Born in blood : the lost secrets of freemasonry

Format:

Book

Title:

Born in blood : the lost secrets of freemasonry

Author:

Robinson, John J.

ISBN:

9780871316028

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

xix, 376 pages ; 24 cm

Contents:

Part 1: The Knights Templar -- The urge to kill -- "For now is tyme to be war" -- "Whether justly or out of hate" -- "First, and above all ... the destruction of the Hospitallers" -- The Knights of the Temple -- The last Grand Master -- "The Hammer of the Scots" -- Four vicars of Christ -- "Spare no known means of torture" -- "No violent effusions of blood" -- Men on the run -- Part 2: The Freemasons -- The birth of the Grand Lodge -- In search of the Medieval Guilds -- "To have my throat cut across" -- "My breast torn open, my heart plucked out" -- The master Mason -- Mystery in language -- Mystery in allegory and symbols -- Mystery in bloody oaths -- Mystery in religious convictions -- Evidence in the Legend of Hiram Abiff -- Monks into Masons -- The Protestant pendulum -- The manufactured mysteries -- The unfinished Temple of Solomon -- Appendix: "Humanum Genus."

Summary:

Its mysterious symbols and rituals had been used in secret for centuries before Freemasonry revealed itself in London in 1717. Once known, Freemasonry spread throughout the world and attracted kings, emperors and statesmen to take its sacred oaths. It also attracted great revolutionaries such as George Washington and Sam Houston in America, Juarez in Mexico, Garibaldi in Italy, and Bolivar in South America. It was outlawed over the centuries by Hitler, Mussolini, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. But where had this powerful organization come from? What was it doing in those secret centuries before it rose from underground more than 270 years ago? And why was Freemasonry attacked with such intense hatred by the Roman Catholic church? This amazing detective story answers those questions and proves that the Knights Templar in Britain, fleeing arrest and torture by pope and king, formed a secret society of mutual protection that came to be called Freemasonry. Based on years of meticulous research, this book solves the last remaining mysteries of the Masons - their secret words, symbols, and allegories whose true meanings had been lost in antiquity. With a richly drawn background of the bloody battles, the opportunistic kings and scheming popes, the tortures and religious persecution that were the Middle Ages, it is an important book that may require that we take a new look at the history of events leading to the Protestant Reformation. -- from book jacket.

Corporate Subject:

Freemasons -- History.

Templars -- History.

Freemasons

Templars

Subject(s):

Freemasons -- History.

Templars -- History.

Freemasonry -- History.

Freemasonry -- Rituals -- History.

Freemasonry -- Great Britain -- History.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain

Genre:

History

History.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Sheridan Public Library	366.1 Robinson	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Aiming to solve the last secrets of Freemasonry, this book uncovers the mysterious words, symbols and rituals whose meanings have been lost for centuries, even to Freemasons themselves. The book contains historic research into the origins of this secret society.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Unlike most of its five million members, including many world leaders, who believe that the Freemasons, the world's largest fraternal organization, evolved from the guilds of medieval stonemasons, historian Robinson persuasively links Freemasonry's origins and goals to the once powerful and wealthy Knights Templar order. Banned and persecuted by a 14th-century papal bull, he claims, the Knights were forced to form an underground society. The author combines scholarly research and entertaining storytelling in tracing Freemasonry as a worldwide political, religious, economic and social body dedicated to self-improvement and charity while governed by secret rituals and symbols (explained here in detail). (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

Here, Robinson, a gentleman farmer and medievalist, makes an occasionally lively, often illuminating case for the medieval Knights Templars as the originators of the secretive worldwide society of Freemasons. What sort of people could make use of a secret underground network of sworn allies in 14th-century England? What sort of members would have been capable of organizing such national uprisings as the supposedly spontaneous Peasants' Rebellion of 1382 at a time when clandestine communication and travel between cities was next to impossible? Certainly not a collection of ill-educated construction workers, states Robinson in this indictment of the standard claim that modern-day Freemasonry originated with a society of stonemasons' guilds. On the other hand, the Knights Templars, a well-armed and secretive religious order that provided banking services for Europe's nobility, had ample reason to go underground when Pope Clement V abruptly excommunicated them at the behest of France's King Philip, who had the knights arrested and tortured to avoid repaying the money he owed them. The English Templars received enough advance warning to disappear, Robinson argues, founding a Brotherhood that continued to protect ""heretics"" (including the scientists of the Enlightenment) through the ensuing centuries, until Roman Catholicism's political power weakened and the Freemasons, who came to include several US presidents, became the establishment. The author's enthusiam for his subject proves contagious as he traces Freemasonry's arcane terms to appropriate counterparts in Norman French, the language spoken by the Templars, and links secret Masonic symbols to those likely to have been used by the ousted Knights. He ends by suggesting that a suitable use of the power of five million modern Freemasons, considering their religious tolerance and their new knowledge of the Templars' Crusader origins, might be to act as peacemakers among contending religious forces in Jerusalem, where the order of the Templars began. A refreshing example of scholarly detective work, limited only by its specialized subject. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

Historians are always wary of newcomers who try to reinterpret old events in a new way. Here, Robinson (not a professional historian) takes a fresh look at the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 in England and emerges with something really new. It had been thought that this revolt against feudal landlords and royalty was a spontaneous one led by ad hoc people. Robinson shows, in what seems to be a convincing way, that far from being spontaneous, the revolt was a well-planned and highly organized attempt on the part of remnants of the Knights Templar (disbanded by the Pope 65 years earlier) to get retribution against the Knights Hospitaller. Robinson's hypothesis explains many previously unanswerable facts; for those interested in medieval British history and Freemasonry.-- Gordon Stein, Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.