The Brotherhood
A classic and highly controversial exposé of the secret world of the Freemasons reissued with an introduction by Martin Short, author of ‘Inside the Brotherhood’.The Freemasons have long fascinated outsiders. The subject of Dan Brown’s new novel – set for release in 2007 – this secret and exclusive society, thought to be the largest in Britain today, remains a mystery to the many excluded from its ranks. One would never know if a father or brother was a member due to the mandatory vow of secrecy.In this classic, controversial exposé, Stephen Knight talks to the men on the inside – those who have broken their vow of secrecy to reveal the darker side of the ‘brotherhood’. Do they influence the law? Is the KGB involved? And is there is a secret group of Masons running the country today, perhaps influencing every move we make?Now with an introduction by Martin Short, acclaimed author of ‘Inside the Brotherhood’, this is the unmissable, true story of an ancient, and mysterious brotherhood operating in our midst.
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STEPHEN KNIGHT
The Brotherhood
The Secret World of the Freemasons
With a new foreword by
MARTIN SHORT
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This edition published by Harper Perennial 2007
First published in Great Britain by Granada Publishing 1983
Copyright © Stephen Knight 1983
Foreword © Martin Short 2007
Stephen Knight asserts the moral right
to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007246298
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007370726 Version: 2017-05-02
For Ma and Pa, with love
Contents
PART ONE: WORKERS’ GUILD TO SECRET SOCIETY
4 Across the Seas and Down the Centuries
8 Worshipful Masters of Conspiracy
PART THREE: INSIDE INFORMATION
As the author of the sequel to The Brotherhood, I am proud to be mistaken sometimes for Stephen Knight. This honour has its drawbacks. Recently I came across a Masonic website revealing that in 2004 the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (otherwise known as the Duke of Kent) received a letter from a non-Mason containing these words:
I admire your decision in 2003 not to ‘cut the throats’ of your members who disclose the Masonic secrets, although this did not help Martin Short (author of Inside the Brotherhood) who unfortunately died of a brain tumour as reported in the press, even though we both know ‘you’ authorised his murder as well as hundreds of other innocent people’s.
Reports of my death are exaggerated but for Stephen Knight they are true to this extent: he did die of a brain tumour in 1985, a little over a year after his explosive exposure of Freemasonry was published.
Four years later, in Inside the Brotherhood, I gave a detailed account of his death, so readers could decide for themselves if he had died from natural causes or a Masonic conspiracy, as was widely rumoured at the time. For some people this remains a matter of intense curiosity. I have learned nothing since to alter what I said then: His troubles began in 1977 when he had an epileptic fit. He had a brain scan which was interpreted as revealing a ‘cerebral infarct’: a small dead area of the brain which might have been caused many years earlier when he had been accidentally hit with a cricket bat. This condition is not necessarily dangerous but it might have been the cause of the epilepsy. In the next three years Stephen suffered many epileptic attacks until they were striking every six weeks.
He had been told to have another scan but did not have £100 to pay for it. However, in 1980 he spotted a newspaper advertisement for guinea-pigs to help with a BBC Horizon programme on epilepsy. He volunteered and was tested on a new brain-scan machine which revealed a cerebral tumour: a malignant cancer which, if untreated, would certainly kill him. Horizon captured this awful moment on film. With Stephen’s full accord his fight for survival now became the programme’s main theme. He promptly underwent a biopsy which removed 70 per cent of the tumour. He was told the rest could be treated with radiation and he had a good chance of full recovery. The epilepsy ceased. Stephen took this to mean the illness was over, and got on with the rest of his life. When I met him in 1981 he was recovering well physically and was in good mental form.
