Popes & the Vatican, Church History, Bible Study, Criticism & Interpretation, History, France, Women in History, Christianity, General 

n The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln posit the existence of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, which is supposed to have a long history starting in 1099 and had illustrious Grand Masters including Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. According to the authors' claims, the Priory of Sion is devoted to installing the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks from 457 to 751, on the thrones of France and the rest of Europe. It is also said to have created the Knights Templar as its military arm and financial branch.[12]

The authors re-interpreted the Dossiers Secrets "in the light of their own Biblical obsessions."[13] Contrary to Plantard's initial Franco-Israelist claim that the Merovingians were only descended from the Tribe of Benjamin,[14] they asserted that the Priory of Sion protects Merovingian dynasts because they are the lineal descendants of the historical Jesus and his alleged wife, Mary Magdalene, traced further back to King David. According to them, the legendary Holy Grail is simultaneously the womb of saint Mary Magdalene and the sacred royal bloodline she gave birth to, and the Church tried to kill off all remnants of this bloodline and their supposed guardians, the Cathars and the Templars, in order for popes to hold the episcopal throne through the apostolic succession of Peter without fear of it ever being usurped by an antipope from the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene.

The authors therefore concluded that the modern goals of the Priory of Sion are:

the public revelation of the tomb and shrine of Sigebert IV as well as the lost treasure of the Temple in Jerusalem, which supposedly contains genealogical records that prove the Merovingian dynasty was of the Davidic line, to facilitate Merovingian restoration in France;
the re-institutionalization of chivalry and the promotion of pan-European nationalism;
the establishment of a theocratic "United States of Europe": a Holy European Empire politically and religiously unified through the imperial cult of a Merovingian Great Monarch who occupies both the throne of Europe and the Holy See; and
the actual governance of Europe residing with the Priory of Sion through a one-party European Parliament.

The authors also incorporated the antisemitic and anti-Masonic tract known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion into their story, concluding that it was actually based on the master plan of the Priory of Sion. They presented it as the most persuasive piece of evidence for the existence and activities of the Priory of Sion by arguing that the original text on which the published version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was based had nothing to do with Judaism or an "international Jewish conspiracy", as it issued from a Masonic body practicing the Scottish Rite which incorporated the word "Zion" in its name. Per Baigent et al, the text was not intended to be released publicly, but was a program for gaining control of Freemasonry as part of a strategy to infiltrate and reorganise church and state according to esoteric Christian principles. After a failed attempt to gain influence in the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Sergei Nilus was supposed to have changed the original text to forge an inflammatory tract in 1903 in order to discredit the esoteric clique around Papus by implying they were Judaeo-Masonic conspirators, but he ignored some esoteric Christian elements, which hence remained unchanged in the published antisemitic canard. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PART ONE- The Mystery
1. Village of Mystery...............................................................................P. 31
Rennes-le-Chateau and Berenger Sauniere.........................................P. 31
The Possible Treasures.....................................................................P. 39
The Intrigue...................................................................................P. 43
2. The Cathars and the Great Heresy........................................................P. 48
The Albigensian Crusade.................................................................P. 49
The Siege of Montsegur.................................................................. P. 55
The Cathar Treasure.......................................................................P. 57
The Mystery of the Cathars..............................................................P. 61

3. The Warrior-Monks.............................................................................P. 64
Knights Templar- The Orthodox Account...........................................P. 65
Knights Templar-The Mysteries....................................................... P. 78
Knights Templar- The Hidden Side...................................................P. 86

4. Secret Documents..............................................................................P. 96

PART TWO- The Secret Society
5. The Order Behind the Scenes..............................................................P. 111
The Mystery Surrounding the Foundation of the Kingdom Templar.......P. 115
Louis VII and the Prieure de Sion....................................................P. 118
The "Cutting of the Elm" at Gisors Ormus.........................................P. 121
The Prieure at Orleans...................................................................P. 125
The "Head"of the Templars.............................................................P. 127
6. The Grand Masters and the Underground Stream ..................................P. 131
Rene d'Anjou...............................................................................P. 136
Rene and the Theme of Arcadia……………………………………………………………..p 138
The Rosicrucian Manifestos……………………………………………………………….…...p 141
The Stuart Dynasty……………………….………………………………………………………..p 145
Charles Nodior and his Circle…………………………………………………………….……p 150
Debussy and the Rose Croix……………………………………………………….………….p 157
Jean Cocteau…………………………………………………………………………………………..p 157
The two john xxIIIs………………………………………………………………………….…….p 159
7. Conspiracy through the Centuries…………......………………………………………………p 162
The prieure de Sion in France…………………………………………………………………p 164
The duke of Guise and Lorraine……………………………….…………………………….p 166
The Bid for the Throne of France……………………………………………………………p 171
The Compagnie du Saint Sacrement………………………………………………………p 173
Chateau Barberic………………………………………………………………………………………p 177
Nicolas Fouquet…………………………………………………………………………………………p 178
Nicolas Poussin………………………………………………………………………………………...p 180
Rosslyn Chapel and Shugborough Hall……………………………………………….……p 183
The Pope’s Secret Letter…………………………………………………………………………..p 184
The Rock of Sion………………………………………………………………………………………..p 185
The Catholic Modernist Movement……………………………………………………....….p 187
The Protocols of Sion…………………………………………………………………………….…..p 190
The Hieron du Val d’Or……………………………………………………………………………….p 195
8. The Secret Society Today………………………………………………………………..........…….p 201
Alain Poher……………………………………………………………………………………………..p 204
The Lost King…………………………………………………………………………………………...p 205
Curious Pamphiets in the Bibliotheque Nationale,Paris……………………………p 207
The Catholic Traditionalist………………………………………………………………………..p 210
The convent of 1981 and Cocteau’s Statutes……………………………………………p 214
M. Plantard de Saint Clair………………………………………………………………………….p 220
The Politics of the Prieure de Sion…………………………………………………………….p 227
9. The Long-haired Monarchs…………..........……………………………………………………….p 234
Legend and the Merovingians………………......…………………………………………….p 234
The bear from Arcadia…………………………………..........………………………………..p 237
The Sicambrains Enter Gaul……………………………..…….........……………………..p 239
Merovee and hIs Descendant…………………………………………..........…………..p 239
Blood Royal………………………………………………………………………………..............p 241
Clovis and his pact with the church…………………….....…………………………….p 242
Dagobert II…………………..………………………....………………...........……………….p 245
The Usurpation by the Carolingians………….…………………………...........……p 253
The Exclusion of Dagobert II from History…………………………………………….p 257
Prince Guillem de Gellone, comte de Raze…………………...........…………….p 259
Prince Ursus……………………………………………………………………………..........……p 261
The Grail Family……………………………………………………………………………………..p 265
The Elusive Mystery………………………………………………………………………………..p 269
10. The Exiled Tribe………………………………………………………..............……………………p 271
PART THREE THE BLOODLINE
11. The Holy Grail………………………………………................…………………………………….p 283
The Legend of the Holy Grail…………………......…………………………………………p 285
The Story of Wolfram von Eschenbach………………………………......……………p 292
The Grail and Cabalism…………….......………………………………………………………p 303
The Play on Words………………………………….......………………………………………..p 305
The Last King and the Grail…………………………….....………………………………….p 306
The Need to Synthesize………………………………………......…………………………….p 309
The Hypothesis…………………………………………………………….......……………………p 313
12. The Priest King Who Never Ruled……………...............………………………………….p 316
Palestine at the time of Jesus……………….......…………………………………………..p 322
The History of the Gospels………………………………….......……………………………..p 327
The marital status of Jesus………………………………………………......………………..p 330
The wife of Jesus………………………………………………………………….......…………….p 333
The Beloved Disciple……………………………………………………………........……………p 338
The Dynasty of Jesus………………………………………………………….......………………p 344
The Crucifixion…………………………………………………………………...........…………….p 347
Who Was Barabbas?........................................................................p 350
The Crucifixion of Detail……………………………………...........……………………………p 352
The Scenario………………………………………………………............………………………….p 357
13. The Secret the Church Forbade…………………………...................…………………….p 360
The Zealots……………………………………………………………............………………………p 369
The Gnostic Writings………………………………………………............…………………….p 378
14. The Grail Dynasty………………...................…………………………………………………….p 383
Judaism and Menovingians………………..........…………………………………………….p 387
The Principality in Septimania…………..........……………………………………………..p 389
The Seed of David………………………………………..........…………………………………..p 395
15. Conclusion and portents for the Future……………………..................……………….p 398