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It started as an addition to the site that was done without too very much thought. It has now taken on a life of its own it seems. When we review the listings of things folks had used our search engine for, we sometimes see things that don't immediately turn on the lightbulb over our head. Such was the case with the search for 'Spear of Longinus'
Less than two weeks after we'd written "We give up." when listing this entry, an alert surfer wrote to tell us that our ignorance about this entry was surprising to him. Luis Felipe Morales of UCLA advised:
"The Spear or Lance of Longinus is the legendary/apocryphal name given to the weapon that pierced the side of Christ, Longinus being supposed to be the name of the legionary who did the piercing. This same Longinus is often supposed to be the legionary who cried at Jesus' death, "Surely this is the Son of God!", and as such he has been raised to the status of saint, though St. Longinus is not one of the well known saints. This Lance has also shown up in Grail stories, dripping blood into the Holy Grail. It is occasionally bandied about that Adolf Hitler made attempts to find the Lance."
Mr. Morales also provided a link to a website on this subject click here. We thank him for this information but in doing further research, we must note that Mr. Morales relies on the Ravenscroft book on this subject which nearly all critics agree is some pretty wild story-telling. His co-author on a later book, Tim Wallace-Murphy, seems to have followed in his footsteps, going on to create whole cloth from the fantasy of Rosslyn. This is all part of the 'grail mythology' that started with "The Hiram Key" foolishness.
No connection, folks: sorry!
So let's be very clear: this has NOTHING TO DO WITH MASONRY!!! It's added only to show some of the odd and ironic things that you can get sucked into when you haven't done your homework completely - and assume that just because someone has written a book about it, that person knows what they're talking about.
This picture shows that Spear as it was depicted in 1175,
a thousand years after the fact. That graphic along with many
others in much more detail can be found here.
We'll resist the temptation to note what appears to be a 'mason' on the left
standing beside an obelisk. After all, according to some anti-Masons, it's only
the Masons who know about obelisks and maybe this does
prove that we go back to antiquity! 
Those
who believe that somehow an author in the mid-1980s suddenly is able to trace an
object from 2,000 years earlier might be interested in a beautiful bridge we
have for sale in the city of Brooklyn, New York!
The Fantasies
From the Philalethes magazine, we learn:
Sir Thomas Malory was an English prose writer of the fifteenth century. All that is known of him is that he was a Knight and that he finished his Morte d'Arthur in 1469. His significance as an early writer of modern English prose can hardly be exaggerated.
In chapter xvi he writes: "Then Merlin came thither and took up Balin, and gat him a good horse, for his was dead, and bade him ride my out of that country. I would have damosel, said Balin. Lo, said Merlin where she lieth dead. And King Pellam lay so, many years sore wounded, and might never be whole till Galahad the haughty prince healed him in the quest of the Sangreal, for in that place was part of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Joseph of Arimathea brought into this land, and there himself lay in that rich bed. And that was the same spear that Longius smote our Lord to the heart."
©1965. the Philalethes Society. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
And from a Mason, Jason Orton, we learn:
On the list of items people searched for on your site the Spear of Longinus inquiry can be explained thus. A few years back Fox had a series on T.V. called "The Roar". I believe one of it's stars was Heath Ledger but I may be wrong here. The show detailed the struggle of Celtic/barbarian warriors who fought the Romans in Ireland or some other part of Britania. One of the main "evil" characters was a former Roman Centurian named Longinus. Longinus (according to the show) was the Roman who put the spear into Christ and now was forced to live forever watching everyone he knew and loved grow old and die. Eventually he learned that in order to end his torment he would have to be killed by the same spear he used to stab Jesus. Anyway one of the side stories to the series was his search for this spear which he believed was somewhere in Ireland. The series was interesting but I don't recall any references to masonry. I think there was a book series that followed this same type character but I don't know if he had the same name in the book as the television series.
I don't know how the Spear relates to Masonry unless the spear was brought to Brittania by the Templars or something but it has been so long since the series was on television and I wasn't a member of the Craft then that I don't recall how it could possibly relate to Masonry. In fact I don't even know why I remember what I do remember about the series. At least now you have some idea of what the visitor to your site was searching for.
And we've also found a couple of websites that have more information on this particular topic. Check here and here. According to the latter, you can visit "...the little legend free of charge Monday through Saturday from 9am-6pm at the Hofsburg Treasure House <in Germany>, the same place Hitler first laid eyes on it." This, of course, makes a very large assumption that in fact he did. There's no concrete evidence to prove such.
However, it's now time to
say goodbye to the
spear and the stories surrounding it. Suffice it to say: it has NO connection
with Freemasonry and accordingly, it having turned up in our search inquiries
was confusing to us at first.
Thanks for your messages: PLEASE no more though....
If you want to read more about the unsubstantiated claims made by Ravenscroft, you might find this book of interest. There's a review on our site here.
Just
click on "Prince, the Search Dog" to find things on our site. He's on every page
and he'll take you directly to our search form where you can see if we've
written about whatever it is you're interested in. Prince has a great memory; he
always remembers where things are!