What did Mozart and Bach, Oscar Wilde and Anthony Trollope, George
Washington and Frederick the Great, Winston Churchill and Franklin D.
Roosevelt have in common? They were all Freemasons, a subject of endless
fascination. To the layman, they are a mysterious brotherhood of
profound if uncertain influence, a secret society purported in some
popular histories to have its roots in the fabled order of the Knights
Templar, or in the mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids. They evoke fears
of world domination by a select few who enjoy privileged access to
wealth and the levers of power. The secrecy of their rites suggests the
taint of sacrilege, and their hidden loyalties are sometimes accused of
undermining the workings of justice and the integrity of nations.
Though not a mason himself, Jasper Ridley nonetheless refutes many of
the outrageous allegations made against Freemasonry, while at the same
time acknowledging the masons’ shortcomings: their clannishness,
misogyny, obsession with secrecy, and devotion to arcane ritual. In this
much-needed reassessment, he offers a substantial work of history that
sifts the truth from the myth as it traces Freemasonry from its origins
to the present day.
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