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pp. 233. paperback edition, “So state the authors, Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe, in their much-acclaimed work ‘The Warriors and the Bankers’. But where did they come from, these mysterious white-mantled Knights of Christ, and were they simply a reflection of early twelfth-century Christian thinking? This is a question that Butler and Dafoe set out to answer – the discoveries they made will result in a dramatic reassessment of the whole period relating to the First Crusade and far beyond. The true genesis of the Knights Templar belong far back in time, long before Christianity even developed. The Templars were an offshoot of a little understood monastic brotherhood – the Cistercians, who themselves danced to the tune of an extremely powerful group of individuals inhabiting Burgundy and Flanders from the time of the Romans onwards. Butler and Dafoe offer a detailed account of the rise of a specific group identified as ‘the Troyes Fraternity’ that did not simply respond to the caprices of history; they made it. Behind the Knights Templar lay a pattern of belief almost as old as humanity and a heritage that was already ancient before recorded history began. The story is both fascinating and compulsive. It will leave the reader in no doubt as to the true intentions of the Knights Templar, or of the shadowy but immensely influential organization that brought them into being. This story, never told before, is both surprising and shocking, and its implications for our orthodox view of history are staggering.”