For almost seven and a half centuries, a piece of cloth was venerated because it bore the image of the crucified Christ. However, but results of carbon dating have shown that the fabric could not have predated 1260. Now new evidence conclusively proves that it is not a face...yet neither is it the image of Jesus Christ. In the follow-up to their groundbreaking first book, The Hiram Key , Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas continue their research into the mysteries of Freemasonry and the true historical Jesus, and uncover the precise time and place of the shroudÆs creation. The answer to the great mystery of the Shroud of Turin will surprise and astonish as the authors unlock the secrets of abandoned Freemason rituals and the man who would be called the Second Messiah. Christopher Knight has a degree in advertising and graphic design and is the managing director of a marketing and advertising agency. In 1976 he became a Freemason.Robert Lomas is the co-author of The Hiram Key, The Second Messiah, and Uriel's Machine. A Freemason, he lectures at Bradford University in England. Introduction In our previous book, The Hiram Key, we uncovered the early origins of Freemasonry, which showed how modern Masonic rituals have developed from those once used by the Jerusalem Church and later adopted by the famous crusader order of the Knights Templar. These warrior monks had a very strange history that started with a nine-year-long excavation of the ruins of Herod s Temple following the First Crusade and ended, nearly two hundred years later, with them being arrested as heretics. Our findings were controversial, but they were warmly received by many biblical, Templar and Masonic scholars, as well as several Catholic priests. Over the months following publication we met hundreds of Freemasons of every rank, all over England, Scotland and Wales, and we received nothing but support and congratulations from them. The notable exception to this reception was that of the United Grand Lodge of England, which did not even acknowledge the pre-publication copy of the book we sent. It appeared to consider that, as Freemasons, we had committed the sin of conducting independent research past the golden year of 1717. We had not contravened any rule of the Order, but we soon became aware of a letter sent out from Grand Lodge to the provincial grand lodges of England and Wales, giving a short and extremely disingenuous account of our findings. Shortly afterwards the worshipful master of a famous Masonic lodge attended one of our bookshop talks with the intention of gathering evidence against us, but at the end he congratulated us, bought a copy of our book and asked us to sign it for him. A constant stream of letters continued to arrive from people all over the world, many providing us with yet more supportive evidence. Some very senior Freemasons were extremely complimentary: for instance, David Sinclair Bouschor, Past Grand Master of Minnesota, was kind enough to say: The Hiram Key could spark the beginning of a reformation in Christian thinking and a reconsideration of the facts , which we have so blindly accepted and perpetuated for generations. This book is a must for freethinkers. Another American, a Doctor of Divinity, who we perhaps should not name, wrote to us saying: I am a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason, Master of my lodge 3 times, Past Wise Master of Rose Croix, a member of The Order of Amaranth and a Shiner, in addition I am an ordained minister in the Reformed Baptist Church. All this experience and education did not prepare me for the material contained in your book. If I had not been searching for our ancient origins and had the courage to look outside the dogmas of the establishments, perhaps I would not have finished reading The Hiram Key, however, I was, I did and I too find your data totally acceptable to what I have found. This has led me to believe that perhaps there is some truth to the accusations leveled against Masonry that only the top (HIGH) degrees know the truth . This last comment was particularly fascinating because, as far as we know, there is only one degree higher than the 32degree to which this gentleman belongs. Could there be a secret so great that only a handful of Freemasons know it? Perhaps, we thought, this great secret has been lost and now needs to be rediscovered. The situation was far too intriguing to ignore. We knew for certain that Freemasonry had developed the rituals used by the Jerusalem Church and the Knights Templar and it seemed likely that the United Grand Lodge of England had either lost contact with its own origins or it was deliberately concealing something very big indeed even from its own officers. Its determination to prevent discussion about anything outside of its official doctrine was very different from every other grand lodge that we know of, and we decided that our researches must continue. When we set out on our quest, six key questions lay before us: 1