Priory of Sion
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For other uses of the word "Sion", see Sion.
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Prieuré de Sion logo
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French to English as Priory of Sion (or "Priory of Zion"), is a name that refers to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to an obscure Traditionalist Catholic chivalric order founded and dissolved during the French Fourth Republic. However, it has come to refer to a mythical secret society plotting to restore the Merovingian dynasty to the thrones of Europe and Jerusalem, which was first mentioned in, and popularized by, the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and later misreported as a factual ancient mystery religion in the 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. Although it has been characterized as anything from the most influential cabal in Western history to a modern ludibrium patterned after the Rosicrucian Order of the 17th century, the Priory of Sion myth has been exposed as a hoax started in 1961 [1] by Pierre Plantard, a false pretender to the French throne. The evidence presented in support of its historical existence was discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his accomplices. Nevertheless, many conspiracy theorists insist on the "truth" of the Priory of Sion's role as a 1000-years-old secret society.[2]
Priory of Sion association of 1956The Priory of Sion was an association that was founded in 1956, in the French town of Annemasse. As with all associations, French law required that the association be registered with the government. It was registered with its statutes at the Sub-Prefecture of Saint Julien-en-Genevois, in May 1956, and its registration was noted on 20 July 1956, in the Journal Officiel de la République Française. The founders and signatories inscribed with their pseudonyms were Pierre Plantard (known as "Chyren"), André Bonhomme (known as "Stanis Bellas"), Jean Delaval, and Armand Defago. The purpose of the association according to its statutes was entered as "études et entraide des membres" (studies and mutual aid of the members). In practice, the originator of the association and its key protagonist was Pierre Plantard, its Secretary General, although its nominal head or President was André Bonhomme. The choice of the name, "Sion" was based on a popular local feature, a hill south of Annemasse in France, known as Mont Sion.[3] The accompanying title to the name was "Chevalerie d'Institutions et Règles Catholiques d'Union Independante et Traditionaliste": this subtitle forms the acronym CIRCUIT and translates in English as "Knighthood of Catholic Rule and Institution and of Independent Traditionalist Union". The statutes and registration documents of the Priory of Sion were deposited on 7 May 1956, while the first issue of its journal, Circuit, is dated 27 May 1956 (in total, twelve issues of the journal appeared). Considering the political instability of the French Fourth Republic, the objectives of the journal were regarded with suspicion by the local authorities. It was indicated as a "Bulletin d'Information et Défense des Droits et de la Liberté des Foyers HLM" (News Bulletin for the Defence of the Rights and the Freedom of Council Housing). Indeed, some of the articles took a political position in the local council elections. Others attacked and criticized property developers of Annemasse. It also opposed the gentrification of the area. The offices of the Priory of Sion and the journal were at Plantard's council flat.[4] The articles of the Priory of Sion as indicated in its statutes [5] also desired the creation of a chivalric order, but the activities of the Priory of Sion bore no resemblance whatsoever to the objectives as outlined in its Statutes. Article VII says that its members are expected, "to carry out good deeds, to help the Roman Catholic Church, teach the truth, defend the weak and the oppressed". There is ample evidence that it had several members, as indicated by the numerous articles contained in its journal Circuit, written by a number of different people. Towards the end of 1956 the association had aims to forge links with the local Catholic Church of the area involving a school bus service run by both the Priory of Sion and the church of St Joseph in Annemasse. [6] The formally registered association was dissolved sometime after October 1956 but intermittently revived for different reasons by Plantard between 1962 and 1993, though in name and on paper only. The Priory of Sion is considered "dormant" by the Sub-Prefecture because it has indicated no activities since 1956. According to French law, subsequent references to the Priory bear no legal relation to that of 1956 and no one, other than the original signatories, is entitled to use its name in an official capacity. André Bonhomme played no part since 1956. He officially resigned in 1973 when he heard that Plantard was linking his name with the association, so as of last report, there is no one who is currently around who has official permission to use the name.[7] Priory of Sion mythHoaxA romantic reactionary, Pierre Plantard wanted the Priory of Sion to become an influential personal prelature dedicated to the restoration of chivalry and monarchy in Europe, which would serve to promote his own pretension to the throne of France. From 1961 till 1984, Plantard contrived a mythical pedigree of the Priory of Sion claiming that it was the offshoot of the Christian monastic order housed in the Abbey of Sion, which had been founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade and later absorbed by the Jesuits in 1617. The mistake is often made that this Abbey of Sion was a "Priory of Sion", but there is a difference between an abbey and a priory.[8] Calling his original 1956 group "Priory of Sion" presumably gave Plantard the later idea to claim that his organization had been historically founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades.[9] Furthermore, Plantard was inspired by a 1960 magazine Les Cahiers de l'Histoire to center his personal genealogical claims, as found in his Priory of Sion documents, around the Merovingian king Dagobert II.[10] He also adopted "Et in Arcadia ego", a Latin phrase that most famously appears as the title of two paintings by Nicolas Poussin, as the motto of both his family and the Priory of Sion,[11] because the tomb which appears in these paintings resembled one in the Les Pontils area near Rennes-le-Château: this tomb would become a symbol for his dynastic claims as the last devise of the Merovingian dynasty on the territory of Razès left to remind initiates that the "lost king" would figuratively come back in the form of a hereditary pretender.[12][13] In order to give credibility to the fabricated lineage and pedigree, Plantard and his friend, Philippe de Cherisey, needed to create "independent evidence." So during the 1960s, they deposited a series of forged documents, the so-called Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau ("Secret Dossiers of Henri Lobineau"), at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Paris. Also in the 1960s, Plantard began writing a manuscript and had a series of "medieval parchments" forged by de Cherisey which contained encrypted messages that referred to the Priory of Sion. The story that they concocted claimed that a Catholic priest named Bérenger Saunière had supposedly discovered these seemingly ancient parchments inside of a pillar while renovating his church in Rennes-le-Château in 1891. The story and existence of the parchments was intended to prove Plantard's claims about the Priory of Sion being a medieval society. Plantard then enlisted the aid of author Gérard de Sède to write a book based on his unpublished manuscript and forged parchments,[14] alleging that Saunière had discovered a link to a hidden treasure. The 1967 book, entitled L'Or de Rennes ("The Gold of Rennes") and Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château ("The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château"), became a popular read in France. It included copies of the "found" documents (the originals were of course never produced), though it did not provide translations. One of the Latin texts in the documents was copied from the Novum Testamentum ("New Testament"), being an attempted restoration of Vulgate by John Wordsworth and Henry White.[15] The versions of the Latin texts found in the "parchments" can be precisely dated based on the wording being used, which show that the Latin version in one of the "parchments" was copied from a book first published in 1889 -- problematic considering that de Sède's book was trying to make a case that these documents were centuries old. In 1969, an English actor and science-fiction scriptwriter, Henry Lincoln, read Le Trésor Maudit, and became intrigued. He discovered one of the encrypted messages, which read "À Dagobert II Roi et à Sion est ce trésor, et il est là mort" ("To King Dagobert II and to Sion does this treasure belong, and he died there"). This was an allusion to a treasure belonging to the Merovingian king Dagobert II, who had been assassinated in the 7th century. Lincoln expanded on the conspiracy theories, writing his own books on the subject, and creating a series of BBC Two documentaries in the 1970s about the mysteries of the Rennes-le-Château area. In response to a tip from Gérard de Sède, Lincoln claims he was also the one who "discovered" the Dossiers Secrets, a series of planted genealogies which appeared to further confirm the link with the line of Merovingians. The documents claimed that the Priory of Sion had been founded in 1099, and created the Knights Templar. Letters in existence dating from the 1960s written by Plantard, de Cherisey and de Sède to each other confirm that the three were engaging in an out-and-out confidence trick, describing schemes on how to combat criticisms of their various allegations and how they would make up new allegations to try to keep the whole thing going. These letters (totalling over 100) are in the possession of French researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who has also retained the original envelopes. Jean-Luc Chaumeil during the 1970s was part of the Priory of Sion cabal, and wrote books and articles about Plantard and the Priory of Sion before splitting from it during the late 1970s and exposing Plantard's past in French books. A letter later discovered at the Sub-Prefecture of St. Julien-en-Genevois also indicated that Plantard had a criminal conviction as a con man.[16][17][18][19] The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
After reading Le Tresor Maudit, Henry Lincoln persuaded BBC Two's factual television series of the 1970s, Chronicle, to make a series of documentaries, which became quite popular and generated thousands of responses. Lincoln then joined forces with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh for further research. This led them to the pseudohistorical Dossiers Secrets at the Bibliothèque nationale, which though alleging to portray hundreds of years of medieval history, were actually all written by Plantard and de Cherisey under the pseudonym of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier". Unaware that the documents had been forged, Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln used them as a major source for their book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in which they presented the following factoids:
The authors further asserted that the modern goals of the Priory of Sion are:
Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln even incorporated the infamous anti-semitic tract known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion into their story, concluding that it actually referred to the activities of the Priory of Sion. They mistakenly viewed the Protocols as the most persuasive piece of evidence for the existence and activities of the Priory of Sion by arguing perhaps correctly that:
In reaction, many secular conspiracy theorists added the Priory of Sion to their list of secret societies collaborating or competing to manipulate political happenings from behind the scenes in their bid for world domination through synarchy;[20] while fringe Christian eschatologists interpreted the Priory of Sion as a fulfillment of prophesies found in the Book of Revelation and further proof of an anti-Christian conspiracy of epic proportions.[21] However, academic historians do not accept The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail as a serious contribution to scholarship and regard it as a cautionary example of the memetic synthesis of investigative journalism with religious conspiracy theory.[22][23][24][25] French authors like Franck Marie (1978), Jean-Luc Chaumeil (1979, 1984, 1992, 2006) and Pierre Jarnac (1985, 1988) and more recently Marie-France Etchegoin (2004), Massimo Introvigne (2005), Jean-Jacques Bedu (2005), have never taken Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion as seriously as Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh. They eventually concluded that it was all a hoax, outlining in detail the reasons for their verdict, and giving detailed evidence that the Holy Blood authors had not reported comprehensively. They imply that this evidence had been ignored by Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh in order to bolster the mythic version of the Priory's history that was developed by Plantard during the early 1960s after meeting author Gérard de Sède. As a consequence, in 1989, Pierre Plantard tried but failed to salvage his reputation and agenda by claiming that the Priory of Sion had actually been founded in 1681 at Rennes-le-Château. The Pelat AffairIn September 1993, Plantard approached of his own volition an investigative judge, Thierry Jean-Pierre who, at the time, was investigating the activities of multi-millionaire Roger-Patrice Pelat in the context of the Pechiney-Triangle Affair. Plantard communicated to the judge that the man he was investigating had once been grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. Indeed, Pelat's name had been on Plantard's list of grandmasters since 1989. In fact, Pelat had died in 1989, while he was being indicted for insider trading - or délit d'initié in French. Plantard was not only naive about French law but also of financial terms and he interpreted the word "initié" esoterically, to mean "initiate". Following a long established pattern, Plantard "recruited" the "initiate" Pelat soon after his death and included him as the most recent Priory of Sion Grand Master.[citations needed] But Plantard failed once more to realise the severity of interfering with the law; he had made his most important mistake and it led to his eventual isolation. Pelat had been a friend of François Mitterrand, then President of France, and at the centre of a scandal involving French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. As an investigative judge, Thierry Jean-Pierre could not dismiss any information pertaining to his case that was brought to his attention, but since he never considered it worthwhile meeting Plantard, he ordered the search of Plantard's home by his officers. Plantard had first claimed that Pelat had been a Grand Master in a Priory of Sion circular dated 8 March 1989 then claimed it again later in a 1990 issue of Vaincre.[26][27] The search turned up a hoard of forged documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true king of France. Under oath, Plantard had to admit that he had fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with the Priory of Sion.[28][29] Quoting Laurent Octonovo: "Plantard was threatened with legal action by the Pelat family and the time had therefore come for him to do a disappearing act to his house in the south of France. He was then 74 years old and his life was effectively over – nothing more was heard of him." [30] Plantard died in Paris on 3 February 2000. RevivalOn 27 December 2002, a letter was released announcing a revival of the Priory of Sion as an apolitical, nonprofit initiatory society devoted to the study of the mysteries of the "perennial philosophy".[31] It was signed by Gino Sandri (who claims to be Pierre Plantard's former private secretary) under the title of "General Secretary",[32] and an unnamed woman as "President". The emergence of Sandri as a spokesperson for the continuation of the Priory of Sion following the death of Plantard is the subject of a pseudo-documentary by Bruce Burgess.[33] Quoting Laurent Octonovo about Gino Sandri:
The Da Vinci Code
As a result of Dan Brown's best-selling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code and the movie made from it, there has been a new level of public interest in the Priory of Sion. Brown's novel promotes the mythical version of the Priory: it was founded in 1099, and had illustrious Grand Masters including Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci, etc. The author has presented this as fact in a non-fiction preface, public appearances, and interviews. The Sion RevelationFurther conspiracies are alleged in the 2006 book The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince (authors of the 1997 book The Templar Revelation, the principal source for Dan Brown's claims about hidden messages in the work of Leonardo da Vinci). They accept the evidence that the Priory was created by Plantard, and that its pre-1956 history is fraudulent, but they insist that this was a part of a complex double-bluff designed to discredit the story of the "divine bloodline" and the secret organizations that support it. They argue that these plotters are attempting to create a United States of Europe. ConclusionDespite the exhaustive debunking of the Priory of Sion myth, some secular humanist skeptics are concerned that the promotion and popularity of books and films inspired by this myth have contributed to the insidious mainstreaming of conspiracism, pseudoscience, superstition and other confusions but, more troublingly, of the fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-modern, and anti-liberal mentality of romantic reactionaries, like Plantard, and their unwitting apologists. [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] In popular culture
The Priory of Sion hoax has had several influences on popular culture. Notable examples include:
Alleged Grand Masters of the Priory of SionThe Priory of Sion was supposedly led by a Nautonnier, an Old French word for a navigator and which means Grand Master in their internal esoteric nomenclature. The following list of Grand Masters is derived from the Secret Dossiers of Henri Lobineau compiled by Pierre Plantard under the pseudonym of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier" in 1967: All the Grand Master names were selected after the people in question had died. Many of the names chosen seem to have a common thread of being known for an interest in alchemy or heresy.
Leonardo da Vinci, alleged to be the Priory of Sion's 12th Grand Master
A later document, Le Cercle d'Ulysse, identifies François Ducaud-Bourget, a prominent Traditionalist Catholic, as the Grand Master following Cocteau's death. Plantard himself is later identified as the Grand Master. When the Secret Dossiers were exposed as a forgery by French researchers and authors, Plantard kept quiet but had to acknowledge that the above list was a fraud when investigated by the police for giving false evidence. In 1989, he tried to make a comeback and revive the Priory of Sion by publishing a second list of Priory Grand Masters. This second list, which included the names of the deceased Roger Patrice Pelat and his own young son Thomas Plantard, should not be confused with the first. Post-1989, Plantard sought to distance himself from the first list, which belonged to an older, discredited version of the Priory. The second list of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion appeared in Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22.
Notes
References
Further reading
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