Grail Quest
(The Holy Grail found in Spain - to read more click here)
Nobody knows where it came from, who made it or what purpose it served. For
untold years it lay in a corner of a room in the old town hall of Kirkwall, a
painted scroll with mysterious images and symbols incomprehensible to the secret
society of Freemasons that owned it.
Now a Cambridge historian believes he has cracked its ancient code to reveal a
treasure map that could indicate the burial place of the
Holy Grail in Scotland.
According to Dr Andrew Sinclair, a graduate of Harvard University, the artefact
is also a priceless "missing link" between the Masonic Order and the Catholic
Knights Templar of the Crusades.
It was in 1307 that 50 Templars, fleeing persecution by the King of France,
sailed from La Rochelle with sacred relics dating from the Crusades. Some of
them are said to have landed in Scotland, and it is these knights that Sinclair
believes may have been carrying the grail - and to have been the Catholic roots
of the Masonic Order that flourished several centuries later.
In a film documenting his findings, to be shown at BAFTA in London on Tuesday,
Sinclair identifies the possible site of the grail as the 15th-century
Rosslyn
Chapel near Edinburgh. "Now we know where and how the crusading Knights Templar
passed their eastern wisdom on to the Freemasons of Scotland and the New World, and
where the grail may yet be found," he says.
Other historians, and the present custodians of
Rosslyn, are far from convinced.
Initial reactions to Sinclair’s thesis range from bemusement to scorn, with one
authority on medieval religion suggesting it is reminiscent of the X-Files.
The controversy centres on the hand-painted linen scroll Sinclair saw hanging in
the Masonic Lodge in Kirkwall. Using radiocarbon dating, scientists at Oxford
University gave the most probable date of its central panel as the 15th century
- when Rosslyn Chapel was built by William St Clair, third and last Prince of
Orkney.
Among Templar and Masonic emblems, Sinclair discerned a ground plan of the
Temple of Solomon, with two chambers containing the Ark of the Covenant and
other sacred relics. It matched exactly the plan of
Rosslyn Chapel, where he had
conducted an excavation of a subterranean vault seven years ago, without result.
His workmen were prevented from reaching a larger chamber by a massive wall at
least three feet thick. It is in this hidden recess that Sinclair speculates the
holy treasures of the crusading knights may lie.
The Knights Templar were one of the first military orders created to defend
Jerusalem after its capture in the first Crusade, and to protect Christian
pilgrims to the Holy City. According to Sinclair, the scroll is the missing link
between these refugee knights and Freemasons who inherited their symbols and
emblems. "It proves how the Templars contributed to the ancient Scottish rite,"
he says. "That overturns the whole of Scottish Masonic history. Its significance
is immense. "
Historians in Scotland are in no hurry to put pen to paper, however. Dr Andrew
Roach, lecturer in medieval history at Glasgow University, regards the theories
as "highly unlikely". He points out that almost four centuries elapsed between
the disappearance of the Templars and the emergence of the Masons, and he
considers the chances of a direct link between them as remote.
Roach is no more impressed by talk of buried treasure. "I think it’s sad.
Rosslyn is a fascinating historical artefact, and the fact that people keep
analysing it in terms of this nonsense distracts from what is really a fine
piece of late medieval art."
Dr Gary Dickson, of the department of medieval history at Edinburgh University,
fears Sinclair has strayed into X-Files territory. "Before you know it, you’re
going to have the Loch Ness monster, along with the Freemasons, putting in a
cameo role in an all-star performance with the
Scottish Templars."
More seriously, he adds: "The interpretation of any kind of iconography is
fraught with difficulties. Even for experts it is treacherous. If you have your
own agenda, the tendency to impose it and see what you want to see is very
great. The danger then is to make connections which do not in fact exist, and
cannot be documented. The temptation to connect everything to a great, hidden
theme that nobody has perceived before ends up in the sort of history which is a
combination of folklore and occultism."
As for the Holy Grail, the legendary receptacle of the blood of Christ, Dickson
regards it as no more than a folk tale. "It is a literary invention dating from
the 12th century. There is a whole mythology about it, but there is no proof, as
far as I know, that it ever actually existed."
Whether it did, and lies in a sealed vault at
Rosslyn, is likely to remain a
mystery - by law. Since Sinclair’s excavations, the chapel on the edge of the Esk Valley has been taken over by a private trust dedicated to its conservation
and bound by restrictions imposed by Historic Scotland.
Stuart Beattie, the project director at
Rosslyn, says they are not permitted to
remove a blade of grass from the grounds without government permission, much
less drill into subterranean caverns. "We are not in the business of being grail
hunters at the moment, although I think there are members of the trust and a lot
of the public who would like to see invasive investigations. The immediate
priority is to focus on conservation work, and then perhaps the trust might turn
its attention to more esoteric matters."
Beattie admits Rosslyn benefits from legends and myths that surround the ancient
site, which have fuelled donations for restoration work. He is sceptical about
Dr Sinclair’s claims, but is pleased to hear about them. "Rosslyn attracts a
huge number of exciting stories, and I suspect this is one more we shall enjoy.
Were we to actually find any one of the number of relics that we are supposed to
have, it would be like winning the lottery."
The mummified head of Christ is among sacred items that legends speak of being
smuggled to Rosslyn by the descendants of crusading knights. Sir Walter Scott
wrote of Knights of the Grail being buried there. Beattie speculates that the
crew of the Marie Celeste may be with them in a secret vault.
Visitors intrigued by the Kirkwall scroll may inspect a replica of it, made in
1911, which has been hanging at Rosslyn for the past two years, Robert Bird,
exhibition director at the chapel, is a great admirer of the original. "It is
mysterious, there is no doubt about it," he says, "and it is extremely rare and
historically important. But my own feeling is that it is not as old as Sinclair
suggests. Stylistically it seems to be of more recent origin."
According to an official history of the Kirkwall Masonic lodge, it may have been
the work of an 18th-century house painter by the name of William Graeme. The
book refers to a minute of a meeting on 27 January, 1786, which records that
Graeme presented the lodge with a "floor cloth" on being admitted as a member.
"It seems very likely that what we now call the Kirkwall Scroll was the floor
cloth of 1786," the book says. "Graeme, an Orcadian by birth, had been resident
in England for some years. He was a house painter by trade and it may be
feasible to suggest therefore he had a hand in the painting of it, if not in its
design."
Academic controversies over the origin and meanings of ancient artefacts are
inevitable, and the scepticism of fellow historians is unlikely to dissuade
Sinclair that he has made an important discovery. He remains convinced that if
he is ever allowed to burrow into the main vault at
Rosslyn, he will find at
least all of its Knights of the Grail, buried in their full armour. As they were
official keepers of holy relics in Scotland, he suspects the Holy Rood may be
lying with them.
Gavin Bell
Saturday, 22nd July 2000
The Scotsman
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