The Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science by Robert Lomas
Published by Headline Books, London, UK. 2003
Paperback: 384 pages
In 1660, within a few months of the restoration of Charles II, a group of 12 men, including Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren, met in London to set up a society to study the mechanisms of nature. At a time when superstition and magic governed reason, the repressive dogma of Christian belief silenced many, and where post-war loyalties ruined careers, these men forbade the discussion of religion and politics at their meetings.
The Royal Society was born and with it modern, experimental science.
This book is a study of the turbulent political, economic and religious background to the formation of the Royal Society - an era of war against the Dutch, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London.
It aims to make readers reassess many of the key events of this period, showing how Freemasonry, supported by Charles II, was the guiding force behind the birth of modern science, under the cover of the Royal Society.
During the research for the ‘Invisible College’, author Robert Lomas reached a stage in his inquiry where he was haunted by a single shadowy figure. His name was Sir Robert Moray. This man kept popping up at every turn of Robert’s research. He seemed to have been involved in almost every key event that formed the ‘Society for Promoting Philosophical Knowledge by Experiment” He was the driving force behind turning it into a royal club. If author, Lomas, was ever to understand why the Royal Society was born he knew that he needed to discover more about Sir Robert Moray. It seems that the Royal Society was Moray’s brain child; his influence was far more than any other single person.
Lomas’s index and ‘endnotes’ supplements indicates a great deal of study and research to secure evidence of his theories that questions the various myths that have circulated about the ‘secrets’ of Freemasonary. Lomas’s theories about the origins of Freemasonary have even caused controversy among Masonic historians. Unlike Dan Brown’s latest book ‘The Lost Symbol’ which is a page-turning brain candy thriller, ‘The Invisible College” does not accentuate a thriller’s ride into history with inaccurate interpretations of lost symbols. It could be better compared with Simon Winchester’s Book,
The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Like Lomas, Winchester is haunted by two distinguished clever men in the pursuit of the compilation of the Oxford Dictionary. And Like Lomas, Winchester uses the romantic nature of his writing to create and fictionalise the nature of his main character to work his storytline. This is perhaps why Lomas’s writing can be dubbed as being ‘pseudo-history’ and ‘even fiction’.
From a reader’s perspective the written style is logically presented and language is easily understandable. Dr Robert Lomas lectures in engineering at Bradford University, and was involved in the early development of personal computers. He is the author of many bestselling books, including international bestsellers on Freemasonry such as
The Hiram Key and
Uriel's Machine.
Reviewed by : Heloise
