Behind the Knights Templar lurked one of the most mysterious secret societies of all: the little-known Priory of Sion, another group obsessed not only with, politics but with unorthodox religious views.
THE PRIORY OF S I O N If the claims of several recent authors are correct, the Prieure de Sion or Priory of Sion, may be one of the oldest and most powerful secret societies in history. It reportedly was the moving force behind the creation of the mighty Knights Templar and records show that past Priory leadership involved such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Fludd, Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo and artist Jean Cocteau. It lists twenty-six past grand masters going back through seven hundred years of history. Yet the public had no knowledge of this group until mid-twentieth century, which has fueled charges that the whole issue is a hoax. It was in the mid-1950s that the public—mostly in France—first learned of the Priory, which means a religious house, something like an abbey. Scattered newspaper and magazine articles beginning in 1956 spoke of a "mystery" surrounding the small Languedoc town of Rennes-leChateau. At first this story appeared little different from other stories of local hidden treasure found almost anywhere. But, as the years passed and more information came to light, the story of the Priory took on much greater significance. The "mystery" of Rennes-le-Chateau involved a Catholic priest named Francois Berenger Sauniere, who was assigned to the town's parish in 1885. Young and well-educated, Sauniere was given this backwater assignment after apparently evoking the ire of some superior. Yet, the thirty-three-year-old priest decided to make the best of it. Sauniere, working closely with an eighteen-year-old housekeeper named Marie Denarnaud, cared for his parish and still found time to hunt and fish. "He read voraciously, perfected his Latin, learned Creek [and] embarked on the study of Hebrew," noted authors Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln. He also decided to restore the town church, which had been consecrated to Mary Magdalene in 1059 and stood on Visigoth ruins dating to the sixth century.