I am always amused by the suggestion that while the Templars were TOTALLY innocent and persecuted for merely political reasons that, Oh, yes, "We admire them for being great esoteric masters of the occult and arcane heresies." That really makes a lot of sense. Must be that Duh Vinci code again... You have to drink the right wine out of the right skull at 13 minutes after midnight during a full moon to understand the hidden meaning. [irony]
"to apologize for the French Revolution as well".
YES!
AND I would also like France to apologize for Napoleon messing up the calendar from 1798 - to 18something.
Well, there are the Knights of Malta. They stayed true, didn't they?
Speaking of the DaVinci Code I'll toss in a plug for "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco.
If you really want to know a lot about the Templars and all of the famous esoteric groups of history, what is claimed about them, from a unique and skeptical perspective (don't want to give away too much of the plot) it's a great novel.
Problem is the first 50 pages or so are mind-numbingly boring. Then it gets good. It's the DaVinci Code for non-morons.
Oh hell, I couldn't care less about their "mysticism".......what has always impressed me about the Knights Templar was their reknown for kicking serious Muslim ass.
These guys were shock troops / Special Forces of their day. Amazing warriors. The Muslim forces feared them; outright scared s**tless of them. They were every bit the equal or better of any force they ever met in combat, and they usually fought while vastly outnumbered.
Some here can take their catty little potshots, but you're talking about one of the best fighting forces in world history.