The Compasses and the Cross
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Above is the two-minute documentary trailer for Stephen Dafoe's book The Compasses and the Cross: An Illustrated History of the Masonic Knights Templar.
About The Book
The Knights Templar were victimized at the beginning of the fourteenth century by the manipulations and false information of the King of France; an act that ultimately led to their dissolution in 1312. However, the Order has also been victimised since that time by being the central characters in a wide range of speculative theories about the Order and just what happened to them in the years that followed.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the notion that the Templars were the founding fathers of Freemasonry. Over the years, the Templars have been involved in a Masonic chicken and egg scenario; did the rise and development of Freemasonry give birth to the Masonic Knights Templar or did the demise of the original Knights Templar give birth to Freemasonry itself?
In the Compasses and the Cross, Stephen Dafoe, the author of Nobly Born: An Illustrated History of the Knights Templar, traces the origins and evolution of the Masonic Knights Templar from its beginnings in the middle of the eighteenth century to its present form.
Through the course of the book, Dafoe draws on his knowledge of the history of the original Order as well as that of the modern Masonic variant. Individual chapters will examine the various myths connecting the Templars and Freemasonry put forth by eighteenth and nineteenth century Freemasons including James Anderson, Andrew Michael Ramsay and Baron von Hund, as well as Scottish Freemasons such as William Alexander Lawrie and the Chevalier James Burnes.
In addition to separating historical fact from masonic tradition, Dafoe also chronicles the differences in Masonic Templarism as it exists in Britain and the Dominion with that of the United States.
