The Warriors and the Bankers

A History of the Knights Templar from 1307 to the Present

 By Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe

 

The tantalising history of the Templar knights, their enigmatic constitution, their legendary existence and their alleged demise in the early 1300’s have intrigued historians, mystics, treasure hunters and occult societies for hundreds of years. 

Authors Alan Butler, ‘The Goddess and the Grail’ etc and Stephen Dafoe, (who has contributed articles for The Temple publication) ‘Unholy Worship’ and proprietor of TemplarHistory.com, are two of the researchers that are attempting to solve the mystery of what happened to the Templars after 1307.  

We know that some Templars escaped during their suppression.  This has been known since 1307 and it is also accepted that there is likely to have been more than one possible outcome as to their subsequent history.  This is something I am glad to see that the authors of ‘The Warriors and the Bankers’ pointed out clearly. 

In their book, ‘The Warriors and the Bankers’, they diligently journey through several possibilities of the survival of the Knights Templar. They examine the tenable theories that they escaped to Scotland, Portugal and the Americas and that the Templars set up or were the antecedents of other orders; such as the Rosicrucians and Masonic fraterneties. A discussion on the legitimacy of the Larmenius Charter is included and also their research of the Cantons of Switzerland.  

This title was first published in 1998 by Stephen Dafoe’s publishing company ‘Templar Books’.  Although it has been a little revised, some readers may claim this edition from Lewis Masonic, is a little ‘dated’.  Perhaps so, still - for the researcher that is trying to find a continuation of the Templars this little book is an excellent start. 

 

Reviewed by Oddvar Olsen October 2006

Published 2006 Lewis Masonic

Paperback ISBN 0-085318-252-3

 

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