by Joachim Osther
In his new book, The Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and the Warrior Monks of Christendom, Raymond Ibrahim sets the record straight about Christian military orders led by great captains of faith and ferocity that understood the need for what he calls “muscular Christianity.”
The Templars and Hospitallers
The title of the book alludes to its primary subject matter – history’s dominant Christian military orders: The Knights of the Temple and the Hospital, together representing the “Two Swords.”
In reinvigorating the accounts of these two orders, Ibrahim points to a larger theme also represented in the Book’s title – namely, that Christians “are to fight two sorts of evils with two sorts of swords – a spiritual sword against spiritual enemies, and a physical sword against physical enemies.”
The notion that Christians should be prepared for both spiritual and physical conflict comes from Luke’s Gospel where Christ instructs His disciples to sell their garments and buy a sword, and upon bringing Him two swords, He tells them, “It is enough.”
From this foundational context, Two Swords launches into a dramatic and captivating arc of history from the genesis of the two military orders through the improbable victories and harrowing defeats that framed their existence and eventual dissolution.
The journey starts in 1119 with the humble beginnings of nine Christian warriors led by a veteran of the First Crusade, Hugh of Payns, who decided to form “a brotherhood of guardians” to serve as a protective detail for Christian pilgrims traveling to and from Jerusalem.
This small band of veterans viewed their solemn enterprise as their own personal Christian ministry, so-to-speak. Ironically, the warrior monks were given the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount as their lodge and operational headquarters, giving rise to the names “The Knights of the Temple,” or “Templars.”
A decade later, a forward-thinking and highly influential monk named Bernard of Clairvaux energetically championed the Templars cause.