Charles A. Blanchard (1848–1925)

This book was hard to find. Revised Knight Templarism Illustrated is a must-have for any York Rite Mason who is serious about studying the history of Masonic ritual. Other "monitors" or exposes, like Duncans, are prevalent, but "Illustrated" contains many tid-bits and details not available in any other expose of which I am familiar, including much information that has fallen into complete disuse in the craft today.

Contrary to the title of the book, it contains not only the ceremonies of the Knight Templar Orders, but also a comprehensive section on the degrees of Cryptic Masonry (Select Master, Royal Master, and Super-Excellent Master.) It comes from the time period when Royal Master and Select Master hadn't found their permanent arrangement in the degree system (a problem which the Order of the Temple and the Order of Malta also shared at this time, and are thus reversed from their modern order in this volume.)

Although many illustrations are recycled from other publications, there is much original material here. The introduction is very anti-masonic and makes all the usual ludicrous claims, but the ritual content appears to be un-tampered with aside from snide remarks in a footnote here or there.… (meer)