There are fashions in these things - look at Tutmania in the early/mid 1900s. People devise their systems derivatively, from what is in common culture at the time or, as graduates of the Grand Tour, in a mishmash of cultural references that act as dog whistles to alert others of the same class.
Compare The Templars with other orders. Which bits do you think are not explainable except by
Ancient Knowledge (for want of a better term) ? The Templar order was disbanded because of changing politics, with the Pope as a player, and a need for cash. It's a pattern that keeps repeating - look at Henry 8 and the windfalls from the monasteries.
Why do you think that the stone and brick guys in mediaeval europe come from Sufism rather than, say, Greece, Carthage, Rome, Byzantium, the Rhine civilsations and, god help us, even what is now the UK? Humans develop skills based on what is needed and what they have to meet that need.
what is your evidence that they did? They aren't Masons in the sense of mystical people on chequerboard floors and Dan Brown. I know there are people who think that Dan Brown is a text book but it truly is fiction after all
We even know who some of these people were, and can track their careers from the sites they worked on. Really need you to define dates here.
except that they are part of a continuous tradition of the architecture of temporal power and fit perfectly into the social, religious, economic and political context. I am at a loss why you think they appear out of nowhere.
I know about lots of things: I am an elderly academic and my period of interest is mediaeval western europe so I have lots of time to study up on all this AND to read beyond and around the subject to see if there is anything odd going on that needs to be brought into the synthesis. From the Pirenne Thesis onwards the role of Islam in the growth of the West is well known. What I have seen no evidence for is a mystical secret society of revered masters etc etc etc. Which is a shame because that would be more fun than tracing the way population growth supports urbanism and leads to the possibility of non-subsistence labour in enough quantity to make a difference.
cause or effect? I suggest that it is rather easy to look at the snapshot now and interpret it as inevitable, rather than being a result of happenstance and disceranable mundande forces. Look at the site of the religio-temporal complex of the City of Durham. Unruly populace, William 1 needing both to reward supporters and also to cow the north. The great Harrowing was one of his first ats having taken power inthe south.
Again, I'm coming back to dates. Durham Cathedral (which really needs to be considered together with the Castle) is the third site chosen for the concept, and wouldn't have happened at all in the same way had the first not met with disaster. Or
Vikings as they are also known. The site was in use before the politics of the situation led to the perfection of the Norman Church - where does this use fit into the idea that cathedrals arise from nowhere?
So no bias there then? roflmao! All humans behave in inhumane ways to each other - it's What We Do, perhaps our defining characteristic as a species. As for syncretism, there's the very famous quotation (which has completely escaped me at the moment, maybe someone else can find it? pretty please?????) where a church elder instructs the missionaries on how to interact with current and ancient sites of non-christian worship. Dammit! I just can't remember.
I'm afraid that on planet Frides the fact that the genesis and development of the PoS can be tracked through the history and literature of the times, including academic spats and rivalries means that I can't subscribe to it existing in the form people seem to want it to.
But humans seem to need to make up secret societies and to populate them, for a variety of reasons. We need to ascribe age and antedents to claim respectability - look at Gardnerian Wicca for example (which is nothing to do with its validity as a belief system for those people it works for), and the claiming of empire by Henry 8 harking back to a real Arthurian court. YMMV of course.
It is a pleasure to be chewing over this with a well informed person of views almost diametrical to my own - long may we both flourish!
Vivat Forteana!