|
|
|
OSMTH® - Knights Templar - SMOTJ®
Official International Website ORDO SUPREMUS MILITARIS TEMPLI HIEROSOLYMITANI® The Magistral Grand Priory of The Holy Lands (Notre Dame, Saint Mary of Magdalene)
Prieure de Sion& The Treasures of Rennes-le-Château(1) Saunière's Discovery In 1885 "the
Catholic church assigned Saunière, thirty-three years old, handsome,
well-educated--if provincial--to the parish at Rennes-le-Château.
The find, which occurred in 1886 or 1887, consisted of either a single paper or four parchments according to differing accounts of the event. After reading the document(s), Saunière immediately set about excavating the aisle, nave and transcript. He then moved his attention to the graveyard outside and found an encrypted inscription on a tombstone, reputedly that of Marie de Nègre d'Ablès, Lady of Blanchfort, who had died on 17 January 1781. After deciphering the inscription, traveled to Carcassonne and talked to the deputy of the Bishop who resided there. After his visit Saunière experienced a remarkable turn-around in his fortunes. "Saunière received
"vast sums of money [an estimated 200,000 gold francs] to refurbish the local
church and also to build many structures in the area, such as his Tower of the
Magdalene (Tour Magdala). (Saunière was originally so poor that he relied on the
generosity of parishioners to survive in 1885.) He also built many structures in
the area, such as his Tower of the Magdalene (Tour Magdala)." Saunière decorated the village parish church in the ornate almost garish style that was popular in the late ninteenth century. "Over the porch
lintel is a bizarre inscription, 'THIS PLACE IS TERRIBLE'. A statue of the demon
Asmodeus 'guards' near the door. The plaques depicting the Stations of the Cross
contain bizarre inconsistencies. One shows a child swathed in Scottish plaid.
Another has Pontius Pilate wearing a veil. Sts. Joseph and Mary are each
depicted holding a Christ child, as if to allude to the old legend that Christ
had a twin. Other statues are of rather esoteric saints in unusual postures: St.
Roch displays his wounded thigh (like the Grail King Anfortas), St. Anthony the
Hermit holds a closed book, St. Germaine releases a bevy of roses from her
apron, and the Magdalene is shown holding a vase." Saunière "spent a
fortune refurbishing the town and developed extravagant tastes for rare china,
antiques, and other pricey artifacts. Yet how Saunièreacquired this apparent
windfall remained a mystery--he stubbornly refused to explain the secret of his
success to the church authorities." "Saunière died in
1917, leaving the 'secret' of where he got his fabulous wealth to his
housekeeper, Marie Dernaud, who promised to reveal it on her deathbed - but
sadly she had a stroke which left her paralyzed and unable to speak before her
death in 1953. Speculation was rife on the source of the parish priest's money.
Was it the lost treasure of the Templars or the Cathars in the area? Might it
have been buried Visigothic gold? Was he being paid by the Hapsburgs or some
other government for his services? Did he know the lost goldmaking secrets of
alchemy? Or was he blackmailing the Church with some terrible secret? The
evidence that points to the last possibility is that Saunière's confession
before his death was so shocking that the priest who heard it denied him
absolution and last rites." (2) The Secret Codes A mysterious set of transcripts and photographs entitled Dossiers Secrets was deposited in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (although the little book was never authenticated by the library). The Dossiers Secrets contained two genealogies dating from 1244 C.E. and 1644 C.E., a quasi-Masonic charter and a sketch of the inscription on the tomb of the Countess of Blanchfort. Of even greater interest were two documents which were purported to be of the parchments found in the pillar at the church at Rennes-le-Château.
Click on the parchments to view "They were
apparently written by his predecessor, Abbé Antoine Bigou, confessor to Marie
d'Hautpoul [Lady of Blanchfort], in 1781. (The same cypher appears on her
tombstone.)" "According to
Henry Lincoln and historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh (The Holy
Blood and the Holy Grail) "these more recent papers contained a series of
ciphers and codes, some of them 'fantastically complex, defying even a computer'
to unlock their secrets. "The parchments
were, on the face of it, Latin transcriptions of passages from the Gospels; but
they contained deeper mysteries." The first code was easily broken when letters higher than the rest of the text were identified by Henry Lincoln and arranged in order. The code in the second parchment was more complex and yielded an even stranger message. "The code in the
parchment is only decipherable through the use of the knight's tour - a logic
puzzle wherein one 'jumps' a knight to every square on a chess board, once and
only once. It is a puzzle which has only one solution - as does the code,
clearly."
BERGÈRE PAS DE TENTATION QUE POUSSIN (in English) Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger, authors of the The Tomb of God, write that many of the words are keys to landmarks in the Rennes-le-Château area and claim that they have been able to identify the location of these landmarks. For example LA CROIX is a cross by the railway line north of Alet-les-Bains. When a person visits these sites in the order given on the parchment that person will have traversed a complete square "Saunière also
appears to have left certain other 'clues' in the highly unusual redesign of his
church and of the other structures in the area." (3) Poussin's Enigmatic Painting According to Gerard de Sede, L'Or de Rennes-le-Château, the enigmatic reference to "shepherdess no temptation that Poussin Teniers hold the key" in the second parchment refers to the the works of Nicolas Poussin (1593-1665) and David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694), who had painted The Temptation of St Antony. Poussin reportedly travelled to Paris to verify his discovery and while there visited the Louvre to obtain copies of Poussin's Les Bergers D'Arcadie, Tenier's The Temptation of St Antony and a third painting, a portrait of Pope Celestine V, artist unknown.
Nicolas Poussin, Les Bergers D'Arcadie "There is a famous
painting by Poussin entitled Les Bergers D'Arcadie (the Arcadian
shepherds) which shows them around a tomb containing the mysterious inscription
'Et in Arcadia Ego...'" Th phrase "Et in Arcadia Ego" translated into English has been interpreted to mean "Even in earthly paradise, I (death) exist." "The theme of
'Arcadia' was prominent in Elizabethan literature, and it appears in the works
of writers such as Edmund Spenser, Sir Phillip Sidney, and even Shakespeare, for
whom the word was synonymous with the Golden Age." Art expert Prof. Christopher Cornford, of the Royal College of Art, analyzed the painting and found a complex underlying geometry based on the pentagon. Andrews and Schellenberger (The Tomb of God) were able to draw an equilateral triangle between a symbol and key characters on Parchment. In addition, they constructed a square tilted at 75 degrees on Parchment 2 which contained the triangle on the first parchment. These two shapes can be superimposed on a map of the Rennes-le-Château area using the Paris Zero Meridian, appear to make a remarkable alignment with key chateaux and churches and towns. Andrews and Paul Schellenbergere were also able to discern the same geometric shapes in the three paintings above as well as several related paintings. If the secret that Saunière had stumbled onto was indeed a map, what was its significance? (4) An Amazing Geometry The castles of Templar Château of Bezu, the Château of Blanchefort and Rennes-le-Château are each located on a mountain top. Together, with the high spots of two other peaks, the locations form a perfect pentagon (five equal sides) some fifteen miles in circumference.. "At night, a fire lit upon each peak would easily be seen." Like Rennes-le-Château "the village church dates back to at least the time of the Visigoths, some thirteen centuries ago. The church is dedicated to Saint Magdalene..." "The early
astronomers saw the earth as the center of the universe, around which the Sun,
the stars and the planets revolved. Each planet forms its own pattern of
movement around the Sun as seen from the Earth. For the ancient watchers of the
heavens, those differing patterns of movement allowed them to draw geometric
shapes based on the positions of each planet when it was aligned with the Sun." "The accepted
definition of a pole [also known as the Rod or Perch] is now 5.5 yards - one
320th part of a mile, i.e., 198 inches...The kilometer - one thousand meters or
one then-thousandth of a quadrant of the earth's surface - when translated into
English measure is 39,370 inches, and the square toot of 39,370 is 198.41874!" The Royal Seed?(1) The Warrior Kings Near
Rennes-le-Château, above the village of Coustaussa, are the 'Capitelles' and
'Camp Grand'. "We were not prepared for the astonishing sight which we found on
the hillside. Not just a few, but hundreds - perhaps thousands - of bee-hive
shaped stone structures were scattered across the countryside as far as the eye
could see....Some were in remarkably good repair, perhaps built and re-built
over centuries. Others were little more than collapsed heaps of stones. Most,
however, were clearly and easily identifiable as solid buildings, erected to
last, each containing one small room with a doorway and, invariably, a narrow
window. Some were square, some rectangular, some curricular, some ovoid. Each
had a beautifully and skillfully constructed dry-stone roof. A very few of the
structures seemed to be completely solid, with no interior chamber, which makes
it difficult to relate them to the idea of 'shelters'. An historian who has
examined my photographs described them as reminiscent of Neolithic bee-hive
burial chambers." "The Visigoths
were adherents of the Aryan heresy which denied the divinity of Jesus. Their
descendants founded the Merovingian dynasty which ruled Gaul until the death of
Dagobert II." "The Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris contains a facsimile (produced by the monk Lucerius) of the
highly reputed Fredegar's Chronicle - an exhaustive 7th-century
historical work of which the original took 35 years to compile. A special
edition of Fredegar's manuscript was presented to the illustrious Nebelungen
court and was recognized by the state authorities as a comprehensive, official
history. Fredegar (who died in 660) was a Burgundian scribe, and his
Chronicle covered the period from the earliest days of the Hebrew
patriarchs to the era of the Merovingian kings. It cited numerous sources of
information of cross-reference, including the writings of St Jerome (translator
of the Old Testament into Latin), Archbishop Isidore of Seville (author of the
Encyclopedia of Knowledge), and Bishop Gregory of Tours (author of
The History of the Franks)." Lincoln and his
co-authors fashioned a theory that Christ had descendents who "legged it to the
south of France where they intermarried with the royal Franks to found what
eventually became the mystical Merovingian Dynasty. Ergo, the real mission of
the Templars and Priory of Zion: to safeguard not just the treasure of the
Crusades, but to preserve the Grail, which appeared in medieval texts as
'Sangraal' or 'Sang réal', and which Lincoln et al. translated to mean
sang réal, or 'royal blood'. In other words: the dynastic legacy of
Christ, literally." "'Sang réal' has
been traditionally interpreted as the 'holy grail' which, according to legend,
Mary Magdalene carried to the Jewish kingdom of southern Gaul (including
Rennes-le-Château. It may have been believed by adherents of a secret tradition
that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and that what she brought was not a
vessel but the royal seed of David in her womb." "...The
Merovingians were considered in their day to be quasi-mystical warrior-kings
vested with supernatural powers." "Up until
recently, little was known about these long-haired kings, as they inhabited that
historical epoch derided as the 'Dark Ages'. The founder of the royal line,
Merovech, was said to be of two fathers - his mother, already pregnant by King
Chlodio, was seduced while swimming in the ocean by a 'Quinotaur,' whatever that
was, and Merovech was formed somehow by the commingling of Frankish blood and
that of the mysterious aquatic creature. Like the Nazoreans of old, the
Merovingian monarchs never cut their hair, and bore a distinctive birthmark -
said to be a red cross over the shoulder blades. Their robes were fringed with
tassels which were said to carry magical curative powers. They were known as
occult adepts, and in one Merovingian tomb was found such items as a golden
bull's head, a crystal ball, and several golden miniature bees. And strangely,
many skulls of these monarchs appear to have been ritually incised - i.e.
trephanned." The Merovingians traced their ancestry back to the Benjamites who, according to legend, has fled from Israel to Arcadia in Greece. "One of the more
mysterious footnotes in history is the story of the Principality of Septimania.
Granted by Peppin III to the large Jewish population in the south of France, its
first king, Theodoric, claimed descent not only from the Merovingian Kings, but
lineal descent from King David himself. Both the king and the Pope acknowledged
this pedigree. His son, Guillem de Gellone, was a great, almost legendary hero
about whom no less than six medieval epics were written, including Wilehalm
by Wolfram von Eschenbach. He is closely linked with the Grail family. .His
descendant, 17 generations later, was Godfroi de Bouillon, leader of the First
Crusade who was, by the Pope, made King of Jerusalem." (2) An Ancient Secret Society? "Pierre Plantard
de Saint-Clair [was] apparently the source behind much of the recent literature
devoted to the hilltown and its enigmatic priest. Shepherded to Paris's
Bibliotheque Nationale, our trio of historical investigators [Baigent, Leigh &
Lincoln] discovered there a provocative genealogy purporting to link Pierre
Plantard to King Dagobert II and the Merovingian dynasty. "According to
Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, the Order of Sion was founded in the 1090s by
Godfroide Bouillon, one of the leaders of the First Crusade who had recaptured
Jerusalem. They claim that it was this Order that lay behind Hugues of Champagne
and the founding of the Templars." "The earliest
roots of the Prieure de Sion are in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led
by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled paganism and
Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages. In
1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, founded
the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes. These monks are said
to have formed the basis for the the Order de Sion, into which they were
'folded' in 1099 by Godfroi de Bouillion." "The avowed and
declared objective of the Prieure de Sion is the restoration of the Merovingian
dynasty and bloodline - to the throne not only of France, but to the thrones of
other European nations as well." "Godfroi was, by
legend, a member of the Grail Family, and by lineage a Merovingian and
apparently, rightful King of Jerusalem by his descent from David. It is clear
that he was aware of this. When he left for the first crusade, he sold all of
his property. He intended to stay in Jerusalem. Godfroi was close to de Payen
and the count of Champagne, and Baudoin [his brother] was integral to the
founding of the Templars." "One might
therefore term Godfroi de Bouillon as a sort of 'king of kings', or at least a
maker of kings, since he founded the Order of Sion that could crown Kings of
Jerusalem." "To the south of
Jerusalem looms the 'high hill' of Mount Sion." By 1099 an abbey had been built
on the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica at the express command of Godfroi de
Buoillon. "In 1979, M.
Plantard had said to us, quite categorically, that the Prieure was in possession
of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans during the
revolt of A.D. 66 and subsequently carried to the south of France, in the
vicinity of Rennes-le-Château. The treasure, M. Plantard stated, would be
returned to Israel 'when the time is right.'" "At some point, according to Lincoln et al., the treasure had passed from the Merovingians to the Priory of Zion, whose Templar operatives later hustled the precious hoard from the Holy Land to the French Cathars, who, on the eve of their destruction by the church, squirreled the lucre away in the Pyrenees." But what if the
"treasure" was something other than gold? After all, legend had it that the
Cathar heretics possessed a valuable, even sacred relic, 'which according to a
number of legends, was the Holy Grail, itself." "By 19 July 1116,
the name of the Ordre de Sion was already appearing on official charters and
documents. We found another charter, dated 1152 and bearing the seal of King
Louis VII of France, which conferred upon the Order it first major seat in
Europe, at Orleans. We found a later charter, dated 1178 and bearing the seal of
Pope Alexander III, which confirmed certain land holdings of the Order not only
in the Holy Land, but in France, Spain and throughout the Italian peninsula - in
Sicily, in Naples, in Calabria, In Lombardy." "For about one
hundred years, the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) and Sion were
apparently unified under one leadership, though they are said to have separated
at the 'cutting of the elm' at Gisors in 1188." "Near the end of
the thirteenth Century a separate detachment of Templars was sent from the
Aragonese province of Rossillon to the Rennes-le-Château area in southern France
[the old Cathar stronghold]." This fresh detachment established itself on the
summit of the mountain of Bezu, erecting a lookout post and a chapel. In The Tomb of God, authors Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger have drawn their own controversial conclusion as to what the secret might have been: The bearings of the site, based on the parchments, paintings and drawings of the de Negre gravestones (that reportedly had been found by Saunière), intersect on one point - a rocky outcropping on Mount Cardou, five kilometers from Rennes-le-Château. "The secret itself
is the Tomb Of Jesus, in where the remains of Jesus are kept. They have checked
and double checked and triple checked every new discovered hint and answer, and
they have come to the conclusion that the different hints all point to the same
location. After a search in the given location, there are indications that a
tunnel has been excavated in early middle ages. Unfortunately, the entrance to
the possible tunnel is blocked by thousands of tons of stone and rock. Only a
official extensive excavation with modern gear will probably give an answer." "Whether is was
the intrigues and the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century, the
insurrection known as the Fronde in the seventeenth century or the Masonic
conspiracies of the eighteenth century, successive generations of precisely the
same families were implicated, operating in accordance with a single consistent
pattern."
Organisation and Membership of Sion(1) The Grades Contained in the Dossiers Secrets was a series of names and dates ranging from the founding of the Knights Templar to modern times, which purported to be a list of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion. "Themes such as
Arcadia, the number 58, Black Madonnas and Mary Magdalene are found in
noticeable profusion where the Priory is supposed to have had influence, and in
the works of artists, writers and poets who are said to be connected with that
organization. These recurring themes would seem to indicated an 'underground
stream' of esoteric belief." "Depending on what
statutes one considers, Sion either has 9,841 members in nine grades, or 1,093
members in seven, with the supreme member, the 'Nautonnier' or Grand Master of
the Order being, till 1963, Jean Cocteau. While it is believed the head has been
Pierre Plantard de St.-Clair up until recent times, he claims to have left that
post in 1984, so it is not clear who runs the organization at this time." The members of the
Order of the Priory of Sion is divided into two effective groups: The hierarchy of nine grades consists of:
The office of Nautonnier or Navigator,is symbolised by the boat of Isis. "Isis holds in her
right hand a small sailing ship with the spindle of a spinning wheel for its
mast. From the top of the mast projects a water jug, its handle shaped like a
serpent swelled with venom. This indicates that Isis steers the bark of life,
full of troubles and miseries, on the stormy ocean of Time. The spindle
symbolizes the fact that she spins and cuts the thread of life." The boat of Isis
"was positioned in the constellation of Argo. Specifically, in Egypt this
constellation was named Sothis or Soth-Isis, the Star of Isis. Furthermore, in
the Egyptian legends this vessel represented the female organ of generation." The Ark of the Covenant of the ancient Israelites is believed to have been modelled after the ceremonial ark of Isis. (2) The Grand Masters "...It would seem
that Sion's Grand Mastership has recurrently shifted between two essentially
distinct groups of individuals. On the one hand there are figures of monumental
stature who - through esoterica, the arts or sciences - have produced some
impact on Western tradition, history and culture. On the other hand, there are
members of a specific and interlinked network of families - noble, and sometimes
royal." "...The first
Grand Master, the twelfth-century Norman knight Jean de Gisors, took the name
Jean II and pose the question: 'Who, then was Jean I?' They offer a few
suggestions - John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and John the Divine - before
dropping the subject." "This succession
was clearly intended to imply an esoteric and Hermetic papacy based on John, in
contrast (and perhaps opposition) to the exoteric one based on Peter." It has been alleged that Hughes de Payens, first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, had been inducted into the Johannites, a sect which chose John the Baptist as their prophet. According to the Dossiers Secrets, each of the alleged Grand Masters of the Prieure de Sion took the name Jean in succession (supposedly influencing the name chosen by Pope John XXIII). One of the Grand Masters on the list, Leonardo da Vinci, displayed a strong interest in John the Baptist. Another, Sir Isaac Newton, became preoccupied with the writings of the Apocalypse, then attributed to John the Evangelist. According to the Dossiers Secrets, the following individuals were amongst the Grand Masters: René d'Anjou (1418-80) - a major impetus behind the Renaissance through his literacy and influence on Cosimo de'Medici setting up bastions of esoteric, Hermetic principles - the 'underground stream'. Legend records that the d'Anjous were descended from Ann the Jew, daughter of Joseph of Arimathea, who supposedly carried the Davidic blood line and settled in western France. Later, the D'Anjou branched into the Houses of De Guise and De Lorraine. René d'Anjou "was
related to the king of France by marriage and remained a trusted ally during the
war with England. On paper, René was one of the most powerful men in Europe.
Unfortunately, after the failure of his Italian campaign, he was nothing more
than a patron of the arts and collector of books. René was co-sponsor of the
Arcadia revival in the late 15th century." "Through his
patronage of art, literature and the advancement of knowledge René is one of the
most important figures of the formative years of the Renaissance....It was
directly as a result of René's influence that Cosimo de Medici sent agents out
to look for ancient texts, which resulted in the revival of Neoplatonic and
Hermetic thought..." Nicholas
Flamel (1330-1418) - Most famous
of the alchemists, "the Paris notary Nicolas Flamel...claimed that he dreamed of
an occult book, subsequently found it, and succeeded in deciphering it with the
aid of a Jewish scholar learned in the mystic Hebrew writings known as the
Kabbala. In 1382 Flamel claimed to have succeeded in the 'Great Work' (gold
making); certainly he became rich and made donations to churches." "...One alchemical
symbol that is widely acknowledged by modern scholars is that of an old bearded
man, the back of whose head shows a young woman looking into a mirror. A statue
with this image graces the exterior of Nantes cathedral, as does a bearded king
with the body of a woman, in the porch at Chartres that depicts the Queen of
Sheba." Revered by men like Newton, Flamel was the discoverer of The Sacred Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher to that Tribe of Jews who by the Wrath of God were Dispersed amongst the Gauls which became one of the most famous works in Western esoteric tradition. Sandro
Filipepi (1483-1510) - better
known as Botticelli, the renowned Renaissance painter. Leonardo
de Vinci (1510-19) - "Having
little formal education, Leonardo enthusiastically accepted Nicholas's [of Cusa]
new worldview [of an universe with no limits in space, no beginning or ending in
time] as a justification for rejecing the outmoded authority of the 'pharisees -
the 'holy friars' and of his 'adversaries' Plato and Aristotole." "Leonardo was
left-handed; he was a strict vegetarian; he dissected dead bodies, he sought the
company of alchemists and necromancers; he worked on a Sunday and only attended
Mass when at court." Robert
Fludd (1595-1637) - "inherited
John Dee's mantle as England's leading exponent of esoteric thought" who
consorted with Andrea, amongst others involved in the 'Rosicrucian' movement. Johann
Valenin Andrea (1637-54) - "the
creator of the semi-secret Christian unions and author of the Rosicrucian
manifestos, a Hermetic allegory which also evokes resonances with the Grail
Romances and the Knights Templar. At this time, with the eclipse of the House of
Lorraine, the Priory transferred its allegiance to the more influential Stuarts
after Frederick of the Palatinate married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I
of England. Frederick "created a culture, a 'Rosicrucian' state with its court
centered on Heidelberg." [Francis Yates] "Through the
historical detective work of Frances Yates, we now know that this era was a time
when many 'Rosicrucian' ideas were moving to the Continent, and esoteric
thinkers were confluencing around Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate of
Bohemia, as the figure who would usher in the reforms of Church and State many
expected." Robert Boyle (1654-91) - part of the "Invisible College" of dynamic English and European minds which became the Royal Society after the restoration of the monarch in 1160 with the Stuart ruler, Charles II as its patron and sponsor. His two closest friends were Isaac Newton and John Locke who met regularly with him to study alchemical works. "In the ancient
world alchemy was referred to simply as 'the sacred art'. It flourished in the
first three centuries A.D. in Alexandria, where it was the combined product of
glass and metal technology, a Hellenistic philosophy of the unity of all things
through the four elements (earth, air, water, fire), and 'occult' religion and
astrology....The essential principle was that all things, both animate and
inanimate, were permeated by spirit, and that the substances of the lower world
could, through a synthesis of chemical operations and imaginative reasoning, be
transmuted into higher things of the spiritual world - things not subject to
decay." "The central idea
of Gnosticism is that the material of which 'soul and true being' is composed is
trapped through a series of cosmic misfortunes in a low-level universe that is
alien to it. And the alchemists literalized these ideas to suggest that the
spirit could somehow be distilled or coaxed from the dense matrix of matter." Isaac
Newton (1691-1727) - "believed
alchemy might enable human beings to shape and control the world by
understanding and participating in its God-given vitality. He conducted
alchemical experiments with great secrecy at Trinity College, Cambridge, working
alone, even building his own furnaces without the aid of a bricklayer. He made a
pact with the chemist John Boyle not to communicate their shared alchemical
knowledge to others, because the 'subtle' and 'noble' powers of matter and the
means of controlling them should be kept secret by those chosen by God to be
entrusted with them." "He had been
obsessed...with the notion that a secret wisdom lay concealed within the pages
of the Scriptures: Daniel of the Old Testament and John of the New particularly
attracted him because 'the language of the prophetic writings was symbolic and
hieroglyphical and their comprehension required a radically different method of
interpretation'." "Newton was not
the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of
the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the world
with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance
rather less than ten thousand years ago."
"Just as the world was created from dark chaos
through the bringing forth of the light and through the separation of the aery
firmament and of the waters from the earth, so our work brings forth the
beginning out of black chaos and its first matter through the separation of the
elements and the illumination of matter." Charles Radclyffe (1727-46) - personal secretary to Bonnie Prince Charlie; promulgated, if not devised the "Scottish Rite" Freemasonry. Radclyffe worked through Chevalier Andrew Ramsay, a member of a quasi Masonic, quasi-"Rosicrucian" society called the Philadelphians. Ramsay, a close friend of Isaac Newton, was prominent in disseminating Freemasonry to the continent. Charles de Lorraine (1746-80) - the brother of Francois, Duke of Lorraine who was the Holy Roman emperor who married Maria Theresa of Austria in 1735. The first European prince to become a mason, Francois' court at Vienna became Europe's Masonic capital. Charles
Nodier (1801-44) - the
flamboyant mentor for an entire generation including young Victor Hugo, Balzac,
Dalcroix, Dumas pere, Lamartine, Musset, Theophile Gautier, Gerard de Nerval and
Alfred de Vigny - all who drew upon esoteric and Hermetic tradition. "Around
1793 he created another group - or perhaps an inner circle of the first [the
Philadephes]- which included one of the subsequent plotters against Napoleon." Victor
Hugo (1844-85) "prophesied that
in the Twentieth Century, war would die, frontier boundaries would die, dogma
would die...and Man would live. 'He will possess something higher than these...a
great country, the Whole Earth...and a great hope, the Whole Heaven'." Claude Debussy (1885-1918)- an integral member of the symbolist circles which included Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Stefan George, Paul Valery, the young Andre Gide and Marcel Proust. He also consorted with the Marquis Stanislas de Guaita, founder of the so-called Cabalistic Order of the Rose-Croix, and Jules Boise, a notorious Satanist who prompted MacGregor Mathers to found the Order of the Golden Dawn. Jean Cocteau (1918-) - an associate of Jacques Maritain and Andre Malraux, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (for his quiet work in the Resistance?). Although associated with royalist Catholic circles, Cocteau's Catholicism was highly unorthodox and his redecorations of churches reflected Rosicrucian themes. - List from Baigent & Leigh, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Modern Merovingian Connection(1) Napoleon Bonaparte "Sion appears to
have been at the nexus of two French anti-monarchical movements, the Compagnie
du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century (acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine
families) and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as an attempt to make the
Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th- the Hieron du Val d'Or." "...In 1740, the
Grand Master of the Order of Malta caused the Bull of Pope Clement XII, to be
published in that island, and forbade the meetings of the Freemasons. On this
occasion several Knights and many citizens left the island; and in 1741, the
Inquisition persecuted the Freemasons at Malta. The Grand Master proscribed
their assemblies under severe penalties, and six Knights were banished from the
island in perpetuity for having assisted at a meeting." "In 1796 Napoleon
was one of three revolutionary 'Directors' heading the government. Another
'Director' was Abbe Sieyes, who knew of certain genealogical researches that had
been undertaken by one Abbe Pichon. Pichon had access to the royal archives
captured by the revolutionary government, where some important genealogies had
been hidden away, and he discovered that a direct descent from Dagobert II had
been maintained up to then." "It was fortunate
for the French that there was little fight left in the Knights of St. John...the
last Grand Master, the apathetic von Hompesch, made only a show of resistance
before accepting Bonaparte's terms...For the cost of three men killed, the
French secured an invaluable naval base and a great deal of treasure..." "...At his
coronation as Emperor in 1804 he adorned his imperial robe with the gold bee
figurines which had been discovered in the tomb of Childeric I, father of
Clovis. Napoleon styled himself Emperor of the Franks, not 'Emperor of the
French'..." A clue to the gold bee figurines on Napoleon's imperial robe may be the Sarmoung Society. (2) Vichy France "To Saint-Yves d'Alveydre the Templars stood for a policy of federation and universal peace which went back to the Carolingians of the early Middle Ages. Like many French conservative thinkers, including (many years after him) Charles de Gaulle, he felt that the ancien rŽgime in France had take a wrong turning, responsible for its later catastrophe, which he could identify. Unfortunately his choice of the Templars as a solution to the supposed riddle of the French monarchy was wrong; they had performed none of the functions that he attributed to them, and his speculations about them were daydreams added to the old fantasies of Aroux. [who had portrayed the Middle Ages as having been penetrated by a vast Manichaean conspiracy]." "The Vichy regime
legislated against Freemasonry, and co-operated with the Germans in identifying
and acting against Masons. But, even within the regime itself, people were very
doubtful that Freemasonry had genuinely been banished. In the so-called 'Chavin
Report', which seems to have originated from within or near government circles,
allegations were made that large number of people in responsible positions
belonged to Masonic political groups called 'synarchist' which had been in
existence since the 1920s. These synarchists were supposed to have been inspired
in part by the doctrine of Saint-Yves d'Alveydre. They were represented as a
group of influential politicians, businessmen, and so-called 'technocrats' who
had been plotting to seize power ever since a reputed 'Synarchist Revolutionary
Pact' of 1922." During second world war in France, self--proclaimed grand master of the Prieure de Sion, M. Plantard, was grand master of Alpha Galantes. Jew and Masons were not welcome and Vaincre, the journal of Alpha Galantes, warned Hitler about plot by Freemasons. After the war Plantard dissociated himself with the French collaborators and said that he was actually working for the French Resistance. "He hinted that
beneath its pro-Vichy and Petainist patina,
Vaincre [the journal of Alpha Galantes] contained coded
messages and instruction which would have been decipherable only to the
Resistance....Vaincre had been printed by Poirier Murat, Chevalier of
the Legion d'Honneur, holder of the Medaille Militaire and officer in the French
Resistance." In the fifth issue
of Vaincre, dated 21 January 1943, "a great German, one of the Masters
in our Order" is quoted as saying: "It is therefore with total confidence that I
depart to perform my mission; for while not deluding myself about the perils I
run in discharging my duty, I know that until my last breath my watchword will
consist in recognition of Alpha and fidelity to its chief." (3) Heroes of the Resistance On February 13,
1973 the Midi Libre "suggested that the Merovingian descendants included 'a true
pretender to the throne of France', whom it identified as M. Alain
Poher....During the Second World War he won the Resistance Medal and the Croix
de Guierre. Following the resignation of de Gaulle, he was provisional President
of France from April 28th to June 19th, 1969. He occupied the same position on
the death of Georges Pompidou, from April 2nd to May 27th, 1974. In 1973...M.
Poher was President of the French Senate." "During the Second
World War, while Poher was doing something heroic in the Resistance to win the
Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre, and while Plantard [future Nautonnier
of the Priory of Sion] defied the Nazis and suffered torture for it, the Cross
of Lorraine was adopted as the symbol of the Free French forces under Charles de
Gaulle. This cross, having two cross-bars instead of one, originated with the
ancient French house of Anjou, where Guiot found his tale about Percival. It was
later adopted by the Merovingian-descended rulers of Lorraine in the old
Sicambrian heartland on the Rhine." "Invited in 1947
by the Federal Government of Switzerland, he [Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair)
resided for several years there, near Lake Leman, where numerous charges de
missions and delegates from the entire world are gathered." "The Marshall
Plan, the financial and political plan for the reconstruction of Europe, was
thrashed out at Lake Leman in Switzerland. The American President, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, had approved this plan, and two of his closest friends and
advisors had backgrounds and interests as disreputable as Pierre Plantard's. One
such advisor, the financial wizard, Bernard Baruch, was a graduate of a French
'hermetic' school and was the financial architect of the so-called Marshall
Plan. He visited Lake Leman frequently in the immediate post-war years."
(4) De Gaulle's Rise to Power In 1957 the specter of a civil war loomed in France. "In Algeria, a network of semi-secret societies began to appear, the Comites de Salut Public (Committees of Public Safety). Modeled on the Committees of Public Safety during the French Revolution, the Algerian network undertook to weld French interests, the French Army and the French population of North Africa into a cohesive and unified force which would constitute a bulwark against Algerian independence and keep the colony permanently attached to France....They received support from a number of high-ranking military men, including Marshal Alphonse Juin, who is alleged to have been an important member of the Prieure de Sion." "In April, 1958, the newly elected French government signaled a desire to resolve the Algerian crisis by granting independence to the colony." In reaction the Committees of Public Safety staged a coup d'Žtat in Algeria and Committees established in France helped to sweep de Gaulle into power. "For at least some of the French Committees...the primary objective seems to have been installing de Gaulle in the Presidency, and Algeria may have been wholly incidental, if not irrelevant. It is difficult to be certain about this, however, simply because the Committees themselves, especially in France, were so shadowy. They were obviously widespread, obviously very well organized - a true 'secret army', with many links with the regular army. But firm information about them is virtually impossible to obtain, and reliable documentation is virtually non-existent." When de Gaulle
began to negotiate with Algerian nationalist leaders for the country's
independence, the Algerian Committees formed the "OAS, the Organization de
l'Armee Secrete, or secret Army Organization, which pledged itself to avenge
what it saw as de Gaulle's treason." In order to dissolve the mainland French
Committees and leave the Algerian Committees isolated, "M. Plantard established
the Central Paris Committee, which imposed itself as a kind of ad hoc authority
over the other committees already in existence and proceeded in effect to hijack
them. De Gaulle, in the meantime, was able to maintain a serene Olympian
aloofness from the apparently 'grass-roots' movement which swept him to power -
as well as from the potentially awkward process of having personally to
dismantle the organizational apparatus of that movement before it could be
turned against him."
Sources and Documents ExposedRoyal
Blood?
Confusion Over the Parchments
Saunière's Trip to Paris "In fact there is
no evidence that Saunière ever visited St. Sulpice or celebrated Mass there,
according to a letter from the seminary's archivist....What's more, most art
historians [like Martin Kemp, Professor of Art History, Oxford University]
reject the whole idea of occult geometry in Poussin's paintings."
Saunière's Wealth The
Mystery of the Tomb "The headstone is
quite well documented; a drawing of it was made by the Society for Scientific
Studies of the Ande during a field trip to the area in 1905 and printed, with a
report on the trip, in the Society's journal." L'Or de Rennes-le-Château (which Gerard de Sede produced in collaboration with Plantard) cited Eugene Stublein's Engraved Stones of the Languedoc as the source of the two drawings of the grave. Stublein was noted for an illustrated travel guide to thermal baths in the region, called Établissements Thermal. The signatures on the drawings in Engraved Stones of the Languedoc do not match those in the travel guide, however, and the drawings of the tomb have been declared forgeries. Andrews and Schellenberger dismiss this criticism by stating that the drawings are not central to their thesis since there also the proofs in the paintings and parchments. Besides, they add, the forgers themselves could have been members of the Prieure de Sion and privy to real secrets. Origins
of the Prieure du Sion "...This
mysterious secret society brought itself to light in 1956, and is listed with
the French directory of organizations under the subtitle 'Chivalry of Catholic
Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union', which in
French abbreviates to CIRCUIT - the name of the magazine distributed internally
among members." Although an Order
of Sion did exist in the Middle Ages, there is no historical evidence that
Plantard's association is descended from it. "...In documents
dating from 1619, it [the Order of Sion] was stated to have incurred the
displeasure of King Louis XIII of France, who evicted them from their seat at
Orleans and turned the premises over to the Jesuits. After that, the Prieure de
Sion [the Order of Sion] seemed to vanish from the historical record, at least
under that name, until 1956, when it appeared again, registered in the French
Journal officiel." Plantard
registered the Prieure de Sion in St. Julien. There he drew the name for his
order from nearby Mont Sion, not the ancient abbey. Andrews and
Schellenberger write that the original Order de Sion apparently had a secondary
title "The Order of the Rose Cross Veritas" and linked it with the Rosicrucian
movement in the seventeenth century. The original Order of Sion, however, had
disappeared from history.
Plantard's Genealogy Although Plantard cannot legitimately claim to be the heir to the throne of France, he was assisted in his endeavors by a real, although dissolute, aristocrat the Marquis Phillipe de Cherissy. It was he, along with Plantard, who deposited the Dossiers Secrets into the Bibliotheque Nationale according to library records. Eventually Plantard, de Cherissy and Gerard de Sede had a falling out over money. The
Secret Behind the Codes Jarnac produced the documents for the BBC camera. A note on Parchment 1 in Plantard's handwriting stated "This is the original document faked by Phillipe de Cherissy which Gerard de Sede reproduced in his book L'Or de Rennes-le-Château." In a forty-four
page unpublished paper called "Stone and Paper" de Cherissy "describes how the
documents were fabricated, how the ciphers were set and how they can be
decoded." According to the "Stone and Paper" the solution for the ciphers in Parchment 2 is as follows:
PRIORY OF SION: THE FACTS, THE THEORIES, THE MYSTERY Introduction It has been seven years since I wrote my first article on the Priory of Sion/Rennes-les-Chateau mystery. At the time, I was heavily under the influence of the books Holy Blood, Holy Grail and Lionel Fanthorpe's work. Since then, there have been a number of books released, some better, some worse, than these original influences. I have revised some of my theories, challenged some of my own assumptions, learned some new things, and encountered a great deal of contrary data. Now, I am no longer sure that the hypothesis presented at the end of Holy Blood, Holy Grail is the best for explaining the data, nor am I sure that a Priory of Sion with the characteristics ascribed to it (an 800-year uninterrupted history, 9000 members internationally) really exists. I also am not sure that what is presented as "orthodox" with regard to the Sauniere saga can really be trusted. Still, although I have encountered the work of the debunkers, I am sure of two and only two things:
I believe that people get lost in certain obsessive details regarding this mystery, in particular details having to do with the life of Jesus, the idea of some type of mysterious bloodline with genes from (G-d/aliens/angels/Nephilim/Merovech/take your pick), lost artefacts (the Shroud of Turin, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the head of John the Baptist, etc.), or conspiracy theories (on the part of the Catholic Church, the French Geographic Institute/IGN, and various ludicrous New World Orders). In this essay, I'm going to attempt to present my current, "millennial" take on this mystery. I will actually attempt to argue beyond the mere basis of statements a and b, but I will attempt to present why I believe this is the case. Since this is not a scholarly essay, it will not be heavily referenced and footnoted, but I believe all assertions in here are defensible, and can present the sources on which I think they are based. Many ideas in here come from the three years of discussion I have had on the priory-of-sion egroups list, with a wide-ranging variety of erudite minds. In lieu of writing a book on this subject, which I really at this time don't want to do, I think this essay is one of the better ways to communicate my current thoughts on this subject. I apologize for any errors in advance, but cannot claim infallibility, only a desire for accuracy. Should any of these things be proved false, I am fully willing to withdraw those statements. Unlike others writing on this subject, I have no agenda, no desire to manipulate or deceive, only to deal with the information and offer my theories and interpretations. I have decided the best way to present this data is chronologically. Some would begin this story back in the hoary mists of prehistory, or in the time of Jesus, or with the coming of the Merovingian Franks to Gaul, or in ancient Sumeria. I prefer to start at one particular place. 1090 - 1188 The Ordre de Sion According to the "prieure documents," a conclave of Calabrian monks who left from the Belgian Abbey of Orval in 1090 helped secure the election of Godfroi de Bouillion as de facto king of Jerusalem during the First Crusade (but as is well known, he refused the title, accepting only Defender of the Holy Sepulchre), based on their belief that he was a descendant of the Merovingians, and by that fact, according to these documents, also a descendant of King David through Jesus and Merovech. In return, Godfroi secured their installation into an Abbey on Mount Sion. These documents also claim that the Ordre of Sion and the Order of the Temple (officially, the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, later known as the Knights Templar, and officially recognized as such in 1118) were, until 1188, one unified organization with the same leadership. Is there any basis to these claims? Here is what it is apparently true: there was indeed an Order of Sion based on Mt. Sion, and according to a papal bull of the 12th century, it had monasteries and abbeys elsewhere in Palestine (in particular, Mount Carmel), in southern Italy (Calabria), and in France. There is little in the official histories linking Godfroi to this order, but he is said to have founded the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, whose relationships to these other orders (the Temple and Sion) are unclear. And the official histories do not indicate any overlap between these monks and the soldier-monks of the Knights Templar. The Order seems to have occupied its "mother" abbey, Notre Dame de Sion/St. Mary of Mt. Zion, built on the foundations of the original apostolic Cenacle or Coelaneum, up until around 1291 or so, when like many Crusader holdings, it was overwhelmed by the Moslem onslaught. It actually was in the hands of the Franciscans for several more centuries, until it finally was lost to Christian ownership and was converted to a mosque. I have found interesting links between the Order de Sion and the Carmelites. St. Berthold, the founder of the Carmelites, also originated from Calabria. Fra Lippi, a tutor of Botticelli, who is listed as a PoS GM, lived in Calabria and was known as "The Carmelite". Crotone in Calabria was the home of the Pythagorean school, and Pythagoras is said by Iamblichus to have visited Mount Carmel. Calabria was the "stomping grounds" of Joachim of Fiore and Giordano Bruno. Most interestingly, recent archaeological articles suggest the Essenes had encampments on both Mount Carmel and Mount Zion. St. Therese of Liseux turns up in a number of "PoS churches", and she took her name both from Theresa of Avila, a Discalced Carmelite and mystic, and Therese of Lidoine, a Carmelite nun who was murdered by the Revolutionary Terror in Compeigne. The Abbey of Orval's web site says only that mysterious monks from Calabria came there in 1070, although little is known about their identity, and they were welcomed there by Count Arnould de Chiny. These "pioneers" moved out after forty years, i.e. around 1110. The legend of Orval claims that it was named by Mathilda de Tuscany, who after finding a lost ring declared the place "a Valley of Gold" (Val D'Or.) That name will turn up again... recent research also suggests that Nostradamus may have found some "Templar" materials at the Abbey of Orval. What I have found quite interesting about this Order is their choice of real estate. According to a recent (1990) issue of Biblical Archaeology magazine, Mt. Sion seems to have been the "HQ" of the Ebionites of Jerusalem - those "Judaizing" followers of Jesus who looked to his brother James, rather than the "Apostle" Paul, for leadership. Pauline Christians, in fact, avoided the place until the Byzantine period (7th century). It looks like some of these followers even made an abortive attempt to build a 3rd Temple of Solomon on the site after the Great Revolt of 70 CE, using the ruins of the destroyed Herodian templeÖ an effort that seems to have come to an end with the decisive defeat of the Messiah Bar Kochba in 135 CE. This choice does not appear arbitrary: the Old Testament says that Solomon's Temple sat on Mt. Zion, which although identified with Mt. Moriah for many centuries, by the 2nd Temple period was once again recognized as a mountain outside the existing Jerusalem city walls. I believe their choice of Mt. Sion for their Abbey displays an obvious "Ebionite" outlook on their part. However, it seems like several monks had vacated from this Abbey prior to its emptying in 1291, and it does appear that quite a few went back to Orleans, France with King Louis in the 12th century. Others went to southern Italy (Calabria was the home of the heresies of Joachim of Fiore - a very unorthodox territory). The Order of Sion did not apparently cease to exist, though, even after losing its "mother" abbey in Jerusalem, and according to one perhaps less than totally reliable authority, Gerard de Sede, it continued on for quite some time, until being absorbed by the Jesuits in the 17th century. Prior to this dissolution, though, the "prieure documents" claim Sion and the Templars underwent a separation, at an event called the 'cutting of the elm' at Gisors in 1188. The "prieure documents" claim Sion's first independent "grand master", Jean de Gisors, was elected at this time: Sion and the Temple were no longer under the same leadership, and each went its own way. This event, like so many others, appears to be based on some historical events, but perhaps shrouded with the clouds of myth. We know that there was indeed an ancient elm tree at the fortress of Gisors, often used as a neutral meeting point for the monarchs of England and France. And, indeed, there was a "parting of the ways" that occurred there, but it was not a division between Sion and the Templars. In January of 1188, the kings of England and France agreed to a truce at this elm tree, so that they could launch yet another common Crusade to the Holy Land. But in August, further meetings at the tree resulted in the collapse of this truce. One side became agitated over the fact that the other was hogging all the shade from the tree, the French and English skirmished, and finally it was cut down after a bloody battle. There is no evidence that Jean de Gisors was there or the Templars, but it seems hard to see why either would be uninvolved with a struggle that occurred in their physical and moral backyards. Thomas a Beckett met with papal legates at the tree of Gisors, after his "excommunication" of some opponents (including a Hugh St. Clair) at Vezelay. Beckett appears to have been an important figure for Jean de Gisors, who dedicated several buildings to him. He was "martyred" on December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, for refusing to back down over his stance on the separation of sacerdotal and royal authority. Gisors also has a weird "parallel legend" to RlC: whereas RlC's daemon guardian must be defeated at noon (probably on the summer solstice), Gisor's "treasure" is guarded by a daemon who can only be passed at midnight on December 24th (the winter solstice). 1188 - 1307: The Rise and Fall of the Templars Although the Order de Sion and the Knights Templar parted ways, at least according to the "prieure documents", in 1188, they still seem to have had some sort of interconnection, and some artefacts, knowledge, documents, etc. relating to the current 'mystery' seem to have remained in the Templars' possession. Thus, a great deal of investigation into the PoS/RlC mystery seems to revolve around the mysteries of the Templars. Did they possess some type of treasure? Were they heretics, dabbling in Ebionism, Johannism, or Essenism? Did they have some kind of "hands off" pact with the Cathars of southern France? Did they continue to survive in some kind of clandestine fashion after the order's "official" dissolution? Again, here is what can be known. During their short but meteoric career, the Knights Templar became known for more than just their skill as soldiers or their piety. They became bankers, diplomats, and power-brokers. An elite few even became scholars, attempting to translate Hebrew Old Testament texts (such as the Book of Maccabees) into the vernacular. Charges of heresy and disloyalty dogged them for a long time, even as early as the early 12th century. Some of this undoubtedly arose from envy: as the bankers of Europe, the Temple acquired quite a formidable stash of gold. As it turns out, while northern Templars pursued the Albigensian Crusade with relish, gleefully slaughtering the Cathar heretics in the name of the Pope, southern Templars seem to have been more reluctant to take up arms against their neighbors. Scholars have argued whether this might have had to do with political loyalties (to the kingdom of Aragon) or family ties, but in any case, it does seem somewhat puzzling. In 1307, on the rather inauspicious date of Friday, October 13th, King Philip the Fair ordered the arrest of the Templars on the charges of heresy. Historians conclude he was mostly after their wealth, having already seized the assets of the Jews in his realm a year earlier. Legal inquiries ensued, and Grand Master Jacques de Molay was thrown in prison. In 1312, during the Council of Vienne, the Pope (who was in Philip's "pocket"), dissolved the Templars as a religious order. Finally, in 1314, after refusing to renounce his claim of innocence, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake in Paris as a relapsed heretic. Outside of France, Templars endured different levels of treatment - in some countries, they were hardly bothered at all, while in France they suffered torture, harassment, and vigorous persecution. Also, outside of France, the charges were more widely viewed with disbelief. The King and Pope did not outlast deMolay by long, dying several months after him. As for their orthodoxy, the only real evidence that the Templars were anything less than pious, dumb, and loyal Catholic knights is their testimony at their trial. And, sadly, most of this testimony has to be ruled out, since most of it was obtained under torture. While under the hot irons of the inquisitors, the Templars admitted to intercourse with demons, worshipping black cat familiars, sodomy, and black magic, charges that no scholar takes seriously. In truth, these type of charges are a familiar litany that often turns up when a persecuted group was tortured by the inquisition - they show up during the witch-trials of two centuries later, and of trials of other Gnostic heretics centuries before. Thus, they probably reflect more of the demon-obsessed mind of the inquisitors than anything else. Yet, there is a hidden "subtext" which suggests that, although many of the charges were trumped up in a Stalinesque (or Kafkaesque) kangaroo court (which we will return to later), heresy was already brewing among the Templars. For one thing, many Templars made a rather confusing confession. They claim they went through initiations by their superiors in which they were told to worship G-d the Father, but were also to spit on the cross and deny the Trinity. This is not the type of thing normally confessed to under torture by someone trying to tell their confessor what they wanted to hear, so the torture would end. After all, why not just say they had gone over to the Devil's side, rather than simply declaring that they had adopted a non-Trinitarian (perhaps "Ebionite"?) Christianity? Many people think the Templars incapable of heresy because they were unintellectual fighting men. However, the heresies of the Middle Ages often spread primarily among illiterate peasants. A number of Templars outside of France, including some in England, were never tortured, yet made similar confessions. Indeed, many claim that the main heresiarch within the order was Roncelin de Fos, a 13th century Templar who was of Cathar ancestry. At some point, Roncelin began forming clandestine "cells" within the order, spreading his heretical teachings and initiations. Apparently, the leadership was unaware of this internal 'virus,' which may be why De Molay went to the grave honestly protesting his innocence - he truly had no knowledge of heresy within the order. There is also the possibility that some rather innocent deviations on the part of the Templars were simply misunderstood as "heresy" by their inquisitors and blown out of proportion. Whatever the case may be, charges suggesting the Templars were heretics went back to the 1140s - while, interestingly, their 'companion' order, the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, never faced similar chargesÖ but the only remotely heretical artefact the inquisitors ever found was a silver woman's head in a Templar perceptory marked "Caput LVIIIm". If the Templars ever had a "treasure" other than a great stack of florins, history doesn't record it. Certainly, there are a number of Masonic ritual degrees (like the Holy Royal Arch) that suggest that they conducted some exploration on the Temple Mount, and either found some scrolls or the Ark of the Covenant itself. Other sources, like Ian Wilson, claim they had the "Mandylion" or Shroud of Turin prior to its display at Lirey in the 1350s. And, of course, there are always the persistent rumors that they held secret negotiations with the Hashisheen or Assassins led by the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I-Sabah, or the Druzes of Lebanon, and from them obtained some esoteric materials. Although sources seem to disagree as to whether this treasure was spiritual, material, or documentary, this has not stopped people from looking for it, at Rosslyn Chapel, Gisors, Rennes-les-Chateau, Stenay, and elsewhere. Equally in dispute has been the fate of the Templars after their 1312 dissolution. In many countries, they were simply folded into "new" military orders which consisted of the same people under a different name - for example, the Knights of Christ in Portugal. In England and in many countries, some went on to join their former friendly rivals, the Hospitallers. This may have been a good decision, considering the number of assets of the Templars turned over to their rivals. In France, most of the knights hung up their swords and retired to non-military monasteries, although a few went "rogue" and became mercenaries, pirates, or freebooters. However, there have always been the persistent rumors that the Templar order "survived" in some clandestine form after its own dissolution. For example, the Charter of Larmenius says that before de Molay died, he appointed a "clandestine" Grand Master to continue the order in defiance of the Pope's bull. Many of the "neo-Templar" orders of today claim they are the continuation of this 'survival', often with little or no proof. And, of course, there are those who say the Freemasons are the heirs of the Knights Templar. Whatever the "PoS" is or was, it seems to have some interest in the Templar legacy, because in their documents they indicate some interest in Templar "materials" supposedly left behind at Gisors, where many Templars were imprisoned or detained. Assuming there is any validity to the "prieure documents" account, Sion and the Temple would have maintained some type of contact with each other, and the OdS would probably have some awareness of the disposition of their "sibling" order's people, property, and materiel. 1307 - 1600: The Reign of the White Queen Itís not clear what exactly the OdS was up to in the 14th- 17th centuries, although the "prieure" documents suggest that during this time it had some fairly august leadership: Leonardo da Vinci, Nicholas Flamel, Rene D' Anjou, and Sandro Filipepi (better known as Botticelli). The alchemist Flamel translated the mysterious text of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, whose original author was one "Abraham the Jew," through the assistance of some Spanish Rabbis. Upon his return from Spain, he is said to have achieved the "Great Work" of alchemy on the "PoS date" of January 17th. As for "Good King Rene," he seems to have been one of the figures promoting the mythic theme of Arcadia in Europe, a theme that seems an idee fixe for the "PoS". It is the appearance of daVinci on this roster - daVinci, the visionary, the artist, the man who wrote in backwards mirror writing, the inventor, the man who some say put his own face on the Shroud (although others claim it is de Molay's) - that has people most fascinated. DaVinci seems to have had a "thing" for John the Baptist, which seems quite consonant with the apparent "PoS" interest in Johannism (the idea that John was the true Messiah and Jesus a false one, or, alternatively, that they were equal co-Messiahs). Johannites believe that there was a secret teaching passed from John the Baptist to John the Beloved Disciple (whose given name was Lazarus, but he took the "alias" of John to honor the Baptist), and to a "John" ever since. (Supposedly, every PoS GrandMaster takes the name "Jean" as an honorary title, in addition to being known as "Nautonnier" or Navigator.) Pincknett and Prince believe Da Vinci put his own face on the Shroud of Turin (despite accounts which suggest it was first shown at Lirey 200 years earlier), which was confirmed to them by someone they believed to be a member of the PoS, "Giovanni". During this time period, the Duke Jean de Berry, who lived in Bourges, commissioned a picture-book known as Les Tres Riches Heures. A horological manuscript, illustrating the seasons of the calendar as well as miscellaneous episodes, the Heures has fascinated people with some of its strange symbolism. For example, it shows the Duke de Berry holding a caduceus or serpent-staff. The picture of the Resurrection also seems somewhat oddly dissonant with New Testament accounts, also. Certain scenes in the Heures also appear to be alluded to by the Rennes-les-Bains cleric Henri Boudet. The 20th century alchemist "Fulcanelli" had a lot to say about hidden symbolism in the Heures, and he in particular pointed to the role of Jacques Coeur of Bourges in its creation. Bourges is considered the esoteric "Coeur" of France. Queen Blanche d'Evereaux, "The White Queen" of many prieure documents and listed as a PoS GM in those documents, had a chateau near Gisors at Neaufles. There was supposed to be a secret tunnel linking Gisors with her chateau. In the Prisoner's Tower at Gisors was imprisoned one Nicholas Poulain, an ambassador of the Douglasses of Scotland, allegedly for being Blanche's secret lover. Poulain supposedly scrawled a number of alchemical and hermetic diagrams on the walls of his jail. Poulain may have been connected to the "Freres-Aines de la Rose-Croix," a group of "survivor" Templar alchemists in Scotland. Blanche may have given some of his secrets to her "PoS successor," Nicholas Flamel, whose sigils and diagrams in his published works resemble Poulain's. Flamel's brother worked for Jean de Berry. As you can see, all these people curiously interconnect. (A group called the Freres-Aines was "re-established" in the 20th century by Daniel Caro, who called himself "Gaston Phoebus" after the original man who attempted to bring the Freres-Aines from Scotland to France at the behest of Cardinal Jean-Jacques D'Ossa, the future Pope John XXII, who was present at the Council of Vienne. One of the few places the story of the original Freres-Aines can be found is in Gaetan Delaforge's book on the Templar tradition; "Delaforge" (a pseudonym) was a member of the Solar Temple.) In 1446, the cornerstone for Rosslyn Chapel was laid. The history of Rosslyn and the Sinclairs who were its lords since the 1280s - they appear to have inherited it from the French de Roscelin family - is like many other things, highly disputed. The Sinclairs claim to be descended from the Norman Santo-Claros ("Clear Light") of St.-Clair-sur-Epte. The "prieure documents" also claim that Hugh de Payns married one Catherine St. Clair, thus establishing a Sinclair presence in the Templars from early on. Finally, they also claim the Sinclairs to have been the hereditary "patrons" of Scottish Freemasonry for several centuries. The implications are obvious; the "priory docs" present the Sinclairs as the "interface" between Templarism and Masonry. 1600-1780: The Cabal of the Devout This appears to be an interesting time in the PoS saga, according to the "prieure documents". Apparently, at some point during this time period, the "old" Order de Sion faded from the scenes, but it seems to have transferred some of its ideas and personnel into the Order of St. Sulpice (Sulpicians), the Lazarists of St. Vincent de Paul, the Discalced Carmelites, and perhaps most particularly, a group lampooned by Moliere as a "cabal of the devout" - the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament. The "prieure documents" claim that the Compagnie, which history records primarily as a religious anti-Jansenist movement in France, actually were one of the primary agents behind the "Fronde" against King Louis (and, moreso, his closest advisor Cardinal Mazarin). They claim that they were supporting the Guise-Lorraine families' bid for the throne, and that the man today known as Nostradamus may have been providing "timetables" for the action of the conspirators. One thing that seems to have made the PoS so angry was Louis XIV's decision, carried out by Colbert, to give France a new national Meridian, based on the observatory in Paris, as calculated by the astronomer Cassini. "Le Serpent Rouge" and other "prieure documents" maintain that in fact, France already had a far older N-S meridian known as the "roseline," and that all Colbert and Cassini did was move it to the wrong place. This roseline or "serpent rouge" seems to have run through several hermetic churches in France, including St. Sulpice in Paris, the Lady of the Roses cathedral in Rodez, St. Vincent's in Carcasonne, and the Church of St. Stephen's in Bourges. Most importantly, it also ran through Rennes-les-Bains, whose name itself comes from Rhedae or Rhodos, meaning "roses". A more romantic line used for its time-telling, geomantic, religious significance was replaced with a much more staid line for travel and commerce. They seem to have been concerned about this, because in the 1750's in St. Sulpice a copper line was drawn in the floor, and a gnomon or meridian marker installed, as if to remind people that it was once a meridian church. The Sulpicians themselves took their name from Sulpicius, a bishop of Bourges in Merovingian times. Curiously, they themselves went on to found the city of Montreal in Canada, and there they erected a Notre Dame cathedral in the 'geomantic' center of the city. Their symbol, two crossed M's, seems to turn up in other "hermetic" contexts. Another group the "PoS" seems to have been involved with during this time, according to the "prieure documents", were the Essene and Cathar-like Camisards, known for their white shirts of purity and holiness. During this time, the painter Poussin is active, as is another painter, David Teniers the Younger (he is the 2nd - his father and his son were also both David Teniers). This is important, as their names will turn up later. Poussin is said to have known a great "secret" which he refused to reveal. There are those who say his painting "Shepherds of Arcadia" depicts an actual tomb, the so-called "Poussin Tomb", in the RlC area. 1781 - 1901: The Rose-Croix It is during this time that the PoS and the RlC sagas begin to overlap, at least according to the "prieure documents". In 1781, Marie Negre d'Hautpoul, a resident of Rennes-les-Chateau died. Her family had been involved in Memphis-Misraim and Martinist Freemasonry. What happened after seems to be in dispute (as always), but the "prieure documents" suggest that her confessor, the Abbe Bigou, moved a meridian marker with the words "Et in Arcadia Ego" from a tomb elsewhere on the "roseline" (some say this is the "Arques" or Pontils Tomb which supposedly appears in Poussin's painting) to her gravesite, and then erected a second tombstone with an odd inscription on it. This inscription is apparently a cipher, and even contains Bigou's own name on it. Bigou also supposedly writes two ciphered parchments and has them buried along with other documents (including geneaologies and a Hautpoul "testimony") in his church in RlCÖ to be discovered two hundred years later, after the chaos of the French Revolution. In the early 1800's, Charles Nodier and Victor Hugo organize a literary salon at the Arsenal Library where Nodier worked, known as the Cenacle. Nodier and Hugo were good friends, and are listed by the "prieure documents" as successive PoS grandmasters. I believe the Cenacle represents the earliest traceable root of the 'real' or 'modern' PoS, which I think began as a 19th century society of Romantics, artists, surrealists, and Symbolists who may or may not have had any real (more likely, it was indirect) connection to the earlier OdS, and who adopted "Et in Arcadia Ego" as their properly elegiac and romantic motto. It is possible that the librarian Nodier may have discovered a number of key texts in the Arsenal library, such as Flamel's translated texts. As for Hugo, he dabbled heavily in Spiritualism and arcana, and he is now an "ascended master" in the Vietnamese religion Cao Dai. After Hugo, the "prieure documents" claim that the next "grand master" of the "PoS" was Claude Debussy, the composer. Once again, Debussy seems like an unlikely candidate for such a role, but digging into his biography suggests otherwise. Debussy was introduced to Josephin Peladan's Rose-Croix through his friend Erik Satie (and Satie emerges as the bridge between Debussy, Cocteau, and Picasso). Through the Rose-Croix, whose members also included the opera singer Emma Calve, Georges "Count Israel" Monti (mentor of a man who will emerge later, Pierre Plantard), and Eliphas Levi, Debussy may have come to meet the Sulpician scholar Emile Hoffet, and more importantly, another man, Berenger Sauniere. I will not go into great detail over the Sauniere saga here, as there are other sites which do it far more thoroughly and comprehensively. What Sauniere did or did not do or find is in dispute. He became the parish priest of Rennes-les-Chateau in 1885, and after living through a period of initial extreme deprivation, started displaying a bizarre ostentatious display of sudden wealth. He came under suspicion, was defrocked by the church in 1912, and died in 1917. However, there are two myths about his death that need to be put to rest. He did not die on January 17th, and his coffin was ordered six months before his death (not 5 days). Many also say that Father Riviere, his confessor, denied him last rites and that his funeral was somewhat bizarre. The "prieure documents" claim that Sauniere found Bigou's hidden parchments in 1891, and with Hoffet's help, deciphered the ciphers (encoded within two excerpts from the Gospels). These two ciphers are, of course, legendary at this point. The first said, quite simply: THIS TREASURE BELONGS TO DAGOBERT II KING AND TO SION AND HE IS THERE DEAD. The second said: SHEPHERDESS NO TEMPTATION THAT POUSSIN TENIERS HOLD THE KEY PEACE 681 BY THE CROSS AND THIS HORSE OF GOD I DESTROY THIS DAEMON GUARDIAN AT MIDDAY. BLUE APPLES. Who composed these ciphers is also in dispute, although I agree with my friend Ted Cranshaw that evidence suggests they were generated in the 18th century, and in all likelihood by the Abbe Bigou, not by modern pranksters (i.e. the Marquis de Cherisey). The last one must be deciphered by using a knight's tour of the chessboard, along with the de Vigenere substitution technique. Interestingly, the key for the cipher, "MORT EPEE", comes from the Marie de Negre tombstone, whose entire 128-letter text is a perfect anagram for the ciphertext, minus 14 extraneous letters. It is claimed that the second cipher refers to three paintings, Poussin's Shepherds of Arcadia, Teniers' Temptation of St. Anthony, and a portrait of Celestine V, all of which Sauniere supposedly went to view at the Louvre during a trip to Paris. (This trip is, like so many other matters, disputed.) The cipher would seem to indicate that these two artists "hold the key," but while some think they know the significance of the Poussin reference (it supposedly points to the "Pontils Tomb"), the importance of Teniers' painting is not clear (he did about five Temptations, each slightly different from the others). However, of the paintings of Teniers that I have been able to see, there seems to be an interesting obscure symbolism that the artist associated with St. Anthony the Hermit - whose feast day is that recurring date, January 17th. As for the painting of Celestine V, its significance is also unknown, although Celestine is the only pope to have resigned his office: what Dante called "The Great Refusal". Incidentally, the Poussin painting appears as a relief, in reverse, at the Shugborough Hall Shepherds' Monument in England, along with a strange cipher beneath it which seems to be the initial letters of a verse from 18th century Romantic poetry. Sauniere's church contains a daemon guardian, a statue of Asmodeus, and there are those who say that at noon an optical effect that looks like "blue apples" appears through the stained glass windows. There are those who say Sauniere's paymaster, and the "brains" of his operation, was Father Henri Boudet, the parish priest of Rennes-les-Baines. Boudet was a bit of a crank antiquarian who argued that the original language of the Celts, and the whole world, was English. However, Le Vraie Langue Celtique, his "nut book", contains a number of puns, anagrams, and codesÖ as do the tombs he created for Jean Vie and Paul-Vincent de Fleury. The "prieure documents" seem to hint that Boudet was a PoS operative, and that he located a meridian marker in the RlC region. 1901 - 2000: The PoS Comes into Closer View Some "prieure documents" suggest Sauniere was loosely connected to a type of aristocratic and Hermetic Freemasonry (despite his being a priest) known as the Hieron du Val d'Or. There seems to be a hint that the Hieron was the "guise" of the "PoS" during that time period. From what people have written about it, the Hieron seems to have been an 'esoteric research center' located at Paray-le-Monial, "ground zero" of the Sacred Heart cult in France. It conducted research into Atlantis and esoteric Catholicism. The "prieure documents" also suggest that after Sauniere's death, the surrealist artist/poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau became "GM" of the PoS in 1918. Interestingly, right around the same time, Cocteau seems to have partnered with Satie and Picasso on a production (Picasso's work was dominated by PoS-type esoteric themes), and then he and Satie went on to form a musical composing group, "Le Six," that were based on improvisation from Debussy's work. The link between these two "GM"s was Erik Satie. During the late 1930s and 1940s, which was the period of the Vichy Occupation of France, a young man known only as "Pierre de France," aka Pierre Plantard, aka Plantard de St.-Clair, began publishing a journal called Vaincre, which issued from a group calling itself Alpha Galates. Vaincre's writers included a number of esoteric and political figures. It states that the goals of Alpha Galates were a European federation/union centered on France, the unity of France within its own borders, and a revived chivalry and patriotic feeling. Vaincre also carried stories that were anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic; when asked about this by authors Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh, Plantard simply said that he had to run stories of that type in order to get it past the Gestapo - really, he and Poirer Murat were actually sending message to the Maquis or Resistance. In 1943, he claims he was interned at Fresnes for Resistance activity. The Resistance seems to have appreciated Plantard's efforts, because he was tapped by General de Gaulle to help organize some of the Paris Committees of Public Safety which were involved in de Gaulle's return to power. Of course, others insist Plantard was not on the side of the angels during the war, but like his associate Francois Mitterand, who visited RlC in 1981, he was actually an active Vichy collaborator, and part of the Vichy's Uriage-based "educational movement" to turn the youth of France against modernity and progress. There are even accusations that he used Nazi connections to obtain esoteric documents from Martinists and others. As with other matters, figuring out whose side Plantard during WW II was on seems hard to do. The Gestapo under Klaus Barbie in Lyon was infilitrating, dissolving, and even murdering members of esoteric organizations during the Vichy Occupation. Martinist Constant Chevillon was killed when he fell into a "Synarchic" trap set by members of the Fraternite des Polaires, who were connected to the excavations that SS man Otto Rahn was doing in the South of France, looking for the treasure of Montsegur and/or the Grail. One thing is certain about Msr. Plantard: his geneaology as presented in the "dossiers secretes" appears to be an utter fabrication. And, whatever relationship he wanted to present to the Sinclairs of Rosslyn, he only added the particle "de St. Clair" to his name in 1964. Plantard claims that in 1946, he left Alpha Galates and was inducted into the PoS by the Abbe Francois Ducaud-Bourget. However, there are similarities between Alpha Galates and the PoS, especially in apparent organizational structure, which suggest some other relationship. One also finds a strange semblance between the PoS "statutes" and the degrees and principles of the Rectified Scottish Rite in France (an outgrowth of the Templar Strict Observance) as well as the Memphis-Misraim branch of Masonry. Plantard may have been introduced to these rites by the Mason Camille Savoire. Who was in charge between Cocteau's death in 1963 and Plantard's claimed accession in 1981 is not clear, but various sources suggest it was either Ducaud-Bourget, Catholic rightist Marcel Lefebvre, or some sort of triumvirate involving Plantard, an Italian (Merzagora), and an American banker (Gaylord Freeman, from Chicago First National). The "prieure documents" suggest there was a "schism" within the PoS in 1956, between some sort of "Anglo-American contingent" (apparently rightists connected to the Knights of Malta) and the main group. Whatever this "schism" was, it led the schismatics to register the group and its statutes with the French bureau of organizations, giving people their first traceable existence of the group in this year. Plantard claims he healed the "schism" and reunited the group. During this time (1961-1978), his associates began depositing the mysterious "prieure documents" (all having to do with treasure, Rennes-les-Chateau, Merovingians, white queens, and hidden secrets) in the Biblioteque Nationnale, under pseudonyms like "Anthony the Hermit". Plantard claims that he was made Grand Master of the PoS on January 17th, 1981 (up until that time, he was merely its Secretary-General), coincidentally enough close to the time around which Holy Blood Holy Grail was published. But his term did not last long. In 1984, in an interview published in Messianic Legacy, he told the authors Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh that certain "maneouvres" by his "Anglo-American" brethren could no longer be put up with, and that he was resigning. He died in February of this year (2000), and there are those who say that the PoS, which was his own creation, or at least became his cult of personality, ceased to exist in 1984. Certainly, all there has been since 1984 is speculation about the group and who is running it. No one has stepped forward to give any more interviews. Some think the PoS is now operating in Barcelona, with a Catalan attorney as its current Grand Master. The many orders of Sion
January 17th: This seems to be a "red-letter" day for the PoS. The reason why seems to be that it is the saints' day for three "PoS" saints: Sulpicius of Bourges, Anthony the Hermit, and Roseline de Villeneuve. Sulpicius, who Saint-Sulpice is named after, was the hagiogapher of St. Martin of Tours, a saint who one guidebook says "is frequently associated with places of sacred toponymical significance," as well as pagan tree-cults. St. Anthony is invoked to help heal people suffering from St. Anthony's Fire, a syndrome caused by consuming ergot (which contains LSD); in the Middle Ages, Crusaders brought his body back to the Dauphin region of France. Roseline de Villeneuve was a Carthusian nun, associated with a "rose miracle," who was so saintly that her body remained incorrupt after her death. King Louis is said to have checked if she was still alive, by putting a needle through her eye. Marie de Negre (d'Ables, d'Hautpoul) is also said to have died on January 17th, 1781, the date on her tombstone. Nicholas Flamel was said to have achieved the Great Work of alchemy on Jan 17th, 1381. It is also claimed that Sigisbert "IV", the son of Dagobert II, arrived in RlC on January 17th, 681 CE. The "priory documents" claim that a new class of "Brethren," the "Children of St. Vincent" or "Free Brothers", were created on January 17th, 1681, in Blois. As you will also see, this group has a fascination with 81s and reversals. Pierre Plantard claims he became grand master in 1981, and in 1891 Sauniere wrote in his diary "excavated a tomb. It rained." Later he would carve 'MISSION 1891" on a pillar. Another "red letter" day for the PoS seems to be December 23rd... the day that Dagobert II was killed near Stenay in the Ardennes, and also the day that Henri, duc de Guise, was killed in Blois. The PoS apparently has its "convents" in Blois, according to Ean Begg. Mary Magdalene: The PoS seems to have a great interest in the "Notre-Dame de Lumiere", claiming she is Mary Magdalene. Indeed, they hint that the earliest Notre-Dame churches in France are dedicated to Magdalene, not the Virgin Mary. According to some PoS texts, "Our Lady of France" is the Magdalene, not the Virgin. They also seem to identify her with the Meridian. For some reason, many also seem to think she may have been the progenitor of a 'bloodline' from her 'husband' Jesus - this is the hypothesis proposed at the end of HBHG. Her significance may be something else, however... the Priory clearly seems to associate her with the Black Virgins of France, many of which have been mysteriously disappearing over the last decade. Legends from the 11th century onward claim that the Magdalene came to France, landing at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer or Marseilles after fleeing Palestine. She appears to have been a wealthy Jewish woman from Migdol in the Galilee, and not a prostitute as many people have claimed. Merovingians: The "prieure docs" seem to hint obliquely that Merovech, the progenitor of the Merovingians, was a special monarch. The hypothesis in HBHG is that Merovech was descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. However, all the "prieure documents" claim is that he was descended from the Benjaminites, the Trojans, and a "Quinotaur" (only deSede and Elizabeth van Buren seem to think this was a being from Sirius.) The "prieure documents" note that the Church betrayed the Merovingians by turning power over to the Carolingians, thus breaking the pact with Clovis. The Merovingians were long-haired kings supposedly born with a special birthmark (a red cross between the shoulderblades), and were known for mixing paganism and occultism with Christianity. They were also "sacred kings" who "reigned but did not rule," leaving the messy business of governing to the mayors of the palace (it was from these Pippinid Mayors that the Carolingians arose). The "dossiers secretes" attempt to present a number of families today - including the Plantards, the Montesquious, and the Hapsburgs - as being descended from the Merovingians. They also implicitly argue that every dynasty since then has, implicitly, been usurpers due to the pact between Clovis and the Church. The Merovingian dynasty was thought to be wiped out (in reality, a few minor branches survived), but the "prieure documents" claim a line from Dagobert II has survived up until the present. The narrative presented in the "prieure documents" has little or no corroboration in historical sources, but it suggests that Dagobert II's son Sigisbert IV survived his father's assassination by Pepin the Short in the Forest of Woivres in 679, and came to Rennes-les-Chateau in 681. Sigisbert was supposedly the ancestor of Guillem de Gellone, the Jewish exilarch of Septimania, a royal pretender named "Ursus", and Godfroi de Bouillion. "Orthodox" geneaology does not support these claims. Sirius: In 1973, Gerard de Sede claimed in La Race Fabuleuse that the Merovingians were descended from beings from Sirius, thus irrevocably linking the PoS mysteries to the "Sirius Mystery". Sirius is a complex subject in the world of esoterica. Antonin Artaud wrote a play about the "Dog Star" in the 1920s, called "The Broken Firmament", suggesting it was of interest to the Surrealists. Since the 1970s, a number of people have claimed contact by the Sirians - Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Philip K. Dick, etc., shortly after the publication of Robert K. Temple's Sirius Mystery, claiming that the Dogon tribe of Mali had been given knowledge of this binary star by "Nommos" from that solar system. Crowleyans like Kenneth Grant claim that "Lam," the being that communicated the Liber AL, was from Sirius. And Sirius, in the form of the "Ennead of Heliopolis," also talked to Andrija Puharich, Uri Geller, and a group of channelers organized by Puharich. However, to find the weird links between this group and what the authors term "The Stargate Conspiracy", a fascist plot to make the planet believe that the gods of ancient Egypt were extraterrestrials who created our civilization, you should read the book by the same name by authors Pincknett and Prince. The Order of the Solar Temple also expected to be reborn near Sirius... The Golden Fleece: Many PoS texts refer to the voyage of the Argonauts, in search of the fabled Golden Fleece. As is well known, the Argonauts sailed to Colchis in Asia Minor, or Anatolia. Anatolia is home of one of the earliest human civilizations (Catal Huyuk), Mount Ararat (said to be the mountain of Noah, but it is also the home of the Urartian or Armenian people), the Taurus Mountains, and the land of Galatia or Galatea. This was a part of Asia Minor conquered by the Gaul or Gaelic peoples in the 3rd century BCE, after they went and sacked the oracles of Greece. One of Plantard's orders was known as "Alpha Galates," the origin from the land of the Galates. In alchemy, the Golden Fleece sometimes symbolizes the Philosopher's Stone. The Cross of Lorraine: In the 1940s, Charles de Gaulle made the Cross of Lorraine the official symbol of the Maquis or French Resistance. It's not clear why, since this symbol was previously associated with the Alsace-Lorraine region, which had only become part of France in the last 200 years, and it was also associated with the Guise-Lorraine families who made a failed "bid" for the monarchy in the 17th century. The double-armed Cross of Lorraine appears to incorporate phi, the Golden Ratio, in its structure. The PoS also seems to consider it "their " symbol. Interestingly, it also seems to resemble the "Jacob's staff" of medieval Jewish philosopher Levi ben Gerson, used to determine longitude through observation of the moon. Et in Arcadia Ego: "Even in Arcadia, I amÖ" According to art historian Panofsky, this is an elegiac motto, proclaiming that even in the paradisial realm of Arcadia death still exists. Hence, the shock of Poussin's shepherds discovering the tomb of a shepherdess in the midst of their pastoral paradise. However, he was not the first to use the motto in his art: it appears in a 1502 poem by Jacopo Sannzaro, and in an earlier painting by Guercino. Poussin's first version of Shepherds dates from 1620, and the second from 1650: both have the inscription "Et in Arcadia Ego" on the tomb. There is a monument known as The Shepherds' Monument near Shugborough Hall which contains a version of the 2nd Poussin painting, but reversed, with an inscription underneath that appears to be an acrostic for a line of poetry from poetess Anna Seward of Lichfield. Shugborough Hall was the work of Lord Admiral Anson, a "corsair" and James "the Athenian" Stuart, but the artist who specifically created this monument was a Dutchman known as Scheemakers. When Anson died, a eulogy was read for him in Parliament which mentions "reason's finger pointing at the tomb." Henry Lincoln claims that Shugborough Hall had a copy of both the Poussin painting, and St. Anthony and St. Paul in the Desert by Teniers, mislabeled as Elijah and Elisha Fed by Ravens near Mount Carmel. (This is the only painting by Teniers which does not show St. Anthony being tempted.) Arcadia, the place in Greece thought to be the home of the oldest antideluvian races, was also associated in medieval iconography and symbolism with the "underground stream" Alphaeus, which was said to flow all the way to Sicily. According to the "prieure documents," the Benjaminites, who were ancestors of the Merovingians, fled to the Arcadia region of Greece, and later migrated to Europe, becoming one of the ancestral origins of the Salian Franks. Rene D'Anjou did a great deal to promote the romantic idea of Arcadia and it turns up in much of his work, as well as Renaissance poems and songs. The original name of Nova Scotia was Arcadia, but the r was dropped to shorten it to "Acadie". It is from Acadie that the "Cajuns" of Louisiana are from, who sing the old folk song "Good King Dagobert". Some authors claim that Prince Henry Sinclair sailed to A(r)cadia in the 14th century, and may have even brought the Grail with him, leaving it in Oak Island. The blue lotus or waterlily, the stargate of the Egyptians, also grows in Arcadia National Forest. The Meridian: Many of the PoS texts deal with the Paris Meridian, and hint that the line created by Colbert, Cassini, and Arago, passing through the Paris Observatory, is really an "impostor" - France already had a "hermetic" or hidden meridian, possibly dating back thousands of years. It seems that the very PoSish site of Saint-Sulpice is on the line of the old meridian or "roseline", as hinted at by Le Serpent Rouge, subtiled Notes on Saint Sulpice and Saint Germain de Pres. By moving the line, Cassini and company threw an ancient system out of whack. One strange discovery I have found is that a similar episode appears to have occurred in the American capitol of Washington, DC. Apparently, DC was originally designed so that 16th street would be its original north-south meridian -- and this meridian was going to be the "zero meridian" of the United States. After Greenwich was made the international meridian, DC and Paris both renounced their claims. Today, DC uses Capitol Street as its N-S axis, but certain monuments, especially those in Meridian Hill Park, point to the older axis. On 16th street, one also finds the home of the Scottish Rite Temple and several esoteric churches and monuments. The Rose: Rosicrucianism, the Rosy Cross, and rose-line symbolism is all over the place in this mystery. In Sauniere's church, St. Germaine de Pribrac releases a bevy of roses from her apron. The "Fleury Mural" seems to show a rose-filled flowery landscape, associated with the Fleury family. Go to Rodez, and you will find a rose-colored cathedral with rose windows emblazoned with the Star of David. In the Middle Ages, the rose was a symbol of esotericism - sub rosa means to do something in secret. The Templars' cross pattee was a red or rose cross. How interesting, then, to discover, as I have recently, that the name of several places in France - Rhedae/Rennes, Rouen/Rhodom, Rodez/Rhodes, are derived from the Greek Island of Rhodes, whose name itself comes from the rose-goddess Rhoda. Contemporary texts say that the red-haired Celtic "Redones" or "rose people" (Rutheni/Rhodanim) setlled both Rennes in the Midi and Rennes in Brittany - the name derives from the ethnic group. It is said that the resident goddess of Mount Sion-Vaudemont, the "other Sion" of the "priory of Sion" in Switzerland, is Rosemertha - the Rose mother. Interestingly, one interpretation of the King Arthur legends is that "Arthur" or "Ursus" was really Riothamus, a Dark Age Celt ruler of a "thalassocracy" that spanned Brittany in France and Cornwall in England. Many of the places near Breton Rennes are associated with Arthur and the Grail legends, and many of the Breton kings had Judaic names. And some derive Riothamus' name from... Joseph of Arimathea, the supposed bearer of the Grail to Glastonbury. Rosslyn Chapel: As with many other aspects of this mystery, the importance of Rosslyn Chapel is unclear and seems to have been obfuscated, unfortunately. Its owners, the Sinclairs, claim to be the hereditary patrons of Scottish Freemasonry, to have explored the New World (particularly Nova Scotia and Oak Island) a century before Colombus, and to be connected to the Templars through marriage and descent. Some of this appears to be in doubt, because it's based on the work of Jacobite historian Father Hay, who used documents that were lost in a fire... in any case, we do know William Sinclair did build Rosslyn in the 1400s, it does contain very unusual carvings (particularly people who look like Templars engaging in things that seem like Masonic rituals), and it does incorporate unusual geometry. (SOME say that this geometry replicates the Temple of Solomon.) Pierre Plantard seems to have changed his name to "de St-Clair" in order to claim affiliation with the Sinclairs of Scotland. Rosslyn, Gisors, Rennes-les-Chateau, Rennes-les-Bains, and Mont St. Michel are some places mentioned in the documents by name. Stenay (Satanicum) was Dagobert II's capitol, and the current home of Le Cercle Dagobert. Guidebooks suggest it is infamous for falling frogs. Mont St. Michel, according to the "prieure documents," was where "Et in Arcadia Ego" was first uttered, by Abbot Robert de Torigny in 1210. Author John Michell claims a "St. Michael Ley" runs between Mont St. Michel and St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. St. Michael's Mount is surrounded by the sea but the "Atlantis" legends of Ys and Lyonesse claim that it is sitting in a place where there was once dry land, which has now become submerged. The Sacred Heart: Thanks to Mary-Margaret Alacoque, the Sacred Heart of Jesus seems to have become a curiously nationalistic symbol in France (like that of the Chevalier Bayard), connected with the church and the monarchy. It also became a central symbol for esotericists like Guenon. Guy Patton argues that the Sacred Heart cultus in France is deeply associated with the PoS, which he sees as a largely Catholic Traditionalist society, opposed (as many Sacred Heart believers were) to modernism and liberal democracy. Paul Smith, another researcher, thinks that Sauniere was primarily involved in covert efforts to turn the Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Paris into a rallying point for a restored Catholic monarchy. However, the Sacred Heart is a multi-valent symbol, and there are those that argue that for the PoS, the Sacred Heart they venerate is that of Mary Magdalene, not Jesus. The Prieure Documents: In order to pierce the veil surrounding the mysteries of this group, it is necessary to pore over some of the esoteric texts they have hidden away in the Biblioteque Nationnale. Some of these documents are central to the mystery:
Three authors who appear to have been "prieure spokesmen" were Gerard de Sede, Jean-Luc Chaumeil, and Louis Vazart. The journalist duo of Jean-Pierre Deloux and Louis Bretigny have also written "PoS" articles. Unfortunately, much of this material has not been translated from the French. Chaumeil was a UFO writer and now presents himself as an "expert" on the Order of the Solar Temple. De Sede appears to have been a Surrealist poet. Vazart is one of the leaders of the Cercle Dagobert, a Stenay-based organization that commemorates Dagobert II and his "progeny". Deloux is a writer on detective fiction, having written several essays on Raymond Chandler for POLAR magazine. Philippe De Cherisey was a Belgian TV-actor who appeared in several TV series and made-for-TV films. No one knows who "Lobineau" was although some think he was either Jewish antiquarian Leo Schidlof or the Count Henri de Lenoncourt. Koker, Feugere, and Saint-Maxent probably did NOT write the Red Serpent; it seems like their names were fished out of the obituaries because they had the misfortune to all die on the same day. Sion: It's not clear which Sion the Priory of Sion takes its name from: Mt. Sion in Jerusalem, or Mt. Sion in Switzerland. In 1956, the PoS registered itself at Annemasse, not too far from Sion, Switzerland. Many of the first "prieure documents" seem to have been released through the Swiss Grand Loge Alpina (GLA). The full name of the group, according to its statutes, is the Priory of Our Lady of Zion, or "Sionis Prioratus", with the subtitle CIRCUIT, which is said to stand for Chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union. In the 19th century, Sion-Vaudemont was the site of an unusual series of events: a restoration effort of the Catholic shrines on the mountain by the Brothers Baillard was "derailed" by the Church, only to be resumed by a Norman Johannite mystic named Michel "Elias the Prophet" Vintras whose Church of Carmel preached the Joachmite dispensation and said the Magdalene would be the Mediatrix of the New Age. The Angelic Society: Three recent French books, Jules Verne: Initiate and Initiator by Michael Lamy, Arsene Lupin: Unknown Master by Patrick Ferte, and Fulcanelli and the Black Cat by Richard Khaitzine, seem to suggest that the PoS came into being as a sort of artistic society, uniting the Bohemian avant-garde artists of Montmartre (the Symbolists, the Surrealists, and the Romantics). Apparently, these musicians, writer-poets, dramatists, and painters were interested in common themes, and in the Rabelaisian technique of using Grasset D'Orcet's "language of the birds"... creating puns, rebuses, and riddles for the purposes of satire, social criticism, and concealing knowledge. In the works of disparate creative people such as Honore de Balzac, Maurice Leblanc, Jules Verne, Raymond Roussel, Erik Satie, Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, Valentine Gross Hugo, Marc Chagall, Gerard de Nerval, Maurice Barres, Josephin Peladan, Claude Debussy and "Les Six," Comte Robert de Montesquiou, Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau, Charles Nodier, Stephane Mallarme, Maurice Maeterlinck, Jean-Julian Champagne (Fulcanelli), and perhaps even Pataphysician Alfred Jarry, can be found the techniques and interests we today associate with the "Priory of Sion". Lamy says that many of these people belonged to a group he calls The Brouillards (The Clouds) or the Angelic Society, of which the PoS is a modern manifestation. They are descended from the Gouliards, or medieval clerks and print-makers, whose mystical and heretical Cathar watermarks so fascinated Harold Bayley. Robert Anton Wilson also feels that a number of these people may have also belonged to the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. Some interesting facts: Balzac's Unknown Masterpiece is about a secret known to only two painters, Poussin and Pourbus; and appears to have been the inspiration for an occult masterpiece by Picasso. "Croise" Andre Malraux appears to have been part of an aerial expedition to discover the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen, a feat which he was congratulated for by Haile Selassie of Ethiopia; as Minister of Cultural Affairs, he helped organize an archaeological expedition to Gisors in 1964. Leblanc's work The Triangle of Gold has the same name as a "prieure document" created by Jean-Luc Chaumeil in 1979. Satie left a strange note behind saying he was part of a society descended from the Knights Templar and the Protectors of the Holy Sepulchre. Barres' most famous work is La Colline Inspiree, about Sion-Vaudemont and the Baillard Brothers. In one of de Nerval's works, he said that he saw a star rising from the sea, and written on it was the name "Merovee". Surrealism and the Oulipo Increasingly, I am finding more evidence of Surrealists at work in this mystery. Henry Lincoln first pointed out that Cocteau's Mural in Notre Dame de France seems to have a pentagram centered on Cocteau's forehead. My research suggests that this pentagram is a reference to Cocteau's surrealist colleagues, Guillaume Apollinaire, who had a star-shaped wound on his head, and Raymond Roussel, who wrote a play, The Star in the Forehead. The Mural also contains a Blue Rose, which is an apparent allusion to a Russian Symbolist art group that influenced Marc Chagall and other painters. According to Simon Miles, the Surrealist poem Le Serpent Rouge contains symbolism from Jung's _Mysterium Coniunctionis_, which was of key interest to Surrealists. Most importantly, Gerard de Sede in the 1940s belonged to two Surrealist groups, Les Reverberes and La Main a Plume. Members of these groups would go on later to form the Workshop for Potential Literature (Oulipo) in the 1960s. Oulipo was interested in cryptograms, ciphers, textual reversals and inversions, geometric figures in paintings (Oupeinpo), and one key Oulipo text even used the Knight's Tour of the Chessboard as a organizing device. Jean-Pierre Deloux seems to be connected to Oupolipo, the offshoot of Oulipo devoted to creating detective police fictions. And Philippe de Cherisey seems to have written several articles on Alfred Jarry, the founder of the Surrealist College de Pataphysique.
Opus Dei In the United StatesBy James Martin,
S.J. James Martin, S.J., is an associate editor of America. OPUS DEI IS THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL group in the Catholic Church today. To its members it is nothing less than The Work of God, the inspiration of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá, who advanced the work of Christ by promoting the sanctity of everyday life. To its critics it is a powerful, even dangerous, cult-like organization that uses secrecy and manipulation to advance its agenda. At the same time, many Catholics admit knowing little about this influential group. Moreover, because of the dichotomy of views on the group, and perhaps because of its influence in Vatican circles, it is difficult to find balanced reporting on Opus Dei. This article is a look at Opus Dei’s activities in the United States. It is based on material written by Opus Dei and its critics, as well as on interviews with current and former Opus Dei members and with priests, religious, laypersons, campus ministers, scholars and journalists who have encountered Opus Dei in the United States. Some Basics.Any look at Opus Dei must begin with Msgr. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded the group on Oct. 2, 1928. On that day, according to Opus Dei’s literature, while on a retreat in Madrid, “suddenly, while bells pealed in a nearby church, it became clear: God made him see Opus Dei.” Monsignor Escrivá, invariably referred to as The Founder by members, envisioned Opus Dei as a way of encouraging lay people to aspire to sanctity without changing their state of life or occupation. Today Opus Dei sees itself as very much in line with the Second Vatican Council and its renewed emphasis on the laity. Some of the group’s spirituality can be gleaned from Escrivá’s numerous writings, most notably his 1939 book, The Way. The book is a collection of 999 maxims, ranging from traditional Christian pieties (“The prayer of a Christian is never a monologue”) to sayings that could easily have come out of Poor Richard’s Almanack (“Don’t put off your work until tomorrow”). His group grew rapidly, spreading from Spain to other European countries, and in 1950 received recognition by the Holy See as the first “secular institute.” Over the next two decades The Work, as members call it, moved into Latin America and the United States. In 1982 Pope John Paul II granted Opus Dei the status of “personal prelature,” a canonical term meaning that jurisdiction covers the persons in Opus Dei rather than a particular region. In other words, it operates juridically much as religious orders do, without regard for geographical boundaries. This unique recognition—it is the only personal prelature in the church—demonstrated the high regard in which it is held by John Paul II as well as Opus Dei’s standing in Vatican circles. But it also prompted critics to ask why a professedly lay organization would need such a status. Today Opus Dei counts 77,000 members (including 1,500 priests and 15 bishops) in over 80 countries. Further evidence of Vatican favor—and added legitimacy—came in 1992 when Escrivá was beatified in a ceremony attended by 300,000 supporters in St. Peter’s Square. But coming only a few years after Escrivá’s death in 1975 and leapfrogging over figures like Pope John XXIII, the beatification was, to say the least, controversial. “Is Sainthood Coming Too Quickly for Founder of Influential Catholic Group?” read a January 1992 New York Times headline, echoing other critical articles appearing around the same time. An article in The London Spectator, for example, included allegations by former close associates about Escrivá’s less than saintly behavior. “He had a filthy temper,” said one, “and pro-Nazi tendencies, but they never mention that.” Kenneth Woodward, religion editor of Newsweek and author of the book Making Saints, also pointed out irregularities in Escrivá’s beatification in a 1992 article. One of Mr. Woodward’s more serious charges was that Opus Dei prevented critics of Escrivá from testifying at the church tribunals deliberating on his life. In a recent intervˆew, Mr. Woodward said: “It seemed as if the whole thing was rigged. They were given priority, and the whole thing was rushed through.” Countering these claims, Opus Dei’s director of communications in the United States, Mr. William Schmitt, defended the speed of the beatification by pointing to streamlined Vatican procedures and the exemplary life of Monsignor Escrivá. “Just look at the facts,” he said. But even with Escrivá’s beatification, controversy dogs the group. In 1992 Michael Walsh’s book, Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Secret Society Struggling for Power Within the Roman Catholic Church, engendered such a negative reaction from Opus Dei that they published their own book, Opus Dei: An Open Book, to rebut Walsh’s claims. Opus Dei in the United States.There are over 3,000 Opus Dei members in the United States, with 64 centers, or residences for members, in 17 cities: Boston; Providence, R.I.; New York; South Orange, N.J.; Princeton, N.J.; Pittsburgh; Washington; Delray Beach, Fla.; South Bend, Ind.; Chicago; Milwaukee; Urbana, Ill.; St. Louis; Houston; Dallas; Los Angeles and San Francisco. This is up from eight cities in 1975. Many of the centers are located near large college campuses, where Opus Dei attracts new members. (For example, the Leighton Studies Center for men and the Petawa Center for women are located in Milwaukee near Marquette University.) Each center typically houses 10 to 15 members, with separate centers for women and men. Opus Dei also sponsors other programs, such as retreat houses, programs for married Catholics and outreach programs to the poor, like its education program for children in the South Bronx. Other activities are run in Syracuse, Philadelphia, Miami, San Antonio, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver and Phoenix. Opus Dei operates five high schools in the United States: The Heights (for boys) and Oak Crest (girls) in Washington, D.C., the Montrose School (girls) in Boston, and Northridge Prep (boys) and The Willows (girls) in Chicago. Their retreat houses include Arnold Hall in Pembroke, Mass., the Fetherock Conference Center near Houston and Trumbull Manor near San Francisco. In light of their growing presence in this country, I contacted each of the seven U.S. cardinals and one archbishop requesting comments on Opus Dei for this article. I had hoped in this way to gauge the opinions of the U.S. Catholic leadership. None would comment—either positively or negatively. The majority said they had either no substantial knowledge or no contact with them, though Opus Dei is active in nearly every large archdiocese in the country. Secrecy and Privacy.It is difficult to read anything about Opus Dei without running across accounts of its alleged secrecy. (“Pope Beatifies Founder of Secretive, Conservative Group” ran a New York Times headline in 1992.) Indeed, while a few members of Opus Dei are well knËwn, like the Vatican press officer Joaquín Navarro-Valls, M.D., most are not. Critics also point out that most of Opus Dei’s organizations are not clearly identified as being affiliated with Opus Dei. Opus Dei denies all this. “It’s not secret,” says communications director Bill Schmitt, “it’s private. Big difference.” Mr. Schmitt describes the vocation to Opus Dei as a private matter, a personal relationship with God. The members are known by their friends, their families, their neighbors, their colleagues at work. Even Escrivá in a 1967 interview said, “The members detest secrecy.” But most critics are not concerned about whether members publicly announce their affiliation with Opus Dei. After all, many members of other lay organizations work without broadcasting their affiliations. When critics speak of “secrecy,” they refer instead to frustration in their efforts to get answers about the basic corporate activities and practices of Opus Dei. Two priests I interviewed (who asked to remain anonymous) came into contact with Opus Dei while studying at Princeton in the mid-1980’s. In the course of their work with campus ministry, a divisive conflict arose between an Opus Dei priest and other members of the team. “Opus Dei was rather defensive about being secretive,” said one. “They’d say, ‘No, we tell it like it is.’ And, yes, they’d answer your questions, but it was like peeling away an onion. But if you didn’t ask the right question to peel away the next layer you simply weren’t told. You just never had the full picture. And I suppose it wouldn’t have been so annoying if they hadn’t been saying all the time how open they were.” I encountered perhaps one example of this difficulty in the course of my research. Early on, I asked Bill Schmitt for a copy of Opus Dei’s constitutions. I thought that by reading them I could better understand Opus Dei and lay to rest some misconceptions. He gave me a copy of the 1982 statutes. But they were in Latin, and a technical “church” Latin at that. Could I have a copy of the English translation? There was none, he said. Why not? First he said that Opus Dei had not had sufficient time to translate them. I replied that this seemed odd, given that the statutes had been around for 12 years and that The Way had already been translated into 38 languages. When I pressed him, he provided a second explanation, and I was reminded of the comment about peeling an onion. “It’s a church document,” he said. “We don’t own them. The Holy See wants them in Latin.” Perhaps, he added, the Vatican wants to prevent other groups from applying for the status of personal prelature. But how could English-speaking members study their own statutes? The members study them in depth, he explained. “All of it should be clear to them in their formation.” Opus Dei member James Gabriel seconded this, explaining that the statutes were also available in Spanish. “I can look things up in a Spanish dictionary if I want to. But you receive so much formation that I don’t have any questions that I would want to go over.” Nevertheless, it still seemed odd, so I asked Mr. Schmitt again. I received the same answer: “The document belongs to the Holy See and the Holy See does not want it translated. I’m sure there’s a reason.” I asked three experts in canon law what that reason might be. One canon lawyer said, “Property of the Holy See? I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Another, John Martin, S.J., professor of canon law at Regis College in Toronto, noted that religious orders and lay associations as a matter of course publish their statutes in local languages, and as far as he knew, “there is no general ecclesiastic prohibition against the translation of documents of religious orders.” Or of personal prelatures, for that matter. Richard Hill, S.J., of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., agreed, saying “there is no canonical reason” why Opus Dei should not be allowed to translate their own statutes. So it appears to be Opus Dei, not the Holy See, that is keeping the statutes from being translated. Ann Schweninger is a 24-year-old former Opus Dei member now living in Columbus, Ohio, where she works with the Diocese of Columbus. She was not surprised when I told her of my difficulty in making sense of all this. “Opus Dei plays by its own rules,” she said. “If they don’t want to have something out in the open, they won’t make it accessible.” Referring to her own time in Opus Dei, she said: “The statutes were never shown to me nor were they available. They are mentioned but not discussed.” According to Ms. Schweninger, the only official document available is the catechism of Opus Dei, which even members can read only with the permission of the house director. “It’s kept under lock and key.” She also mentioned that during classes on the catechism, she was encouraged to take notes “in code” in case non-members should read them. Opus Dei members frequently mention that they feel unfairly maligned. I asked Bill Schmitt if this might be partially a result of misunderstanding about the privacy they insist on. “Well, we’re in the phone book. I don’t understand your question.” I suggested, for example, more publicly identifying a school as a work of Opus Dei. “That’s not our charism. We have an institutional barrier to that. There’s no dissimulation going on. We’re not trying to hide.” But how, I asked, is such public identification against Opus Dei’s basic charism of spirituality of the laity? “Other people do that. We don’t. We don’t advertise. It’s not our way,” he said. “Our way is a personal way of friendship. People think we’re secret and we’re not. We’re trying to make ourselves as open as we can.” A Lay Institution.To encounter Opus Dei is to encounter dedicated, energetic Catholics engaged in a variety of occupations. It is also to encounter a sometimes bewildering array of priests, numeraries, supernumeraries, cooperators, associates, directors and administrators. Opus Dei describes the various types of membership as different levels of availability for their mission. Critics maintain that Opus Dei, with its emphasis on hierarchy as well as celibacy and obedience, merely replicates religious life while professing lay spirituality. “And they’re really priest-ridden.” claims Newsweek’s Kenneth Woodward. A few basic terms: Numeraries are single members who pledge a “commitment” of celibacy and normally live in “centers.” Numeraries turn over their income and receive a stipend for personal expenses. Numeraries (accounting for roughly 20 percent of the membership) follow the “plan of life,” a daily order that includes Mass, devotional reading, private prayer and, depending on the person, physical mortification. Numeraries also attend summer classes on Opus Dei. Every year an oral commitment to Opus Dei is made, and after five years the “fidelity” is made, a lifetime commitment. There are separate centers for men and women, each with a director. Male numeraries are encouraged to consider ordination to the priesthood. After 10 years of training, those who feel called are sent to Opus Dei’s seminary in Rome, the Roman College of the Holy Cross. Most members are supernumeraries, married persons who contribute financially and sometimes serve in corporate works like schools. Associates are single people who are “less available,” remaining at home because of other commitments, such as responsibilities toward aging parents. Cooperators, strictly speaking, are not members because “they do not yet have the divine vocation.” They cooperate through work, financial help and prayers. Opus Dei also includes the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, an association of diocesan priests who receive the spiritual help that Opus Dei provides. They remain incardinated in their own dioceses. Numeraries or associates who are ordained priests also become members of this society. The head of Opus Dei, or “prelate,” is currently Bishop Javier Echevarría, who works out of its headquarters in Rome. Critics contend
that numerary life is anything but lay, particularly in what they see as
its replication of religious life, with emphasis on “commitments” (Opus Dei does
not use the term “vows”), life in common, a daily order and, at least for some
of the men, eventual ordination. Many of those in authority are clerics—the
director of their national headquarters in New Rochelle, N.Y., is a monsignor;
their prelate was recently ordained a bishop. “If this is Another common criticism is that men and women numeraries are separated not only in housing but even in work. Numerary Jim Gabriel, who lives in Opus Dei’s Riverside Study Center in Manhattan explained: “There is pretty much no interaction. They do things that they have to do and we do what we have to do.” According to two former numeraries, women numeraries are required to clean the men’s centers and cook for them. When the women arrive to clean, they explained, the men vacate so as not to come in contact with the women. I asked Bill Schmitt if women had a problem with this. “No. Not at all.” It is a paid work of the “family” of Opus Dei and is seen as an apostolate. The women more often than not hire others to do the cooking and cleaning. “They like doing it. It’s not forced on them. It’s one thing that’s open to them if they want to do it. They don’t have to do it.” “That’s totally wrong,” said Ann Schweninger when she heard that last statement. “I had no choice. When in Opus Dei you’re asked, you’re being told.” According to Ms. Schweninger, it is “bad spirit” to refuse. Women are told that it is important to have a love for things of the home and domestic duties. “And since that’s part of the spirit of Opus Dei, to refuse to do that when you’re asked is bad spirit. So nobody refuses.” For numeraries living in the centers, mail—incoming and outgoing—is read by the director. But for most numeraries this is not a problem. “If you’re in an organization and part of the group, where you go to the priest in confession and tell him everything that’s on your mind, what could you possibly receive in a letter that would matter?” said one. But he also admitted that he wasn’t sure if his friends knew their mail was being read. “But they never say anything that couldn’t be read by other people.” Casting a Wide Net.But it is Opus Dei’s way of attracting new members that comes under the most vigorous attack by its critics. Opus Dei contends that their distinct brand of spirituality fills a need in society and that, as a result, Americans are naturally attracted to it. Others disagree, speaking of overly aggressive recruiting tactics. “I call them the Catholic Mormons,” says Kenneth Woodward. One man who attended Columbia University in the early 1980’s, who asked not to be named, described the process of being recruited by Opus Dei. “They had someone become my friend,” he said bluntly. After Mass one day he was approached by another student, with whom he soon became good friends. Eventually he was invited to the Riverside Study Center near Columbia’s campus. He was not certain exactly what it was. “I thought it was a group of students that were a think tank or something.” After dinner a priest gave a short talk. He was later invited to join a “circle,” which he described as a sort of an informal prayer group. Soon afterwards Opus Dei suggested that he take one of the priests at the center as his spiritual director. After becoming more involved—at this point meeting with the group frequently—he decided to investigate on his own. He spoke with a few priests and professors at Columbia and was surprised at how little he really knew: “I didn’t know anything about the secrecy, the numeraries, supernumeraries, any of that. And I didn’t know there were people taking vows of celibacy. I felt kind of upset that I didn’t know much about them. I didn’t think they were honest or straightforward about who they were. I felt very indignant.” At the next circle meeting he raised some questions about issues that troubled him—for example, women and minority presence in Opus Dei. “They really didn’t have any answers and asked me not to return.” And more disturbing for him: “I never heard from my friend again. I was totally cut off.” According to two former numeraries, if this man had stayed in the circle Opus Dei would have confronted him with a decision to join. Tammy DiNicola talked about her experience. “They staged a vocation crisis for me,” she said. “At the time, I didn’t realize they had staged it. But it’s standard practice. The person that’s working on you is consulting with the director, and the two of them decide when is the best time to propose the question of vocation to the recruit.” Why is it a crisis? “Well, they make it a crisis for you!” said Ann Schweninger. “And it’s totally orchestrated. They tell you it’s a decision you have to make now, that God is knocking on the door, and that you have to have the strength and fortitude to say yes.” Tammy DiNicola was told that it was her only chance for a vocation. “Basically it’s a one-shot deal—if you don’t take it, you’re not going to have God’s grace for the remainder of your life.” I asked if they were surprised at hearing that the man at Columbia had been cut off by his friend. “No,” said Tammy recalling her own recruiting days. “They use friendships to get people to join. They call it an apostolate of friendship and confidence, but it’s certainly not confidence—because everything that you talk about with your recruit is discussed with your director.” Even personal matters? “Especially personal matters, because those are the things that you can use so that a person would think about joining Opus Dei.” She was also advised to recruit only “select” people—intelligent and physically attractive—since they would be more likely to attract others once they were members. Opus Dei looks at it differently, stressing the fact that any relationships are entered into freely. “There is no recruitment to Opus Dei,” said Bill Schmitt. It is not in Opus Dei’s interest, he explained, to have anyone as a member who does not freely understand and embrace their vocation. Jim Gabriel agreed. “The word recruiting sounds so bad,” he said. “Like we peg people and then try to get people to join The Work.” He spoke of helping people to come to know Opus Dei through friendship, and had had no experience of coercion. Still, even Escrivá’s writings emphasize at least the idea of recruiting. In the internal magazine, Cronica, he wrote in 1971: “This holy coercion is necessary, compelle intrare the Lord tells us.” And, “You must kill yourselves for proselytism.” Ann Schweninger finds this closer to her experience: “Whenever you’re in Opus Dei, you’re recruiting.” On Campus.Opus Dei is an increasingly strong presence on U.S. college campuses. Traditionally, their efforts to attract new members has led them to colleges and universities. And it has sometimes led them into conflict with other groups. Donald R. McCrabb is executive director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association (C.C.M.A.), an organization of 1,000 of the 1,800 Catholic chaplains in the United States. What was he hearing about Opus Dei from his members? “We are aware that Opus Dei is present at a number of campuses across the country. I’m also aware that some campus ministers find their activities on campus to be counterproductive.” One of his concerns was Opus Dei’s emphasis on recruiting, supported by an apparently large base of funding. “They are not taking on the broader responsibility that a campus minister has.” He had other concerns as well. “I have heard through campus ministers that there’s a spiritual director that’s assigned to the candidate who basically has to approve every action taken by that person, including reading mail, what classes they take or don’t take, what they read or don’t read.” The former Columbia student echoed this: “They recommended I not read some books, particularly the Marxist stuff, and instead use their boiled-down versions. I thought this was odd—I was required to do it for class!” Susan Mountin, associate director of Marquette University’s campus ministry, saw two sides of the issue. “My own sense is that there probably is a need for many people to experience some sort of devotion in their lives. So the quest for spirituality is a very important thing—that part I’m fine with. What I worry about is the cult-like behavior, isolation from friends—and students talk about it. One student, in fact just this week, described being invited to a dinner and felt that she was being badgered by the individual to accept some sort of commitment to Opus Dei that she wasn’t willing to accept.” The director of campus ministry at Stanford University from 1984 through 1992, Russell J. Roide, S.J., initially approached Opus Dei with an open mind. However, students began coming to him complaining about Opus Dei’s recruiting. “They just didn’t let the students alone. Students would come to me and say, ‘Please get them off our backs.’” He felt his only recourse was to pass out information to these students about Opus Dei, including critical articles. This prompted Opus Dei numeraries to visit Father Roide to tell him that he was “interfering with their agenda.” Eventually, because of continued student complaints about their recruiting, “I decided not to let them anywhere near the campus.” He now describes them as “subtle and deceptive.” The two priests mentioned earlier, who studied at Princeton University and worked with campus ministry, described Opus Dei’s involvement there in the 1980’s. According to both men, an Opus Dei priest, the Rev. C. John McCloskey 3d, presented himself to the campus ministry group, which welcomed his offer to assist with chaplaincy duties. Soon after beginning his work, Father McCloskey presented to the other chaplains a list of the number of communions he had distributed and the number of confessions he had heard—as an objective way of measuring whether a priest was doing his job. Said one of the ex-chaplains, “He came to the rest of us and said, ‘I don’t think the chaplaincy program is doing this work. You should be doing what I’m doing’.” Later, Father McCloskey began interviewing all entering Catholic freshmen, over the objections of some of the staff. It was at this time that the problems began. According to both sources, Father McCloskey asked questions about students’ sexual practices, among other things, and about their parents’ religious activities. In addition: “Some of the students claimed he coerced them into having the sacrament of reconciliation, or confession, as he called it. He would say, ‘You really need to go to confession. The chapel’s right around the corner and I’m available now.’ Now I can’t cite you a line in canon law, but one is never coerced into a sacrament. I found it outrageous, and a lot of other people did, too.” C.C.M.A.’s Mr. McCrabb added, “It is my understanding that one of the most controversial aspects is their insistence that their members go to confession only to Opus Dei priests. I think that campus ministers have seen it as a way of controlling, manipulating or coercing a student. That’s the worst interpretation. The best is that it is discounting the ministry performed by other priests.” After students were recruited, said one former chaplain, they would disappear from the regular campus chaplaincy functions at Princeton, “because it was seen as not being truly Catholic.” Father McCloskey also wrote a letter instructing students to avoid certain professors: “If [a course] is given by an anti-Christian its impact is counter-productive.” This led some students to circulate a petition claiming that Father McCloskey’s work was detrimental to the welfare of the university. Father McCloskey denied coercing students into the sacrament of reconciliation but added, “I might have told people they need to go to confession—that’s the duty of the priest at times.” He denied asking about sexual activities. Nor, he said, had he ever recruited for Opus Dei. “I rarely if ever talked about Opus Dei with students.” As for presenting the other chaplains with the list of objective measures, he termed it a “lie.” He also noted that his list of courses were only “recommendations” to Catholic students. In 1990 a new chaplain took over and dismissed Father McCloskey. Opus Dei has since opened a center in Princeton called Mercer House, three blocks from the campus ministry office. At an Opus Dei Center.A visit to the Riverside Study Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side provided an opportunity to meet a few numeraries. The center houses 17 men, some studying at nearby Columbia University and other schools, some working in Manhattan. Two Opus Dei priests also reside there. It is a very large but not lavish house, with an ornate chapel, comfortable living areas and medium-sized bedrooms. Dinner was served family style, with much conversation. After dinner I met with the center’s director and three numeraries, along with communications director Bill Schmitt. The men seemed genuinely content with life at the center. Their descriptions of how they were drawn to Opus Dei sounded like any vocation story, and none mentioned any coercion. One, in fact, said that any coercion would have turned him off to Opus Dei and made him less likely to join. After a while, I brought up some of the criticisms I had heard. One young man studying at Cooper Union in Manhattan laughed at the accusation that Opus Dei isolates one. Going to classes all the time, he said, he regularly socializes with his classmates. “How could I be isolated?” What about their recruiting? “Recruitment is the farthest thing from reality,” said one. “People are looking for something. It’s very easy to misunderstand, of course. People who are critics just won’t make the effort.” Is there a lack of freedom in the life of a numerary? “They have to form us. You can’t become a saint alone.” As far as work goes, “You’re free to go in and say, I’d like to work here.” Why the need for priests in a lay organization? “You need priests for practical matters, with women and men working separately, you need someone to coordinate that. That’s just the way it is.” I asked one man about going to confession to non-Opus Dei priests. “I must admit it would seem strange. The spirituality of The Work is pretty specific. If a priest doesn’t know what you’re going through in the context of your vocation…it could make it real difficult. And it could lead to misunderstanding, plus, they can give you totally different advice. And it’s really frustrating. I think it would be strange, not bad. No one’s going to say don’t go.” They all felt that Opus Dei is unfairly maligned. Part of the reason, they said, has to do with their “unique” charism—the spirituality of everyday life. Though lay spirituality has long been a Catholic tradition (St. Francis de Sales wrote his Introduction to the Devout Life [1608] with laypersons in mind), members say there are still many who do not understand their charism. “Opus Dei represents a new concept in the church,” said Bill Schmitt, “and this has given rise to misunderstanding, even, in some instances…slanders.” But he added, “A lot of it comes from bad will.” Are there problems with Opus Dei? “We’re not holy enough,” said one member. And what would they change if they could? “The spirit has been given to us and there’s nothing for us to change,” said another. “We are good sons and a faithful son is not an innovator. The essentials will not change.” Opus Dei Awareness Network.Dianne DiNicola, Tammy DiNicola’s mother, knows some things about Opus Dei that she would like to change. In 1991 she started the Opus Dei Awareness Network, a self-described support group concerned with outreach to families with children in Opus Dei. A few years ago Mrs. DiNicola noticed that Tammy, then an undergraduate at Boston College, “seemed to be going through a personality change.” According to Mrs. DiNicola, she became “cold and secretive,” not wanting to spend time with the family—which had not been the case before. “I just had the feeling something was wrong.” When Tammy wrote a letter saying that she would no longer return home, Mrs. DiNicola grew more worried. She eventually found out that Tammy had joined Opus Dei as a numerary, living in one of their centers in Boston. “Our daughter,” she recalls, “became totally estranged from us. I can’t tell you the turmoil that our family went through. We tried to keep in touch with her, but it was like she was a completely different person.” Initially trying to accept her daughter’s decision, she met with Opus Dei officials and diocesan officials to obtain more information. “I was just trying to feel good about Opus Dei. I love my religion. I mean, you’re not talking about the Moonies. This is something within the Catholic Church.” But the situation deteriorated, and Mrs. DiNicola felt that the church either was not in a position to help or did not want to do so. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. DiNicola enlisted the help of an “exit counsellor” and asked Tammy to come home for her graduation in 1990. They later discovered that this would have been the last time she would have come home, since she had already been told to sever contacts with her family. According to both Mrs. DiNicola and Tammy, the counselling enabled Tammy to think about Opus Dei critically for the first time. After the 24-hour counselling session Tammy decided to leave. Mrs. DiNicola described the scene: “My husband is a very, very good man, and throughout all the turmoil, I would cry and my other daughter would cry. We were losing our daughter—it was like she had died. For 24 hours we talked to her, without a break. When we did break early in the morning, my husband was over in the corner of our bedroom weeping softly. There was only one other time I saw him weep—that was when his father died.” “It was pretty tumultuous,” recalled Tammy, now 26. She said that since Opus Dei “shut down” all of her emotions, she experienced a flood of emotions after she left. Now Mrs. DiNicola runs the Opus Dei Awareness Network (ODAN), which she says enables her to help to spare others the pain that her family went through. Ann Schweninger was a numerary living at the same center with Tammy and remembered the day of Tammy’s departure. “The whole house was so upset, with everyone crying. The directors were hysterical, too. They told us that we had to pray hard for Tammy since this was her soul at stake and that we would really have to mortify ourselves.” Ann eventually decided to leave on her own, over the opposition of the center’s director, who said that her doubts would blow over. Ann’s own departure was equally painful. After she left, Opus Dei persisted in trying to re-establish contact, calling her at work, sending plaintive letters, notes and Christmas packages. At one point, Opus Dei members—thinking that Ann was staying at a friend’s house—began driving by the house looking for Ann. “It was ridiculous,” said Ann. Eventually, she had a lawyer write to Opus Dei threatening a court order to cease contact with her. “The suffering I went through when I left,” says Ann, “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.” If ODAN is alarmed by Opus Dei, Opus Dei is alarmed by ODAN. “Let me stress that no one is ever counselled not to speak to their parents.” said Bill Schmitt. “Please keep in mind that some parents do not accept the faith or have had ‘other’ plans for their son or daughter. I do not need to point out to you that the methods these people use are highly objectionable. But we have not pressed this.” Mrs. DiNicola responded that she would have been powerless had her daughter decided to stay in Opus Dei: “We certainly weren’t going to hold her physically.” At Riverside one numerary said his blood boils when he hears about ODAN, “We are approved by the Holy See! We are not cult-like. Those people [who were counselled] were just violated. We do pray for them, of course. But there is a lot of misunderstanding, and parents become irrational.” “It was very difficult for me,” recalled Mrs. DiNicola. “I mean, here I am trying to justify all of this. How could this happen in the Catholic Church? Here’s this organization with the approval of the Pope, Escrivá beatified, and there’s such destruction that’s happening to families because of this organization. So how to come to peace with that is so difficult.” Newsweek’s Kenneth Woodward agrees, “The bishops have been pastorally irresponsible in not paying more attention to the claims of parents who feel their children have been seduced into joining something that is not good for their spiritual health…. That’s not to say everybody, but there’s enough of this sort of thing that it really bears investigation. And just as they owe an obligation in the very difficult case of someone who claims to have been molested by a priest—protecting the priest and the victim as equal members of the church—I think they have to pay pastoral attention to these people regardless of what kind of canonical status the organization has.” Outside the United States, some bishops have already reacted. In December 1981, after a highly critical feature about Opus Dei appeared in The London Times, Cardinal Basil Hume, O.S.B., issued public guidelines for Opus Dei in his diocese. He instructed Opus Dei not to recruit anyone under 18, to ensure that parents were informed, not to exert pressure on people to join, to respect the freedom of members to leave and to allow members to freely choose spiritual directors. He also required Opus Dei’s activities to carry a “clear indication of their sponsorship and management.” The Future of Opus Dei.Whether Opus Dei will continue to grow in the United States is difficult to predict. Its critics, including ODAN, are gaining a voice. But Opus Dei’s widely acknowledged Vatican influence seems to provide a degree of protection, and its attraction for some, especially among college students, is a reminder of the desire for spirituality among Americans. David J. O’Brien is Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Holy Cross and author of the recent book From the Heart of the American Church: Catholic Higher Education and American Culture. He is of two minds about Opus Dei in the United States. While he admires their approach—drawing idealistic people together in a concerted manner—he thinks their appeal might be self-limiting. “They are so negative toward American culture that they can’t understand how deeply our notions of freedom and individualism can go.” Members are completely devoted to The Work. “I think it’s wonderful,” says numerary Jim Gabriel. “Belonging to Opus Dei is living the Catholic faith to its fullest,” said one supernumerary. “Opus Dei has been approved and repeatedly encouraged to expand its apostolic outreach,” said communications director Bill Schmitt, “precisely because it has practices that have proven to be sound.” But their critics are equally adamant. “I think they’re very surreptitious, very ill,” said the man from Columbia University. “They don’t really believe in the world,” said Kenneth Woodward. “They deceive people. They’re not straightforward,” said former numerary Ann Schweninger at the end of our long interview. “I can attest to that.”
Mary of MagdalaFebruary 28, 2004 – New York TimesBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
For a provocative look at the emergence of Christianity two millenniums ago, skip Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" and examine instead some of the fascinating recent scholarship on the early church. Interest in the early church has blossomed because of "Passion" and the "Da Vinci Code" thriller. But "Passion" and especially "The Da Vinci Code" take great liberties with history, while serious research has gotten much less attention. Consider the newly published "Gospel of Mary of Magdala." It offers a new translation by Karen King, a Harvard Divinity School professor, of the obscure Gospel of Mary, which was lost for 1,500 years before two fragmentary versions were found. The Gospel of Mary offers a proto-feminist recounting of a scene in which the resurrected Jesus tells the disciples to preach, and then leaves them. The disciples are emotional and tearful — until Mary Magdalene takes charge and bucks them up. "Do not weep and be distressed," she tells them, and, sure enough, they pull themselves together. Then Mary begins to relate Jesus' private teachings to her, saying, "I will teach you about what is hidden from you." But the disciples rebel at being instructed by a woman. Andrew and Peter virtually accuse Mary of making it all up, and she starts crying. Levi intercedes, scolding: "Peter, you have always been a wrathful person. . . . Assuredly, the Savior's knowledge of her is completely reliable. That is why he loved her more than us." Bibles, like history, are written by the winners. There were innumerable early gospels and teachings (some 85 percent of Christian literature from the first two centuries has been lost). Some won approval and entered the New Testament, and the rest were condemned as heresies or died out on their own. The Gnostic Gospels and other early writings suggest that initially the role of women was hotly debated, but ultimately the idea prevailed that men should dominate. "God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family," Pat Robertson writes in his best-selling book "Bring It On." He cites I Timothy: "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them." Likewise, Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak." That view is hard to square, though, with other accounts that portray Mary Magdalene as a favorite of Jesus'. The "Pistis Sophia" scripture quotes Jesus as telling Mary Magdalene: "You are she whose heart is more directed to the Kingdom of Heaven than all your brothers." And the Gospel of Philip says of Mary Magdalene: "She is the one the Savior loved more than all the disciples, and he used to kiss her on her mouth often. . . . The rest of the disciples . . . said to him, `Why do you love her more than us?' " These gospels aren't necessarily suggesting a romance between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and in any case their value is much debated — traditionalists argue that they are prized to make ideological points rather than to clarify history. The Gospel of Mary was written in her name but not by her, and apparently was written in the early second century, long after the events it describes. Still, the dispute over the role of women can be seen raging in many early Christian writings. The Gospel of Thomas even quotes Simon Peter as saying, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Susan Haskins, in her history of the idea of Mary Magdalene, says that egalitarian principles in the New Testament initially prevailed in the first-century Christian community. But then, she writes, Christianity gradually returned to the traditional patriarchal system of Judaism. That suppression of female leadership may be behind the labeling of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, starting with a sermon by Pope Gregory the Great in 591. And recent scholarship has established that Junius, whom Paul calls "distinguished among the apostles," was actually Junia, a woman whose name was made masculine by later translators. How should we regard these alternative versions of Biblical events? They are a reminder that there were competing strains in the early Christian church, and that different outcomes were possible. My guess is that the ordination of women would not have been controversial if Mary Magdalene, rather than St. Peter, had emerged as the first pope.
|
|
|
