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BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY The Knights Templar Acre: The Templars' Last Battle The great Crusader port of Acre - today Akko - is about one hour north of Haifa, Israel. Much of the old city of the Crusaders still exists, incorporated into later Islamic architecture. It is a fascinating warren of narrow streets, shops, squares and impressive buildings erected by merchant groups long ago. Yet it remains a working city with schools, restaurants, workshops and mosques all tucked away in the middle of the medieval stone buildings ... The Mysterious Templar Carvings of Chinon Castle On the evening of March 18th 1314, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was cruelly burned to death on a small island in the Seine, in Paris. Sharing his pain and death was the Templar Preceptor of Normandy, Geoffroy de Charney. It was the last brutal act in an enigmatic drama. The dramatic events had begun seven years earlier when, at dawn on 13th October 1307, the king of France ordered all the Templars ... The Knights Templar Passers-by who look in regalia shop windows and see a tailor's dummy rigged out as a Knight Templar, or even those brethren on a ladies' night sharing a masonic centre with a Preceptory meeting, must wonder what the Knights Templar is really about. Many outside the Order may be of the impression that it is simply about dressing-up. This clearly puts many off joining: "just what is my wife going to think when I come home with all that kit? A white cloak and ..." Rosslyn, Chapel of the Century Roslin (current spelling for the village) is an old mining centre south of Edinburgh, lying half-way between Penicuik and Lasswade. The chapel stands at the end of a small lane, where the land rises to greet the Pentland Hills. The foundation stone was laid in 1446 by William Sinclair, the third and last Prince of Orkney. The construction work continued for forty years. William Sinclair appears to have acted as the Master of Works himself ...   The Knights Templar © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008