In Praise of the New Knighthood: A Treatise on the Knights Templar and the Holy Places of Jerusalem

by Bernard of Clairvaux, Conrad Greenia (Translator), Malcolm Barber (Introduction)

The monk and the knight -- the two quintessentially medieval European heroes -- were combined in the Knights Templar and in the other military orders founded in the era of the Crusades. With characteristic eloquence, Bernard of Clairvaux voices the cleric's view of knights, warfare, and the conquest of the Holy Land in five chapters on the knights' vocation. Then the cistercian abbot who never visited Palestine and discouraged monks who proposed doing so, in another eight chapters, provides a spiritual tour of the pilgrimage sites guarded by this 'new kind of knighthood and one unknown to ages gone by.'

Genres: History, Religion, Theology, Medieval, European History, Nonfiction, Medieval History

95 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

born 1090

Piety and mysticism of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux as widely known instrumental French monastic reformer and political figure condemned Peter Abélard and rallied support for the second Crusade.

This doctor of the Church, an abbot, primarily built the Cistercian order. After the death of mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order in 1112. Three years later, people sent Bernard found a new house, named Claire Vallée, "of Clairvaux," on 25 June 1115. Bernard preached that the Virgin Mary interceded in an immediate faith.

In 1128, Bernard assisted at the council of Troyes and traced the outlines of the rule of the Knights Templar, who quickly the ideal of Christian nobility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard...

Reviews

[Clay]

i'm not rating this book from the 12th century lmao

[Neal Spadafora]

An incredibly important source text in the history sexuality and Christianity. Here, Bernard provides a new model of masculinity that unites monastic practices with forms of militarism; all so that the knight is no longer a feudal aggressor but a disciplined spiritual subject whose violence is sanctified, body controlled, and devotion transferred from worldly glory to God.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational, awesome, pious, radical. These are all accurate adjectives of this book.

[freya · Rating 1 out of 5]

szkoda szczepic ryja

[Lieutenant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saint Bernard, the founder of the Knights Templar, here praises the order founded, here we see the medieval knightly spirit.

[Jonathan Widell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting little treatise from the Middle Ages by Bernard of Clairvaux on combining spiritual and not so spiritual warfare especially in the Holy Land to liberate the holy sites from the Muslims. One might think there are many books arguing to the same effect but there are not, which makes this one something of a pearl.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think that you have heard radical stuff from saints and you have not read this book, you are wrong. Frankly amazing.