The great religious orders of Christianity--the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits--are well known for their monasteries, their learning, and their missions around the world. But in the Middle Ages and beyond, there was another kind of religious order whose profession it was to bear arms in defense of Christendom. This illustrated work tells the extraordinary story of the military orders of the Church. From their humble beginnings...

Brings vividly to life the achievements and effects, historical and cultural, theological and geographical, of the See of Rome.