Origin of the Templars: And Origin of the Vatican's Power

This book is about how the Knights Templar came about. It seems to have begun to be started back when the Muslims invaded Spain and took it over. There was worry about more of Europe being attacked so various leaders suhc as Charlemagne got together and decided to do something about that.

The book goes into how the Templars were founded, their vow of poverty and how they grew from a very small group (less than 10) to a much larger group that was able to attack the Muslim enemy and free lands taken over by them.

The book also goes into how the importance of the Pope went from almost no importance at all to a figure that could effect events over much of the known world. They also ended up having a lot of money from people donating money and land to them. (The knights on horseback idea was good militarily but it cost a lot.)

Having power and money bothered the Pope, though, and this ended up in genocide against the knights. The book goes into all this in detail. There's also a bibliography and annotations.