The New Jerusalem

On the 2nd of September 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out. At the end of three days nearly every house, church and place of work had been utterly destroyed. The story of how the city, and most especially St. Paul's Cathedral, was rebuilt, is the stuff of legends. In this most important work, Adrian Gilbert presents evidence for a secret plan behind the rebuilding of London.

To understand this plan, it is necessary to explore a number of philosophical and religious movements that have, often in an unseen way, profoundly affected the unfolding of British history. Among the most important of these are Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, both of which were in the air at the time of London's catastrophe.

In this book Adrian Gilbert untangles the complex web created by these overlapping movements and presents a fresh analysis of what really seems to have been in the minds of Christopher Wren and his fellow members of the Royal Society when they set about the rebuilding of London. He discovers that the central idea behind their plans was that London should become a "New Jerusalem". It was this notion that prompted William Blake to compose his famous Hymn "Jerusalem", which contains the verse: "And shall we build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."

The reasoning behind this equation of London and Jerusalem is quite simple: a belief that the British nation, which includes the Welsh and Scots as well as the English, are descended from the "Lost Tribes of Israel". The origins for this idea as well as its practical outworking are explored thoroughly in a work that pulls few punches.

Today the concept of national identity is out of vogue, so that few people are aware that there is a long tradition that the British (and hence Americans, Canadians, Australians and others of the British Diaspora) are in part at least descended from the ancient Israelites. However, unfashionable or not, it cannot be denied that the belief in British-Israel greatly influenced the development of the British Empire. Its legacy is still with us today.