Early 2000, Dutch bestselling author and researcher Klaas van Urk discovered a narrow shaft hidden high on Mount Cardou. He had been led to the location using the Rennes-le-Château parchments, the Coumesourde stone and the enigmatic text of La Serpent Rouge. Some 15 metres down in the shaft, that is located on a difficult location high on Mount Cardou, he discovered an engraved Templar emblem, an eight-pointed star.

Van Urk (1958) has so far been known to the public only in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as in a small but exquisite, predominantly French circle of long time researchers. His book Search for the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant was a bestseller in the Netherlands. In his 10-year quest for the Ark of the Covenant he followed the trail of its whereabouts across Israel, Ethiopia and the South of France. Like no other, he knitted all the known and lesser known facts together in a compelling and believable account of what really happened to the Ark and its contents.

In February 2008, a combined team of Belgian and Dutch researchers returned to Mount Cardou to let an infrared camera down the shaft on a 100 metres long rope. Objective was to see how deep the shaft is and where it ends. You can now see the Templar engraving for yourself.

The discovery of the shaft and the rest of Klaas’ adventures in search of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail were discussed in English in the interview he gave to Radio Rennessence in July 2007 and in his (Dutch) book Search of the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. Klaas is preparing a much awaited English translation of his book and is preparing a second one.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved

It was Henry Lincoln, co-author of bestseller the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail who noticed that many of the sites have very precise geometric relations with eachother. Frustrated by the fact that there were too little tangible hard facts underpinning his hypotheses he turned to the things that everybody can go see for themselves that are around Rennes-le-Château: the churches, the roadside crosses, the castles etc. What he found is that the Templar Château at Bezu, the Château de Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Château lie in a perfect triangle. The exact hilltops of la Soulane and Terre de Lauzet make it a perfect giant pentacle in the landscape, making it a holy place which might be an important reason why the region was so popular by religious and mystic groups through the ages.

The Lincoln Pentacle

Lincoln brings an astrological, almost romantic argument to the table to substantiate his claim that Rennes-le-Château is part of a holy pentacle: the planet of Venus has been closely associated with Marie-Magdalene through the ages. Each planet moves in a pattern around the sun. All are irregular with the exception of Venus that, regular like clockwork, draws a pentacle every eight years. As above, as below, said the ancient alchemists. Here is Venus, drawing the symbol of the Magdalene in the sky over the perfect pentacle below on the ground at Rennes-le-Château where the church is devoted to her. You can read more about this in his book ‘the Holy Place‘. Lincoln’s discovery set off an army of amateur surveyors that have found a bewildering number of simple to very complex shapes around Rennes-le-Château and far beyond. They have led to many theories, varying from Rennes-le-Château being part of the floor plan of Solomon’s temple to Jesus’ body lying buried inside mount Cardou. The story gets both more traction and complexity when you realize that painters like Teniers and Poussin, of whom Saunière allegedly bought reproductions at the Louvre in 1892, used many of the forms and shapes found to construct their paintings around. The picture here on the left is a geometrical study by the late Professor Cornford of Poussin’s painting les Bergers d’Arcadie. There is a possibility that geometry is part of the treasure map Bigou or Saunière left us. The geometry in the two encoded parchments the Abbé found is perceived by many to be the one of the keys that leads to whatever the secret is.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Lincoln Pentacle Placemarks by Mariano Tomatis

During his life, Saunière recorded some 660.000 francs in spending in his account books. The modern day equivalent of that amount is approx. EUR 2.500.000 in a very conservative estimate. The true amount is very hard to calculate. What is clear is that it was an enormous amount for someone to spend in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In actual fact, Saunière spent a lot more than this 660.000 francs. Some of his account books got lost. Also he never recorded travel expenses or any other personal expense. Many large spendings are known that he didn’t record, like the cistern he had built beneath his reposoir and some other quite big works on his domain and in the village. It has been well documented that the priest had an enormous collection of books and stamps. We do find some receipts for books but not in the expected quantities. The list is endless. We’ll probably never know how much he spent in total but it might be well over 1.000.0000 francs or EUR 3.500.0000 to EUR 4.000.000 in today’s equivalent.

In front of the ecclesiastical court in 1911, Saunière claimed to have spent 193.000 francs restoring and refurbishing his domain.

Many believe Saunière financed his lavish lifestyle and building projects by mass trafficking. Mass trafficking was a well known practice among priests at the time. In principle it wasn’t illegal, however, many priests would receive money for masses they never said, which was of course an activity not endorsed by the church. If a priest would receive requests for more than 3 masses a day, it would become suspect. Officially, the surplus would have to be paid to the bishopric.  A mass would cost 1 franc, increasing up to 1,5 franc at the end of Saunière’s life.

There’s no doubt Saunière was indeed guilty of this. He kept meticulous records about it that can be found back in his accounting books from 1895 to 1915. These books are in the possession of Antoine Captier and Laurent Buchholtzer. 

Being the well organized man that he was, the Abbé probably used ordinary directories to send out requests for money to say mass, starting at ‘A’, working his way down the alphabet. It’s well known that he spent a small fortune on postage and that the local post office in Quillan was kept quite busy by him. From his records we can see that Saunière received requests to say no less than 110.000 masses, for which he was sent 100.000 to 125.000 francs. That was a fortune by all standards in those days but by no means could it have accounted for his excessive spending.

Where did it all the money come from

What is a lot more intriguing than the amount is where the money came from. It came from all over France. Although many people have been looking for it for a long time, no-one has ever found an advert in a paper of the time by Saunière or a written request to any of his benefactors. Saunière received money from neighboring priests. For example Sarda, the Chaplain of Rennes-les-Bains (where Henri Boudet was the priest) donated almost 1.500 francs to Saunière between 1899 and 1902. The money also came from convents and monasteries from all over France and including places like Chartres and Lourdes. Not the places you would think need a mass said by the priest of a tiny dusty village on a far away hilltop in the Languedoc.

Jerôme Choloux has counted the known requests for masses Saunière received and plotted them on the map of France. Most come from Paris with over 300 requests. The rest comes from all over France. Perhaps it is here, we have the real enigma of Rennes-le-Château.

Other income

Bérenger Saunière had several other sources of income.

Gifts  

When Saunière was asked to account for his expenditure during the trials of 1910 and 1911 he reported having received 82.800 francs in gifts between 1885 and 1905 from a number of benefactors, many of which anonymous. It included 30.000 francs through his brother Alfred.

Collection Boxes 

The priest placed six locked collection boxes in his church in 1897 and a big one in 1898 made of oak wood. These 7 boxes generated a steady stream of income. According to the priest, he collected 1200 francs per year. He didn’t keep any notes of the income from these collections so it’s impossible to validate this amount. From the amounts collected in comparable French villages it’s more likely he received 500 to 600 francs per year from the collections.

Salaries

Saunière had a priest’s salary of approximately 900 francs per year. In 1894, the Dénarnaud’s moved in with Saunière. Together they made 900 francs per year in the hat factory in Espéraza. 

Postcards

When the construction of his domain was finished, he had 33 postcards made that he sold to visitors of the domain. These amounts too, where never recorded. The number 33 might be a reference to his activities as a Martinist.

Furniture

The priest made a hobby out of restoring furniture and selling it. Again, no records survive.

Gold

According to some French researchers that live closest to what is left of the original sources, the French police did some investigation after the priest’s death. Allegedly the report they produced spoke of trafficking gold with Spain.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Facts gathered from l’Héritage de’l'Abbé Saunière by Antoine Captier and Claire Corbu, Le Fabuleux Trésor de Rennes-le-Château by Jacques Rivière, Rennes-le-Château, Saunière’s Secret by Jean-Luc Robin and the website of Jerôme Choloux. Map of France copyright Jerôme Choloux.

Often, the mystery of Rennes-le-Château has been linked to Freemasonry. It has been argued that some of the duality Saunière introduced in his church (the inversions in the Fresco, the black and white checkerboard tiles in on the church floor etc.) are Masonic in nature. Any Masonic influence was speculative until April 2007. In that month, Antoine Captier, grandson of Saunière’s bellringer and keeper of most of the Abbé’s archives, first showed a Masonic Collar (Sautoir in French), that had once belonged to the priest. It had been lying in his attic for a very long time and it had been shown to a number of researchers in private already. Captier is widely seen as the most serious and trustworthy of the French Rennes-le-Château researchers. The discovery proves that Saunière was member of a Masonic society, which will shed a whole new light on parts of the mystery. The church actively disapproved of anything Masonic in Saunière’s time. Bishop Billard, who is considered to have been an important protector of Saunière even launched an anti-masonic mission. Société Perillos discovered that Billard was perhaps not as anti-Masonic as he appears. The Masonic Collar was identified as belonging to the Scottish Rite of the 18th degree Chevalier Rose Croix (Knight of the Rosy Cross). Normally a jewel would be present at the bottom of the collar. On this collar there wasn’t one, meaning either it was lost or Saunière was member of a society that didn’t carry a jewel on their Sautoirs, like the Elus Cohen.

In 1900, Bérenger Saunière attended at least three meetings of a Martinist lodge in Lyon. The Martinists are a masonic order that developed out of the Elus Cohen, founded by Martinez de Pasqually in the second half of the 18th century. As a symbol, the Martinists use a Star of David made up of a white and a black triangle or two interlaced black and white triangles. In the pages of the Lodge Minutes book of the Martinist Order of Lyon it says: Dans La registre de la Très Révérente Loge à l’Orient de Lyon “La Haute Philosophie”…sur la liste le présent d’honneur l’Abbé Saunière. Since only Martinists were invited to visit other Martinist Lodge’s meetings there seems little doubt that Saunière was indeed a member of a Martinist order. This also ties in well with the fact that the clergy was very well represented in the order even though officially the Vatican and indeed the Diocese of Carcassonne actively condemned masonic activities of its priests.

In their book le secret de l’Abbé Gélis, the authors (among which are Jacques Rivière and Claude Boumendil) claim they were presented with a membership document of a certain ‘Order of Alet’ (Ordre d’Alet), carrying the names and signatures of both Bérenger Saunière and Antoine Gélis. The document was dated 1886. This very secretive Order allegedly propagated a mix of Visigoth and Cathar doctrines. The authors were shown around two secret underground locations near Coustaussa and Rennes-les-Bains were this Order held its gatherings.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved, photos of the Sautoir copyright Antoine Captier and Terre de Rhedae, some info has been derived from Guy Patton’s article Saunière and the Occult.

During the research for his third BBC film on the subject of Rennes-le-Château, Henry Lincoln teamed up with Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent. Their combined efforts and insights led to the release of their bestseller Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Among the works the authors studied to come to their hypotheses there was a prominent place for Les Dossiers Secrets. It was in this book that the Priory of Sion was introduced. Godefroy of Bouillon had founded an order called L’Ordre de Sion in 1090. The order occupied the Abbey of Notre Dame de Sion in Jerusalem. Only 30 years later, the Knights Templar were founded by Hugues de Payen, a nobleman from the French Champagne region who also became the first Grandmaster. According to Les Dossiers Secrets, the Ordre de Sion was transformed into the Priory of Sion in 1188, after Jerusalem had fallen to Saladin in 1187, forcing the Christian forces from the city. Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh found documentary evidence that an Order of Sion indeed existed in the 12th century.

The most remarkable thing in Les Dossiers Secrets was the list of Grandmasters of the Priory of Sion:

from facts to frenzy

Since the historical existence of an Order of Sion had been proven, the three authors decided to take the list serious and discovered that all of the Grandmasters had had a more than average interest in the occult and many of them had been active freemasons. Adding everything up, the conclusion was that Les Dossiers Secrets told a reliable account of the Priory of Sion. The authors continued their research and came in contact with the Grandmaster at the time, Pierre Plantard de St. Clair.

It has now become clear that the Priory of Sion never existed in the way it was described in Les Dossiers Secrets. Pierre Plantard, aided by the Belgian Marquis Philippe de Chérisey twisted and turned history in an attempt to continue the Merovingian bloodline after the death of Dagobert II. The documents they created to ‘prove’ Plantard’s claim as the rightful pretender to the French throne were assembled in Les Dossiers Secrets. Ironically, Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh not only accepted the story that a Merovingian royal bloodline had survived the centuries but they tried to trace it back to the House of David, claiming the Merovingian Kings were the descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Were Plantard had set-up the whole affair to suggest the Priory of Sion had secretly been preserving a Merovingian Bloodline, Holy Blood and the Holy Grail claimed it had been a Holy bloodline since it originated from Jesus himself. Where Plantard had intended the Priory to make him a royal descendant, Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh made him into a Holy man. They had taken his story and ran off with it in an unexpected direction, complicating the plot considerably and resulting in massive sales of their book.

reality bites

Research into Plantard’s background revealed he wasn’t of noble birth like he claimed; his father (also called Pierre Plantard) was a butler and his mother Amélie Marie Raulo occasionally worked as a cook for wealthy families. Plantard had created multiple society’s before the Priory of Sion, that had vague and sometimes shady goals and intents. Plantard registered an organization called le Prieuré de Sion, the French name of the Priory of Sion, in the French sub-prefecture of St. Julie-en-Genevois on 25th June 1956 which had nothing to do with the 12th century predecessor. All reseacrhers however agree, that Plantard and his aides invested a staggering amount of time to create the detailed backgrounds and genealogies they needed to reach their goals.

It is unlikely there is any relation between a historical Priory of Sion and the mystery of Rennes-le-Château.

Pierre Plantard did have a genuine interest in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château and gathered an impressive knowledge of it in a time before the mystery turned into a hype. As often with misinformation, they took the actual pieces of the puzzle and reshaped them for their goals. It is in such way that Plantard teamed up with French journalist Gérard de Sède who reworked a Plantard manuscript into his book l’Or de Rennes also called Le Trésor Maudit, the book that kickstarted Henry Lincoln’s interest in the mystery in the first place.

truth, packed in lies

The grand and small parchment that are at the heart of the enigma are now believed to be copies of the original. The latest research by Franck Daffos and Pierre Jarnac suggests that Noel Corbu, who bough the Saunière estate from Marie Dénarnaud in 1946, found some parchments between the Abbé’s papers. After failing to decode them he sold them to two englishmen. Not before photographing and copying them though. Serious researchers like Antoine Captier, Jean Pellet and Gérard Dutriat have attested they have seen the original photos from Corbu’s time. You have to remember Corbu already talked about the parchments long before De Sède’s book came out. It is now believed Corbu allowed Plantard and the Chérisey to make carbon copies of them. They worked them into the parchments we know today and added in some simple codes like the raised letters in the small parchments that would support their claim to the French throne.

Ironically again, Plantard came very close to the original documents and sources of the mystery. The Priory of Sion he tried to legitimize using them was certainly a hoax.

©2007-2008 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved