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Prieuré de Sion, usually rendered in English translation as Priory of Sion or even Priory of Zion, is an elusive protagonist in many works of both non-fiction and fiction. It has been characterized as anything from the most covertly powerful secret society in Western history to a modern Rosicrucian-esque ludibrium. It is generally believed that the Priory of Sion is in large part an elaborate hoax.

History

Under Article III.c of the original 1956 Statutes of the Priory of Sion, the association was named after the nearby mountain called Sion by the French town of Annemasse. It was devoted to opposing gentrification in the area through its journal, Circuit. The 1956 Priory had its headquarters in Pierre Plantard's house in Annemasse and was officially registered at the sub-prefecture in Saint-Julien-en-Genevoise on May 7th, 1956, by André Bonhomme and Pierre Plantard. It was dissolved sometime after October 1956 but intermittently revived by Plantard between 1962 and 1993 as an initiatory order and crypto-political vanguard party dedicated to the restoration of chivalry and monarchy in France.

Pierre Plantard began writing a manuscript and produced "parchments" (created by his friend, Philippe de Cherisey) that Father Bérenger Saunière had supposedly discovered whilst renovating his church. These documents purportedly showed the survival of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings.

Between 1961 and 1984 Plantard, it is claimed, selectively revealed in enimagic textual productions a mythical pedigree of the Priory of Sion, claiming that it had been founded in Jerusalem during the First Crusade. Research in the Rennes-le-Château mysteries led Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln to other "Priory Documents", like the Secret Files of Henri Lobineau, compiled by "Philippe Toscan du Plantier". Following the teasing hints in these (sometimes mysteriously and illegally converted to microfiche without any documention required, showed at least a mole in the national library of France--something that would be hard to pull off if it was merely a hoax. It is a mistake to say that these "Priory Documents" became the source for their book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. This is because the book is taken in a very placid attempt to find any proof of the Priory Documents, instead of elaborate on their curious, poeteic, or seemingly esoteric qualities. If the "Priory Documents" are a claimed record of an esoteric (secret) tradition in European culture and politics, Holy Blood, Holy Grail was an attempt to find exoteric evidence of this esoteric tradition.

One of the most secure bases of the exoteric 'double-checking' of this hypothesized esoteric tradition of the Priory of Sion is in the commendable analysis in Holy Blood, Holy Grail of documentable, archival evidence that can show interpersonal linkages between all the hypothesized Priory of Sion "navigators" (as they are presumably called) for over 800 years! Since some of the information that is in the "Priory Documents" would have been unable to be created from the archival record (because of locked records at the time of their writing in the late 1950s onward, that only the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail opened), it is grand verification that there may be something there. Since this is hardly a book review of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and since there are literally hundreds of exoteric verification from historical records of an esoteric tradition, the suggestion is to pick of a cheap paperback to see what all the fuss is about.

Some of the issues that you will find are a great deal of correlative information that is publicly available that leads to the belief in a long term secret society. Amongst its reputed 'double checked' activities:

• there are indeed records of a Priory of Sion from the period, in various ownership documents and church documents.
• it has a list of grand masters (see below), which implemented the Knights Templar as a military and financial front of the a group of bloodlines descended from Jesus.
• The Merovingians are claimed to be of Jewish heritage. Actually, ther was indeed a Jewish principality in the Pyrenees area during the period in question.
• This Merovingian bloodline, it is claimed, in the Holy Blood, Holy Grail reconstruction, based on the scantly information, originally was a protector of Roman Catholic Church. The Church's king-making of Charlemagne in 800 (from only a subordinate 'bureaucratic' line in the court of the Merovingians) was hardly the first such arrangement. Actually, taking the Merovingians into account, the Carolingians were usurpers of the Merovingians, and usurpers supported by the Church.
• From the point of view of the Merovingians, Holy Blood, Holy Grail reads as an attempt to get back into power spanning over 1000 years. Given even a cursory knowledge of European history, this was of course known, though the esoteric and subjective purposes of the motivations of these Merovingians is the welcome contribution of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
• The Priory of Sion, it is claimed, had a large role in partaking in and promoting the "underground river of esotericism", the Alph, in Medieval Europe and even to the present.
• Because of the lineage issues to Jesus, the Priory of Sion--sort of a "personal secret court" of adherents in a secret society, is reputed to be sworn to returning the Merovingian dynasty, that ruled the Frankish kingdom from 447 to 751 C.E., to the thrones of Europe and Jerusalem; and
• as mentioned above, the order protects these royal claimants because they are the literal descendants of Jesus and his wife Mary Magdalene.

These authors furthered that the ultimate goals of the Priory of Sion are:

• the founding of a "Holy European Empire" that would become the next hyperpower and usher in a new world order of peace and prosperity;
• the supplantation of the Roman Catholic Church with an ecumenical messianic state religion by revealing the Holy Grail and a "Judas Testament" which would prove Ebionite views and Desposyni claims; and
• the grooming and installing of the anointed king of a Greater Israel.

Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln came to their own interpretation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, where they used the spelling "Sion" in the name, which they viewed as hardly one of the most persuasive correlative pieces of evidence they offer, for the existence and activities of the Priory of Sion:

• The original version emanated from an irregular Masonic organization that used the name "Sion" but had nothing to do with an international Jewish conspiracy.
• The original version was not intended to be inflammatory or released publicly, but was a program for gaining control of Freemasonry.
• The person responsible for changing the text in about 1903 was Sergei Nilus in the course of his attempt to gain influence in the Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The presence of esoteric cliques in the royal court led to considerable intrigue. Nilus' publication of the text resulted from his failure to succeed in wresting influence away from Papus and an otherwise unidentified "Monsieur Philippe".
• Since Nilus did not recognize a number of references in the text that reflected a background in a Christian cultural context, he did not change them. This fact established that the original version could not possibly have come from the first Zionist Congress in Basel (1897).

However, a great deal in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, to those who bother to read it, is full of strategic political evidence that modern historians would accept from many areas. The evidence they bring to bear in the attempt to verify, correlate, and 'double check' the mysterious and teasing information in the Priory Documents is astoundingly revealing because it enriches European history: they plumb archival records in many different countries, as their astoundingly dry bibliography attests--some that would have been unavailable or unopen at the time of the presumed fabrication of 'Le Dossier Secrets'--showing an underground stream of information well guarded and selectively revealed. Why? Perhaps part of the "timeline" of goals hinted at by the Priory--at least hinted at through Plantard.

To be fair, it is important to note though that French authors like Franck Marie (1978), Jean-Luc Chaumeil (1979, 1984, 1992) and Pierre Jarnac (1985, 1988) have never taken Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion as seriously as Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh, always concluding that it was a hoax. These authors as well in their respective books outlined their own reasoning for their verdicts. Both opinions thus should be read together to understand the issue.

The book Holy Blood, Holy Grail is actually astoundingly comprehensive if one judges it on historical acumen. Plus, it has the intellectual fortitude to discuss history as strategy instead of simply accept a hegemonic idea of history as merely a series of "random" events that accumulate. From anyone awake in the present era, it is obvious that an assumption of a story of history as a mere random accumulation of events is closer to a 'conspiracy theory' when one is faced with all the parapolitics seen in the present, a parapolitics that was just as complex in any period in the past. Holy Blood, Holy Grail faciliates a different type of historiography: a parapolitical history of Europe, a history full of juicy plots and different human agendas in conflict with one another for public hegemony that either succeed or fail in certain projects. Of course this is in addition to the accumulation of events in a linear path of history, instead of opposed to it.

What is so annoying to most academic historians is that they have written themselves into a corner where they are intentionally blinded to issues of strategy in history. If nothing more, Holy Blood, Holy Grail has recovered the parapolitical history of Europe on what the authors argue is a major subjective purpose of a handful of interlinked aristocratic elites. And the historiographical spark from Holy Blood, Holy Grail has made so much sense that it has spawned a whole 'historiography of strategy' in the past 25 years, related to European politics that has substantially enriched European history and called into question whether we do live in some presumed radically different modern world, or simply an extension of the past. Serious historians would always vote on the latter--regardless of their opinion of the Priory of Sion.

For an unknown rationale, in 1989 Pierre Plantard tried to salvage his reputation (and/or leadership, after supposedly renouncing it) by claiming that the Priory of Sion had actually been founded in 1681 at Rennes-le-Chateau. Whether this can be taken seriously, given that the topic of investigation is a secret society that has specialized in keeping itself secret, and given all the exoteric evidence of some sort of coaleascence of activities seen in Holy Blood, Holy Grail can only be the readers conclusion on such a controversial topic after they have read the book's evidence for themselves.

In September, 1993, Plantard claimed for unknown reasons something entirely different from what he told the researchers of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Perhaps he was threatened? He said Roger-Patrice Pelat had once been grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. Pelat was a friend of the then-President of France François Mitterrand and center of a scandal involving French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. Thus, perhaps the Priory of Sion "navigator" lists were just enough of a tease to spark interest, though did keep other things to themselves? Regardless, a French court ordered a search of Plantard's home, turning up many documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true king of France. Interestingly, such claims are only exoterically verified by the hard labors of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Whether we want Plantard or monarchy as a form of government is another matter. The bloodline however is indeed there. The issue of a documentable bloodline and the issue of a "required" monarchy should hardly be confused as the same issue.

Under oath, perhaps seeing they had played their hand overly soon, Plantard then claimed that he had fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with the Priory of Sion. However, with such a twisted path that Holy Blood, Holy Grail has documented, this Plantard dismissal can hardly be considered a total truthfulness. Moreover, it would be hard to explain away the very real "Mafia-type" meetings that the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail report they had with Plantard. They had to be in "neutral areas" like privately, closed rented cinemas where Plantard was accomanied by a large bodyguard according to the authors! Someone who is perpetrating a hoax, hardly has these resources available.

Regardless, Plantard was ordered to cease and desist all activities related to the promotion of the Priory of Sion. He died on 3 February, 2000, in Paris.

Most recently, due to Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, there has been a new level of public interest in the Priory of Sion. However, reading the original Holy Blood, Holy Grail is definitely an enlightening--and well documented--experience.

However, the best books carry on this tradition of the parapolitical historical research of Europe, because they truly add to our collective historical knowledge instead of a political program. Many of these researchers are, happily, just as skeptical as the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. That makes for a thoroughly dispassionate history. Beware of any other type, regardless of how much one can learn from them.

Cryptic motto

Et in Arcadia ego... is supposedly the official motto of both the Plantard family and the Priory of Sion, according to a claim that first appeared in 1964. Et in Arcadia ego is a Latin phrase, that most famously appears as a tomb inscription on the ca. 1630 classical painting, The Arcadian Shepherds, by French painter Nicolas Poussin. It literally means, "And I in Arcadia". However, the addition of the ellipsis (which was not there in the Poussin painting), suggests a missing word. Although it would not be needed in Latin grammar, sum has been one suggested completion to mean: "And I am in Arcadia". Furthermore, it has been theorized by Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger that the completed phrase Et in Arcadia ego sum is an anagram for Arcam Dei Tango Iesu which means "I touch the tomb of God – Jesus". The implication is that the tomb contains the ossuary of Jesus the central figure in Christian theology. Regardless of the accuracy of this extraordinary claim, it is not considered part of the exoteric history of the painting by Poussin. The claim is to an esoteric tradition--full of hidden treasure, crypto-Pythagorean 'waybills' hidden in oil paintings, and Gnostic traditions of Mediterranean culture that were unsuccessfully repressed by the Catholic Church.

Cultural influences

The Priory of Sion has had several influences on popular culture, not all of them entirely accurate or serious:

• The Priory was the template for the Grail order in the Preacher comic book series and, more loosely, the Millennium Group in the Millennium television series.
• The Priory, portrayed as more of a Goddess mystery religion, plays a large part in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

Alleged Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion

1. Ugo de Blancheford (1150-1151)
2. Bernard de Tremblay (1151-1153)
3. Guillaume de Chanaleilles (1153-1154)
4. Evrard de N...? (1154-1154)
5. Andrè de Montbard(1155-1156)
6. Bertand de Blancheford (1156-1169)
7. Philippe de Milly (1169-1170)
8. Eudes de Saint-Amand (1170-1180)
9. Arnaud de Toroge (1181-1184)
10. Gérard de Rideford (1184-1188)
11. Jean de Gisors (1188-1220)
12. Marie de Saint-Clair (1220-1266)
13. Guillaume de Gisors (1266-1307)
14. Edouard de Bar (1307-1336)
15. Jeanne de Bar (1336-1351)
16. Jean de Saint-Clair (1351-1366)
17. Blanche d'Evreux (1366-1398)
18. Nicolas Flamel (1398-1418)
19. Rene d'Anjou (1418-1480)
20. Iolande de Bar (1480-1483)
21. Sandro Filipepi AKA Botticelli (1483-1510)
22. Leonardo da Vinci (1510-1519)
23. Charles III (Duke of Bourbon-Montpensier) (1519-1527)
24. Ferdinand de Gonzague (1527-1556)
25. Michel de Notre-Dame AKA Nostradamus(1556-1566)
26. Duc de Longueville & Nicolas Froumenteau (1566-1575)
27. Louis de Nevers (1575-1595)
28. Robert Fludd (1595-1637)
29. Johann Valentin Andrea (1637-1654)
30. Robert Boyle (1654-1691)
31. Isaac Newton (1691-1727)
32. Charles Radclyffe (1727-1746)
33. Charles de Lorraine (1746-1780)
34. Maximillian de Lorraine (1780-1801)
35. Charles Nodier (1801-1844)
36. Victor Hugo (1844-1885)
37. Claude Debussy (1885-1918)
38. Jean Cocteau (1918-1963)
39. Pierre Plantard (1963-1981)

A second List of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion that included the names of Roger Patrice Pelat and Thomas Plantard appeared in 1989, but it should not be confused with the above list that belonged to a version of the Priory of Sion that Plantard rejected. When Plantard tried to make a comeback and a revival of the Priory of Sion in 1989 following his retirement in 1984 he claimed that the above list was bogus and a part of the "Secret Files", which by then had been exposed as a fraud by French researchers and authors.

However, the whole issue is hardly that easy to sweep under the rug. This is because, since the publication of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, there is a continuous documented line of three-fold interpersonal, organizational, and interest connections between the people claimed as "navigators" of the Priory of Sion. In conclusion, perhaps all that can be said is that all the secrets have yet to be revealed. Though the it is hard to call it a hoax at this stage.

External links and references

• Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 1982 (ISBN 055212138)
• Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. The Messianic Legacy, 1987 (1989 reissue: ISBN 0440203198) The sequel to Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
• Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger. The Tomb of God: The Body of Jesus and the Solution to a 2,000-year-old Mystery, 1996 (ISBN 0316879975)
• Paul Smith. Priory of Sion: The Pierre Plantard Archives 1937-1993
• Miriam Ibbotson The Priory of Sion Hoax: an A-Z
• Steven Mizrach. Priory of Sion: the Facts, the Theories, the Mystery
• Lisa Shea. Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei and Priory of Sion
• Massimo Introvigne. Beyond "The Da Vinci Code": What is the Priory of Sion?
• Wieland Willker. Codex Bezae and the Da Vinci Code: A textcritical look at the Rennes-le-Chateau hoax
• Laura Miller. The Da Vinci crock
• History Today: Unraveling the Da Vinci Code

• Priory of Sion hoax
• Secret societies
• Pseudohistory