The Lost Secret of William Shakespeare

Chapter 5

The Rise of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons

The Catholic suppression of the Knights Templar in 1307 had driven European philosophy and science completely underground. The progressive minds from the Templar ranks proficient in the arts and sciences found refuge in small, secret enclaves throughout Europe. The clandestine “movement” was generically known to its adherents as “The Invisible College,”* and “The Great Society.”*

It is not certain when such terms as “Rosicrucian” and “Freemason” began to take root. But it is certain that the Movement lacked any semblance of cohesive organization and purpose. Nonetheless, the Movement was the specific cause of the Renaissance which, in its early phase, had been dominated by a burst of artistic genius under the Italian masters such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo. The following century, however, witnessed the intellectual explosion of the English Renaissance which brought revolutionary innovations in literature, science, and social philosophy with Bacon as its chief architect.*

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