The Second Messiah. Templars, the Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasonry

Article number 10223226

Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas investigate the origins of the Turin Shroud and argue that the figure depicted on it is not Jesus but Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. They connect de Molay's arrest in 1307, his alleged torture and the suppression of the Templars with traditions that later survived in Freemasonry. The book develops a controversial alternative history linking the Templars, the Shroud and secret teachings attributed to early Christianity; these connections are the authors' thesis rather than established historical conclusions.