Holy Blood, Holy Grail

Holy Blood, Holy Grail

by

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln

HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL

PART ONE
The Mystery 21

1 Village of Mystery 23

Rennes-leChateau and Berenger Sauniere 24

The Possible Treasures 32

The Intrigue 37

2 The Cathars and the Great Heresy 41

The Albigensian Crusade 42

The Siege of Montsegur 49

The Cathar Treasure 51

The Mystery of the Cathars 56

3 The Warrior Monks 59

Knights Templar The Orthodox Account 60

Knights Templar The Mysteries 75

Knights Templar- The Hidden Side 83

4 Secret Documents 94

PART TWO
The Secret Society 109

The Order Behind the Scenes 111

The Mystery Surrounding the Foundation of the Knights Templar 116

Louis VII and the Prieure de Sion 119

The Cutting of the Elm’ at Gisors 120

5 Ormus 123 The Prieure at Orleans 126

The “Head’ of the Templars 128

The Grand Masters of the Templars 129

6 The Grand Masters and the Underground Stream 133

Rene d’Anjou 138

Rene and the Theme of Arcadia 140

The Rosicrucian Manifestos 144

The Stuart Dynasty 148

Charles Nodier and His Circle 154

Debussy and the Rose-Croix 158

Jean Cocteau 161

The Two John XXIIIs 164

7 Conspiracy through the Centuries 168

The Prieure de Sion in France 170

The Dukes of Guise and Lorraine 173

The Bid for the Throne of France 176

The Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement 178

- 1 -

Chateau Barberie 183

Nicolas Fouquet 185

Nicolas Poussin 187

Rosslyn Chapel and Shugborough Hall 190

The Pope’s Secret Letter 192

The Rock of Sion 192

The Catholic Modernist Movement 194

The Protocols of Sion 198

The Hieron du Val d’Or 203

8 The Secret Society Today 209

Alain Poher 212

The Lost King 213

Curious Pamphlets in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 216

The Catholic Traditionalists 219

The Convent of 1981 and Cocteau’s Statutes 223

M. Plantard de Saint-Clair 230

The Politics of the Prieure de Sion 237

9 The Long-haired Monarchs 245

Legend and the Merovingians 245

The Bear from Arcadia 249

The Sicambrians Enter Gaul 250

Merovee and His Descendants 251

Blood Royal 253

Clovis and His Pact with the Church 254

Dagobert II 257

The Usurpation by the Carolingians 265

The Exclusion of Dagobert II from History 269

Prince Guillem de Gellone, Comte de Razes 271

Prince Ursus 274

The Grail Family 277

The Elusive Mystery 281

10 The Exiled Tribe 282

PART THREE
The Bloodline 293

11 The Holy Grail 295

The Legend of the Holy Grail 297

The Story of Wolfram von Eschenbach 306

The Grail and Cabalism 318

The Play on Words 319

The Lost Kings and the Grail 321

The Need to Synthesise 324

Our Hypothesis 328

12 The Priest-King Who Never Ruled 331

Palestine at the Time of Jesus 338

The History of the Gospels 343

The Marital Status of Jesus 346

- 2 -

The Wife of Jesus 349

The Beloved Disciple 355

The Dynasty of Jesus 362

The Crucifixion 366

Who was Barabbas? 368

The Crucifixion in Detail 371

The Scenario 377

13 The Secret the Church Forbade 379

The Zealots 389

The Gnostic Writings 399

14 The Grail Dynasty 405

Judaism and the Merovingians 409

The Principality in Septimania 412

The Seed of David 419

15 Conclusion and Portents for the Future 421

Postscript 439

Appendix The Alleged Grand Masters of the Prieure de Sion 441

Bibliography 467

Notes and References 481

Index 517 Illustrations

Plates

I The village of Rennes-le Chateau 2 The Chateau d’Hautpoul 3 Berenger Sauniere 4 The Villa Bethania 5 The Visigothic pillar in the church at

Rennes-le

Chateau 6 The inscribed calvary near the entrance of the church at Rennes-leChateau 7 The Tour Magdala, Rennes-leChateau 8 The Cathar castle of Montsegur 9 A fifteenth-century print of Jerusalem 10 The Tomb of David, Abbey of Notre Dame duMont de Sion, Jerusalem 11 The Temple, Jerusalem 12 The octagonal tower of the castle of Gisors 13 The sea wall of the castle of Athlit, Palestine 14 The church of the Knights Templar, London 15 Interior of the Temple church, London 16 a Seal of the Abbey of Notre Dame duMont de Sion b Seal of the Knights Templar 17 The Abbey of Orval 18 The tomb near Arques 19 “La Fontaine de Fortune’, by Rene d’Anjou 20 “Et in Arcadia Ego’, by Guercino 21 “Et in Arcadia Ego’, by Poussin 22 “Les Bergers d’Arcadie,” by Poussin 23

“The Shepherds’ Monument’, Shugborough Hall 24 A seventeenth-century Masonic tomb 25 The trepanned skull of Dagobert II 26 Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair 27 Sword hilt and scabbard found at the grave of Childeric I 28 The crystal ball found in Childeric’s grave 29 The gold bees found in Childeric’s grave 30 Garway church, Herefordshire 31

Graffiti on the piscina, Garway church 32 Jewish coin from the time of Antiochus

- 3 -

VII

33 Window at Alet Cathedral 34 A fifteenth-century illumination depicting fleur-de lys 35 Untitled painting of Godfroi de

Bouillon, by Claude

Vignon

Maps

1 The major sites of investigation in France 2 Rennes-leChateau and its environs 3 The Languedoc of the Cathars 4The major castles and towns of the Holy Land in the mid-twelfth century 5Jerusalem the Temple and the area of Mount Sion in the mid-twelfth century 6 The Duchy of Lorraine in the mid-sixteenth century 7 The Merovingian kingdoms 8 Judaea, showing the only avenue of escape for the

Tribe of Benjamin 9 Palestine at the time of Jesus 10 The Jewish princedom

Genealogies

1 The dukes of Guise and Lorraine 2 The Merovingian dynasty the kings 3

The Merovingian dynasty the counts of Razes 4 The Merovingian dynasty the lost kings 5 The families of Gisors, Payen and Saint-Clair

- 4 -

Figures

1 The Plantard family crest 2 The cover design of the novel, Circuit 3

The coat of arms of Rennes-leChdteau 4 The official device of the

- 5 -

Prieure de Sion

Acknowledgments

We should like particularly to thank Ann Evans, without whom this book could not have been written. We should also like to thank the following: Jehan 1”Ascuiz, Robert Beer, Ean Begg, Dave Bennett, Colin Bloy, Juliet Burke,

Henri Buthion, Jean-Luc Chaumeil, Philippe de Cherisey, Jonathan Clowes,

Shirley Collins, Chris Cornford, Painton Cowan, Roy Davies, Liz Flower,

Janice Glaholm, John Glover, Liz Greene, Margaret Hill, Renee Hinchley, Judy

Holland, Paul Johnstone, Patrick Lichfield, Douglas Lockhart, Guy Lovel,

Jane McGillivray, Andrew MaxwellHyslop, Pam Morris, Lea Olbinson, Pierre

Plantard de Saint-Clair, Bob Roberts, David Rolfe, John Saul, Gerard de

Sede, Rosalie Siegel, John Sinclair, Jeanne Thomason, Louis Vazart, Colin

Waldeck, Anthony Wall, Andy Whitaker, the staff of the British Museum Reading Room and the residents of Rennes-leChateau.

Photographs were kindly supplied by the following: AGRACI, Paris, 35; Archives Nationales, Paris, 16a; Michael Baigent, London, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31, 33; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 27, 28, 29; Michel Bouffard, Carcassonne, 4; W. Braun, Jerusalem, 11, 13;

British Library, London, 9, 16b, 34; British Museum, London (reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum), 32; Courtauld Institute of

Art, London, 10; Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth (reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement), 21; Jean Dieuzaide/YAN photo, Toulouse, 8; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome, 20; Patrick Lichfield, London, 23; Henry Lincoln, London, 3;

Musee du

Louvre, Paris, 22; Ost. Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, 19;

Permission to quote extracts in copyright was granted by: Le Charivari magazine, Paris for material from issue no. 18, “Les Archives du Prieure de

- 6 -

Sion’; Victor Gollancz, London and Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc, New York for specified material on pp. 334-36 from pp. 14-17 in The Secret Gospel by Morton Smith copyright 1973 by Morton Smith; Random House, Inc.” New York for material from

Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, translated by Helen Mustard and Charles

- 7 -

E. Passage, copyright 1961 by Helen Mustard and Charles Passage.

Introduction

In 1969, en route for a summer holiday in the Cevennes, I made the casual purchase of a paperback. Le Tresor Maudit by Gerard de Sede was a mystery story a lightweight, entertaining blend of historical fact, genuine mystery and conjecture. It might have remained consigned to the post-holiday oblivion of all such reading had I not stumbled upon a curious and glaring omission in its pages.

The “accursed treasure’ of the title had apparently been found in the 1890s by a village priest through the decipherment of certain cryptic documents unearthed in his church.

Although the purported texts of two of these documents were reproduced, the “secret messages’ said to be encoded within them were not. The implication was that the deciphered messages had again been lost. And yet, as I found, a cursory study of the documents reproduced in the book reveals at least one concealed message. Surely the author had found it. In working on his book he must have given the documents more than fleeting attention. He was bound, therefore, to have found what I had found. Moreover the message was exactly the kind of titillating snippet of “proof’ that helps to sell a “pop’

paperback. Why had M. de Sede not published it?

During the ensuing months the oddity of the story and the possibility of further discoveries drew me back to it from time to time. The appeal was that of a rather more than usually intriguing crossword puzzle with the added curiosity of de Slide’s silence. As I caught tantalising new glimpses of layers of meaning buried within the text of the documents, I began to wish I could devote more to the mystery of Rennes-leChateau than mere moments snatched from my working life as a writer for television. And so, in the late autumn of 1970, I presented the story as a possible documentary subject to the late Paul Johnstone,

- 8 -

executive producer of the BBC’s historical and archaeological series

“Chronicle’.

Paul saw the possibilities, and I was dispatched to France to talk to de Sede and explore the prospects for a short film.

During Christmas week of 1970 I met de Sede in Paris. At that first meeting, I asked the question which had nagged at me for more than a year, “Why didn’t you publish the message hidden in the parchments? “His reply astounded me.

“What message?”

It seemed to me inconceivable that he was unaware of this elementary message. Why was he fencing with me? Suddenly I found myself reluctant to reveal exactly what I had found. We continued an elliptical verbal fencing match for a few minutes. It thus became apparent that we were both aware of the message. I repeated my question, “Why didn’t you publish it?” This time de Sede’s answer was calculated, “Because we thought it might interest someone like you to find it for yourself.”

That reply, as cryptic as the priest’s mysterious documents, was the first clear hint that the mystery of RennesleChateau was to prove much more than a simple tale of lost treasure.

With my director, Andrew Maxwell-Hyslop, I began to prepare a

“Chronicle’ film in the spring of 1971. It was planned as a simple twenty-minute item for a magazine programme. But as we worked de Sede began to feed us further fragments of information. First came the full text of a major encoded message, which spoke of the painters Poussin and Teniers. This was fascinating. The cipher was unbelievably complex. We were told it had been broken by experts of the French Army Cipher Department, using computers. As I studied the convolutions of the code, I became convinced that this explanation was, to say the least, suspect. I checked with cipher experts of British Intelligence. They agreed with me. “The cipher does not present a valid problem for a computer,” The code was unbreakable. Someone, somewhere, must have the key.

And then de Sede dropped his second bombshell. A tomb resembling that in Poussin’s famous painting, “Les Bergers d’Arcadie’, had been found. He would send details “as soon as he had them’. Some days later the photographs arrived, and it was clear that our short film on a small local mystery had begun to assume unexpected dimensions. Paul decided

- 9 -

to abandon it and committed us to a full-length “Chronicle’ film. Now there would be more time to research and more screen time to explore the story.