Noël Corbu has got a lot to answer for. Had Corbu not bought Bérenger Saunière's estate during the mid-1950s (first put up for sale after Saunière lost his Trial and priesthood) there probably would never have been any Rennes-le-Château “mystery”, “secret” or “treasure”. Robert Charroux, Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Chérisey, Gérard de Sède – and especially Henry Lincoln – would never have got the ball rolling. The Wild Goose Chase would never even have begun and the village of Rennes-le-Château would have just remained another normal, uninteresting, hum-drum hamlet/village of the Aude.

It is precisely because of Noël Corbu that the whole Wild Goose Chase exists. There would be no Emma Calvé, no Blanche of Castille, no Merovingians, no Antoine Bigou emphasis, no “parchments”, no “1891 parchments discovery”, no “engimatic” gravestones (the “Coume Sourde Stone” originated with Corbu), no “Habsburg Connection”, no “Saunière trip to Paris”, no Poussin-Teniers paintings, no Tomb at Les Pontils falsely linked to Nicolas Poussin. So many fake claims would never have got started.

But can Bérenger Saunière himself be trusted? Part of the reason he lost his priesthood was because of fraud – Saunière accepted more money than he was able to say masses for.

The “Visigothic” Pillar, Saunière claimed, originated from inside his church – part of a pair of such pillars that supported the Main Altar – but as René Descadeillas has shown – no church inventories of the past ever mentioned such pillars. Furthermore, Sauniére installed his new Church Altar in 1887 and not in 1891. Saunière's stories begin to have holes.

The “Dalle des Chevaliers” (Knight's Stone) – this was claimed to have been found in Saunière's church as part of the renovations – but we only have Saunière's word for that. It was not discovered as part of any official archaeological dig. The accounts by Henri Rouzaud and Henri Guy rest solely on the hearsay evidence of Bérenger Saunière alone.

“Discovery of a tomb, 21st September 1891”

So Bérenger Saunière wrote in his diary – a passage first brought to attention in 1985. It is hard to see any “mystery”, “secret” or “treasure” attached to this statement. To date, nobody has successfully managed to attach any profound meaning to this entry in Saunière's diary – but the accumulation of the Wild Goose Chase since the mid-1950s has made such a temptation inevitable..

What is the evidence for Bérenger Saunière “dismissing his workers who were doing the work on the pulpit and altar” – is this found in Saunière's diary – or is it just another example of the Wild Goose Chase? (“Medals of Lourdes were found” – further example of the power of the imagination).

‘I saw a pot with shiny glinty objects ..’

This is an apocryphal account. Not historical testimony with accompanying proof. Wild Goose Chase again.

The letters of complaint against Saunière digging in the cemetery. There is no indication that Saunière was doing this during the night.

Bérenger Saunière’s selling of masses activities only started to take off on a Grand Scale around August 1896. This is the beginning and the origin of Saunière's wealth. Everything and anything before 1896 just does not count and can only be described as wild and fevered speculations without the slightest shred of historical evidence to substantiate all the nonsense and the rubbish.

Sober explanations that explain Saunière’s wealth lie in the details of Saunière’s Trial 1910-1911 and for example, in the account of René Espeut (“It was by collecting money for saying masses that the Abbé Saunière was able to construct his estate. He published small ads in the Catholic press throughout the world. I was able to read their texts, and I have seen thousands of replies”) – as well as the account of Lucien Gibert of the Banque de France.

The “mystery”, “secret” or “treasure” of Rennes-le-Château belongs to the world of the fevered imagination – but it also belongs to something more sinister – something that becomes the fabric of the believer’s very existence. Wealthy believers in this Fable – unfounded in historical fact – have actually moved to Rennes-le-Château or to one of its surrounding villages and made their homes there. Such is the sheer power of their passionate addiction to this absurdity.