[topsail]

A very interesting book about the Knights Templar and Robert the Bruce is "The Temple And The Lodge" by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.

From the back cover:

Dispelling myth and reevaluating European and American history, The Temple and the Lodge is the most illuminating investigation yet published into the evolution of Freemasonry. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh recount the events that led to the strange and sudden disappearance of the Knights Templar in the fourteenth century and their reappearance in the court of excommunicate Scotish king Robert the Bruce.

Theorizing, and documenting, the survival of Templar traditions through the birth of the Masonic lodge, the authors chart the history of Freemasonry through its medieval roots and into the modern era. They demonstrate the order's contribution to the fostering of tolerance, progressive values, and cohesion in English society, which helped to preempt a French-style revolution in England. In addition, they show how Freemasonry contributed to the formation of the United States as an embodiment of the ideal "Masonic Republic."

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The Templars also operated a large fleet of ships which disappeared and were never accounted for. Their flag was said to be the "Skull and crossbones"!

Topsail, Scottish Rite.

[curmudgeonII]

My understanding is that there is a medieval statue in Rosslyn Castle in Scotland which has a standing Knight Templar with his hand on the shoulder of a kneeling [praying?] stone mason. I have no idea if this is symbolic of the passage of enlightenment from the Templars to stone masons [which at the time, of course, also included architects], but it is worthy of speculation.

You are probably aware that the oldest written record of masonry is one of the Ancient Constitutions which goes back to the 1300's, although there is a reference in it to masonic activity prior to the year 1000.