The Rosslyn Hoax?

[MacRob]

I just finished “The Rosslyn Hoax?” If it were within my power to do so, I would remove the question mark because this author does an excellent job of demolishing the entire Templar/Masonic connection, along with its mythos regarding the Templars in Scotland, at Bannockburn, etc. Mr. Cooper, who certainly has the credentials and documentation to back up his work, spends time in the introduction explaining, clearly, his methodology for doing so. He carefully lays the ground work to explain how and why all these ideas, which have some antiquity (but not as much as the “True Believers” want) came about and their real origins. He takes on the architecture of Rosslyn Chapel and explains, again very clearly, why the symbolism in the Chapel is not Masonic in nature.

The book is heavily footnoted and the bibliography is extensive. The footnotes, in many cases, are just as interesting as the text and, even though it will slow you down a bit, I urge you to read them. Where there is some speculation – yes Mr. Cooper does that occasionally – the author makes it clear that is what he is doing. Of course, when he speculates, he provides excellent reasoning for it.

For me, at least, the meat of this book is in the chapter covering the supposed “fugitive Templar” migration to Argyll, the “Templar grave slabs” in Kilmartin and elsewhere, and the belief that Templars saved the day for Bruce at Bannockburn. Mr. Cooper’s argument against these ridiculous ideas is airtight and worth the price of the book. Without these myths, the entire Knight Templar/Masonic connection collapses.

This book will not please those who accept the myths as absolute fact. They will do their best to justify these myths and take in more believers. But, in the final analysis, they are wasting a lot of paper and ink on something which simply is untrue. They need to read this book but, for reasons given by Mr. Cooper in his work, I suspect they will not.

[WalesLax]

Being lazy and not reading the book myself (really I am just incredibly busy), does it go into an explaination for the carvings of maize/corn in a building finished 50 years before Columbus "set foot in" America?

I am genuinely interested. That has always been one of those "we've got to be missing something" issues for me.

Rob

[MacRob]

Being lazy and not reading the book myself (really I am just incredibly busy), does it go into an explaination for the carvings of maize/corn in a building finished 50 years before Columbus "set foot in" America?

I am genuinely interested. That has always been one of those "we've got to be missing something" issues for me.

Rob

Yes it does. In fact, the "maize" carvings don't resemble maize at all, something I have always thought, even before reading the book.