Join the Archive
Get a discount on your first order plus early access to newly released declassified materials
Skip to product information
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry - Hardcover
$41.95
by John J. Robinson (Author)
Lively...illuminating. A refreshing example of scholarly detective work.--Kirkus Reviews
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry is a historical investigation by John J. Robinson (c. 1918–1996), an American business executive, former Marine, and medievalist. A member of the Medieval Academy of America and the Organization of American Historians, Robinson began the project as a study of England’s Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and was drawn instead into the suppression of the Knights Templar and the hidden origins of Freemasonry. He later became a Freemason and a founding figure of the Masonic Information Center.
The book argues that Freemasonry did not grow from ordinary stonemasons’ guilds. After the 1307 arrests ordered by Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V, Templars who escaped to Britain, Robinson contends, formed an underground society of mutual protection that survived in secret until the public appearance of Freemasonry in London in 1717. He links Masonic words, grips, symbols, and the Hiram Abiff legend to Templar language and history, and he reads the 1381 revolt—and figures such as Wat Tyler—as part of that hidden network. The narrative runs through Crusader warfare, papal and royal persecution, and the later spread of Masonry among statesmen and revolutionaries.
Number of Pages: 400
Dimensions: 1.5 x 9.34 x 6.35 IN
Publication Date: November 15, 1989