In 1524 the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano was sent by the French king Francis I, on an expedition ostensibly to find a shorter route to China. However, his true mission, Steven Sora suggests, was to contact a Templar colony that might have been established in Newport, Rhode Island, by Henry Sinclair at the end of the 14th century. In his expedition log Verrazano recorded that his only stay on this journey was at Newport Harbor, the site of a tower built to the exact measurements of a Templar baptistery, a sacred sanctuary representing baptism and eternal life.

This tower is a remnant of Sinclair s voyage to America nearly a century before that of Columbus (who had access to Sinclairs maps thanks to his wife, Felipa, whose brother was connected to the Sinclairs through marriage). While Verrazanos mission succeeded in finding the tower, the colony itself eluded him. His backers then decided to resurrect the dream of Acadia--a place where they could aspire to higher knowledge without fear of Church or state--by creating a new secret society that included Huguenots and Catholic Sulpicians. This Company of the Holy Sacrament would lay the foundations for Montreal in an attempt to realize the ambitions of Sinclair and his Templar companions, as well as to stave off efforts by the Jesuits to transform Quebec into a fiefdom of the orthodox Church. Quebecs motto, "Je me souviens" (I remember), is a reference to this secret history.

Table of Contents

Chronology
Notable Family Connections
The Orders

Introduction: From La Rochelle to Newport

1. Sun Gods and Sea Kings
2. The Sun, the Moon, and the Knights Templar
3. The Knights Templar: Death and Rebirth
4. From Scotland to the New World: The Templar Refuge in America
5. The Templar Trail in America
6. Columbus and the Knights of Christ
7. The Secret Mission of Verrazano
8. In Arcadia: The Templar Colony in Montreal

Epilogue: Under the Rose

Notes
Bibliography
Index

271 pages, 6 x 9, Paperback

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