The Tempest - Saint John's School

eginnings of the society, appealing to
the nobility that initiated in crescendo
during the latter half of that same century.
And, despite the common thread
of knights fleeing and establishing a
new order in Scotland, some add
more spice to the story, making it altogether
more entertaining, but perhaps
detracting from its verisimilitude.
For example, in the bestseller
The Holy Blood and Holy Grail by
Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, puts
forth one of the more interesting of
the conspiracy theories related to
Freemasonry: that the Knights Templar
were but a cover-up, or an
“anteroom” for a more exclusive—
and secretive—inner sanctum that
outlived its military sector, and remains
to this very day—the Prieuré de
Sion—the holders of the secrets of Jerusalem.
Yet, that no such connection
had ever been made before the publication
of the book casts serious aspersions
on the credibility of Baigent,
Leigh, and Lincoln’s argument. However,
common to all variations of the
Templar connection, it seems hardly
believable that in the interim between
the death of Jacques de Molay in
1314 and 1717 (the year that the Freemason’s
Grand Lodge was estab-
lished) no written record—not a sliver
of a trace—can be found related to
Freemasonry.
Less colorful or well known is a
connection with another secret society,
which may have influenced—or
even brought about—that of the Freemasons.
The Rosicurians were dabblers
in the pseudo-sciences, a society
dedicated to the study of alchemy, astrology,
and the natural sciences; that,
not without reason, may have come
up with the Freemasons, as a more socially
accepted mask for the
“heretical” experiments they carried
out. Still, most historians attribute the
similarities between the two society’s
ideals to the substantial quantity of
Freemasons who enjoyed membership
in both societies, and thus would have
brought ideas from one to the other.
In spite of the attention given to
romantic notions—mostly in works of
fiction—the most bland of the options
may be the most historically accurate:
medieval mason’s guilds could have
been the predecessors of the Freemasons.
Unlike most people in the Middle
Ages, masons were wont to travel,
and later establish themselves wherever
they could find a work building
cathedrals, churches, or castles (and it
was not uncommon that they spend
much of their carriers in only one