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Timeline: Crusades and FreeMasonry

Having known a number of people who are FreeMasons, and never...ever.. having been able to extract any useful or interesting morsel of information from them about the movement, and ever since I was a child I've been fascincated with the stories of the Crusades, so I thought I'd knock up a Timeline of FreeMasonry related news and events.
1st Century
 pictureRomans destroy Herod's Temple in Jerusalem
11th Century
 pictureFounding of the order of the Knights Templar to protect the Holy Land (especially Jerusalem) from the Muslims. The name of the group is from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem whewre Solomon's temple once stood and where the Crhistian knights established their first camp during the Crusades. The Holy Land was wrestled from the Muslims
1095-1099
 pictureThe 1st Crusade - a large group of Crusaders entered the Holy City, and establish the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, with Godfrey of Bouillon as it's first king
1118-1128
 pictureKnights Templar excavate ruins of Herod's Temple and return many artifacts to Scotland
1144-1155
 pictureThe 2nd Crusade which was basically a flop for the Crusaders
1187
 pictureMuslims retake the Holy Land when Saladin's army crushed the Knights Templar at the battle of Hattin and the land remains in Muslim hands until modern times
1187-1192
 pictureThe 3rd Crusade - lead by England's Richard the Lionheart. Richard didn't actually recover Jerusalem, but he got on so well with Saladin that the latter agreed to permit unmolested Christian visits to the Holy Place. Saladin died the following year and his successors began the resistance again.
1194-1201
 pictureThe 4th Crusade
1201-1206
 pictureThe 5th Crusade
1209
 pictureThe Order is turned loose on the 'heretic' Cathars in what came to be known as the Albigensian Crusade in Languedoc in Southern France - this is apparently not the case according to an email I received stating the Knights Templar *did not* participate in the Albigensian Crusade as many Templars were from the Languedoc region.
1291
 pictureThe fall of Acre. the Order's original mission, to guard the routes into the Holy Land, was no longer viable. The other military Orders retired to their private principalities; the Knights of St. John (Hospitallers) to Rhodes, then to Malta, the Teutonic Knights to their 'Ordenstadt' in Prussia; and the Templars desperately wanted a land of their own
1307
 pictureKing Phillip IV of France decides to destroy the Order and secure their wealth by ordering that the authorities all around France seize all Templars and Templar properties on the day Friday the 13th of October. The arrests took place with no resistance but it seems the Templars had previous warning evident by the lack of valuables found in the raids.
 picturePhilip had proceeded against the Templars without the Papal go-ahead, and at first, weak Clement V objected; but, soon he was persuaded to order the arrests of Templars in all Christian countries.
 pictureThe Templars large fleet of ships also seemed to have vanished from its base in La Rochelle, and there is some suggestion that the Templars may have escaped by sea to an "off the beaten track" location such as Western Scotland
1314
 pictureIn Scotland, where many of the English and French Templars seem to have taken refuge, future king Robert Bruce was already under a Papal Bull of Excommunication, and had no intention of depriving himself of such well trained reinforcements as these Templar Knights. There is evidence that the tide of battle was turned at the Battle of Bannockburn by a body of these same exiled Knights, on St. John's Day, June 24
1440
 pictureContruction begins by Sir William St Clair (Sinclair) of Orkney on Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh with ground plan a copy of Herod's Temple (the 3rd temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in the 1st century). St Clair's father died taking the heart of Robert de Bruce on a last crusade to Jerusalem.
1460
 pictureJames II dies and his son James III strips Willian-of-Orkney of his estates seeing him as a threat to the crown of Scotland
1582
 pictureConversion of the Julian calendar (Julius Caesar in 46 BC) into the Gregorian calendar imposed by Pope Gregory XII
1599
 pictureEarliest surviving Lodge Minutes from Edinburgh
1602
 pictureWilliam Schaw sets up the modern lodge system in Scotland following the instructions of  James VI
1603
 pictureJames VI takes Freemasonry to England when he becomes James I of Britain
1641
 pictureSir Robert Moray becomes the first Mason recorded to be made on English Soil
1715
 pictureFirst Jacobite Rising, lodges begin to disclaim their Scottish roots
1717
 pictureFormation of Grand Lodge of London, denying Jacobite Heritage
1733
 picturefirst Masonic Lodge established in the United States on April 13
1738
 pictureOperative Masonry (dealing primarily with God, religion, the craft of masonry, and regal duty) evolves into Accepted and later in the century Speculative Masonry (speculating as to the true meanings behind the original symbols used in operative Masonry rather than focusing on Masonry as a building trade). Pope Clement XII issues Papal Bull opposing the movement.
1740
 picturePossible beginnings of the Scottish Rite in Bordeaux, France, the rituals of the movement being largely Judeo-Christian
1752
 pictureGregorian calender introduced to American colonies
1776
 pictureBenjamin Franklin (a Mason) signs Declaration of Independence on July 4th
1777
 pictureFranklin travels to France to source money to help fund the war of independence against the British, and joins the Nine sisters Lodge in Paris while he's there. Other members of the lodge included inventor of the Tarot cards Court de Gebelin
1801
 pictureScottish Rite founded in the city of Charleston South Carolina (USA) with the idea being to link the 'craft' FreeMasonry movement with that of the medieval order of the Knights Templar.
1860
 pictureBritish Army engineers mount expedition to Jerusalem and excavate 80ft beneath the Temple Mount finding many deep tunnels and Templar artifacts
1881
 pictureFrench author Leo Taxil, ‘exposed’ the ‘Satanic’ rituals of this fraternity and named many senior politicians and clerics as being involved. The ‘Leo Taxil Hoax’, as it is know in Masonic circles, caused much bad press for the Masons, and brought a wave of anti-Masonic attacks from the general public and the Church.
1884
 pictureCornerstone for the Statue of Liberty placed in a ceremony organised by the Masonic lodges of New York. The statue was designed by French sculptor Bartholdi and built by French Engineer, Gustave Eiffel (both well-known Freemasons), and first planned by Bartholdi for the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1867 for which is was rejected.
1933
 pictureFranklyn Roosevelt (32nd degree of the Scottish Rite) sworn on 4th March in as President of the Uniter States. His vice-president is Harry Truman (33rd degree mason). He encourages the creation of the State of Israel
1945
 pictureTruman (33rd degree Mason) becomes the 33rd president of the United States. His regime offially 'recognises' the state-of-Israel in 1948
Other Related Stuff
 pictureTemple Mound today
 pictureToday, where once stood this much-fantasised Temple of Solomon, are to be seen the Mosque of Omar and the Mosque of Al Aqsa, two very sacred Muslim shrines and where the Prophet Mohamad is beleived to have ascended to heaven
 pictureJoseph Smith
 picturefounder of the Mormon religion was a Mason, as were the three first presidents of the Mormom Church. temple ordinances of the Mormon temple ceremony are also suspiciously close to the ceremony used in Freemasonry.  Signs, grips, oaths and tokens used in Mormonism are so close it's almost certain that Joseph Smith borrowed these Masonic practices
Links:
 picturehttp://www.enterprisemission.com/bauval.htm
 picturehttp://contenderministries.org/freemason/comparison.php
 picturehttp://www.robertlomas.com/Freemason/Origins.html
 picturehttp://members.aol.com/setzer693/page6.htm
 picturehttp://chaos1.hypermart.net/file5/page9.html