One of the Nation's Leading Experts on the Crusades, Reveals Secrets about the Knights Templar!
Do the Keepers of the Holy Grail Still Exist?
Don't miss George Smart on the History Channel on Dec. 4th - 3-5 PM ET
DURHAM, N.C. - More than 25 million copies of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” have been sold Worldwide. A film by the same title is due out in May 2006, featuring Tom Hanks. This all falls on the heels of the bestseller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and the Arch Diocese in Rome is none too happy about it (Click here).
Now
religious historian George Smart is sure to cause even more protest from the
Vatican with the release of The Knights Templar Chronology: Tracking
History's Most Intriguing Monks (now available through AuthorHouse
2005).
Reviewers are calling
The Knights Templar Chronology a historically accurate
account of history's most secret and mysterious brotherhood. No
previous nonfiction book has revealed so much about the intriguing
adventures of the Knights Templar -- the alleged protectors of the
infamous Holy Grail for hundreds of years.
The Knights Templar was said to have fought to the death for the love and protection of God and the Vatican. They unsheathed their swords in the first Crusade and shed blood in His name, only to be ostracized and sent underground before disappearing altogether.
"Few things captivate the human mind and imagination as a story unfinished. The Knights Templars' purpose, organization, secret rituals, achievements, influence and disappearance have become one of the most persistent and enduring mysteries in history," Smart says.
Inspired by the success of The Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Smart brings to readers an extensively researched chronological history of these famous warrior monks to the world.
Smart traces their history through the ages and offers detailed, unknown facts about these mysterious monks. The book maps out their meteoric rise and fall, as well as their disciplined structure, from which so many modem groups have drawn inspiration. Smart also offers detailed accounts of their incredible adventures, which he fully captures in his year-by-year, month-by-month chronology. In addition, Smart adds a list that tracks modem-day Templar researchers and authors to help readers expand their study of these amazing men.
The Knights Templar Chronology exhumes facts about one of history's most obscure yet powerful groups to a modern world that finds itself so indebted to them.
Beginning with their formation and purpose, Smart traces their path into the Crusades to fight a holy war against Jews and Muslims. One-time champions of the Vatican, their popularity, power and unorthodox religious rituals eventually made them enemies of the Pope. In 1307, they were driven out of Europe. Some were executed, while others vanished into history. The location of their records and great treasury has never been found.
"Yes, some historians say there is nothing noteworthy left to find, but I feel certain the Templar archives are a deeply guarded secret," Smart recently told a radio talk show audience. "That's part of my mission, to find that secret and bring the incredible legacy of the Templars to light."