The Temple and the Lodge: Inside Freemasonry

In this enthralling historical detective story, the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail trace the flight after 1309 of the Knights Templar from Europe to Scotland.

There the Templar heritage was to take root, and to be perpetuated by a network-of noble families. That heritage, and the Freemasonry that arose from it, became inseparable from the Stuart cause. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh chart the birth of Freemasonry. through the survival of Templar traditions, through currents of European thought, through the mystery surrounding Rosslyn chapel, and through an elite cadre of aristocrats attached as personal bodyguards to the French king.

Pursuing Freemasonry through the L7th and 18th Centuries, they reveal its contribution to the fostering of tolerance, progressive values, and cohesion in English society, which helped to pre-empt a French-style revolution. Even more dramatically, the influence of Freemasonry emerges as a key factor in the formation of the United States of America as an embodiment of the ideal ‘Masonic Republic’.