A review of "Templars in America" by Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins
I admit that I wasn't swayed by this
book of alternative history. Virtually everything in this book has been
convincingly debunked: the Zeno narrative, the Newport Tower (sorry, it does
look like the Chesterton windmill), the Westford Knight, the Kensington rune
stone, the Templar-Masonic connection… Some of the hoaxes are obvious.
What exactly is it that the authors want us to believe? That a militaristic crusading Catholic order, an obscure Scottish earl descended from Vikings, and two Venetian oligarchs were some kind of early humanists with a slightly esoteric streak? That said earl and Venetians sailed to America, established contacts with a peaceful tribe of Indians, founded Masonry, and inspired the U.S. Constitution? Not only that, the leadership of the Templars, the Sinclair clan and the Venetian oligarchy were all descended from the Jewish priests of the Jerusalem Temple, who knew the true Gnostic teachings of Jesus Christ! The holy bloodline of J and Marie Magdalene is not mentioned in this book, but I wouldn't be surprised if the author has expounded on it somewhere else…
Were there pre-Columbian contacts between the Old and the New Worlds (other than the wrathful Norsemen)? Probably yes. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if such contacts can be traced back to the Paleolithic. However, this was not one of them, and the “Da Vinci Code” stuff just gets tiresome after a while. I tried to read this book with an open mind, but the counter-arguments are just too convincing. Sorry. Only two stars.
What exactly is it that the authors want us to believe? That a militaristic crusading Catholic order, an obscure Scottish earl descended from Vikings, and two Venetian oligarchs were some kind of early humanists with a slightly esoteric streak? That said earl and Venetians sailed to America, established contacts with a peaceful tribe of Indians, founded Masonry, and inspired the U.S. Constitution? Not only that, the leadership of the Templars, the Sinclair clan and the Venetian oligarchy were all descended from the Jewish priests of the Jerusalem Temple, who knew the true Gnostic teachings of Jesus Christ! The holy bloodline of J and Marie Magdalene is not mentioned in this book, but I wouldn't be surprised if the author has expounded on it somewhere else…
Were there pre-Columbian contacts between the Old and the New Worlds (other than the wrathful Norsemen)? Probably yes. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if such contacts can be traced back to the Paleolithic. However, this was not one of them, and the “Da Vinci Code” stuff just gets tiresome after a while. I tried to read this book with an open mind, but the counter-arguments are just too convincing. Sorry. Only two stars.
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