Just four questions about one of the latest books on Rennes-le-Château and the Priory of Sion:

1. How can any informed researcher call the village of Rennes-le-Château the “Devil’s Town” or “the land of Asmodeus”? These epithets largely stem from the made-up stories of Noël Corbu dating from the mid-1950s.
   
2. How can any informed researcher claim that the Pierre Plantard fantasies were inspired by Eugène Vintras?
   
3. Why don’t researchers own up and say that the Confrérie de la Sanch was founded in Perpignan in 1416 by a Dominican priest named Vincent Ferrier – and that the Brotherhood's original purpose was to accompany prisoners condemned to death to the scaffold, protect them from public lynching, and ensure they received a proper Christian burial.
   
4. How can there be a connection between the Khlysty and the Bogomils? The Bogomils largely disappeared by the 15th century following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans – while the Khlysty did not emerge in Russia until the mid-17th century – historically attributed to a peasant named Danilo Filippovich around 1645.

Many who call themselves “researchers” are in fact just shameless opportunists who like picking up dots at random and linking them together without finding anything out. These types of authors cater strictly for conspiracy theorists and believers in alternative history – who like playing the game of Rennes-le-Château – notorious for its shaggy dog stories and especially the MacGuffin where the “mystery” itself matters, but the answer doesn't.