The Invisible College is among the organizations that Brown lists under his heading “Fact” as one that exists. One might question the use of the present tense. The historical Invisible College is considered the legitimate birthplace of the British Royal Society as recounted by Robert Lomas, in his book The Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonary and the Birth of Modern Science (2002). In the 1640s a group of philosopher-scientists gathered to discuss, among others, the writings of Sir Francis Bacon. This informal group included Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and Robert Boyle, known for Boyle’s law on the relationship between temperature and the volume of gases. In 1662 it would become the Royal Society, an organization that continues to exist in London today. One of the members and presidents in the eighteenth century was Sir Isaac Newton, who also makes an appearance after the Dürer magic square is decoded in The Lost Symbol.
According to Langdon, the Ancient Mystery Schools of Egypt had passed knowledge along through the centuries that was ultimately “entrusted to an elite group of scientists” (127). He then rushes through past history to merge the Royal Society and the Invisible College and list among its members Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and even Benjamin Franklin. Modern “fellows” include Einstein, Hawking, Bohr, and Celsius (128). Langdon at first glance seems oblivious to time. Bacon died in 1626, Boyle in 1691. Newton wasn’t born until after Bacon died and he died in 1727, when Franklin was only twenty-one, although he had gone to London when he was seventeen. Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Niels Bohr were all twentieth century physicists, but Anders Celsius (1701–1744) was an eighteenth-century contemporary of Newton and Franklin. The mention of his name out of order might be significant. Does the association of his famous temperature scale point to a hidden clue concerning the Newton Scale, where the boiling point is 33 degrees?
Langdon’s comments notwithstanding, there is no indication that the “Invisible College,” a term apparently first used by Boyle in a letter, continued outside of, or parallel to, the Royal Society. Any group of individuals meeting to exchange information, to engage in the life of the mind, might decide to call themselves an “invisible college.” The Internet reveals that some have already done so.
Brown is likely more interested in the connections of such individuals to the occult or esoteric tradition that are numerous. Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626), a statesman, scientist, and philosopher, articulated the so-called Baconian or scientific method in his Novum Organum in 1620. He was also largely responsible for editing the famous King James Bible, the English translation still widely regarded as a masterpiece of the language. He authored The New Atlantis which introduced a utopian state that some have argued laid the foundation for a more perfect union and that influenced the American founding fathers: “The Utopian vision on which the American forefathers had allegedly modeled a new world based on ancient knowledge” (272). Coincidentally, the educational institute or college of the island is called Salomon’s House. Bacon also supported the settlement of colonies in the Americas.
Sir Francis Bacon, by John Vanderbank (1731)
Sir Isaac Newton, by Godfrey Kneller (1689)
This is where historical fact ends and speculation begins. Some have argued that Bacon actually was the author of the works of Shakespeare. Others have identified in him a Rosicrucian. In the novel Dean Galloway reinforces the legend that Bacon could have been the Rosicrucian Christian Morgenstern (321). Still others claimed that he did not die in 1626, but simply vanished and moved to the European continent. One group proclaims him as one of the Ascended Masters, a keeper of the Secret Mysteries. Langdon claims that Bacon was a Rosicrucian who penned The Wisdom of the Ancients (490). Manly Hall explicitly connects Bacon to the origins of modern-day Freemasonry:
Sir Francis Bacon was a link in that great chain of minds which has perpetuated the secret doctrine of antiquity from its beginning. This secret doctrine is concealed in his cryptic writings (Secret Teachings, 549).
We see one more reason for the fascination of Brown for Bacon: the connection with his ciphers, including the Baconian cipher that appeared in The Da Vinci Code. All of this is speculation concerning Bacon rejected by most respected historians of the Masons, who simply do not accept it as demonstrable fact. But the fiction prevails.
There is a line that connects Bacon and Isaac Newton. Thomas Jefferson considered them two of the three most brilliant men of all time. Langdon calls Newton “an alchemist, a member of the Royal Society of London, a Rosicrucian” (322). Sir Isaac Newton was the president of the Royal Society and Langdon compares his impact to that of Albert Einstein. But his writings also reveal an interest in alchemy, religion, and philosophy. Like Bacon, Newton did extensive work on the Bible, including an interpretation of the complex Book of Revelations, The Apocalypse, that is mentioned in the novel.
Bacon, Newton, and Franklin lived in a far less complicated world, where the collected printed wisdom was still of a reasonable size and scope for intelligent men to peruse and master. The distinction between scholar and scientist had not yet taken hold. A wise man knew lots about many subjects. Spiritual and scientific texts graced a single bookshelf. In the twentieth century the split had already occurred both in the amount of material and the necessity to specialize to master a subject. So it is all the more surprising to many that the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein was interested in matters spiritual and has several published comments on the mystical. The belief that there must be a reconciliation of the branches of knowledge is a major theme of the novel expressed in Katherine Solomon’s quest: “to use advanced science to rediscover the lost wisdom of the ancients” (60).
HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=2176
