The Secret History of Freemasonry: Its Origins and Connection to the Knights Templar »

Paul Naudon is a law scholar specializing in the history of civil law and institutions. He is also a Freemason who has held many high ranking posts in France, including that of Grand Prior of the Gauls (Rectified Scottish Rite) and State Minister for the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He lives in France.

Historian Paul Naudon reveals the intimate connection between the Masons and the Knights Templar, origins of Freemasonry in ancient Rome, and the traditions of the brotherhoods of builders. These traditions are the source of Masonic symbolism, providing the missing link between the Masonry of the medieval cathedral builders to the spiritual principles of modern speculative Masonry.

Publishers Weekly

Ever since Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code took the world by storm, the public can't get enough of books that unmask or further promote its conspiracies about Mary Magdalene, the Gnostic Gospels and famously secret societies like the Knights Templar. Naudon, a scholar in the history of the law and a Freemason himself, traces the origins of the elusive society of Freemasons, of which the medieval Order of the Templars is a branch, illuminating its sources step by step from antiquity to the present. Adopting a generally scholarly scientific and "objective" approach to his subject, Naudon painstakingly constructs the move of Freemasonry from a society of builders to one of intellectual life, sacred ritual being the tie that binds this brotherhood throughout history. Naudon's book is an impressive work of scholarship grounded in fascinating ideas about sacred space, the rituals of building churches, cathedrals and temples, as well as the varied brotherhoods established to conduct what was once considered a divinely inspired activity. For hardcore aficionados of architecture and academics interested in the creation of social sacred space across time, his book is a must-read. However, readers looking for an Elaine Pagels-style accessible foray into the mysteries of Freemasonry will be sorely disappointed. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.