The Temple and the Lodge

The Temple and the Lodge (UK ISBN 0-552-13596-8) is a book co-written by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh that claims to trace a link between the suppressed Knights Templar and modern day Freemasonry.

The thesis of the book is that after the Knights Templar were suppressed for heresy at the bequest of the King of France some elements found refuge in Scotland where they helped the Scots in their fight for independence from the English.

It also claims that many of the people behind the American Revolution were Freemasons, as were some of the less successful British commanders such as Howe and Cornwallis.

The book is usually described as "speculative history", although the Borders chain lists it as "Pseudohistory".

It should be noted that Freemasonry was banned in France in 1737. Later Freemasonry would include a French branch that chose a name associating itself with Knights Templar without any real association to the original medieval Knights Templar, which was under the authority of the Roman Catholic church. It is possible that the Freemasons in France, who were banned by the king of France, chose a name associating themselves with the original medieval Knights Templar because they too had been banned under pressure from the king of France.