The Knights Templars: God's Warriors, the Devil's Bankers

by Frank Sanello

Gives a vivid description about how the Templars were formed as a strict religious-military order, how they got the political and financial power beyond the military power, and their passed down legends.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Occult

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2003

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 2 out of 5]

I confess to merely skimming through this book, because I promised my Mom I would read it, but I simply could not stomach the tale of these men and their bloodthirsty greed.

Mother is a big fan of the Oak Island show on the History Channel, and she wanted to read more about the Knights Templars so I ordered this book for her and she really liked it, but she is more interested than I am. She sees it as a background for why and how the supposed treasure might be on Oak Island.

All I could see was a bunch of supposed Christians not behaving according to the creed of their religion. I couldn't dive into it the way Mom could and I am ashamed that there were ever such people on the planet.

I know she would give this book a four star rating, she thought it was well written and quite fascinating. But for me, it was just okay. More for the subject than the writing, because I will admit that it was well written.

[Ltopo McFly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very straightforward history of the Templars in the Crusades, their Inquisition trial and speculative legends about them. I'm very impressed how researched the Crusades and Inquisition sections are but I wish the Legends section was longer and less dismissive. The writer presents the established facts without much time for investigating further, which is fine for a more academic introduction to the subject.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is rich in history and sources. The order of events were well written. However it was hard to read due to the college level language and uses. It had my 14 year old scrambling for the dictionary and thesaurus.

[Brady Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not overly dense. Just a good, introductory read. Exactly what I was looking for.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Knights Templars by Frank Aneloo is an overview of how the knights Templar functioned and how they recruited their members and performed their deeds. Overall I found the book to lack something. The one big thing and this may come from Sanello being a journalist and not a historian is the lack of citations throughout the book and although there is a bibliography in the back I don't get a sense for what plugs in where to read more. I have no way to evaluate his opinions or conclusions being I do not specialize in this area at all but I found the book to jump around quite a bit and not focus in on a specific area. Perhaps those with a greater background in this area can offer more on how his book fits in to the ongoing debate but I feel I learned very little from this and I have almost no idea where to go for more information due to the way it is organized.

[Michael Mcclelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Split into three sections: Palestine, Europe and Legend; the first gets bogged down historically with all the to-ing and fro-ing, the second picks up a pacy narrative tale, the third has a lot of interest but loses it's way a little towards the end for the sake of completeness. Essentially a book for those with an existing interest. Casual readers may find it a little hard-going despite the fascinating subject matter.