Secret Societies of the Middle Ages

by Thomas Keightley

One evil to which secret societies are always exposed is the chance of the objects and principles of their members· being misrepresented by those interested in resisting their power and influence. As the wakeful eyes of the government, and of those concerned in the maintenance of the actual system they must strictly confine the knowledge of their real views and proceedings to the initiated, and as their meetings must for the same reason be held in retired places, and frequently by night, is afforded to their enemies of spreading the most calumnious reports of their secret practices, which, though conscious of innocence, they may not venture openly to confute. By arts of this kind the suspicions· and aversion of the people are excited, and they are often thus made to persecute their best friends, and still to bow beneath the yoke of their real foes. The similarity of the accusations made against secret associations in all parts of the world is a sufficient proof of their falsehood ...

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Secret Society, Ebooks

442 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Irish writer known for his works on mythology and folklore

Reviews

[Валерій Калниш]

1. Це найгірша книга про таємні товариства, яку я читав.
2. Це має своє пояснення - її перша публікація відбулася у 1837 році) Тому для сучасного читача вона не має жодної цінності.
3. Вся книга це переповідання хронології правлінь. По суті та структурі таємних товариств тут майже нічого немає, оскільки це не дослідження, а переповідання відомих (на початок 19 сторіччя) фактів. Так, тамплієрів автор взагалі не вважає таємним товариством)
4. Не витрачайте час на цю книгу.

[Archaic Worlds]

This work is actually passable on the data side of retaining sources for us and tracing a few groups down in a basic way. But on the meaning side, it, as usual, gets almost every incident almost entirely diametrically backwards from what really happened and from what it really meant (according to sources predating their late coming popularized victorious redactors).

[Colin]

Meh. A detailed but very dated account of three secret societies from the Middle Ages that even today remain fodder for conspiracy theories. There is some interest today, of course, due to the characterization by some of the assassins as prototypes of the modern Islamic extremist terrorists, but that seems a little "off" to me. Anyway, worth reading if you have an interest in the particular subjects, but otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this one.