Available from: Lewis Masonic

About the Author

Past Grand Chaplain UGLE; Prestonian Lecturer (1974); Batham Lecturer (1996/8). The Revd Neville Barker Cryer is a well-known Masonic author and international lecturer. He is a member of the oldest Lodge in York and a Past Master and Secretary of Lodge Quatuor Coronati. Neville Cryer is also a senior member of the SRIA, The Royal Order, the Operatives and the Order of Eri. His books include: The Arch & the Rainbow, Masonic Halls of England & Wales, I Just Didn’t Know That, and York Mysteries Revealed.

About the Book

Whatever does the word 'Bauseant' mean? Why does the Malta Cross have eight points? Whatever is a Turcopolier and why do knights have an Admiral? Over the last 25 years, whilst becoming Provincial Prior in two areas, the Revd Neville Barker Cryer has produced shorter booklets providing some of the answers to these and other similar questions. So successful have they been in explaining various aspects of the degrees of Knight Templar and of Malta that it was decided to expand the number of subjects dealt with and make them available to any knight in England. Stories about the Knights Templar and their exploits abound; here is something to help Masonic knights become more informed about what they do and say.

Book-review

The origin of this book is easily told. During the time when the author was the Provincial Prior of the Knights Templar and Knights of Malta in Essex, it became clear that there were many knights who were unaware of the significance of some of the offices they held or the symbolic items which are used, or referred to, in the degree ceremonies. He therefore compiled a list of twelve items and issued a booklet that could be given to every new knight when he was admitted to the Order.

The idea proved so worthwhile that when the author was called upon to be the Provincial Prior of the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, he offered the same information to the knights there. A suggestion was then made that the twelve items should have further topics added to them and they grew to twenty-one. Subsequently, some Marshals from other Provinces asked if they could use the information. When the idea of turning the booklet into a book was accepted, it was agreed that it should consist of twenty-five sections with appropriate pictures. That is how the present work came into being.

As with other aids that the author has produced to enable Freemasons to understand and execute ceremonies of the various degrees and orders, I am sure that what has been written here will be disseminated widely and be of corporate use rather than personal benefit.

Thanks to Bro Revd Neville Barker Cryer's work, candidates and already members of these ancient forms of Christian Masonry can now entirely appreciate the antiquity and traditions of their Orders.

Bruno Virgilio Gazzo
editor, PS Review of FM