The Legend of the Priory of Sion: Pierre Plantard, the Scrolls of Rennes-le-Château, and the Hoax of the Holy Blood
The Secret Society of the Mountains In the late twentieth century, the Western esoteric imagination was captured by a complex, historical thriller that linked the origin of the French monarchy to the bloodline of Jesus. The Priory of Sion ( Prieuré de Sion ) was presented as a secret society founded in Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade by the prince Godfrey of Bouillon. According to the documents deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the 1960s (known as the Dossiers Secrets ), the Priory's mission was to protect the secret lineage of the Merovingian Dynasty , who were asserted to be the direct descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and to restore this holy bloodline to the thrones of Europe. The legend was closely linked to the mystery of Rennes-le-Château , a remote hilltop village in the Pyrenees. In the late nineteenth century, the local parish priest, Bérenger Saunière , discovered several hidden parchment scrolls inside a hollow pillar of his chur...