Christopher Knight - 31 Mar

Templars, the Turin Shroud
and the Great Secret
of Freemasonry

Christopher Knight and
Robert Lomas

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Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781446428634

www.randomhouse.co.uk

This edition published by Arrow Books Limited 1998

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Copyright Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas 1997

All rights reserved

Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

First published in the United Kingdom by Century
The Random House Group Ltd, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780099227328

To my wife and our three children.

R.L.

To my wife Susan and our daughters Kathryn, Lucy and Sophie.

C.K.

About the Authors

Christopher Knight was born in 1950 and in 1971 completed his education with a degree in advertising and graphic design. He has always had a strong interest in social behaviour and belief systems and for many years he has been a consumer psychologist involved in the planning of new products and their marketing. In 1976 he became a Freemason and is now the chairman of a marketing and advertising agency.

Dr Robert Lomas was born in 1947 and gained a first class honours degree in electrical engineering before taking up research into solid state physics. He later worked on guidance systems for Cruise missiles and was involved in the early development of personal computers and has always had a keen interest in the history of science. He currently lectures at Bradford University Management Centre. In 1986 he became a Freemason and quickly became a popular lecturer on Masonic history in lodges in West Yorkshire.

Their first book was the bestselling The Hiram Key, published in 1996 by Century. It is also available in Arrow paperback. Their third book, Uriels Machine, is now available in Arrow.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the following people for their help and support during the writing of this book.

W. Bro Alan Atkins, W. Bro John Barlow, Russell Barnes, Dr Frank Bartells, Baron St Clair Bonde, Mark Booth, Robert Brydon, The Right Revd Gerrard Crane, Revd Mrs Pam Crane, Greg Clark, Prof Philip Davies, Judy Fisken, W. Bro Edgar Harborne, Jacques Huyghebaert, W. Bro Arthur Issat, Revd Hugh Lawrance, Dr Jack Miller, Dr Alan Mills, Dr Graham Phillips, Barbara Pickard, Tessa Ransford, Liz Rowlinson, Dr Neil Sellors, Iain Sinclair, Niven Sinclair, Robert Temple, Tony Thorne, Roy Vickery, Bridget de Villiers, John Wade, Dr Tim Wallace-Murphy, the staff at Rosslyn Chapel, the Trustees of Rosslyn Chapel, the Scottish Poetry Library, the National Museum of Natural History, the Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland.

We would also especially like to single out for thanks our agent Mr Bill Hamilton of A. M. Heath Ltd for his invaluable guidance and encouragement during the writing of this book.

Photo Credits Picture Section

G. R. J. Lomas 2, 3, 4, 9
A. Atkins 5, 6, 7, 10, 11
1978 Barrie M. Schwortz, all rights reserved. 12, 13
Colorado Shroud Centre 16
Estate of the late John M. Allegro 17, 18, 19, 20

Other photographs are from the authors own collections.

Wine is strong,
a king is stronger,
women are even stronger.
But truth will conquer all.
THE BOOK OF ESDRAS

IN OUR PREVIOUS book, The Hiram Key, we uncovered the early origins of Freemasonry which showed how modern Masonic rituals have developed from those once used by the Jerusalem Church and later adopted by the famous crusader order of the Knights Templar. These warrior monks had a very strange history that started with a nine-year-long excavation of the ruins of Herods Temple following the First Crusade and ended, nearly two hundred years later, with them being arrested as heretics.

Our findings were controversial, but they were warmly received by many biblical, Templar and Masonic scholars, as well as several Catholic priests.

Over the months following publication we met hundreds of Freemasons of every rank, all over England, Scotland and Wales, and we received nothing but support and congratulations from them.

The notable exception to this reception was that of the United Grand Lodge of England, which did not even acknowledge the pre-publication copy of the book we sent. It appeared to consider that, as Freemasons, we had committed the sin of conducting independent research past the golden year of 1717. We had not contravened any rule of the Order, but we soon became aware of a letter sent out from Grand Lodge to the provincial grand lodges of England and Wales, giving a short and extremely disingenuous account of our findings.

Shortly afterwards the worshipful master of a famous Masonic lodge attended one of our bookshop talks with the intention of gathering evidence against us, but at the end he congratulated us, bought a copy of our book and asked us to sign it for him. A constant stream of letters continued to arrive from people all over the world, many providing us with yet more supportive evidence. Some very senior Freemasons were extremely complimentary: for instance, David Sinclair Bouschor, Past Grand Master of Minnesota, was kind enough to say:

The Hiram Key could spark the beginning of a reformation in Christian thinking and a reconsideration of the facts which we have so blindly accepted and perpetuated for generations. This book is a must for freethinkers.

Another American, a Doctor of Divinity, who we perhaps should not name, wrote to us saying:

I am a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason, Master of my lodge 3 times, Past Wise Master of Rose Croix, a member of The Order of Amaranth and a Shiner, in addition I am an ordained minister in the Reformed Baptist Church. All this experience and education did not prepare me for the material contained in your book. If I had not been searching for our ancient origins and had the courage to look outside the dogmas of the establishments, perhaps I would not have finished reading The Hiram Key, however, I was, I did and I too find your data totally acceptable to what I have found. This has led me to believe that perhaps there is some truth to the accusations levelled against Masonry that only the top (HIGH) degrees know the truth.

This last comment was particularly fascinating because, as far as we know, there is only one degree higher than the degree to which this gentleman belongs. Could there be a secret so great that only a handful of Freemasons know it? Perhaps, we thought, this great secret has been lost and now needs to be rediscovered.