For nearly 200 years, until their suppression in 1312 on charges of heresy and magical practices, the Order of the Poor Knights of the Templeof Solomon - better known as the Templars - were the most formidable and feared fighting machine in Christendom. Besides their military prowess they also possessed immense wealth and political power, becoming bankers and credit brokers to medieval Europe and the allies of kings and popes. Drawing on contemporary chronicles and original texts, as well as the immense secondary literature, Edward Burman paints a vivid picture of this extraordinary organization of warrior monks and its passage into myth and legend.