The invisible college - Robert Lomas

In 1660, within a few months of the restoration of Charles II, a group of twelve 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.

THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE is a fascinating 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 will make you reassess many of the key events of this period and will show how Freemasonry, supported by Charles II, was the guiding force behind the birth of modern science, under the cover of the Royal Society.