Secret Societies of the Middle Ages

<p>The present volume is devoted to the history of three celebrated societies which flourished during the middle ages and of which as far as we know no full and satisfactory account is to be found in English literature. These are the Assassins or Ismailites of the East whose name has become in all the languages of Europe synonymous with murderer who <em>were</em> a secret society and of whom we have in general such vague and indistinct conceptions; the military order of the Knights Templars who were most barbarously persecuted under the pretext of their holding a secret doctrine and against whom the charge has been renewed at the present day; and finally the Secret Tribunals of Westphalia in Germany concerning which all our information has hitherto been derived from the incorrect statements of dramatists and romancers.</p>