The Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science

by RobertLomas (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.24

  Until the sixteenth century, people believed in magic as a way of explaining how the world worked. Indeed Queen Elizabeth I had a court magician, John Dee. However during the reign of the Stuart kings magic was killed and science took its place. This change came about because a group of men met in London and decided to set up a society to study the mechanisms of nature. Yet the men who founded this society in 1660 - including Robert Moray, Christopher Wren, Elias Ashmole and John Evelyn - were not only the first scientists but the last sorcerers, performing chemical experiments with powdered Unicorn horn...They had also fought on different sides in the Civil War. The story of how they came together comes as a revelation and will change your view of history and science forever.

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.24

  In 1660, within a few months of the restoration of Charles II, a group of 12 men, including Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren, met in London to set up a society to study the mechanisms of nature. At a time when superstition and magic governed reason, the repressive dogma of Christian belief silenced many, and where post-war loyalties ruined careers, these men forbade the discussion of religion and politics at their meetings. The Royal Society was born and with it modern, experimental science. This book is a study of the turbulent political, economic and religious background to the formation of the Royal Society - an era of war against the Dutch, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. It aims to make readers reassess many of the key events of this period, showing how Freemasonry, supported by Charles II, was the guiding force behind the birth of modern science, under the cover of the Royal Society.