Pierre Plantard and The Da Vinci Code
Once upon a time, March of 1920 to be exact, a man by the name of Pierre Plantard was born in Paris, France. Alright, he wasn't born as a man, and he wasn't born with a name; he was born as a baby, and the name was given to him to by his parents - but you get the idea.
One hardly knows where to begin documenting the bizarre activities of this colorful character.
Plantard set up several fictitious organizations in his lifetime that were anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic. He was sentenced to serve a few months in prison at the end of WWII for setting up organizations without permission, and for "breach of trust."
In June 1956, Plantard founded the Prieure de Sion, an association founded to defend the rights of "the low-rental housing sector." The organization dissolved in 1957.
In the late 1950s, a meeting between Plantard and Noel Corbu (heir to Abbe Berenger Sauniere - yes, "Sauniere") stimulated Plantard's imagination. Corbu had concocted a fantastic story about the priestly Sauniere, involving mystery, treasure, and secret documents hidden in the parish church which contained clues to finding the treasure. The story had been invented out of whole cloth in order to entertain and attract customers at Corbu's restaurant.
But Plantard loved the idea, and so began hatching his own legend surrounding Sauniere. In the mid-60s, Plantard deposited several forged documents with the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. These forgeries were lodged under the title of "Dossier Secrets," belonging to Henri Lobineau - a false name invented by Plantard.
These forged documents included fake genealogies of the Merovingian kings, which purported to be copied from ancient parchments belonging to - guess who? - Abbe Sauniere. The genealogies - which, it cannot be stressed enough, were faked - proved a blood-relationship between King Dagobert I and, conveniently enough, Pierre Plantard.
These documents also contained records of the founding of the Prieure de Sion, not in the 1950s (as was the historical reality), but in 1099. Included in these lists were records of supposed Grand-Masters of the Prieure, dating all the way back (snicker, chuckle) to the 12th century. Who made the list? Leonardo Da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Debussy, and Isaac Newton, among others.
The Prieure, suggested these forged documents, held the guardianship of the secrets relating to Saunier's treasure. Is any of this sounding familiar yet?
It wasn't until 1984 that Plantard's little fantasy game was exposed by the author/historian Jean-Luc Chaumeil. Having thus been humiliated in print, Plantard let his elaborate game die.
However, for some unknown reason, the insane Frenchman revived the Prieure myth again in the late 1980s. He was quickly stopped in his tracks by Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre; you see, Plantard had actually tried to bring these myths, legends, and false documents to bear upon an actual court case in the early 1990s. He claiming to have evidence that the defendant had been a Grand-Master of the Prieure - I am not making this up.
However, under oath, Plantard admitted to making the whole thing up, and was let off with a severe warning to quit playing games.
That was the end of the Prieure de Sion, because Plantard died in 2000.
Or was it the end of Prieure de Sion, otherwise known in English as the "Priory of Sion?"
In the preface to his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown writes: "The secret society of the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099, after the First Crusade. In 1975, parchments referred to as 'Dossiers Secrets' were discovered at the Bibliothèque Nationale, which mention the names of certain members of the Priory, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo Da Vinci."
The book begins with the strange murder of a man named ... [drum-roll] ... Jacques Sauniere, who happens to be a Grand-Master in the Priory of Sion.
Yes, folks, what began as a crazy story, and what later developed into a bizarre fantasy (complete with forged documents) in the hands of a crazy Frenchman, is now the basis for the plot of a best-selling novel - soon to be a blockbuster movie, due out in 2006, directed by Ron Howard.
The tragedy of this is that Brown wrote such a great story around this falsehood, added a myth about Jesus Christ being married to Mary Magdalene, tacked on some lies about the Catholic Church's power-hungry motivation for suppressing "the truth," and has thus succeeded in causing thousands (millions?) of Protestants and Catholics to scratch their heads and think, "Gee ... is this true?"
Well, not exactly. Brown failed to get his history straight on the Priory of Sion, and that was something that had happened within the last 50 years, right there in France (where Brown spent a majority of his time researching for the novel). How far should we then trust this man to accurately report the story of the Nicene Council, the Gnostic Gospels, and the role of Emperor Constantine, events and persons which date back to 1,600-1,700 years ago, in ancient lands?
Stay tuned. More on Brown's version of early Church History later ...
One hardly knows where to begin documenting the bizarre activities of this colorful character.
Plantard set up several fictitious organizations in his lifetime that were anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic. He was sentenced to serve a few months in prison at the end of WWII for setting up organizations without permission, and for "breach of trust."
In June 1956, Plantard founded the Prieure de Sion, an association founded to defend the rights of "the low-rental housing sector." The organization dissolved in 1957.
In the late 1950s, a meeting between Plantard and Noel Corbu (heir to Abbe Berenger Sauniere - yes, "Sauniere") stimulated Plantard's imagination. Corbu had concocted a fantastic story about the priestly Sauniere, involving mystery, treasure, and secret documents hidden in the parish church which contained clues to finding the treasure. The story had been invented out of whole cloth in order to entertain and attract customers at Corbu's restaurant.
But Plantard loved the idea, and so began hatching his own legend surrounding Sauniere. In the mid-60s, Plantard deposited several forged documents with the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. These forgeries were lodged under the title of "Dossier Secrets," belonging to Henri Lobineau - a false name invented by Plantard.
These forged documents included fake genealogies of the Merovingian kings, which purported to be copied from ancient parchments belonging to - guess who? - Abbe Sauniere. The genealogies - which, it cannot be stressed enough, were faked - proved a blood-relationship between King Dagobert I and, conveniently enough, Pierre Plantard.
These documents also contained records of the founding of the Prieure de Sion, not in the 1950s (as was the historical reality), but in 1099. Included in these lists were records of supposed Grand-Masters of the Prieure, dating all the way back (snicker, chuckle) to the 12th century. Who made the list? Leonardo Da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Debussy, and Isaac Newton, among others.
The Prieure, suggested these forged documents, held the guardianship of the secrets relating to Saunier's treasure. Is any of this sounding familiar yet?
It wasn't until 1984 that Plantard's little fantasy game was exposed by the author/historian Jean-Luc Chaumeil. Having thus been humiliated in print, Plantard let his elaborate game die.
However, for some unknown reason, the insane Frenchman revived the Prieure myth again in the late 1980s. He was quickly stopped in his tracks by Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre; you see, Plantard had actually tried to bring these myths, legends, and false documents to bear upon an actual court case in the early 1990s. He claiming to have evidence that the defendant had been a Grand-Master of the Prieure - I am not making this up.
However, under oath, Plantard admitted to making the whole thing up, and was let off with a severe warning to quit playing games.
That was the end of the Prieure de Sion, because Plantard died in 2000.
Or was it the end of Prieure de Sion, otherwise known in English as the "Priory of Sion?"
In the preface to his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown writes: "The secret society of the Priory of Sion was founded in 1099, after the First Crusade. In 1975, parchments referred to as 'Dossiers Secrets' were discovered at the Bibliothèque Nationale, which mention the names of certain members of the Priory, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Leonardo Da Vinci."
The book begins with the strange murder of a man named ... [drum-roll] ... Jacques Sauniere, who happens to be a Grand-Master in the Priory of Sion.
Yes, folks, what began as a crazy story, and what later developed into a bizarre fantasy (complete with forged documents) in the hands of a crazy Frenchman, is now the basis for the plot of a best-selling novel - soon to be a blockbuster movie, due out in 2006, directed by Ron Howard.
The tragedy of this is that Brown wrote such a great story around this falsehood, added a myth about Jesus Christ being married to Mary Magdalene, tacked on some lies about the Catholic Church's power-hungry motivation for suppressing "the truth," and has thus succeeded in causing thousands (millions?) of Protestants and Catholics to scratch their heads and think, "Gee ... is this true?"
Well, not exactly. Brown failed to get his history straight on the Priory of Sion, and that was something that had happened within the last 50 years, right there in France (where Brown spent a majority of his time researching for the novel). How far should we then trust this man to accurately report the story of the Nicene Council, the Gnostic Gospels, and the role of Emperor Constantine, events and persons which date back to 1,600-1,700 years ago, in ancient lands?
Stay tuned. More on Brown's version of early Church History later ...
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