Mastermind
Champion of Champions, Episode 3
BBC 2, 4 August 2010

Question Master, John Humphrys
Contestant, David Edwards (retired teacher)
Specialist Subject Matter, The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château

Question:
The village of Rennes-le-Château at the centre of the mystery fictionalised in Dan Brown's novel “The Da Vinci Code” is situated in which Departementalle of South-West France?

Answer
Aude

Question:
The carving of which figure supports the Holy Water Stoup in the church of St Mary Magdalene in the village?

Answer
The Devil Asmodeus

Question:
According to several writers, the parish priest Bérenger Saunière visited Paris in the 1890s and while there bought a portrait of which Pope?

Answer
Celestine V

Question:
What Latin inscription is directly above the doorway of the church at Rennes-le-Château?

Answer
“Terribilis est locus iste”

Question:
In his journal of 21st September 1891 Saunière noted that he had discovered what?

Answer
A tomb

Question:
The Perfectae or Pefects were an elite group of which heretical Christian sect?

Answer
Cathars

Question:
What name is given to the mountain about 5 kilometres from the village identified in “The Tomb of God” as the location of the secret of Rennes-le-Chateau?

Answer
Pech Cardou

Question:
Which scrolls found in Egypt in 1945 were essentially Gnostic in character?

Answer
Nag Hammadi

Question:
According to the author Gérard de Sède, what was the name of the priest who after hearing Saunière's deathbed confession refused to give him absolution – apparently never smiled again?

Answer
Rivière

Question:
Saunière's friend Anoine Gélis who was murdered in 1897 was the cure of which neighbouring parish?

Answer
Coustaussa

Question:
Which Merovingian king, reputedly married for the second time 671, in a church on the site of St Mary Magdalene?

Answer
Dagobert II

Question:
What is the inscription that the shepherds are pointing to in “Les Bergers d'Arcadie” is believed by some writers to be an anagram?

Answer
“Et In Arcadia Ego”

Question:
To which Parisian Church was Saunière reportedly sent to have his manuscripts deciphered in the early 1890s?

Answer
St Sulpice

Question:
In which historic estate in Staffordshire is there a marble likeness of Nicolas Poussin's “Les Bergers d'Arcadie”?

Answer
Shugborough Hall

Question:
The authors of “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” hypothesised that Jesus survived the crucifixion – they claim his life was saved by whom?

Answer
Joseph of Arimathea

Question:
Which Bishop successor to Mgr Billard of Carcassonne launched a full-scale enquiry into Saunière's financial affairs?

Answer
Beauséjour

Question:
When Saunière supposedly defaced the Marie de Negri tombstone he did not know the information on it had already been recorded by the Aude Society for which studies?

Answer
Scientific Studies