The Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of Islam's very holy places. So when the Countess Cruz say the anti-frackish jihad is picking up momentum, you've got these groups who are occupying polluting if you like. The fact that they are based in that particular site, I think, is something that is occasionally picked up by the religious classes. Bernard of Clerpo was very important in the early days. A mighty man in the church in Europe. Why was he persuaded that he should lend his authority, which he did, and his influence to them? He was a local man for the Templars, at least for Hugh de Pang because he was from
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the military order founded around 1119, twenty years after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. For almost 200 years the Knights Templar were a notable fighting force and financial power in the Crusader States and Western Europe. Their mission was to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land, and they became extremely wealthy yet, as the crusader grip on Jerusalem slipped, their political fortune declined steeply. They were to be persecuted out of existence, with their last grand master burned at the stake in Paris in 1314, and that sudden end has contributed to the strength of the legends that have grown up around them.
With
Helen Nicholson
Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University
Mike Carr
Lecturer in Late Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Jonathan Phillips
Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson