The Monks of War

View other editions of The Monks of War.
View books by Desmond Seward.

A very good book - can't stand alone - Rated
This book is recommended to readers, who want to know about the templars, the hospitallers and the teutonic knights. It gives you the basic knowledge - the author is a Maltese knight. (knights hospitallers became knights of St John and Rhodesian knights, and also Maltese knights. Since the first edition of the book, we have seen several other books, and if you want to know more, you can easily fn newer and more comprehensive books about Knight Hospitallers, Knight Templars and The Teutonic Knights.

An excellent introduction - Rated
I found this book excellent as an introduction to the various religious military orders that have existed and some of which still exist today.

It paints small yet descriptive picture of several different orders and it led to my readings on the Northern Crusades, the Templars and the Teutonic Knights.

Heavy history - Rated
Whilst I agree with the other reviewers in terms of the amount of useful information contained in this book I would not recommend it to a casual reader. I found the style very heavy going and was forced to read it in pieces as I found it gave me literary indigestion. I was looking for a book to help inform my general knowledge of the military religious orders and in that this book was successful as it abounds with information. However, I felt that the style detracted from the material being offered and on more than one occasion it sent me to sleep. I acknowledge that the fault might be mine so I offer my comments as a caveat - very solid history, to be taken with other lighter fare to avoid literary overload!

The Monks of War - Rated
Criticisms of 'patrician narrow-mindedness' are irrelevant to any review of this undoubtedly excellent book. Desmond Seward's accounts of the crusade are both exhilarating and novel as seen from the angle of the 'Monks of War' who were not themselves crusaders but played an important and underestimated role in the battle for the Holy Land.
The admiration that the author has for the Knights of Malta is understandable once the book has been brought to a conclusion and one begins to appreciate the, perhaps, surprising length of their survival and their incredible contribution to the history of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land together with their continuing medical and relief aid for the sick and for refugees worldwide.
Desmond Seward is not writing a book which aims to praise the merits of 'secular democracy', and for that we can be grateful.

How Europe learned to colonialize the world - Rated
These Knights orders are the essential elements we need to understand the concept, the objectives and the methods of a Crusade.

They are monks following strict religious rules. They were created to help reconquer and defend Outremer, that is to say the Middle East and the Holy Land, from a pure Christian point of view. They believed that death was a salvation because they died for Christ and God. Most of them were dedicated to the Holy Virgin. Some are well-known, some are less known. The Templars are more than famous and their destruction is infamous. The Teutonic Knights are still a myth in Germany.

Their only objective was to fight against the pagans, the enemies of the Christian God. And they did it with dedication, with furor and at times hateful and horrible effectiveness. They also accumulated riches and wealth.

They fought in three areas. First Outremer against the Moslems. They won for a while and then failed because it was pure colonialism and they fought against people who were born there and defended their own land and territory. In the meanwhile they built an empire by exploiting the lands and the people they controled and by controling the commerce from the East to Europe. Second they (the Teuronic Knights this time) fought against the pagan Prussians and the Slavs in Poland, and the Baltic states (present names). They were ruthless but conquered and christianized Prussia, Poland, Lithuania and the other Baltic states. They built an empire, particularly commercial and agricultural, based on the Hanseatic League, on the Baltic seen as an essential commercial center. They also, and that is their originality, had an important cultural role in education and music, even some arts. Third in Spain where in the name of Saint James they reconquered the peninsula ruthlessly, particularly with the Moslems who were rejected or converted by force, and the Jews who were victimized and scattered. Once again this Peninsula became extremely powerful economically and it was at the origin of the conquest of the New World.

So we can say that the Crusades and all those War Knights and their orders (backed by the Inquisition) were the first ever colonial adventure of christianity. The Christians learned how to colonialize a foreign country over a period of five centuries. Then we understand why Christians were so swift in America, Africa and India.

We must also say that they were so economically powerful that they had a tremendous influence in politics and became a danger for some Kings, particularly the French Kings who wanted their riches and to get rid of their influence. The destruction of the Templars was typical. They were accused of the worst possible crimes in those days : spitting on the Cross, catharism, sodomy (the standard word for homosexuality : note raping a Moslem male, a common activity in their raids, was not sodomy : it only concerned a practice between two christians, and particularly two of the monks) and a few others. These accusations were not entirely unfounded, but they were marginal activities of some of the monks, not a principle or a common practice. Strangely enough, only the orders that had to do with the Mediterranean world were disbanded in such an unjust way, under a weak and valueless Pope, Clement V. The Teutonic Knights were rather integrated in the German empire, and in England, the position, particularly of Henry VIII, was different at first, though later he did even worse and banned all religious orders and monasteries and seized their riches and their possessions.

The last conclusion we can think of is that these orders reveals Christianity in its conquering phase, after Western Europe was finally de-paganized and stabilized in its religious practice (10th century). And this conquering phase was actually stopped by the Reform that refused such practices, and the conquering spirit of Europe became more political and commercial, without any religious dimension, or the religious dimension became marginal. They did not conquer Africa or India or America to christianize these continents but only to get gold, commercial goods and slaves. Religion was then totally secondary. The Church, any church, was no longer controling such phenomena that were purely political and commercial.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU