The Temple and the Lodge
by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh

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Book Reviews of The Temple and the Lodge

Book Review: As Strange as Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars

Friday, October 13, 1307, Phillip IV of France ordered the immediate and surprise arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. His captive Pope, Clement V, subsequently excommunicated them all and dissolved the order. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was roasted alive over a slow fire by the Inquisition. The last Crusade was over, the Holy Land was lost and the Templars, the best fighting force in Post-Crusades Europe were no longer needed. An international Order of warrior monks, the Templars were too powerful, too wealthy and too unpredictable in their future allegiances for Phillip to tolerate.

Evidently, the French contingent of the Knights Templar was forewarned. Most escaped France to places unknown on 18 sailing vessels, carrying with them the vast Templar treasure. Leigh and Baigent surmise through exhaustive research that the Templar destination was Scotland, where they secretly carried the order through several violent centuries of intrigue. The authors argue convincingly that Templar intervention was responsible for the victory by Robert Bruce over English forces at Bannockburn on June 24, 1314. Their descendants gradually evolved, these authors suggest, the organization that became Freemasonry.

March 20, 1737, Andrew Michael Ramsey, member of the English Royal Society, Rosicrucian and Freemason, delivered a public address (concerning Freemasons and Templars) in France, which stated, in part, "This sacred promise was therefore not an execrable oath, as it has been called, but a respectable bond to unite Christians of all nationalities in one cofraternity."

Police in Holland and Sweden had already acted against Freemasons. Within a few days of Ramsey's oration the French police followed suit. April 24, 1738, Pope Clement XII issued a Papal Bull "En enimenti apostolatus specula', forbidding all Catholics to become Freemasons under threat of excommunication. Two years later, in the Papal States, membership in a lodge was punishable by death.

The long, winding trail through the centuries with these authors in the facts leading monarchs and church authorities to damn members of the organization to which such notables as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Sam Houston and countless others is well worth the reading. Baigent and Leigh have done a great job of research and writing.

Summary of The Temple and the Lodge

World Books

• Books > Subjects > History
• Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Freemasonry
• Social Sciences