P.1: Knights Templar of Chretien
de Troyes
Le Morte dArthur appeared during the Wars of the Roses,
a prolonged period of civil war in England. The Wars of the Roses took
place between two distinct groups of powerful barons, each supporting a
particular section of the royal family. The two groups have come to be
known as the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. It is known that the Sir Thomas
Mallory who wrote Le Morte d Arthur was a supporter of the Lancastrian
cause.
P.2/3:
From Rosslyn's Band of Brothers to Washington D.C.
If Freemasonry was to survive in
England, it had to be sanitized of its Scottish, Catholic past. This is
precisely what happened. The form of Freemasonry eventually accepted in
England was almost certainly "invented," by Charles Howard, third Earl
of Carlisle. Special new "degrees" of Freemasonry were created, emphasizing
the importance of specific English characters, such as the AngloSaxon king,
Athelstan. These indirectly pointed to the "rightness" of the Hanoverian
succession. All traces of Catholicism were eradicated from the Craft in
England. To compensate, new degrees an institution that had rarely been
spoken about openly for nearly four centuries. There was a distinct paradox
here because although English Freemasonry was clearly Protestant in inclination,
the Templars had supposedly been the most Catholic of institutions.
