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Book Review: Dungeon, Fire and Sword - The Knights Templar in the Crusades by John J Robinson, 494 pages.
The Holy Land was considered to be the centre of the world and the Christian Warrior Monks known as the 'Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon', were created to ensure safe passage for pilgrims, and to defend the area against attack. Sacrificing their ordinary life, these men vowed to maintain poverty, chastity and obedience, and with expectations to be martyred on the battlefield abroad, they devoted their life to their religion and their duties to the Papacy. Land was donated to them by Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. and after many successful battles which increased their wealth and prestige, their doom was sealed by failure to maintain a Christian enclave far from Christendom, where Sunni, Shi-ite, Kurds, Arabs and Turks out-manouvered them.
Arrested by King Philip the Fair, endorsed by the reigning Pope, they were imprisoned by the Inquisition and tortured to confess to appalling sins against Christ and put to death. The late John J Robinson was a founding visionary of Knight Templar associations with Freemasonry in the US. This was his second book.
Also by the author, John J Robinson:
Born in Blood
A Pilgrim's Path
Review by Wendy Stokes
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