2 great sites to check out

[Sir Wolf]

Religious Orders
The Rule of St. Benedict Compared with the Rule of the Templars*
by Steven Grobschmidt
http://the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/comprule.html

The Primitive Rule of the Templars
http://www.templiers.org/regle1-eng.php

[B. Patricius]

The Primitive Rule of the Templars
http://www.templiers.org/regle1-eng.php

French!  FRENCH!! BAN!! BAN!! lol you mean your computer actually let you look at Frenchie stuff?! J/K

all joking aside, I've found those as well, ORB and templiers.org are amazing resources.  If you'd like me to add more:
In Praise of the New Knighthood by St. Bernard of Clairvaux
http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/bernard.html

excellent Master's Thesis on St. Bernard and the Knights Templar
http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Boysel%20Nicholas%20A.pdf?akron1249053482

Roman Catholic Church's standing on the Knights Templar:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14493a.htm

probably the best "one-stop shop" for resources on the Knights Templar:
http://ordo-saint-maurice.webs.com/ontemplarsoftkit.htm  and I know some of you are lucky enough to be able to talk with them.  So jealous

[Lord Dane]

FRENCH!!!!  GRRRRRRRR!!! Get me a mace. I want to smash something!!!! If no Frenchies around, I'll settle for an arrogant Canadian.

[Sir William]

The French weren't always the apologetic fops their descendants have become.    They should be more like Charlemagne and less like...well, pick one, whoever it is has to be French or Frankish and won't stack up in any case.

[Sir Brian]

Sir William is correct. The Normans for instance IIRCC started off as Vikings – And not those freaky ones that wore the horns on their helms.

[Sir Wolf]

normandy/brittenny are not france lol they were the two most wealthy areas "dukedoms" and were left along by the rest of france in order that they did not take over france themselves. lol

i didnt know those two websites were french cause they worked, unlike the other ones earlier in the month.

french soldiers get a really bad rap lol even by me. in ww1 they were great soldiers.

[Sir James A]

Sir William is correct. The Normans for instance IIRCC started off as Vikings – And not those freaky ones that wore the horns on their helms.

Freaky, historically correct.... tomato, tomatoe

[Corvus]

FRENCH!!!!  GRRRRRRRR!!! Get me a mace. I want to smash something!!!! If no Frenchies around, I'll settle for an arrogant Canadian.

OUCH! ...I mean, I assume you are speaking about francophones in eastern Canada when you say that  . Other wise the rest of us Canucks don't know the meaning of the word arrogant 

[B. Patricius]

Corvus, I was hoping you had replied! 

The French weren't always the apologetic fops their descendants have become.    They should be more like Charlemagne and less like...well, pick one, whoever it is has to be French or Frankish and won't stack up in any case.

well, you kind of baited this one... what about Napoleon?    He certainly couldn't stack up!!! Sorry, I played too much naval reenactment for too long!  Proud Quartermaster of his majesties navy, the only thing between Napoleon and God knows what the hell he wanted, oh.. and Russia... yeah, I hear they have a mean winter over there!

[Sir William]

*sigh*

You're gonna make me go look up Napoleon, aren't you?  I confess to not having any interest in martial history after the introduction of firearms into Western warfare, so I am woefully unprepared for any discourse on anything martial after 1590, give or take.

[B. Patricius]

Fair enough Sir William.

A brief synopsis of Napoleon, he had a definite inferiority complex I believe.  He was about 5'2" tall.  He decided to bring France back into history and on the map and to take over the world. 

In a nutshell, he fought on two fronts and got rocked in both.  Hitler could have learned a few things from Napoleon.  He got his butt kicked in Russia, in a way that Hitler should have learned from it.  Basically the home-field advantage of Russia and her mother winter.   And then there was Admiral Nelson of the British Empire who beat his butt on the western front, but it was a hard fought battle.  "Master and Commander" is part of "Nelson's Navy" era, which is the Napoleonic wars. 

It's just my favorite Naval history is all, and it is one of the few recent times that France made a name for herself.  I know a man, who visited France, and they were complaining because "there's another American" visiting.  He replied, "the last time I visited, I came by parachute and you welcomed me in open arms."

[Sir William]

HA!  That's a good one...the bit about the parachute.  Well played by your friend.

I was under the impression that Napoleon wasn't a complete pushover; I should've figured the height reference, if for no other reason than I know people with a Napoleonic complex.  lol

[B. Patricius]

Make no mistake, Napoleon did make a good run of it, and definitely gave France a symbol of pride for a while.  Pretty much, in the modern/post-modern era, he's the only Frenchman I know of to have a backbone.

But, back to the OT, I gotta say, some of the Frenchies definitely know how to reenact and do experimental archaeology!  Some of the sites I've seen are just gorgeous