The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail:
This
book when published in 1982 took the world by storm. It sent shockwaves across many different boundaries: namely, the Vatican, the Catholic Church, conventional academia and several other areas of influence. The book was later updated in 1996 with further discoveries and conclusions.
The setting for the book is the remote mountain-top
village called Rennes-le-Chateau in the Languedoc region of South Western France, lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the strange
story of a local priest and a mysterious wealth he amassed over night. From this we encounter a bizarre web of coincidences: clues, puzzles, encoded secrets; which cover the ancient French Kings known as the Merovingians and their mysterious origins; various tales of buried treasures around Rennes-le-Chateau; the strange band of ‘heretics’ called the Cathars exclusive to this area, the Knights Templars; the paintings of Nicolas Poussin; the geometric enigma of the Paris Meridian and a mysterious covert
secret society called the Priory of Sion.
The story of Berenger Sauniere was virtually unknown outside the area until a book published in 1969 by Phillipe de Sede called The Accursed Treasure. From that time, the village and the priest’s story took on an international flavour and spawned the arrival of hordes of
treasure hunters in the 1970’s. The book was the result of several years of research on the part of the authors.
In the 1890’s, Sauniere - recently appointed to Rennes-le-Chateau -, suddenly acquired massive wealth. The year in question was 1891 and he embarked upon a building spree for the tiny village of few inhabitants, which included the renovation of the badly ruined Church of Mary Magdalen, the erection of a library, villa and the laying out of a road from the village to its neighbouring village in the valley below - Couiza. Great intrique and mystery followed the remainder of his life; subsequent to his death, his housekeeper fuelled the fires of intrique and there was also the claim that Sauniere found a coded parchment in the church’s pillar which detailed the location of a huge treasure.
There are many legends of buried treasures in the area from ancient times; namely, the Jewish treasure of the Temple of Solomon, pillaged from Rome by the Visigoths and dumped there, the Cathar treasure, the treasure of Marie de Blanchefort, a local aristocrat who died in 1791 (coincidentally exactly 100 years before 1891 when Sauniere embarked upon his building works, which Sauniere named ‘Mission 1891’), and even the Holy Grail. Other stories tell of highwaymen for many centuries, robbing stage coaches going across the Pyrenees to Spain and the treasures being buried around Rennes.
But the real ‘sizzler’ for the melting pot, was a series of meetings with a mysterious individual called Pierre Plantard, who claimed to be the Grand Marshall of a centuries old secret society - the Priory of Sion. Plantard claimed many famous people had been its Grand Master; for example, Leonardo Da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Isaac Newton, to name but a few and that it protected a great secret of vast spiritual significance: that Mary Magdalene came to France after the crucifixion, with Jesus’ child, and that the fruit of their union resulted in the Merovingian dynasty. The authors studied the genealogies and other documents and after much study, declared their belief in their authenticity.
They then disentangle a whole series of clues which span 2,000 years and hypothesise quite plausibly that this secret was encoded in the paintings of Poussin - especially Les Bergers d’Arcadie; was the reason for the sudden demise of the Knights Templars, the destruction of the Merovingian dynasty, the extermination of the Cathars. The book reads like a thriller or detective story, except the premise and the subject matter are posited as ‘alternative history.’ In the midst of all of this, they hypothesise other theories - like ‘The Passover Plot - which although may seem implausible and incredible, is still interesting.
The book in conclusion, puts forth a very serious, shocking and mind-boggling hypothesis: that the priest, Berenger Sauniere, discovered this secret, which accounted for his sudden amassed wealth, that it is encoded for those ‘who can see’ and that the clues are in the Church of the Magdalen; that this great secret - which is now the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau - was covered up by the church and establishment for many centuries. Thus, many people stand to lose, much power would be lost by Ecclesiastical and state authorities and that the reverberations would be worldwide if it were revealed. An interesting fact is that, after the book’s publication, the then Pope - John Paul 11 - sent an official to visit Rennes-le-Chateau. One wonders what his conclusions were?
The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail is an astonishing book, whose shockwaves are still being felt around the world; it could well hold the key to the opening of 2,000 years of hidden history. Moreover, it proved to be a groundbreaker for the story of Rennes-le-Chateau. The authors are detectives par excellence and if they are right, then they have done a great service to mankind. Notwithstanding this, if you pick it up, you will feel a chill in the spine and a tingling in the bones with its bizarre and intricate hypotheses. You will be served food for thought; food of a deep and powerful odour…….
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