Malcolm Barber > Quotes

“Catharism was the greatest heretical challenge faced by the Catholic Church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The attempt by the Cathars to find an answer to the fundamental religious and philosophical problems posed by the existence of evil, combined with their success in persuading large numbers of Christians in the West that they had solved these problems, shook the Catholic hierarchy to its very core, and provoked a series of reactions more extreme than any previously contemplated.”
― Malcolm Barber, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages

“Medievel 'Templarism' , as described by Loiseleur, recognized a d and duality of gods, one a superior being of the celestial world, who was pure spirit and perfect, the other an evil god, germinated and indeed wealth was created.”
― Malcolm Barber, In Praise of the New Knighthood

“Since they fought with a clear and pure conscience these men had no dread of death, confident in the knowledge that in the sight of the lord they would be his martyrs.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

“On the west portal, that is, the public face of the church, the archivolt has a striking collection of fifty two human heads: at the top of the arch, beneath a labarum, the faces are severe, but on either side they become progressively more grotesque and tormented, apparently because they are farther from God, perhaps even damned.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

“Conversation was strictly limited to functional needs and 'scurrilous and shameful words' and laughter were altogether prohibited, regulations especially relevant to a recurring theme in the Rule: the need to avoid displays of anger, malice, or grumbling, or reminiscences about past sexual conquests. 'Every idle word is known to generate sin.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

“Below this scene, amid waving palms, a lion raises itself towards a group of white-robed monks standing on a loggia in their convent. The point may be to show that the order could withstand the assaults of the enemies of the faith, symbolized here by the lion. In the latin rule hunting is forbidden to the templars as being a frivolous occupation; the one exception is the lion since 'he goes around seeking whom he can devour' and 'his hand is against all, and the hand of all is against him.”
― Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple