The Church wasn’t their only enemy the secrecy of the masons garnered such distrust in early America that it inspired America’s first “third party”: The Anti-Masonic Party. In 1985, Roman Catholic Bishops restated over 200 years’ worth of these strictures in the face of an increased number of Catholics joining the order. The Church first condemned the Freemasons in 1738 and has gone on to issue around 20 decrees against them. Freemason Beliefsįreemasonry is not a religion, though members are encouraged to believe in a Supreme Being, or 'Grand Architect of the Universe.” Masonic temples and secret rituals have brought them into conflict with the Catholic Church. Freemasonry quickly spread across Europe and to the American colonies. The earliest reference to masons is in the Regius Poem, or Halliwell Manuscript, which was published in 1390, but Freemasonry, as we know it today, was founded in 1717, when four London lodges merged to form England’s first Grand Lodge. At the apex of their power, the Knights Templar owned the island of Cyprus, a fleet of ships and lent money to kings. Their influence swelled to a new high in 1139 when Pope Innocent II issued a Papal Bull exempting them from paying taxes… and decreeing that the only authority they had to answer to was the Pope. They became one of the most wealthy and powerful forces in Europe after setting up a bank that allowed pilgrims to deposit money in their home countries and withdraw it in the Holy Land. The Knights Templar were known for more than their military prowess and moral lifestyle. Headquartered at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, members pledged to live a life of chastity, obedience and poverty, abstaining from gambling, alcohol and even swearing. The military order was founded around 1118 when Hugues de Payens, a French knight, created the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon-or The Knights Templar for short. The Knights Templar were warriors dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The Ivy League school, which is not affiliated with the society, did not return a reporter's call.Here are the real stories behind history’s most exclusive secret societies. Efforts to reach a society member or a representative of its business arm, the Russell Trust Association, through a Yale spokesman were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, the society's secrecy remained intact. Bonesmen swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which include initiation rites such as confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull. Skull and Bones invites 15 Yale seniors to join each year. chief justice in 1874 and William Maxwell Evarts, who served as U.S.

It contains the names and photographs of about 50 Bonesmen, including Taft, who became the 27th president of the United States Morrison Remick Waite, who became U.S.

The skull is being sold with a black book, inscribed with Owen's name, the year 1872 and the numeral 322, a reference to the society's year of inception and to the death of the orator Demosthenes in 322 B.C. I think it will generate interest for people who are former Bonesmen, people who collect Americana, people who are interested in history.' 'It's an intriguing story tied to America, tied to Yale. 'I think it's a macabre artifact,' Margot Rosenberg, head of Christie's American decorative arts department, said Tuesday. John Kerry, businessman and diplomat Averell Harriman, publisher Henry Luce and author and commentator William F. Publicly known members, known as Bonesmen, include President William Howard Taft, both presidents Bush, Massachusetts Sen. Prior to that time, the group published an annual roster. Skull and Bones, an elite society founded in 1832, has closely guarded its members' names and its activities since the early 1970s. The auction house said it also may have been displayed at the society's tomblike headquarters on Yale's campus in New Haven, Conn., during the late 1800s. The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the famous society's meetings.

Skull and bones 322