Though pledged to penury, the Templars gained riches and glory beyond imagining
ARCANGEL X3
Alunatic is easily recognised,” wrote “ Italian novelist Umberto Eco in his A best-selling 1988 novel, Foucault’s Pendulum. “You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.”
This excerpt from Eco’s riddlesome, satirical book is famous among those who study the Templars, the medieval organisation of religiously sworn warriors who fought at the sharp end of the crusades and have, over the centuries, become the focus of speculation and conspiracy theorising.