Originally published: London: Headline, 2002. Includes bibliographical references and index.

In 1660 a small group of men, led by Sir Robert Moray, met in London with a secret plan to reshape the world. They were members of the ?Invisible College?, better known today as the FreemasonsEmerging from the horrors of the Civil War, Britain was a society torn apart by political difference, religious ferment and was still immersed in medieval superstition. It was a country which burnt alive at least one hundred elderly women a year on suspicion of witchcraft. Yet this group, who had recently been sworn enemies, managed to bridge their social and cultural differences to found a new organization dedicated to the scientific study of nature, the Royal Society.Robert Lomas reveals in compelling detail how the secret tenets and traditions of the Freemasons laid the groundwork for a new revolution, that gave the world modern, experimental science and founded what is still, 350 years later, the pre-eminent scientific institution in the world.