Priory of Sion Misconceptions

Containing References

VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING on the Internet about the Priory of Sion can be described as pure hokum that cannot be treated seriously. The various accounts found on all the websites are all similar to each other and are mostly plagiarisms of the accounts found in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail [1] and in The Messianic Legacy [2], and one is led to believe that the whole world is composed of Flat Earthers who do not want to accept the evidence of the Hubble Telescope (Plantard was a proven charlatan and forger who lived in a world of his own [3]). Authors Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh were obviously not competent 'critics' in the basic sense of what is expected from objective historical research and merely took all the Pierre Plantard gobbledygook seriously – if Plantard claimed that the Priory of Sion was linked to world politics, an ‘American contingent’, the Kreisau Circle, the Knights of Malta and the Vatican, with Roberto Calvi, etc, then this was all ‘historical fact’ and not the twisted aberrations of some fantasist.

There are a couple of exceptions to this unfortunate situation, and one of these exceptions contains basic mistakes. Robert Richardson's The Priory of Sion Hoax, an abridged version of The Unknown Treasure: the Priory of Sion Fraud and the Spiritual Treasure of Rennes-le-Château (Houston, TX: NorthStar, 1998) sets out to debunk all the lies, the myths, and the legends and to ‘finally prove’ that everything about the Priory of Sion was a waste of time.

Robert Richardson's well-intended debunking contains allegations that need to be debunked. Richardson claimed, for example, that the Alpha Galates – the 1940s precursor of the Priory of Sion – was ‘founded by Georges Monti’. Closer inspection of Richardson's article reveals that he could not have read a single issue of Vaincre, the wartime journal of the Alpha Galates edited by Pierre de France-Plantard, because nowhere in Vaincre is it claimed that the founder of the Order was Georges Monti. What Richardson's article reveals however, is that he got his ‘information’ – which he seems to have uncritically accepted - from Gérard de Sède's 1988 book, Rennes-le-Château – Le Dossier, Les Impostures, Les Phantasmes, Les Hypothèses. Gérard de Sède in turn claimed to have got his ‘information’ from the ‘diaries of Émile Hoffet in 1966’ that he was not allowed to take photocopies of (here Gérard de Sède had obviously gotten himself into the habit of copying Plantard's methods of creating fantasies, and de Sède too seems not to have read a single issue of Vaincre).

Georges Monti is only ever mentioned once in the entire 6 issues of Vaincre – in an article by the conservative Right-Winger Professor Louis Le Fur. Le Fur mentioned how in a state of distress following the events of 6 February 1934, he was advised by his friend Le Comte de Moncharville to see Georges Monti for spiritual and political guidance [4].

Quoting the alleged words of Le Comte de Moncharville to Louis Le Fur: "My dear friend, this moment was ordained for you, because from now on you won’t be able to continue your efforts alone - your path is now the same as my path, so write on my behalf to my friend Georges Monti, a man of great ability."

Le Fur went on to describe how he became a member of the Alpha Galates six months later as a consequence of his meeting with Georges Monti.

Georges Monti died in 1936. The Statutes of the Alpha Galates are dated 1937. Georges Monti could have lived his entire life without ever knowing about the existence of the Alpha Galates. The very first issue of Vaincre contains an article by Jean Falloux introducing the Ideal of the Order, revealing how it had been recently founded in 1942 by Pierre de France, and who had previously in 1937 been responsible for founding another Order called 'The French Union' [5]. The article by Louis Le Fur that described his becoming a member of the Alpha Galates in 1934 appeared in Vaincre issue number 4 – the historical pedigree of the Order obviously became more and more ancient with every successive issue of the journal (the Order's history also became involved with Atlantis and the Druids in other later issues of Vaincre).

The events of 6 February 1934 mentioned by Louis Le Fur seem crucial. That same date was given prominence in another article found in Vaincre, linked with anti-semitism ("Preparations for the coming of Hitler to France had been going on since 1934, following the setback of 6 February...") [6].

It was a key date in France in relation to the Right Wing. It referred to the ‘Stavisky Affair’. Riots in Paris were staged on 6 February 1934 by the Right Wing (and Monarchists) in opposition to the Radical Socialist government which they accused of having corrupt dealings with a Russian Jew named Serge Alexandre Stavisky – who had been caught dealing in financial fraud in 1933 and then escaped – and following his capture and death in January 1934, the Right had accused the Police of killing Stavisky in order to cover-up the involvement of government officials in the scandal. A long trial in 1935-1936 acquitted all those accused of being involved in the scandal which placed French politics in total disrepute [7].

That the Alpha Galates were anti-semitic in nature is specified in Article Seven of their Statutes: "The Order is rigorously closed to Jews and to any member who is recognised as belonging to a Judaeo-Masonic order." [8]

The part stating "belonging to a Judeo-Masonic order" is a reference to the Grand Orient – the French Masonic Body that was accused by the Right of causing the French Revolution and the downfall of the French Monarchy through the manipulations of Adam Weishaupt (a German Jew) following the Masonic Congress of Wilhemsbad in 1782, which was responsible for introducing rationalism into Freemasonry [9]. This created the Tradition of the Grand Occident in France (the word ‘Occident’ is frequently found in the pages of Vaincre) – involving Right Wing Roman Catholicism, anti-semitism and Counter-Revolutionary objectives in general – this Tradition manifested itself into Orders of Chivalric Knighthoods in France by World War Two following the dissolution of French Freemasonry and the Grand Orient by Marshal Pétain in 1940.

Pierre Plantard's main thrust lay in the field of genealogies, not in surrealism, and in his claim to be descended from Dagobert II [10]. Plantard was a Merovingian Pretender and Philippe de Chérisey assisted Plantard with his deceptions – and because Philippe de Chérisey was a lover of surrealism he decorated his support for Plantard in surrealist form. That's all it amounts to. The "parchments" we know were concocted by Philippe de Chérisey at the request of Pierre Plantard [11] – and Philippe de Chérisey was entitled to a share of the profits from the sales of Gérard de Sède's 1967 book L'Or de Rennes for providing the "parchments". The book contract contains the name of Philippe de Chérisey [12].

Pierre Plantard was later bitten badly for creating his deceptions. During the 1980s he claimed that Roger-Patrice Pelat had been a ‘Grand Master of the Priory of Sion’. [13] This claim was to catch up with him. During the 1990s, when the French Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre began investigating the financial scandals involving Roger-Patrice Pelat (linked to President Mitterand) he had to order the search of Plantard's house as part of those investigations because of his claims concerning Pelat [14] – Plantard was given a severe warning in 1993 and consequently terminated all of his activities relating to his imaginary Priory of Sion from that point on.

Nor was this the only time that Pierre Plantard was in trouble with French Law. He was imprisoned several times during the 1950s. [15]

References :

[1] First published in 1982, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail contained nothing new about the Priory of Sion that had not been published in France years beforehand – except a new set of alleged 'Statutes of the Priory of Sion signed by Jean Cocteau'. Its account of Bérenger Saunière was debunked in 1974 by René Descadeillas in his Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes.

[2] Published in 1986, The Messianic Legacy contained more Priory of Sion hokum treated seriously, linking it with Guardian Assurance (and capitalising on accounts first started by Louis Vazart in 1983). It omitted the proper conflict between Pierre Plantard and Jean-Luc Chaumeil, and various documentation relating to this conflict found in the 1984 Priory Document L'Affaire Jean-Luc Chaumeil (Rennes-le-Château) by Philippe de Chérisey (BN Code EL 4 Z Piece 245). The book also omitted the Statutes of the Alpha Galates.

[3] Pierre Plantard's re-written history of Bérenger Saunière and Rennes-le-Château as found in the Priory Documents was debunked in Descadeillas' Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes (1974). The fraudulent nature of the "parchments" and Plantard's claim to be descended from Dagobert II was exposed in a 1996 British television documentary, The History of a Mystery, using primary evidence provided by the French author Jean-Luc Chaumeil.

[4] Article, In The Service of the Alpha by Professor Louis Le Fur, in Vaincre Nr 4, 21 December 1942, pp3-4.

[5] Article, Our Goal... by Jean Falloux, in Vaincre Nr 1, 21 September 1942, page 2.

[6] Article, Prologue to 'Here's The Truth' by Auguste Brisieux, in Vaincre Nr 5, 21 January 1943, page 3.

[7] A. Werth, France In Ferment (1935, reprinted 1968).

[8] Statutes of the Alpha Galates (1937) in Vaincre Nr 1, 21 September 1942, page 4).

[9] Article by Paul Le Cour, The True Freemasonry (in Atlantis Nr 68, 21 November 1938; 'Eglise Maçonnerie Tradition' edition) – "There had been the Masonic Congress of Wilhemsbad in 1782, and the malign influence of a German Jew called Weischaupt, who set in train the rationalist movement in the lodges and brought about the bloody revolution of 1793" – these may not have been historical facts but they certainly represented the belief-system of the Tradition of the Grand Occident. Pierre Plantard was an admirer of Paul Le Cour and based many of his allegations on his ideas.

[10] Henri Lobineau, Généalogie des Rois Mérovingiens et Origine des diverses Familles Françaises et Etrangères de Souche Mérovingienne d’Après L’Abbé Pichon, le Docteur Hervé et les Parchemins de l’Abbé Saunière de Rennes-le-Château (Aude). Dated 1956, but its Deposition-date in the Bibliothèque Nationale is 18 January 1964.

[11] The "original parchments" are in the possession of Jean-Luc Chaumeil, presented on the 1996 television documentary The History of a Mystery with Plantard's annotation found on one of the "parchments" (written in red ink): "This is the original document faked by Philippe de Chérisey which Gérard de Sède reproduced in his book, ‘The Gold at Rennes’."

[12] In the Private Archives of Jean-Luc Chaumeil.

[13] ‘Internal Circular’ of the Priory of Sion dated 8 March 1989, appearing in Les Cahiers de Rennes-Le-Château Nr IX (1989).

[14] Articles in the French Papers Le Figaro, Tribune Desfossés and Minute of September/October 1993.

[15] Letter dated 8 June 1956 from the Mayor of Annemasse to the Sous-Préfet of St-Julien-en-Genevois. See here.

Paul Smith

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