The Templar Review No. 17
Knights Templar Encyclopedia:
The Essential Guide to the People, Places, Events and Symbols of the Order of the Temple
By Dr. Karen Ralls
Paperback: 302 pages
Publisher: New Page Books
Language: English
ISBN - 13: 978-1-56414-926-8
Dr. Ralls latest book on the Templars is a much needed resource and one that I'm sure will please both general readers and those who are more familiar with the Templars. Over the course of 300 pages, Ralls presents a wide variety of Templar and Templar related themes in digest format, providing a quick reference on the subject at hand. Additionally there is a chronology of the history of the Order as well as lists of Grand Masters, Templar locations around the world and a much needed list of scholarly books on the Templars. Given the volume of rubbish written over the last decade, this alone is worth the price of the book.
Although I highly recommend the book, there were a few disappointments to be found between the covers. While some topics such as Freemasonry received several pages of coverage, other aspects such as the battle of Hattin of Mansurah received little coverage. Given that the book was clearly intended for a general readership, the exclusion is perhaps understandable. However, those more familiar with the Templars may be disappointed by their absence. Additionally, although the book is well illustrated I feel that a few more images could have been used. For example the entry on the Templar Beauséant does not have even an illustration of what the device looked like.
However, the pros far outweigh the cons and the Knights Templar Encyclopedia is well worth picking up.
Opening the Ark of the Covenant:
The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights Templar Connection and the Search for the Holy Grail
By Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: New Page Books
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1-56414-903-9
I must confess that my skin is a little thin these days with respect to the number of books flooding the market; each claiming to reveal the truth about the Templars and whatever relic the author has selected from the Chinese Menu that is Templar speculation. However, this one seems to top them all blending the crusades, Atlantis, the pyramids and a variety of other esoteric subjects.
The back cover tells the potential reader that the authors, one of who claims to be a direct descendent of the first Kings of Jerusalem, have "amassed an almost staggering amount of scholarly research." Indeed, the bibliography for the work runs to 12 pages; however, only two sources are ones who can be considered as true scholars - Malcolm Barber and the late Sir Steven Runciman. That fact aside, I remain doubtful that either source was consulted; for if they had, it is doubtful that we would learn of the Templars that:
Hugh, Count of Champagne was the founder of the Order and operated under the alias of Hugh de Payens to cover the Order's secret mission of looking for the Ark.
That during all the years the Templars were in the East, they never guarded a single road, nor attempted to recruit any members outside the original nine members.
Fulk de Chartres, King Baldwin's court historian was ordered to strike all mention of the Templars from the historical record.
After discovering the Ark of the Covenant, Baldwin II was so affected that he abdicated the throne and spent the rest of his life as a monk. Of course this metamorphosis is compared to Amenhotep IV's conversion to Akhenaton.
If you are looking for a book of Templar fiction, read Jack Whyte's "Knights of the Black and White." However, if you are looking for a non-fiction book on the Templars, you will be disappointed by this one.
The Templar Pirates:
The Secret Alliance to Build the New Jerusalem
By Ernesto Frers
Paperback: 178 pages
Publisher: Destiny Books
Language: English
ISBN: 1-59477-146-4
If ever a book resembled a Wikipedia entry, this one is it. Actually that isn't a fair assessment for two reasons.
First when one sees one subject linked to another on Wikipedia, it does not mean the author is trying to make a connection where one does not exist. However, in The Templar Pirates we jump from the Romans to the Vikings to the Templars and on to the Pirates with the only links between the subjects being the author's own unsubstantiated theories. I realize that the "alternative historian" trade relies on converting possibility to fact from one chapter to the next, but at least the majority of them are clever about it.
Second, if this were a Wikipedia entry, someone would come along at some point and expunge the inaccuracies in an attempt to "clean up" the article. However, in the Templar Pirates we are left with proof positive that there was no fact checker of technical editor employed on this project.
As such, we learn the following about the Templars:
1 That Bernard of Clairvaux was one of the most fascinating and obscure characters of the Christian hagiography.
Indeed, Bernard of Clairvaux was so obscure that he reformed the Cistercian Order, was instrumental in securing papal support for the Templars, preached the Second Crusade, wrote numerous sermons and was canonized within two decades of his death in 1153.
2. The Templars were sceptical regarding the Third Crusade and steered away from the campaign favoured by Pope Urban III, which aggravated their differences with the Vatican.
In the parlance of the Internet generation, one can only respond to such inaccuracies with the acronym WTF? The Templars were involved throughout the Third Crusade, but their most noted participation was during the Battle of Arsuf in 1191.
But none of this has anything to do with the theme of the book - how the Templars became pirates. After enduring inaccuracy after inaccuracy we learn that:
3. The Templars possessed a large fleet of modern ships and although no one knows how many ships they had ALL SOURCES agree that it was large and powerful.
Well authentic Templar historians like Malcolm Barber and Helen Nicholson disagree although those who have read their work are unlikely to pick up Frer's book and visa versa.
But perhaps Frer's greatest ignorance of the history of the Templars lies in his claims about the arrest of Jacques de Molay, which are worthy of quoting in their entirety:
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"The Last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, remained a fugitive for four years until he was caught by the Holy Office, tortured with brutal sadism, and finally burned at the stake." P. 41
"Some sources hold that De Molay himself embarked [aboard the Templar fleet] that night, and that his capture four years later occurred while he was returning to accomplish a secret mission." P. 42
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De Molay was of course arrested on October 13, 1307 and spent the remaining years of his life in prison, until his execution on March 18, 1314.
When the author gets so many fundamental facts about the Templars wrong, it is impossible to take his claims that the Templars became pirates to get back at the Catholic Church with any degree of seriousness. Ironically the one Templar who actually engaged in piracy, Roger de Flor, is not mentioned in the book.
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