le to the complete
acceptance of the theory of the Templar succession exists, namely, that
although the Judaic element cannot be traced further back than the
Crusades, neither can it with certainty be pronounced to have come into
existence during the three centuries that followed after. Indeed, before
the publication of Anderson's "Constitutions" in 1723 there is no
definite evidence that the Solomonic legend had been incorporated into
the ritual of British Masonry. So although the possession of the legend
by the _compagnonnages_ of the Middle Ages would tend to prove its
antiquity, there is always the possibility that it was introduced by
some later body of adepts than the Templars. According to the partisans
of a further theory, these adepts were the Rosicrucians.

Rosicrucian Origin

One of the earliest and most eminent precursors of Freemasonry is said
to have been Francis Bacon. As we have already seen, Bacon is recognized
to have been a Rosicrucian, and that the secret philosophical doctrine
he professed was closely akin to Freemasonry is clearly apparent in his
_New Atlantis_. The reference to the "Wise Men of the Society of
Solomon's House" cannot be a mere coincidence. The choice of
Atlantis--the legendary island supposed to have been submerged by the
Atlantic Ocean in the remote past--would suggest that Bacon had some
knowledge of a secret tradition descending from the earliest patriarchs
of the human race, whom, like the modern writer Le Plongeon, he imagined
to have inhabited the Western hemisphere and to have been the
predecessors of the Egyptian initiates. Le Plongeon, however, places
this early seat of the mysteries still further West than the Atlantic
Ocean, in the region of Mayax and Yucatan.[324]

Bacon further relates that this tradition was preserved in its pure form
by certain of the Jews, who, whilst accepting the Cabala, rejected its
anti-Christian tendencies. Thus in this island of Bensalem there are
Jews "of a far differing disposition from the Jews in other parts. For
whereas they hate the name of Christ, and have a secret inbred rancour
against the people amongst whom they live; these contrariwise give unto
our Saviour many high attributes," but at the same time they believe
"that Moses by a secret Cabala ordained the laws of Bensalem which they
now use, and that when the Messiah should come and sit on His throne at
Jerusalem, the King of Bensalem should sit at His feet, whereas other