Rosslyn Hoax?? [Hardcover]

Ian Allan (Author), Lewis Masonic (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2006

Since the publication of the "Da Vinci Code", non-Masons have been asking questions and putting forward theories about Freemasonry, especially Freemasonry in Scotland and its alleged connections with the Knights Templar and Rosslyn Chapel. This book is a product of the research undertaken to answer those questions. The results will surprise a lot of people.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert L.D. Cooper is the Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library in Edinburgh and is in a privileged position to know? from the inside? the truth about all the various theories regarding Rosslyn Chapel, Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Sinclair family. --This text refers to the Perfect Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Lewis Masonic; illustrated edition edition (September 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0853182558
• ISBN-13: 978-0853182559
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,395,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you buy just one book about Rosslyn Chapel, make it this one, July 30, 2007

By 

Christopher L. Hodapp "Author - "Freemaso... (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rossyln Hoax (The) Paperback (Perfect Paperback)

Robert L. D. Cooper's book "The Rosslyn Hoax" is perhaps the most important book yet published about Rosslyn Chapel, the Templars, Scotland and the Freemasons. What makes it so important is that he actually has physically investigated the many claims made about the enigmatic little church over the centuries, especially in the last few decades. He has laid his eye on so many artifacts described by others, and tracked them to their likely, provable meanings or sources. And he has traced the origins of so many legendary claims to their originators, instead of parroting the work of other "speculators."

I say it's an important book. I didn't say it will make everyone happy. And the reason why is because he slaughters an entire herd of sacred cattle with his investigations of the many claims of Templar involvement in Freemasonry's formation and the building of Rosslyn. Or to put it another way, if you believe Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, The Temple and the Lodge, and Rosslyn: Guardian of the Secrets of the Holy Grail to be the truth, Robert Cooper is your blasphemer.

Cooper is the curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's library and museum, which posseses much original material that other authors have written about, but never actually gone to look at and study in person. Moreover, Cooper takes claims of Templar sites, burial markers and supposed influence and subjects them to the historical record or compares them to provable, authentic Templar sites. Most important of all, he places the origins of the original claims made (often by 17th and 18th century Scottish Masons) into their proper historical and social context, exploring just why Scottish Freemasons might have desired an older, more glorious heritage for their fraternity than those uppity English Masons down in London who were claiming it as their own. Cooper makes an outstanding case for forgeries, Victorian alterations and a lot of wishful thinking.

Certainly there is a place for mythology in this world, and it would be a pretty barren life indeed if we didn't have our share of story tellers who, with a gleam in their eye and a wink to the knowing, began by speaking the words, "Once upon a time..." Freemasonry is no different. Just as long as we understand what is myth and what is history, and the difference between them.

As I said, if you believe the Knights Templars saved the day at Bannockburn, built Rosslyn Chapel, and then morphed into the Freemasons, you should undoubtedly already be collecting logs and kindling for Robert Cooper's pyre. But if you are a seeker of the truth behind this curious and beautiful place, start with The Rosslyn Hoax.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facts not Fiction, March 2, 2008

By 

E. King - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rossyln Hoax (The) Paperback (Perfect Paperback)

Believe all that stuff about the Knights Templar running off to hide in Scotland? Convinced that there are a bunch of things buried under Rosslyn or that there are all sorts of secret signs carved into the pillars? If so, you should order overnight delivery on this book and read it from cover to cover. When you're done, you'll have either done a 180 degree turn-around OR you'll have to admit to yourself that you're simply intransigent to reality. Robert L. D. Cooper is the curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's library and museum where much original material written about by other authors is held. What you'll find astonishing is that those many authors who opine so persuasively on items such as the above have never once gone to look at the source material and study it in detail. Cooper, wearing velvet gloves, demolishes books by Lomas, Knight, Wallace-Murphy and many, many more with undisputable facts, buttressed by ancient documents which he can hold each day.

Further, Cooper is a biographer of the Sinclair family and knows his topic from top to bottom. He's not swayed by fanciful theories or the pseudo-history of the past two decades. Rather, he cites specific documents held by the Grand Lodge of Scotland - again and again and again. He footnotes how contrary claims have been made by specific 'Templar fantasy' authors again and again and again. It is to laugh.

If you want to live in a fantasy world, do avoid this book but if you want find out facts, you'll love it. It's not easy reading: dealing with the many claims that have gained so much sway is not an easy task and the footnotes are copious. You'll be rewarded, though, with a factual understanding which will enable you to laugh when friends, neighbors, and fellow Masons decide to 'educate you' on the Apprentice Pillar or the Battle of Bannockburn's appearance of the Knights Templar. You might even deign to educate them as well. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Failed Academic Analysis, February 7, 2009

By 

John M. Otis "John M. Otis" (Corpus Christi, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rossyln Hoax (The) Paperback (Perfect Paperback)

Before I completed my manuscript for my own book on Freemasonry, I wanted to read Cooper's book, which supposedly was going to set the record straight about the relationship of Freemasonry to the Knights Templar. I found this book to be greatly disappointing from various angles of perspective. First, I found his writing very difficult to follow. Second, his logic was very defective at key points. Third, I found him guilty of the precise thing that he accuses others of. Fourth, he appears totally unqualified to discuss theological issues.

I have no axe to grind against him. It is not my book that he is assaulting. Having read several of the books which he is taking to task, namely Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh's "The Temple and the Lodge" and John J. Robinson's "Born In Blood," I find Cooper very unfair in his analysis and "over the top." While Cooper makes a few valid points of criticism of what he calls "the Alternative or Popular View," he has miserably failed to prove his thesis. The books that he is criticizing do not necessarily argue the fact that Freemasonry is a direct link to the Knights Templar. These books do present a case that there are some connections between Freemasonry and the Knights Templar.

Cooper makes the bold assertion