Holy Blood, Holy Grail (69 page)

YATES, F. A.” The Occult Philosophy in the. Elizabethan Age (London,

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1979). ZUCKERMAN, A. J.” A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France (New York, 1972). Notes and References

Note

The full bibliographical details, when not cited here, are to be found in the Bibliography.

1 Village of Mystery

1Gerard de Sede, L’Or de Rennes. Robert Charroux. Tresors du Monde (Paris, 1962), pp. 247 ff. 2 Annuaire Ecclesiastique, p. 282. 3De Side, L’Or de Rennes, p. 28. The painting was supposedly of “Saint Antoine 1”Hermite’. De Sede himself said in conversation that the painting was the

“Temptation of Saint Anthony’, but no one knew which one. Later our researches indicated that it was in fact “Saint Anthony and Saint Jerome in the Desert’. 4Fe die Le Comte de Razes, pp. 3 ff. The figure of 30,000 inhabitants is given by de Sede in L’Or de Rennes, p. 17. He gives no source. 5 Procopius, History of the Wars, book v,xii. 6We have twice had the relevant archives in the Vatican checked and on both occasions our researchers reported that no reference to Sauniere could be found. There is not even any record of his existence, a curious lacuna in the normally detailed Vatican records. It suggests that all information regarding this priest has been extracted deliberately.

7Lepinois, “Lettres de Louis Fouquet’, pp. 269 ff. The letter was kept in the archives of the Cosse-Brissac family, who have been prominent in Freemasonry since the eighteenth century.

8De laude Cercle d’Ulysse, p. 3. The author says that the tomb is cited

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in a memoire by the Abbe Delmas dating from the seventeenth century. This work is undoubtedly the memoire of Delmas dated 1709. This manuscript was originally deposited with the Academie celtique, then vanished for some time. Earlier this century it reappeared and part was published in Courrent, Notice historique, pp. 9-17. However, this extract does not mention the tomb. It can only be supposed that the missing pieces contain the information, but the Delmas manuscript is now in private possession in Limoux, and has not been made available to us for reference.

2 The Cathars and the Great Heresy

1In 1888, while working at the Municipal Library of Orleans, Doinel found a manuscript dating from 1022, written by a Gnostic who was later in the same year burned at the stake. Reading this manuscript converted Doinel into an avid Gnostic. See Lauth, “Tableau de 1’au dela’, pp. 212 ff. 2Manichaeans had long been involved in the use of various forms of birth control, and were also accused of justifying abortion. These practices were almost certainly part of the later Cathar teaching. Noonan makes the point that the Church’s condemnation of contraception had been reaffirmed during its condemnation of the Cathars. See Noonan, Contraception, p. 281,

Chadwick, Priscillian, p. 37. 3 De Rougement, Love in the Western World, p. 78. 4In A.D. 800 Manichaeans were still being condemned in the West. In 991

Gerbert dAurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, expressed Manichaean beliefs.

See Runciman, The Medieval Manichee, p. 117, Niel, Les Cathars de Montsegur, pp. 26

ff. 5 Jean de Joinville, Life of Saint Louis, p.

174. 6 Niel, Les Cathars de Montsegur, pp. 291 ff. 7The Manichaeans had a sacred festival called the Bema, which was celebrated during March. Niel suggests that this was the festival held at Montsegur on March 14th, adding that in 1244 the spring equinox fell on this date: Niel,

Les Cathars de Montsegur, pp. 276 ff.

The Manichaeans apparently used a special book of drawings which expressed

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Mani’s teachings, perhaps symbolically. It contained pictures showing the dualism between the

Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness. This book was used during the Bema festival. Perhaps a similar book of symbols constituted part of the Cathar treasure. See Ort, Mani, pp. 168 ff.” 180 and 253 ff. 8A survey of this type of speculation is to be found in Waite, Holy Grail, pp. 524 ff. 9Nelli, Dictionnaire des heresies, pp. 216 ff. The writer most involved with these types of connections was Otto Rahn, author of Croisade cont re le

Graa1, and La Cour de Lucifer. Otto Rahn claimed that the Grail castle in

Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Munsalvaesche is Montsegur. Rahn’s books were first published in German in the 1930s. Rahn himself joined the SS, rising to the rank of Colonel. His researches into the Cathars and the Grail had the support of Alfred Rosenberg, major racial philosopher, spokesman for the

Nazi party and friend of Hitler. Rahn disappeared in 1939, allegedly committing suicide on the peak of Mount Kufstein. However, a French researcher has turned up several documents relating to Rahn, the latest, dated 1945. See Bernadac, Le Mystere Otto Rahn. If these documents indeed refer to the author Otto Rahn, it is interesting to speculate whether he was behind the mysterious German excavations carried out at Montsegur and other

Cathar sites during the Second World War.

3 The Warrior Monks

1 Runciman, History of the Crusades, vol. 2, p. 477. 2Esquieu, “Les Payen was not born in Champagne but in the chateau of Mahun, near Annonay in the lower Rhone valley (Ardeche). His birth record has been found and the date of birth given is February 9th, 1070. Presumably he later moved to

Champagne. 3William of Tyre, History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, vol. 1, pp. 525 ff. 4 Addison, History of the Knights

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Templars, p. 19. For a copy of the original rule see Curzon, La Regle du Temple. 5 Addison, History of the Knights

Templars, p. 19. 6This date has been challenged, it has been argued that it must date from no earlier than 1152. 7King Richard I was a close friend of the Order, and lived with them during his stay in Acre.

When he left the Holy Land in 1192, he left disguised as a Templar, setting sail in a Templar ship, and accompanied by four members of the Order. See Addison, History of the Knights Templars, p. 148. 8Daraul, History of Secret Societies, pp. 46 ff. Daraul neglects to supply a source. 9See Piquet, Des Ranquiers au mo yen age. The initial function was to facilitate the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. See also Melville, Vie des

Templiers, pp. 87 ff. The first loan was recorded in 1135. Seward, The Monks of War, p.

213, says. “The Poor Knights’ most lasting achievement, their contribution towards the overthrow of the church’s attitude to usury, was economic. No medieval institution did more for the rise of capitalism.”

Usury was prohibited, so the interest on loans was calculated beforehand and included in the total amount borrowed. If land was used as collateral, the Templars received all the income from this land until the full loan was repaid. 10 Melville, Vie des Templiers, p.

220. 11 See Mazieres, “La Venue et lese jour des

Templiers’, p. 235. 12Blanche fort was destroyed during the Albigensian Crusade, falling some time before 1215, at which date its lands were given by Simon de Montfort to

Pierre de Voisins. The lord of Blanchefort had fought at the side of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, the Cathar leader. See Fedie, Le Comte de Razes, p. 151.

Bertrand de Blanchefort himself, often in conjunction with the earlier

Trencavel, was involved in donations of money and property to the Templars. These transactions are recorded before he joined the Order, while he was still married to his wife Fabrissa. See Albon, Cartulaire general, p.41 (Charter Lm 1133-4). Mention of Bertrand’s wife and his

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two brothers, Arnaud and Raymond, can be found in the same work, Charter cLx 1138, p. 112. 13Mazieres, “La Venue et lese jour des Templiers’, pp. 243 ff. See also

Mazieres, “Recherches historiques’, p. 276. A document found in the archives of the Bruyeres and Mauleon family records how the Templars of Campagne and

Albedune (Le Bezu) established a house of refuge for Cathar bon hommes

This document and others disappeared during the war, sometime in November 1942.

14See for example Leonard, Introduction au cartulaire, p. 76. The preceptor of the Temple at Toulouse at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusade was of the Cathar Trencavel family. 150ne way that the Order could well have received advance warning of the catastrophe was via jean de Joinville. He was seneschal of Champagne and so would have received Philippe le Bel’s secret orders to carry out the arrests.

He was known to be sympathetic to the Templars, and his uncle, Andre, had been a member of the Order and preceptor of Payns in the mysterious oath mentioning spitting on the cross, at the time that the Templars were being accused of it. Furthermore he hinted very strongly that Saint Louis knew of this fifty years before, and refused to condemn it. (See jean de

Joinville, Life of Saint Louis, p. 254.) Jean organised a league of nobles to oppose the excesses of the French king against the Temple.

The league was rendered superfluous by the king’s death. 16When the arresting officers, accompanied by the king himself, took the Paris Temple in 1307, they found neither the money of the Order nor the documents.

The treasurer of the Order was Hugues de Peraud, and under him served Gerard de Villers, the preceptor of France.

In 1308 seventy-two Templars were taken to Poitiers to give evidence before the pope himself (the number of Templars is given in the Papal Bull, Faciens misericord am Not all the depositions taken at the time have survived. It is quite possible that many vanished when all the

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Vatican secret archives, including all documents relating to the Templars, were taken to Paris by order of Napoleon. Such was the chaos that shopkeepers were found wrapping their goods in the precious documents.

Thirty-three depositions from Poitiers were published by the German historian, Conrad Schottmiiller, in 1887, and a further seven by Heinrich

Finke in 1907. In this last group there is a curious statement by a jean de Chalons. He claimed that Gerard de Villers had foreknowledge of the arrests, had fled the Temple accompanied by fifty knights and gone to sea in eighteen galleys of the Order. He adds that Hugues de Chalons had left with all the treasure of Hugues de Peraud cum toto thesauro fratris

Hugonis de Peraudo. This, he said when questioned, had remained secret because those Templars who knew of it feared they would be killed if they spoke. See Finke, Papsttum and Untergang des Templerordens, vol. ii, p. 339.

were arrested that dawn, certain had not been present and were captured a few days later. Among the small group caught later were Gerard de Villers and Hugues de Chalons. See Barber, M.” Trial of the Templars, p. 46. 17This story is reported by Waite, New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 223. 18

Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival, p.

251. 19Shah, The Sufis, p. 225. See also the introduction to Shah’s book by Robert

Graves, who on p. xix, explains the play on words linking black with wise in

Arabic. Graves claims that the three black heads on the family shield of

Hugues de Payen are such a device with a dual meaning. 20 Oursel, Le Proces des Templiers, p. 208. 21Lobineau. H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 4, Ordre de Sion, gives a quote from p. 292 of the Livre des constitutions (of the Ordre de Sion) where the head is called CAPUT

LVIII ll~ Head 58 Virgo. 22This version is from Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, p. 305. 23Roger de Hoveden, Annals, vol. n pp. 248

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ff. For a detailed discussion of the Yse stories see Barber, M., Trial of the Templars, pp. 185 ff. He does not consider that the story has any relevance to the history of the Templars, suggesting it was a fragment of common folklore used as a weapon against the Order. 24Barber, M.” Trial of the Templars, p. 249. The list is abridged.

25Miche let Proces des Templiers, vol. II, p. 384, deposition of jean de

Chaumes. 26Schottmiiller, Der Untergang des Tempter-Ordens, vol. III, p. 67, deposition of Deodatus Jefet. 27Miche let Proces des Templiers, pp. 383 ff, deposition of Fink de Troyes. 28Jean de Joinville, Life of Saint Louis, p. 254. See also eh. 3, n. 15. 29Alban, Cartulaire general, p. 2 (Charter III, 1125) mentions a Templar named

Roberti who could possibly have been the Robert who became Grand Master after the death of Hugues de Payen. On p. 3 (Charter iv 1125) there is mention of Templars Henrico et Roberto. This then adds two names to Fink d’Anjou and Hugues de Champagne, making at least four recruits.

30Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens, vol. 15 (Epistolae Ivonis Carnotensis

Episcopi), p. 162, no. 245. 31”The mi lice du Christ, the evangelical soldiery in this letter is none other than the Order of the Temple. But in 1114 the Order of the Temple was not yet established.. .”

Arbois de Jubainville, Flistoire .. . de Champagne, vol. ti, pp. 113-14, n. 1. 32The school was founded by the famous medieval Rabbi, Rashi (1040-1105). 33 Allegro, Treasure of the Copper Scroll, pp. 107 ff. 34Arbois de Jubainville, Histoire .. . de Champagne, vol. ii, pp.

87 ff. 35 Ibid.” pp. 98 ff.” n. 1. 36Personal communication to Henry Lincoln by Abbe Mazieres. 37Arcons, Du Flux et reflux, pp. 355

ff. See also Catel, Memoires .. . du

Languedoc, book I, p. 51. 38Mazieres, “La Venue et lese jour des Templiers’, pp. 234 ff. 39Personal communication to Henry Lincoln by

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Abbe Mazieres. 4 Secret Documents

1 Descadeillas, Rennes et ses derniers seigneurs. 2See Descadeillas, “Mythologie’, and de Sede, Le Vrai Dossier. 3 Paoli, Les des sous p. 86. 4Le Monde (Feb. 21st, 1967), p.

11. Le Monde (Feb. 22nd, 1967), p. 11.

Paris-Jour (Feb. 21st, 1967), no. 2315, p. 4. 5Feugere, Saint-Maxent and Koker, Le Serpent rouge, p. 4.

5 The Order Behind the Scenes

1 Grousset, Histoire des croisades, vol. m, p. xiv. 2 Vogiie, Les Eglises, p. 326. 3 Vincent, Histoire de 1’anciene image, pp. 92 ff. 4

Rohricht. Regesta, p. 19, no. 83. 5 Ibid.” p. 25, no. 105. 6

Tilliere, Histoire .. . d’Orval, pp. 3 ff. 7Jean ting Les Chroniques, vol. 1, p.398. In Hagenmeyer’s Le Vrai et le faux sur Pierre 1”Hermite, it is claimed that before becoming a monk Peter was a minor noble, owning the fief of Acheres near Amiens and was a vassal of Eustache de Boulogne, Godfroi’s father. See pp. 58 ff. Hagenmeyer, however, does not accept that Peter was the tutor of Godfroi.