Priory of Sion Updates

(including "parchments")


The worldwide success of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code continues to attract the publication of new books as well as fresh online articles providing factual accounts of the Priory of Sion and Rennes-le-Château – and how everything is largely based upon a modern hoax and not upon authentic history.

‘The Treasure of Rennes-le-Château – A Mystery Solved’ by Bill Putnam and John Edwin Wood has just been republished in paperback – being an updated and revised version of their previous hardback version – adding key additional material in several chapters. This is currently the only sensible book on this subject matter that is available in the English language – containing essential information about both the Abbé Bérenger Saunière and Pierre Plantard.

For example, in relation to the bogus claim for the Abbé Bérenger Saunière discovering a treasure in 1891, the authors point out on page 166 that the priest really was not that wealthy and had borrowed the sum of 500 francs from Mme Matte Barthelmy during that year – evidently this information was either unknown or suppressed by those arguing for the existence of a "mystery" and Putnam and Wood justifiably conclude between pages 178-188 of their book that the whole subject matter represents pseudo-history that is of modern origin: "This is a dramatic story and as entertainment could hardly be bettered, but we have shown in this book that there are no grounds for taking it seriously."

Massimo Introvigne’s article Beyond The Da Vinci Code: History and Myth of the Priory of Sion outlines the Right Wing Monarchist background and anti-semitic mindset of Pierre Plantard, as well as mentioning his criminal convictions. Massimo Introvigne is the author of the Italian book, Gli Illuminati e il Priorato di Sion (Piemme, Milano 2005).

Two very good recent French publications are Jean-Jacques Bedu’s Les Sources Secrètes du Da Vinci Code (Éditions du Rocher, 2005); and the book by Marie-France Etchegoin and Frédéric Lenoir, Les Sources Secrètes du Da Vinci Code (Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 2004) – both books having made extensive use of the documentation about Pierre Plantard as contained on this website.

Extensive transcripts from File Ga P7, the Police Record from the Paris Prefecture of Police that outline Pierre Plantard’s anti-semitic activities between 1937-1954, have been made available on a French website that is maintained by Laurent Buchholtzer.

Another serious account based upon historical evidence about this subject matter has been published in the Portuguese language – Bernardo Sanchez da Motta’s Do Enigma de Rennes-le-Château ao Priorado de Siao (Esquilo, 2005). Over 500 pages long, it is a welcome addition to the Portuguese Language which has witnessed many being duped by the myth in South American countries.

The latest update concerning Jean-Luc Chaumeil’s long-awaited book is that it is scheduled for release at the end of 2005. We eagerly await the publication of M. Chaumeil’s extensive and unique archive on Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey, providing first-hand evidence detailing the exact nature of the Priory of Sion hoax that has fooled so many around the world.

Jean-Luc Chaumeil has appeared on several documentaries examining the The Da Vinci Code and it was not always possible to include all the critical and detailed information that he provided about the Priory of Sion. But sometimes important new facts do emerge under such contexts: on a recent French documentary aired by the Odyssée channel in April 2005, Chaumeil explained how the Latin text to the smaller "parchment" had been copied by Philippe de Chérisey from the Codex Bezae (cf Luke 6:1-9) , and how Philippe de Chérisey had copied this text from the book by Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux Dictionnaire De La Bible (Letouzey et Ané, Éditeurs, Tome Premier; 1895).




Latin scholars have pointed out that the text from the Codex Bezae could only have been copied by someone who did not understand Latin, because Philippe de Chérisey made basic mistakes in copying some of the uncials and consequently did not get the spelling right on several occasions. This information is frequently omitted by those who promote the "parchments" as being authentic (the latest example being Franck Daffos).





priory-of-sion.com