Holy Blood, Holy Grail (71 page)

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Triangle d’or, pp. 80 ff. and illustrations of coins discovered on the site. 17These are examples of the factors which have led subsequent authors to regard Fouquet as being the likely candidate for the Man in the Iron Mask.

Much persuasive evidence exists to support the assertion. 18 Blunt, Poussin, vol. I, p. 170. 19This painting is illustrated in Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, facing p. 134. It is in the possession of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch

Chapter of Scotland, Edinburgh. 20 Delaude, Cercle d’Ulysse, p. 3.

21Gout, Mont-Saint-Michel, pp. 141 ff. Robert de Torigny, Abbe 1154-86, wrote some 140 volumes during his life, a large number of which were dedicated to the history of the region. During his rule the number of monks at the abbey doubled and it became a “sanctuary of science’. He was a close friend of both Henry II and Becket and, given their close association with the Prieure de Sion, the Templars and Gisors, it would be surprising if Robert were not also au fait with them. If the Plantard family did indeed use the motto as suggested, one would expect Robert to have recorded it, since the Plantard family not only seem to have been resident in Brittany at the time, but jean VI des Plantard in 1156 (according to Henri Lobineau) married Idoine de

Gisors, the sister of Jean de Gisors, Ninth Grand Master of the Ordre de

Sion, founder of the Ordre de la Rose-Croix. History records Idoine, but not her husband which does not allow us to find which title the Plantard family were using in the twelfth century.

We were not able to find any mention of the Plantard family, nor any trace of Robert’s genealogical surveys. His manuscripts have been scattered but lists of them exist, though none of them includes obviously genealogical material. We were later told that the relevant manuscript was in the “private’ archives of Saint Sulpice, Paris. Hardly a satisfactory ending to this line of investigation. 22Myriam, “Los Bergers d’Arcadie’, in Le Charivari, no. 18, pp. 49 ff. 23 Thory, Acta Latomorum, vo1.2, pp. 15 ff.

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Gould, History of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 383. 24 Erdeswick, A Survey of Staffordshire, p. 189. 25Peyrefitte, “La Lettre Secrete’, pp. 197 ff. The letter in question was attached to a Bull of Excommunication issued by the pope on April 28th, 1738. 26The Oriental Rite of Memphis first appeared in 1838, when Jacques Etienne Marconis de Negre established the Grand Lodge Osiris in Brussels. The underlying legend of the Rite was that it descended from the Dionysian and

Egyptian mysteries. The sage Ormus is said to have combined the mysteries with Christianity to produce the original Rose-Croix. The Oriental Rite of

Memphis was a system of ninety-seven degrees, producing such august titles as Commander of the Luminous Triangle, Sublime Prince of the Royal Mystery,

Sublime Pastor of the Hutz, Doctor of the Planispheres, and so on.

See

Waite, New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, pp. 241 ff. The Rite was eventually reduced’ to thirty-three degrees, calling itself the Ancient and

Primitive Rite. It was taken to the United States circa 1854-6 by H.

J. Seymour, and to England in 1872 by John Yarker. It was later associated with the Ordo Templi Orientis. The magazine of the Rite of Memphis, the

Oriflamme, advertised the O. T. O. in its issues. In 1875 the Rite was amalgamated with the Rite of Misraim. In History of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry (London, 1875) the Rite of Memphis is said to derive from that of the Philadelphians of Narbonne, established in 1779. 27See also Genesis 28:18, where Jacob anoints a stone pillar.

28Pitois, as librarian to the Ministry of Public Education, was given the task of sorting through all the books from the monasteries and provincial libraries brought to Paris. He and Charles Nodier pored over them, and claimed to have made interesting discoveries daily. 29

jean-Baptiste Hogan. 30It is quite possible that the doctrine of papal infallibility, formally stated for the first time on July 18th, 1870, was part of the Roman Catholic church’s reaction to Modernist tendencies, as well as to Darwinian thought and the increasing

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continental power of Lutheran Prussia. 31 Iremonger, William Temple, p. 490. 32A short biography of Hoffet is given in Descadeillas, Mythologie, pp. 85 ff.

Hoffet was born at Schiltigheim, Alsace on May 11th, 1873. In 1884 he began his studies in Paris at the Maitrise de Montmartre, later continuing them at the Petit Seminaire de Notre-Dame de Sion, where he prepared to enter the

Church. He began his novitiate at Saint-Gerlach in Holland and entered the religious Order of Oblats de Marie in 1892. At Liege he was ordained as spriest in 1898. He worked then as a missionary, firstly in Corsica then back in France. In 1903-4 he was in Rome. He returned to Paris to live in 1914, and died there in March 1946. He wrote prolifically, particularly for specialist magazines on religious history. He was a linguist, fluent in

Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit. De Sede, Le Vrai Dossier, pp. 33 ff.”

reports that Descadeillas, while publicly disparaging any idea of a

“mystery’ at

Rennes, nevertheless in 1966 wrote to the authorities of the Oblats de Marie to ask whether there was any proof that Hoffet ever preached in Rennes-leChateau. De Sede reports that the archivist of Hoffet’s Order wrote, “Hoffet is the author of some very interesting studies on Freemasonry, of which he had made a particular study, and I have unearthed a number of his manuscripts .. . I have ordered that the particularly interesting documents be placed in security.” See also Chaumeil, Triangle d’or, pp. 106 ff. 33Pa pus was born in Spain on July 13th, 1865. In 1887 he joined the

Theosophical Association but in 1888 left to found his own group on Martinist principles. In the same year he was one of the founding members of the Ordre Kabbalistic de la Rose-Croix, along with Peladan and Stanislas de

Guaita. In 1889, together with these two and Villiers de 1”Isle-Adam he founded the review L’Initiation. In 1891 a “supreme council’ of the

Martinist Order was formed in Paris with Papus as Grand Master. At about this time Papus helped Doinel found the Gnostic Catholic Church.

In 1895

Doinel withdrew, leaving the church in the care of Papus and two others, under the jurisdiction of a patriarch. Doinel then went to Carcassonne. This same year Papus became a member of the Order of the

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Golden Dawn, in the Paris lodge Ahathoor. During the 1890s Papus was a friend of Emma Calve. In 1899 one of his close friends, Philippe de Lyon, went to Russia and established a Martinist lodge at the imperial court. In 1900 Papus himself went to St. Petersburg, where he became a confidant of the czar and czarina. He visited Russia on at least three occasions, the last being in 1906. During this time he made the acquaintance of Rasputin.

Papus later became Grand Master in France of the Ordo Templi Orientis and the lodge of Memphis and Misraim. He died on October 25th, 1916.

34Nil us Protocols. This work had, by the 1960s, been through some eighty-three editions which would tend to suggest that anti-Semitism is rife in Great Britain. The publishing company, Britons Publishing (now part of

Augustine Publishing, a Catholic traditionalist press) also had such titles as Jews’ Ritual Slaughter (price 3d), Jews and the White Slave Traffic (price 2d). 35For the history of the Protocols see Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, and

Bernstein, Truth about “The Protocols’, which reproduces in full translations of the various suggested sources for the Protocols. The standard anti- Semitic history is detailed in Fry, Waters Flowing Eastward.

This is a controversial document by any standards. It gives, amongst other things, a photograph “proving’ that Czar Nicolas II was killed in ritual murder by a Jewish Cabalist!

To see this type of il literature still being published in 1965 is somewhat disconcerting. 36

Nilus, Protocols, no. 13. 37 Lodge of Memphis and Misraim. See n. 33.

38Nil us Protocols, no. 24. This statement does not appear in some earlier editions of the Protocols. 39 Nilus, Protocols, no. 24. 40

Blancasall, Les Descendants, p. 6. 41See the preface by Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair in the 1978 Belfond reprint of Boudet, La Vraie Longue celtique. 42 Chaumeil, Triangle d’or, p. 136. 43 See Rosnay, Le

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Hieron du Val d’Or. 44 Chaumeil, Triangle d’or, pp. 139 ff. 8 The Secret Society Today

1Philippe de Cherisey, an associate of Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, has written an allegorical “novel’ called Circuit. The subject matter ranges from Atlantis to Napoleon. It has twenty-two chapters, each taking its title from one of the Tarot major trumps. It exists in a single example at the

Versailles annexe of the Bibliotheque Nationals, Paris. Part involves the story of two symbolic personages, Chariot and Madeleine, who find a treasure at Rennes-leChateau.

See Chaumeil, Triangle d’or, pp. 141 ff. for this extract. ZPrieure de Sion: Statutes, Articles xi and xn.

Received by the

Sous-Prefecture, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, May 7th, 1956. File number KM 94550. 3

Midi Libre (Feb. 13th, 1973), p. 5. 4Myriam, “Les Bergers d’Arcadie’, Le Charivari, no. 18, pp. 49 ff. 5 Contained in Henri Lobineau, Dossiers secrets, p. 1. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8Roux, S.”

L’Affaire de Rennes-leChateau. In another part of the Dossiers secrets, a page written by one Edmond Albe, S. Roux is identified as the

Abbe Georges de Nantes. In his book Mathieu Paoli claims (Les Dessous, p. 82) the same identification. Georges de Nantes is the head of the

“Catholic

Counter Reformation in the XXth Century’, and also author of the sustained attack on Pope Paul VI, Liber Accusationis in Paulum Sextum.

In this he accuses Pope Paul of being an heretic. He would seem in fact to be in much the same camp as M. Lefebvre. Intrigued that this identification appeared to be uncontested, we wrote to Abbe Georges de Nantes, giving him the quote from Paoli’s book, requesting comments, and asking whether he would confirm or deny M. Paoli’s assertion. The Abbe de Nantes wrote back, saying that he gets asked from time to time for explanations concerning this text and he could only repeat that he has nothing to do with S. Roux. Moreover, he added, “Such a text is a

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true tissue of absurdities. How could you take it seriously?” 9

Roux, L’Af faire de Rennes-le-C:hfiteau, p. 1. 10 Ibid.” p. 2. 11

Ibid. 12 Delaude, Cercle d’Ulysse, p. 6 (v ). 13 Guardian (London, Sept. 11th, 1976), p. 13. 14Mgr Brunon, who replaced Lefebvre as bishop of Tulle, said that in his opinion Lefebvre was being manipulated by others. See the Guardian (London,

Sept. 1st, 1976), p.4. Gianfranco Svidercoschi, described by The Times as being “an experienced and usually well informed Vatican correspondent’, declared the Pope to be aware that “Mgr Lefebvre was being conditioned surreptitiously by other people’. See The Times (London, Aug. 31st, 1976), p. 12. 15Guardian (Aug. 30th, 1976), p.

16. Intrigued by this, we wrote to Father

Peter Morgan, asking him if he would clarify this matter. Father Morgan did not reply.

16We have a copy only of the article, with no source acknowledged, so there is no way of determining which magazine. 17Our latest information is that they are now back in France. 18 Le Charivari, no. 18, pp. 56 ff. 19The old statutes were registered with the Sub Prefecture on May 7th, 1956.

According to the second issue of Circuit dated June 3rd, 1956, a meeting was held that week to discuss statutes. The statutes bearing Cocteau’s signature are dated June 5th, 1956. 20 Bonne Soiree, no.

3053 (Aug. 14th, 1980), p. 14. 21We have, during the writing of this book, consulted a large number of works dealing with the genealogies of noble families, both ancient and contemporary. We have never found a single reference to the title Plantard de Saint-Clair. However, this failure to find his name doesn’t invalidate the claim, especially since he admits it to have been clandestine for centuries. 22 Le Charivari, no. 18, p. 60, Gisors et son secret. 23M. de Sede’s major work, Les Templiers sont par mi nous, contains a section at the back entitled,

“Point de vue dun esotericiste’. This section consists of a lengthy interview with Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair in which de Sede not only

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poses a multitude of questions but also acknowledges Plantard as a seemingly definitive authority. M. Plantard also seems to have been involved in de Sede’s book on Rennes-leChateau. During the making of the film The Lost Treasure of

Jerusalem? for the BBC, we received from de Sede’s publishers a mass of visual material which had been used in the book. All the photographs were stamped “Plantard’ on the reverse. This would suggest that this material had presumably been in Plantard’s possession and he had entrusted it to de

Sede. 24 Le Charivari, no. 18, p. 55. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid.” p. 53.

27We received from M. Plantard a photocopy of a legally certified deposition by a named member of the Legion d’Honneur and officer in the French

Resistance during the Second World War. It states that Pierre Plantard clandestinely produced the resistance journal Vaincre from 1941. It furthermore states that M. Plantard was imprisoned by the Gestapo at Fresnes from October 1943 until February 1944. This deposition is stamped and dated

May 11th, 1953.

Checking this did not prove to be a straightforward task. Firstly there were many journals named Vaincre published by various resistance groups during the war. However, the magazine involved would seem to be the

Vaincre issued by the Comite Local du Front National de Lutte pour 1”In dependance de la France, a copy of which is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, dated April 1943. It was produced in Saint-Cloud, Paris.

We wrote to the historical service of the French Army asking for details on the resistance activities of M. Plantard. We received a letter from the French Ministry of Defence informing us that this information was personal and confidential. 28See Vazart, Abrege de 1’histoire des Francs, pp. 271, 272, nn. 1 and 2. The latter note contains the text of the letter from General de Gaulle. 29This information came from jean-Luc Chaumeil, in conversation with him. We sought to check on M. Paoli, beginning with Swiss television, as we