Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania C.1100-C.1300 [Hardcover]

Dominic Selwood (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0851157300 | ISBN-13: 978-0851157306 | Publication Date: August 1999

This study examines the work of the military and religious orders of the Knights Templar (founded 1120) and Knights Hospitaller (founded c.1099), both of whom were a driving force throughout the long history of the crusades. Using original charters to analyse their activities in their administrative heartland in south-west France, it sets them in the context of contemporary religious life and economic organization. Recruitment, fundraising, farming, shipping, and communal life are all touched upon, and the orders' commitment to crusading through control and supply of manpower, money, arms and supplies is continually assessed. Selwood shows the orders at the centre of religious life, highlighting their success compared with other new orders, such as the Cistercians, and looking at their relationships with the secular and monastic church. Other themes addressed include the orders' relationship to Occitanian society and to the laity, their involvement with pilgrimage to Jersusalem, their innovative administrative structures, and their logistical operations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For all academic libraries with collections on the Crusades and medieval monasticism. --Choice

A persuasive and well-constructed study, well written and argued. --English Historical Review

Does a fine job of explaining the role of the military orders in southern French society. --American Historical Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

DOMINIC SELWOOD gained his Ph.D. at Oxford; he is now a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, and practices from chambers in the Inner Temple. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Rochester Pr (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851157300
• ISBN-13: 978-0851157306
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,964,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars first book that I see exact relation templar-cathars, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania C.1100-C.1300 (Hardcover)

Sorry ! probably my english so highly bad. ! Dear author ! Your book is the first that I read on exact relationship between cathars and templars. During last 4 years I try to find exact relations between Cathars philosophy and Anatolian Soufisme. Me too I am writing an book about this gnostisme equality Directly subject is related with templar and free-masons specially node is under the last period of medieval story between the North Spain and Southern France. While I am writing my book I read around 200 books about and my related subjects.Many many thanks for your book that I have found all the relations which I believe

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work on an interesting topic, January 22, 2005

By 

Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren (Oxford, MS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania C.1100-C.1300 (Hardcover)

Selwood, Dominic. Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania, c.1100-c.1300 (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 1999)

In the light of recent events, the history of the Crusades, and what these events can teach us, has once again become a popular subject. The military orders are one facet of the Crusades that interest modern readers. To our modern minds, the mix of religion and war, though common in our times, seems anathema. It is hard for many us to understand that the medieval warrior monk was seen as a true soldier of Christ, fighting for the defense of Christians and the Christian religion. War was not seen as a necessary evil, but rather as something meritorious. Victory, in the mind of the medieval warrior, could lead to salvation or at least a reduction in penance.

Dominic Selwood's work, Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania, c.1100-c.1300, looks at the history of these two religious military orders, detailing not only their history, their relationship with each other and the Church, but Selwood also puts the function and actions of the military orders into their true context.

Concentrating mainly on the orders' actions in southern France, Selwood looks in depth at the orders' recruiting techniques, their agricultural and economic ventures, and their role as an integral part of Occitanian society. Though Selwood gives a thorough and interesting account of the history of the orders, the work is sometimes lacking in flavor, making it occasionally 'dry reading'. As this work was Selwood's doctoral dissertation, and thus written specifically for academia, one cannot lay the fault entirely at Selwood's feet. Despite the dryness and lofty academic tone sometimes taken, the book is highly recommended for anyone looking for an in-depth introduction into the history of these two major religious military orders.

By Jennifer Regan and Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren