The Guilt of the Templars

by G. Legman

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

929.71

Genres

History

Religion & Spirituality

Nonfiction

Collection

Don

Publication

Rudos and Rubes (2007), Paperback, 255 pages

Description

FromIvanhoeonward, the Order of the Knights Templar has been a favorite subject of novelists. Though it makes for great reading, little of what has been written is factual. The truth, however, is equally compelling as the fiction. In this book, one of his most elusive titles, G. Legman turned his far-ranging scholarship and acute analysis to the history and trial of the Knights Templar. Charged with heresy, sacrilege, blasphemy, and sexual perversion, the Templars were arrested, tried, and burned at the stake, bringing about their official end in 1312. Whether the suppression of the Order was justified and whether the Templars were guilty or innocent are questions that continue to fascinate anyone interested in the development of Western civilization. Drawing from the actual depositions and confessions of the Templars, and probing far deeper than just the religious, financial, or political issues, Legman offers a searching analysis of the effects of suppressing normal sexuality.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member HarryMacDonald

This little book is mostly a polemic, and history only by courtesy. The erudite Legman was assiduous in the things which concerned him, a spirited writer at all times -- I still treasure letters from him -- but Hell on wheels to those he disliked, no matter how reasonable or unreasonable his

feelings. He loathed gays, and starting from the assumption that the Knights Templars did indeed pactice man-on-man love extensively, he marshalled whatever evidence he could in support of that contention, thus putting himself, curiously, on the side of one of one of the most vicious, cynical, and self-serving European monarchs of his day, the kind of person he would have despised in any other situation than this, where the sexual card trumped eveything else. It's not particulalry relevant, but intriguing to note that toward the end of his life he lived in a ruined Templar castle in the South of France.

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Subjects

Templars

Language

English

Physical description

255 p.; 8.7 inches

ISBN

097789522X / 9780977895229

Local notes

Includes: "The Innocence of the Templars" by Lea; "The Templars and the Worship of the Generative Powers" by Wright, Witt, & Tennant; and "The Proceedings Against the Knights Templars, Anno Domini 1309" by Dugdale.