Timeline: Crusades and FreeMasonry
| Having known a number of people who are FreeMasons, and never...ever.. having been able to extract any useful or interesting morsel of information from them about the movement, and ever since I was a child I've been fascincated with the stories of the Crusades, so I thought I'd knock up a Timeline of FreeMasonry related news and events. |
| 1st Century |
 | Romans destroy Herod's Temple in Jerusalem |
| 11th Century |
| Founding of the order of the Knights Templar to protect the Holy Land (especially Jerusalem) from the Muslims. The name of the group is from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem whewre Solomon's temple once stood and where the Crhistian knights established their first camp during the Crusades. The Holy Land was wrestled from the Muslims |
| 1095-1099 |
| The 1st Crusade - a large group of Crusaders entered the Holy City, and establish the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, with Godfrey of Bouillon as it's first king |
| 1118-1128 |
| Knights Templar excavate ruins of Herod's Temple and return many artifacts to Scotland |
| 1144-1155 |
| The 2nd Crusade which was basically a flop for the Crusaders |
| 1187 |
| Muslims retake the Holy Land when Saladin's army crushed the Knights Templar at the battle of Hattin and the land remains in Muslim hands until modern times |
| 1187-1192 |
| The 3rd Crusade - lead by England's Richard the Lionheart. Richard didn't actually recover Jerusalem, but he got on so well with Saladin that the latter agreed to permit unmolested Christian visits to the Holy Place. Saladin died the following year and his successors began the resistance again. |
| 1194-1201 |
| The 4th Crusade |
| 1201-1206 |
| The 5th Crusade |
| 1209 |
|
| 1291 |
| The fall of Acre. the Order's original mission, to guard the routes into the Holy Land, was no longer viable. The other military Orders retired to their private principalities; the Knights of St. John (Hospitallers) to Rhodes, then to Malta, the Teutonic Knights to their 'Ordenstadt' in Prussia; and the Templars desperately wanted a land of their own |
| 1307 |
| King Phillip IV of France decides to destroy the Order and secure their wealth by ordering that the authorities all around France seize all Templars and Templar properties on the day Friday the 13th of October. The arrests took place with no resistance but it seems the Templars had previous warning evident by the lack of valuables found in the raids. |
| Philip had proceeded against the Templars without the Papal go-ahead, and at first, weak Clement V objected; but, soon he was persuaded to order the arrests of Templars in all Christian countries. |
| The Templars large fleet of ships also seemed to have vanished from its base in La Rochelle, and there is some suggestion that the Templars may have escaped by sea to an "off the beaten track" location such as Western Scotland |
| 1314 |
| In Scotland, where many of the English and French Templars seem to have taken refuge, future king Robert Bruce was already under a Papal Bull of Excommunication, and had no intention of depriving himself of such well trained reinforcements as these Templar Knights. There is evidence that the tide of battle was turned at the Battle of Bannockburn by a body of these same exiled Knights, on St. John's Day, June 24 |
| 1440 |
| Contruction begins by Sir William St Clair (Sinclair) of Orkney on Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh with ground plan a copy of Herod's Temple (the 3rd temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in the 1st century). St Clair's father died taking the heart of Robert de Bruce on a last crusade to Jerusalem. |
| 1460 |
| James II dies and his son James III strips Willian-of-Orkney of his estates seeing him as a threat to the crown of Scotland |
| 1582 |
| Conversion of the Julian calendar (Julius Caesar in 46 BC) into the Gregorian calendar imposed by Pope Gregory XII |
| 1599 |
| Earliest surviving Lodge Minutes from Edinburgh |
| 1602 |
| William Schaw sets up the modern lodge system in Scotland following the instructions of James VI |
| 1603 |
| James VI takes Freemasonry to England when he becomes James I of Britain |
| 1641 |
| Sir Robert Moray becomes the first Mason recorded to be made on English Soil |
| 1715 |
| First Jacobite Rising, lodges begin to disclaim their Scottish roots |
| 1717 |
| Formation of Grand Lodge of London, denying Jacobite Heritage |
| 1733 |
| first Masonic Lodge established in the United States on April 13 |
| 1738 |
| Operative Masonry (dealing primarily with God, religion, the craft of masonry, and regal duty) evolves into Accepted and later in the century Speculative Masonry (speculating as to the true meanings behind the original symbols used in operative Masonry rather than focusing on Masonry as a building trade). Pope Clement XII issues Papal Bull opposing the movement. |
| 1740 |
| Possible beginnings of the Scottish Rite in Bordeaux, France, the rituals of the movement being largely Judeo-Christian |
| 1752 |
| Gregorian calender introduced to American colonies |
| 1776 |
| Benjamin Franklin (a Mason) signs Declaration of Independence on July 4th |
| 1777 |
| Franklin travels to France to source money to help fund the war of independence against the British, and joins the Nine sisters Lodge in Paris while he's there. Other members of the lodge included inventor of the Tarot cards Court de Gebelin |
| 1801 |
| Scottish Rite founded in the city of Charleston South Carolina (USA) with the idea being to link the 'craft' FreeMasonry movement with that of the medieval order of the Knights Templar. |
| 1860 |
| British Army engineers mount expedition to Jerusalem and excavate 80ft beneath the Temple Mount finding many deep tunnels and Templar artifacts |
| 1881 |
| French author Leo Taxil, ‘exposed’ the ‘Satanic’ rituals of this fraternity and named many senior politicians and clerics as being involved. The ‘Leo Taxil Hoax’, as it is know in Masonic circles, caused much bad press for the Masons, and brought a wave of anti-Masonic attacks from the general public and the Church. |
| 1884 |
| Cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty placed in a ceremony organised by the Masonic lodges of New York. The statue was designed by French sculptor Bartholdi and built by French Engineer, Gustave Eiffel (both well-known Freemasons), and first planned by Bartholdi for the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1867 for which is was rejected. |
| 1933 |
| Franklyn Roosevelt (32nd degree of the Scottish Rite) sworn on 4th March in as President of the Uniter States. His vice-president is Harry Truman (33rd degree mason). He encourages the creation of the State of Israel |
| 1945 |
| Truman (33rd degree Mason) becomes the 33rd president of the United States. His regime offially 'recognises' the state-of-Israel in 1948 |
| Other Related Stuff |
| Temple Mound today |
| Today, where once stood this much-fantasised Temple of Solomon, are to be seen the Mosque of Omar and the Mosque of Al Aqsa, two very sacred Muslim shrines and where the Prophet Mohamad is beleived to have ascended to heaven |
| Joseph Smith |
| founder of the Mormon religion was a Mason, as were the three first presidents of the Mormom Church. temple ordinances of the Mormon temple ceremony are also suspiciously close to the ceremony used in Freemasonry. Signs, grips, oaths and tokens used in Mormonism are so close it's almost certain that Joseph Smith borrowed these Masonic practices |
| Links: |
| http://www.enterprisemission.com/bauval.htm |
| http://contenderministries.org/freemason/comparison.php |
| http://www.robertlomas.com/Freemason/Origins.html |
| http://members.aol.com/setzer693/page6.htm |
| http://chaos1.hypermart.net/file5/page9.html |