Pierre Plantard the Traditionalist Roman Catholic

Paul Smith

When the Priory of Sion was first formed in 1956 in the small French town of Annemasse close to the Swiss town of Geneva it bore the acronym CIRCUIT that stood for 'Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institution of Independent Traditionalist Union' – the Statutes of the Priory of Sion resembled the earlier wartime Statutes of the Alpha Galates: a phantom quasi-occult, pro-Vichy association that Pierre Plantard formed in wartime France that was both anti-masonic and anti-semitic.

The 1956 version of the Priory of Sion terminated in the same year that it was formed and had nothing to do with the Crusades, Godfrey de Bouillon, Merovingians, the Knights Templar or with the village of Rennes-le-Château – all these things became added when Pierre Plantard formed a partnership with Gérard de Sède during the early 1960s and these elements represented a literary deal between the two people as part of a book-selling agenda.

Moving forward to 1967 and the creation of 'Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau' as compiled by Philippe Toscan du Plantier and deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale in France – what significance was there between Pope John XXIII and Jean Cocteau, the fictional Grand Master of the fictional Priory of Sion?

Interesting piece of mythmaking here by both Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chèrisey when creating 'Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau' and the mythological pedigree of the Priory of Sion in 1967. Between 1918 and 1963 the fictional Grand Master of the fictional Priory of Sion was Jean Cocteau – who also bore the title of Jean XXIII. The Pope between the years 1958 – 1963 was Cardinal Roncalli, who took the name of Pope John XXIII.

More interesting facts – the Fifth French Republic commenced in 1958 and Plantard believed that the Age of Aquarius also commenced in 1958.

Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962 – whereby the Jews were exonorated from having any blame for the death of Jesus Christ and the ceremony of the Mass in Latin was abolished.

Was there a connection between Pope John XXIII and the fictional Priory of Sion? Yes - one of resentment and bitterness – because Plantard and de Chèrisey did not link the name of Pope John XXIII with their Priory of Sion, but those of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre and the Abbé Georges de Nantes – both of which were virulently opposed to Vatican Two and both of which were excommunicated by the Vatican – Lefebvre was rumoured to having been a fictional Grand Master of the fictional Priory of Sion in the Priory Document 'Le Cercle d'Ulysse' (1977) and an article in 'Les Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau' claimed that Serge Roux was in fact the Abbé Georges de Nantes – the extreme Roman Catholic conservative priest called the head of the 'Catholic Counter-Reformation Movement of the Twentieth Century'.

Abbé Georges de Nantes

Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre

So, this only demonstrates further what a Conservative Right Winger Pierre Plantard was during the 1960s and 1970s, long after his wartime Alpha Galates activities.

The insertion of the name of Jean Cocteau into the fictional Grand Masters List of the fictional Priory of Sion was Philippe de Chèrisey's suggestion, on account of his interest in surrealism and nothing else. But there was no "Surrealist significance" to the fictitious Priory of Sion from Plantard's position – the last mural to be executed by Cocteau was left unfinished, and it featured Godfrey de Bouillon – the fictitious founder of the fictitious Priory of Sion.

Most of the names found in the fictitious List of Priory of Sion Grand Masters originate from a document compiled by Raymond Bernard the former Grand Master of AMORC in France – and Plantard claimed to have communicated with the spirit of Godfrey de Bouillon in seances.

Footnote

Piers Compton once made the hilarious claim that Pope John XXIII was a "Rosicrucian" (in his 1981 book The Broken Cross: Hidden Hand In The Vatican). It just so happens that Pope John XXIII was responsible for starting Vatican Council Two during the early 1960s which introduced a revised version of Catholicism that many Traditionalist Catholics loathed – the dropping of Latin during the ceremony of the Mass was just one of the measures that became introduced.

Calling Pope John XXIII a "Rosicrucian" was just Piers Compton's way of bad-mouthing the Pope. Compton did not know anything at all about Rosicrucianism. Compton was in fact a former Catholic priest and the Literary Editor of the Catholic Weekly 'The Universe' for 14 years.

Equally the same thing can be said about Malachi Martin when he claimed there was "Satanism" going on in the Vatican (in his 1991 book The Keys of This Blood) – this was just a case of another Catholic disliking the Papacy for another reason: the political stance some Popes were taking – all too much for those Catholics who disagreed – and rhetorical statements like "Luciferan conspiracy" soon became banded about.

Pope John XXIII was not a "Rosicrucian" and there is no "Satanism" going on in the Vatican. This is just a lot of hot air coming from the Roman Catholic critics of the Papacy.