Gary,
Perhaps you can shed some light on what you see as the quintessential differences between the cleric and the paladin. Somewhere or other you once stated that the cleric was modeled on religious knights from the Middle Ages, like the Templars and Hospitallers, (correct me if I'm mistaken) but the level titles for the class -- not to mention how it was portrayed in published materials -- suggest that it was more priest than knight. Paladins seem to be the opposite side of the coin, more knight than priest but still with a touch of both.
Is this correct? I ask mostly because, nowadays especially, there seems to be a strange dislike for both the cleric and the paladin classes and it's sometimes argued that either they're redundant of one another or somehow inappropriate to D&D. Obviously, I disagree on both counts, but I'd be interested in knowing what you imagined when you added both into the game.
Thanks.