Sworn in Secret: Freemasonry and the Knights Templar

The many mysteries surrounding the sudden rise of the Knights Templar, their disastrous fall, and what happened to them after 1307 make the research performed in recent years all the more intriguing -- because it sheds light on what actually occurred in those tumultuous days.
 
Who were the influential people working behind the scenes to insure the Templars' swift rise, and how did holy relics fit into their story? What unique internal practices among the Templars helped many of the brothers survive the attacks on them in 1307? What happened to the knights who went into hiding -- and how is that related to Freemasonry?
 
Exploration into this last mystery was started in the popular book "Born in Blood," but its author passed away in 1996. Now historian Sanford Holst has gathered many more discoveries and internal documents that give deeper views into the Templars and Freemasons. The roots of Masonry are traced to Solomon's Temple, the rise of Christianity, and the Crusades, causing this society's relationships with stonemasons and the Knights Templar to take on new and significant meaning. We come to see how Templars and Masons affected the fall of kings in Europe, the rise of democracy, and the Vatican's loss of its supreme position atop the Christian world. After Masonry emerged into public view in 1717, it had a strong influence on George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other Masons who worked to create a new country in America.
 
Even now, there is an active Order of Knights Templar in Freemasonry. The tantalizing question is what things practiced among these Templars today could have been carried over from the original Knights Templar? This well-documented look inside the secretive Templar and Masonic societies provides answers that may surprise you.