Stonemasons at work
© Robert l D Cooper
We
have learned that The Rosslyn Hoax? can be ordered through
Amazon.com (the US site) but they are having the book shipped from
the UK which, depending on the delivery method chosen, can take up
to two months.
Instead you might like to think about ordering it from a Masonic
bookshop in the United States: The
George
Washington Masonic Memorial. The book will arrive faster
if ordered through them. The memorial recently published a review of
the book which is reproduced below. You will notice that it is
primarily directed towards American Freemasons.
The Rosslyn Hoax?
Viewing Rosslyn Chapel from a New Perspective
By
Robert L. D. Cooper
Published by Lewis Masonic, United Kingdom, 2006.
Now Available in the U.S. through the George Washington Masonic
Memorial
By
Mark A. Tabbert
Director of Collections
George Washington Masonic Memorial, Alexandria, VA
 My
Dear Masonic Brethren: I am sorry to rouse you, but our long
collective fantasy is over. Like a sharp rap of the Master’s gavel,
Robert L. D. Cooper’s The Rosslyn Hoax? wakes the Lodge from
its dreams. Within 315 dense pages and nine chapters, The Rosslyn
Hoax? examines, dissects and disposes every theory, conjecture
and hearsay heaped around the Medieval Knights Templar, Rosslyn
Chapel and Freemasonry in the last 200 years. Researching as only a
Scots historian can, writing as only a Scotsman can, and defending
the craft as only a Scots Freemason can, Cooper skillfully combines
cold facts with warm humor to create a new reality that is as
enjoyable as the fantasies he dispels.
The
Rosslyn Hoax? begins with an explanation of myth and its
development. Cooper is careful to delineate between that which is
believed and that which is documented. He is not interested in
destroying fables, legends, or myths per say, rather he assures the
reader that he is a “card caring” historian and is only concerned
with what other self-proclaimed historians, journalists or scholars
have written. He begins this process with a review of common
mistakes, fallacies in logic and pit falls of poor scholarship and
how they generate myths and legends. His most important point is
that Scottish Freemasonry is substantially different from English,
Irish or any other form of Masonry. It is through this difference
alone that most theories about Rosslyn Chapel collapse.
With his
framework established, Cooper recounts the known history of the
medieval Knights Templar, Rosslyn Chapel and Scottish Freemasonry.
He then examines the development of Templar and Rosslyn myths and
when they intersect with Freemasonry. For example, James Anderson’s
1723 Constitutions of the Free-masons contends the Craft to
be far older than the crusades (Solomon was a Freemason) and
therefore it was Freemasons who created the Knights Templar. Cooper
pinpoints the time and books when this theory was reversed in the
1790s and the reaction Scots Freemasons had to the “revelation” they
descended from the Knights Templar. In 1800, the Grand Lodge of
Scotland banned the Knights Templar orders and all other “higher
degrees” in its Lodges. It determined that any specifically
Christian degree was counter to Freemasonry’s universality and the
conferral of degrees, beyond the three ancient craft were a “foreign
invasion.”
Cooper
focuses the remainder of the book on Rosslyn Chapel and its builder,
the St. Clair family. Begun in the 1440s, Rosslyn Chapel has long
been used as the link between the destruction of the Knights Templar
in 1307 and the first Scots Masonic Lodges in the 1600s. Using
primary source documents, records and the Scottish archives and
quoting from the 1835 official Genealogie of the Saintclaires of
Rosslyn, he allows the family to tell their own story of why
they built the chapel:
“Therfor, to the end
he [William St. Clair, Earl of Orkney, (c.1404 - c.1484)] might not
seem altogether unthankful to God for the benefices he receaved from
him. It came to his mind to build a house for God’s service, of a
most curious worke . . .”
Although the chapel
is indeed curious in its work, how odd is it that a devout Christian
would built a family chapel?
Chapters
5 and 6, some 680 pages, closely examine every aspect of the chapel:
its carvings, decorations and the many myths and anecdotes
surrounding it. He begins with the bold statement: “There is no
Masonic symbolism within Rosslyn Chapel!” He then compares the
assumed relationship to the carvings with facts. Most pointedly are
the stark differences of the legend of the Apprentice pillar and the
Masonic Hiramic legend. In the Rosslyn story, the master kills an
apprentice and in Freemasonry three fellowcrafts kill the master.
Other curious carvings, such as those supposed to be subtropical
aloe vera plants, are also considered. After reading one paragraph,
I have to agree it is highly likely they are simple floral
decorations. Conjecture, on the other hand, would have you believe
50 years before Columbus, someone sailed all the way to the North
American subtropics and came back with a plant that is unfit for the
Scottish climate. And someone else chose to carve the dead plant in
a window frame. Other so-called Masonic and Templar related
symbolism / signs are surprisingly obvious to those familiar with
the Bible and Jewish and Christian symbols.
Moving
out from the Chapel Cooper examines the famous Kirkwall Scroll.
Popular writers say it is a 12th century Templar map, but
like Rosslyn Chapel, it is amazing how much sense this curious item
makes when compared to the Books of Genesis and Exodus. With a few
Bible passages, Masonic facts and study of Masonic symbols, suddenly
the scroll does not reveal the Holy Grail’s location, but is only an
important late 17th century Masonic tracing board.
In the
last chapter, “Other Evidence,” Cooper quickly dispatches such
foolish ideas of a Templar fleet, templar churches, grave slabs and
the Knights Templar and Robert the Bruce. My favorite is the
historical re-write that a flying column of Knights Templar won the
Battle of Bannockburn. If this is true, Cooper asks, why didn’t the
Templars save Bruce from previous defeats, why was the Grand Master
of the British Knights Templar fought with the English and was
killed at an earlier battle, and lastly, why didn’t the English
report they were defeated by the Templars rather than young men and
peasants guarding the baggage train?
Finally,
The Rosslyn Hoax? contains what all scholarly books must
have, endnotes after each chapter, a 15 page bibliography, an
astounding 11 appendices and a proper index. Indeed I contend it is
the most important Masonic book written in the last 20 years—if not
longer.
Robert Cooper has
done his very best to shake his brothers out of the fantasy state
they have lived in for many years. Sadly, the Knights Templar and
Rosslyn Chapel have distracted the brethren from the many serious
issues that plague and Craft. Alas, with The Rosslyn Hoax?
we must accept the true, ancient and honorable history of the Craft.
Freemasonry was indeed created by common men determined not to be
warriors or priests, but only wanting to be free. The question
still remains, do Freemasons still wish to be free or live in a
fantasy?
Paperback, 416 pages with color illustrations and
many “in text” line drawings
$15.95
To order,
visit the Memorial’s website at
www.gwmemorial.org
or call 703-549-9234
Bulk discounts are available
| 
