BOOKREV.JUL


                 THUMBS UP--THUMBS DOWN

  It is not often that general publishers bring out books on
Freemasonry that are strongly positive about our Fraternity.  M.
Evans & Co. has done just that with its recent publication of Born
in Blood, and the author, John J. Robinson, is a non-Mason to boot.
In fact, Born in Blood has generated more comments and letters than
most other recent Masons' books.

  However, Robinson's strong defense of our gentle Craft is coupled
with a theory of Masonic origins that does not satisfy all
historians.  Our two reviews this month provide differing
perspectives of this interesting new volume.  Available from Anchor
Communications, Drawer 70, 110 Quince Avenue, Highland Springs,
Virginia 23075.  Cost $16.95 post paid.

                           BOOK REVIEWS

                     DR. S. BRENT MORRIS, 33ø
         Book Reviews Editor for THE SCOTTISH RITE JOURNAL


     The two books reviewed this month present different visions of
our gentle Craft.  Mr. John J. Robinson's Born in Blood expands on
an again popular notion:  that of Knights Templar surviving the
centuries as a secret force and creating Freemasonry.  This idea
has figured in two other recently published books, The Temple and
the Lodge and Foucalt's Pendulum, both of which will be reviewed in
later columns.  Contrary to these three books, Brother George H. T.
French's book, Masonology, does not argue an historical thesis.
Rather he gives us rich, personal insights garnered from a lifetime
devoted to Masonry.

BORN IN BLOOD, by John J. Robinson, M. Evans and Co., Inc., 219 E.
49 St., New York, NY 10017-1502, 1990, 395 pp., hardbound, $18.95.

(this article was thumbs up}
  Certainly there has been action enough in the life of John J.
Robinson, a 65-year-old businessman, sheep farmer, ex-Marine, and
current head of a family trust dedicated to historical research.
But, at an age when many slip resignedly into permanent retirement,
Robinson has embarked upon a great adventure which also provides
excitement and enlightenment for students of history and, above
all, for Freemasons who yearn for a more profound and relevant
experience of their Masonic heritage.

  His book's title Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry
may suggest that it is simply another anti-Masonic tract promising
exposure of all of Masonry's "secrets" and proof of Masonic
complicity in every insidious social, cultural, and political
conspiracy throughout history.

  In fact, however, Robinson's thesis is quite different.  He con-
tends that Masonry's symbols and rituals were used in secret for
centuries by the Knights Templar in Britain who, fleeing arrest and
torture by pope and king, formed a secret society of mutual
protection in 1307 that revealed itself as Freemasonry in London in
1717. Additionally, this book attempts to solve various remaining
mysteries of Masonry-- the secret words, symbols, and allegories
whose true meanings have been lost in anti- quity.

   What lends credibility to Robinson's book is (1) that he did not
set out to write a "Masonic" book and (2) that he is not a Mason.
As he states in the Introduction, his initial research was aimed
merely at "satisfy[ing his] own curiosity about certain unexplained
aspects of the Peasant's Revolt in England in 1381."  From this
point, he began his investigation; and now he believes he has
discovered link after link between the Templars and the Freemasons.

  It is important that this book was written by a non-Mason, for it
is obvious that Robinson's years of study resulted in a profound
admiration for what he discovered. This is revealed in his lengthy
rebuttal of Stephen Knight's un- supported anti-Masonic allegations
in The Brotherhood and in remarks he made in a recent interview:
"Today," Robinson said, "Freemasons need no longer be a secret
society; they are now the establishment with the purpose of self-
improvement of the person and the performing of charitable works
that benefit the community."  In his book, he generously describes
and praises the many charitable organizations and activities
sponsored by Freemasonry. Although Robinson apparently possesses
all the moral, ethical, and spiritual qualities that characterize
Masons, it is good that he is not one.  If he were, his book might
be labeled a mere apology rather than the objective work it is.

   As a Mason, I believe this book is of great value to the Craft.
Older Masons will enjoy the feeling of discovery and rejuvenation
inherent in considering a possible foundation for Freemasonry other
than the traditionally accepted one rooted in the medieval building
guilds, and they may well perceive a much more vital and exciting
purpose behind Freemasonry than previously realized.

   Whether the reader accepts Robinson's explanations, particu-
larly those linking certain Masonic mysteries to the French
language of the persecuted Templars, will be a matter of personal
decision, as will be the reader's opinion as to whether Masonry
should continue to maintain some exclusivity through secrecy.
However, an appreciation of the expanded possibilities residing in
Robinson's explanations and opinions cannot but have a beneficial
effect upon the Masonic reader.

  For the younger Masons, the book provides a heightened sense of
rootedness, continuity, and relevance of the Craft in these times
when faith in most causes and institutions is faltering.  And for
those who have never consid- ered becoming Masons, the book offers
a glimpse into an organiza- tion and a system of belief that has
persisted through centuries of opposition and bloody persecution.
Reading Pope Leo XIII's 1884 encyclical condemning Freemasonry, and
considering the noble pre-execution speech of the Templar's last
Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, one feels pride at being condemned
for what has kept our brotherhood and nation strong--a refusal to
kneel before anything or anyone save the one Supreme Architect of
the Universe.
Alton D. Morris, 32ø

   
(this article was thums down)
     It is good to see M. Evans and Co., a non-Masonic publisher,
issuing a serious book on Freemasonry.  Mr. Robinson's work
presents some interesting ideas on the historic origins of
Freemasonry, and a most welcome defense of our Craft from the
attacks of some modern critics, which is particularly gratifying
coming from a non-Mason.  Unfortunately, however, the book as a
whole is, in the opinion of this reviewer, flawed.  The author's
central thesis is that the Knights Templar, after being bloodily
suppressed by Philip le Bel of France and Pope Clement V, went
underground in England as "secret Masonry."  After some 400 years
as a clandestine force in England, they went public in 1717, but
Masons today have forgotten their early heritage as underground
Templars.

   The author has spent years gathering his data, and he is
scrupulously fair in presenting it, but he does not provide
adequate source references.  Be that as it may, his arguments for
Masonic origins with the Knights Templar remain, for this reader,
unconvincing.

   For example, it is difficult to give credence to Mr. Robinson's
contention that a vast underground network of "cells" harboring the
Templar remnants and their successors existed in secrecy in England
for over 400 years.  For that matter, it is hard to believe that
those remaining Templars could have continued to feel like
fugitives for that long a period.

   For some of his evidence of an ancient Templar connection to
Masonry, Mr. Robinson tries to show that significant words and
phrases from Craft Ritual have a French origin, as did the Templars
at the time of their suppression.  As one example, he concludes
Hiram Abiff comes from Hiram a Biffe, "Hiram who was eliminated,"
rather than from the Hebrew for "my father."  However, for Ritual
sources to support this thesis he seems to have relied on Knight's
The Brotherhood and two 19th American expo- sures, Morgan's
Freemasonry Exposed and Richardson's Monitor of Freemasonry.  These
are useful books for the student of contemporary Ritual, but no
study of 17th and 18th century Ritual is adequate without at least
referring to Three Distinct Knocks, Jakin and Boaz, or Masonry
Dissected, each of which is recently reprinted and readily
available.

    As a further example of Mr. Robinson's analysis of Ritual, he
is excited to learn that Master Masons are supposedly brothers to
pirates and corsairs, and he concludes this must refer to the
Templars who took the Order's ships to sea as pirates and corsairs
(page 240).  This is certainly a novel idea, but for all of his
research, Mr. Robinson seems not to have discovered the vast
writings of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 on the evolution of the
Ritual, or at least does not think them worth referencing. In
short, Mr. Robinson has woven an interesting yarn based on
wide-ranging but incomplete research.  His defense of Freemasonry
is admirable and gives the book some merit, but his conclusions
about the origins of the Craft simply lack credibility.

S. Brent Morris, 33ø

MASONOLOGY:  AN ANTHOLOGY, by Dr. George H. T. French, Texas Lodge
of Research, P.O. Box 1850, Dallas, TX 75221, 1988, 301 pp.,
hardbound, $15.00, postpaid (quantity discounts available to
Masonic groups).

     This monumental work is a collection of the best articles
written by one of Freemasonry's most honored and widely published
authors, Dr. George H. T. French.  Some of these essays have come
from The Texas Freemason, The Royal Arch Mason, The Philalethes,
and other prominent Masonic magazines. The author received the
Norman B. Spencer Award for excellence in Masonic research from
Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 in London, and he is a Fellow of
both the Texas Lodge of Research and the Philalethes Society.  This
is the second book of Brother French published by the Texas Lodge
of Research, the first being Masonry Along the Brazos Valley which
commemorated the 1987 sesquicentennial of the Grand Lodge of Texas.

     The title of Masonology is taken from a word, coined by Alec
Mellor, which Brother French helped to popularize.  It may be
defined as that body of knowledge which includes the principles,
doctrines, tenets, history, jurisprudence, and symbolism of
Freemasonry.  Brother French describes the three sides of our
Fraternity as ceremonial Masonry (the Ritual), corporate Masonry
(the laws and administrative functions), and Masonology, which
includes the tenets doctrines, history, and symbolism of the
Fraternity.  The principal message of the book is summarized on
page 243:


     Memorized Ritual and rubric, however, no more constitute
     Freemasonry than reading, writing, and arithmetic constitute
     an education, or than a knife, fork, and spoon constitute a
     dinner.  The Masonic Ritual is a tool. . . .Beyond the Ritual
     lies Masonry with its real hidden secrets.

Masonology is a book which should interest every reader. James S.
                      Peterson, 32ø