“Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades”, by John J. Robinson

494 pages, M. Evans and Company, ISBN-13: 978-0871316578

Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades by John J. Robinson recounts the stirring saga of the Knights Templar – or should I say, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici: Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon – the Christian warrior-monks who occupied the Temple Mount in the aftermath of the First Crusade, giving a clear explanation of the cultural and religious differences in the Middle East that are hauntingly paralleled in the present day. Recruited to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience intended to lead only to martyrdom on the battlefield, for over two-hundred years the Templars amassed great wealth which they used to finance their never-ending crusade against a plethora of non-believers across deserts, mountains and rivers, a fanatical dedication to the pious paradox that wholesale slaughter would earn the eternal gratitude of the Prince of Peace. Their reward? Perhaps they did in fact make it to heaven, but in the terrestrial sphere, at least, their two centuries of military martyrdom earned them seizure by pope and king, torture by the Inquisition, and finally extermination by the Church they served with such fanatical devotion.

But the legend and legacy of the Knights Templar just will not die. The Masons do not claim direct descent from the original Knights Templar, popular myths and legends to the contrary; rather, they claim instead to have originated with the medieval guilds of stonemasons who erected the cathedrals. The legends persist, however, especially with the revelations of Templar roots for Masonic ritual (particularly in regard to Masonic symbols and terminology), making this book of special interest to Freemasons and historians – and conspiracy theorists. In telling the incredible story of the Knights Templar, Robinson’s clear descriptions of the cultural and religious differences among the Templars’ and their enemies and allies in the Middle East gives fresh understanding of the people who populate this restless region. The similarity of the antagonisms today of the Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Armenians, Arabs and Turks who figure so prominently in today’s headlines and those of 800 years ago are so striking as to be eerie (the more things change…). Dungeon, Fire and Sword is a brilliant work of narrative history that can be read as an adventure story, a morality play or a lesson in the politics of warfare.