Sworn in Secret: Freemasonry and the Knights Templar by Sanford Holst

Author:Sanford Holst [Holst, Sanford]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Santorini Publishing
Published: 2013-09-04T03:00:00+00:00

Fig. 25 Roslin Castle

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While that fortification was still under construction, another climactic event occurred. The Knights Templar who had risen to great prominence and high esteem all across Europe were suddenly attacked on the 13th of October in 1307. Though the first attacks came in France, it sent shudders of shock and disbelief as far north as the highlands of Scotland. The Templar Preceptory at Balantrodoch became abandoned except for a caretaker, whose testimony we heard during the trials in Edinburgh.

Being asked concerning the other brothers in Scotland, he stated that John de Hueflete was Preceptor of Blancradok [Balantrodoch], the chief house of the order in that country, and that he and the other brethren, having heard of the arrest of the Templars, threw off their habits and fled, and that he had not since heard aught concerning them.[151]

Henry St. Clair, living four miles west of Balantrodoch, would reasonably have been sympathetic to the plight of his knightly neighbors. In the first month after the Templars were attacked, there was little question that he could have given these men shelter. But then an order came from Pope Clement V to all Christians in Europe that no aid be given to Templars under pain of excommunication. That papal directive might have had more force in other days, but by this time Robert the Bruce and Scotland had already been excommunicated by the pope. Even so, after the first few weeks, whatever generosity could be given by St. Clair or others in Scotland would have had to be judicious and covert.

Returning to the battles over Scotland’s crown, Robert the Bruce’s primary Scottish rival for the throne was the tenacious John Comyn. Robert resolved this difficult situation much like Alexander the Great, who untangled the Gordian knot by cutting it in two with his sword. On the 10th of February in 1306, Robert invited Comyn to a meeting in Dumfries, then killed him in front of the altar in the local church. That was the offense for which the pope excommunicated Robert, and then did the same for the whole of Scotland. Unfazed, Robert exercised his dominant claim to the throne, and was crowned King of Scotland on the 25th of March.

The English immediately began a dogged pursuit of the new King Robert, driving him steadily backward. Yet fortune was with him, for the battle-hardened King Edward I of England died the next year, leaving his weak son Edward II in command. Robert was fighting at Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland when the Knights Templar were attacked in France and he gave the event scant attention. Clinging to the breath of life and hope he had been given, Robert fought almost daily to place bits of Scotland in Scottish hands. He recorded major victories at Dumbarton in 1311, at Perth in 1312, and ventured into English territory to capture the strategic Isle of Man in 1313.

Then came the decisive moment for Scotland and, some believe, for Freemasonry. It happened early the following year at Stirling, and came to be known as the Battle of Bannockburn.

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