge of the overall history of the Templars. As is true of many works in-depth by scholars, it is not particularly enjoyable reading and lacks a clear point of view and story line.
I’m interested in who they were
I was not crazy about this book. Just written in a totally historic way. While being informative, it was a very long college history class without any breaks.
Incredible research that truly makes the cliche “facts are stranger than fiction” less than adequate to describe this work of history. My favorite genre is historical fiction but I like the facts real. Dan Jones has dug up hair raising facts that need no embellishment. He also has presented documentation that describes the nature of the main characters that transcends the dryness of of other history books by exposing the humanity that plays out as the age of the temple comes and goes.
I got interrupted by personal stuff and lost interest.
Long, tedious, repetitive, boring. Good for history students, perhaps, but not the for the interests of historical or historical fiction buffs like me.
Very informative on a subject about much has been written but without a great deal of solid proof. The book seems to provide facts needed to add to ones knowledge of the sublect.
It was a researched, factual history of the Templars.
A little tedious to read but interesting .
I was mildly interested in the subject and thought I should know some more. The author was well versed, but I quickly bogged down in all the names and dates. If you have some foundation with this material this will flesh it out, but it’s not a great place to start.