The Freemasons Lodging s a new complaint about Da Vinci Code

- hijacking the history of the nation.

By Tom Martin

It has already enraged the Vatican and the world church leaders with its dark conspiracy theories which distort the Christian message.

But now The Da Vinci Code is facing a new storm of criticism with Scotland’s Freemasons accusing author Dan Brown of “hijacking” the country's history.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland which is home to the oldest records of Freemasonry in the world, says it has been besieged by fans of the best-selling murder and mystery intrigued by Masonic connections to Rosslyn Chapel.  The mediaeval church in Roslin, Midlothian, founded in 1446 by Sir William St. Clair, has long been linked to the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail legend and Freemasons.

It has been claimed Rosslyn, with its intricately carved stones, was built as a store for treasurers the Knights Templar brought back from the Holy Land and that a secret chamber there are contains the Holy Grail.

Over the years, there has been huge international debate about what the carvings mean, with Brown just the latest to suggest they may be a symbolic map pointing the way to a labyrinth of vaults beneath the building.

But as cinemagoers prepare for Friday’s a release of Hollywood's version of the controversial novel, starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tauton, historian Robert Cooper is preparing to challenge the myths with a new book “The Roslin Hoax?”.

Mr Cooper, 54, the Museum and Library Curator of the Grand Lodge in Edinburgh's George Street, said: “This has been borne of a sense of frustration that Scottish history, and Scottish Masonic history, has been hijacked for commercial gain.

“The Da Vinci Code is just the latest in a long line of books which have distorted the facts and none of these writers have come to us are looked at the records here for their research.

“Since the book came out I have been getting dozens of inquiries a week asking if it is true.

“While I don’t want to attack Brown personally what he has done is blend fact and fiction, without distinguishing what is fiction.

“For instance in the book he says that there are two pillars at Roslin which have been copied in Masonic temples around the world which is a mistake and simply not true.

“Lots of people have looked at the Rosslyn carvings and said that they are Masonic without ever asking us for our interpretation.

It’s a bit like writing a history of Rolls-Royce without ever driving one or a visiting the factory.”

Brown’s book is already at the centre of a massive controversy for his portrayal of the Catholic Church and the central claim that the Holy Grail is, in fact, a blood descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

It kicks off with the grotesque murder of a curator at the Louvre, his naked body spread-eagled like Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man sketch, and ends at Rosslyn.

Earlier this month leading historian Dr Louise Yeoman condemned those who believed it was at the centre of a conspiracy and said the chapel, looked after by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, perpetuated a false image to cash in on the popularity of The Da Vinci Code.

She said: “the level of misunderstanding and ignorance you need, to think this is some sort of pagan, occult conspiracy is huge.

“It is like a biologist being faced by people who think you can actually get all the animals on Noah’s Ark.

“There needs to be some sort of proper interpretation telling people that this is a Medieval Catholic Church, and telling people more about Scottish Medieval piety.”

Books featuring the Chapel published long before The Da Vinci Code, have pushed various theories, largely involving the Knights Templar popularly associated with the Chapel, the Holy Grail, or lost biblical texts.

More bizarrely, anthropologist Keith Laidler suggested Rosslyn conceals the embalmed head of Christ, while a UFO buffs from the famed “Bonnybridge Triangle” in West Lothian have claimed that the building is an “astral portal”.

Freemasonry was founded in Scotland and the first recorded Lodge meetings were recorded in 1599.

Orders have since spread across the world with famous men linked to the order including Robert Burns, Mozart, George Washington, the first president of the United States, and Sir Winston Churchill.

In recent years the movement has attempted to present a more open image to the public and Mr Cooper’s a book due to be published in October, comes as Brown works on an equally controversial sequel called The Solomon key.

While little is officially known of the plot it is thought the new book will refer to the Masonic and Utopian views prevalent among the founding fathers of the United States and to the Skull and Bones society, the secret Yale brotherhood to which both candidates in the 2004 U. S. presidential election once belonged.

Mr Cooper added: “I want to separate fact from fiction.  What I have done for the first time is trace the history of all the various theories.

“So, for example, I have pinpointed the exact date of the origin of the idea that the Knights Templar fled from France to Scotland.

“Not only therefore are the present theories and speculations analysed in detail, how they came to be and what they are today are investigated in detail.”

Sunday Express - 13th May 2006

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