THE WARRIORS AND THE BANKERS: A History of the Knights Templar from 1307 to the Present. Alan Butler & Stephen Dafoe, Lewis Masonic, London, 2006. Paperback, 96 pages, £9.99. ISBN 0 85318 252 3.

In the Introduction to their new book, the authors, Alan Butler, who lives in Yorkshire, and Stephen Dafoe, who lives in Canada (and edits Templar History magazine, as well as Masonic Magazine), state that their partnership – as have so many – blossomed over the internet. Sadly, it appears that the research for this book has been carried out via the same medium. A glance at the bibliography reveals that none of their material has been gleaned from original, or even secondary, sources.
    The bulk, if that’s the right word, of this book’s ninety-odd pages comprises a recap of Templar history, myth and legend that will be familiar to most readers of this magazine: the foundation of the Order at the end of the First Crusade; the Order’s rise in wealth and power during the succeeding centuries; the suppression of the Order by Philip the Fair; ‘Friday the Thirteenth’ and the subsequent incineration of Jacques de Molay; the Templar Diaspora; the Priory of Sion; Rennes-le-Chateau; Rosslyn Chapel; Nova Scotia… Mornington Crescent!
    The text is full of hoary old chestnuts that the authors have simply trotted out rather than actually checking out. The superstition surrounding ‘Friday the Thirteenth’, for instance, has no more to do with the arrest of Jacques de Molay than it has to do with the arrest of Oscar Wilde. What’s new (to me, at any rate) is Messrs. Butler and Dafoe’s startling suggestion, in the last chapter, that the Templars invented Switzerland. This intriguing idea appears to be based on (a) the fact that the Swiss flag is a white cross on a red ground, and the Templars’ flag was a red cross on a white ground (like England’s), and (b) that the Swiss are big into banking, as were the Templars.
    One might add, in support of this novel theory, that the Templars were highly proficient swordsmen and the Swiss make the world’s best penknives. Is it also possible that the word Toblerone derives from the Templars’ battle cry of Beau Seant? If you are new to this subject and know nothing about it, The Warriors and the Bankers is a handy, pocket-sized précis of Templar ‘stuff’ – plus a bonus feature. Swiss cheese, as every schoolboy knows, is full of holes, and so is the scholarship in this volume, but at least it’s easily digestible.
    Andrew Montgomery