Officially, they were The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and their mission was to create a safe passage for pilgrims visiting war-torn Jerusalem in the early twelfth-century. Yet until the order was banned two hundred years later, the Templars, as they were called, often allowed their religious zeal to give way to military fanaticism. They undertook vows of chastity, yet were executed for allegedly perverse acts; obedience, yet openly defied the Pope; and poverty, yet became enormously and decadently wealthy. Herein, Frank Sanello captures the intriguing nature and reality of this mystic-warrior society (on which the legend of the Holy Grail was founded), and provides a fascinating account of medieval religious campaigns and the political interests that shaped them.
