Books on the Rennes-le-Château Mystery
The following are books dealing with the Rennes-le-Château mystery.
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The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau
Gérard de Sède
This is the English translation from the French book by Gerard de Sède outlining the mystery of Rennnes - the first book, actually a novel, about so mysteries of Rennes-le-Château.
This is a tale of the ancient treasures of the Visigoths. The late nineteenth century priest of Rennes-le-Chateau, Berenger Sauniere supposedly uncovered this secret. According to the book he wants us to follow the clues he built into his domain as a legacy for the future.
Sauniere apparently discovered something in his hilltop village which enabled him to amass a fortune. Between 1891 and his death in 1917 Sauniere is alleged to have disposed of more than 1,500,000,000 old francs, valued in 1913 at £60m.
De Sède's theory has led to over 600 books and television documentaries on the subject, putting Rennes-le-Chateau alongside the UFOs and Yetis among the world's greatest unsolved mysteries.
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
Henry Lincoln read de Sède's book (see above) and made a programme for the Chronicle series on British TV. This sparked so much interest that he and two others wrote this book - The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
It immediately became a best seller and literally put Rennes-le-Château on the map (on tourist maps it enjoys a prominence usually reserved for world heritage sites like Carcassonne). It has also spawned a whole industry in writing books expounding increasingly bizarre and improbable theories (see below).
The book is cleverly written. You will find the first few chapters contain fairly reliable history, but the hypothesis developed does not withstand any real degree of scrutiny.
If you plan on reading any books about the Rennes-le-Château mystery, you should read this one first, as all others, including The Da Vinci Code, are derivatives.
Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail
Christopher Dawes
First a word of explanation: The name Rat Scabies belongs to someone who was an important figure in the Punk Rock world of the 1970's, alongside Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten. Aficionados of Punk will recognise him as the drummer from The Damned.
Rat is now really an ordinary sort of chap, except that he is something of an expert on the Rennes-le-Château mystery. This book gradually unfolds all the important strands of the story as the author joins Rat in his researches.
Despite the title, this is probably the most sane, informed and objective book on the subject that you are likely to find.
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown
This is essentially a rehash of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (see above), converted back into a novel (just like the original book by Gérard de Sède).
Oddly, Rennes-le-Château has been stripped out of the story, possibly to minimise the risk of accusations of plagiarism. In fact two of the three authors of The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail sued the publishers of The Da Vinci Code for plagiarism anyway. The case was heard in London in 2006, and the two authors Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, lost their case. Happily, sales of their book increased by 100% during the hearing. Coincidentally the two books shared the same publishers, Random House.
Cognoscenti can have fun spotting that Leigh Teabling is an anagram of the names Leigh and Baigent (the former a particularly easy anagram). More advanced readers can try to spot where the names Saunier and Bezu came from.
The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château
Henry Lincoln
In The Holy Place, Lincoln (author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail) discusses further surveys, decoding, and analysis of the area around Rennes-le-Château, claiming that this area in southwest France is the site of a vast megalithic holy place of enormous size and importance.
Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco
This is, as you would expect, a highly literate and informed book.
It parodies the Rennes-le-Château mystery, substituting the Knights Templar in the role of keepers of the secret. Eco plays with the idea that everything might be mysteriously related to everything else. Both in Eco's novel and in the plethora of books on Rennes-le-Château it is trivially easy to drag in religious sects, secret societies, the Holy Grail, historical figures, Templars, Cathars, the Kabbalah, troubadours, sacred geometry, space aliens, Uncle Tom Cobbly and the New World Order.
Rex Deus
Tim Wallace-Murphy
Utter bilge.
The Tomb of God
Richard Andrews
Complete drivel
The Sion Revelation, Inside the Shadowy World of Europe's Secret Masters
Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince
Not a book for newcomers to the Priory of Sion story, but a useful text for aficionados - and indispensable for conspiracy enthusiasts.
The first three quarters of the book retraces the chronology of the whole Rennes-le-Chateau business. It does this in a very even handedly and accurately, remaining objective throughout.
The final quarter of the book is dedicated to the revelation mentioned in the title - which is that the Priory is really just a flimsy front for a set of other secret societies dedicated to establishing a United States of Europe. Judge for yourself how strong the case is.
The Secret History of Christianity - How the Church has Exploited the Myth of Christ
Malcolm Brocklehurst
A useful introduction to the world of Rennes-le-Chateau and its many associated mysteries. This book covers inter alia Jewish, Christian and Gnostic scripture, the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, had a family and lived in France, the Ark of the Covenant, the Crusades, the Priory of Sion, Cathars, Templars and Hospitallers, The Copper Scroll, Rex Deus, alchemy, Rosslyn, Oak Island and Opus Dei.
Although some of the information is reliable - for example that the mainstream western Church has selected, edited, "interpreted" and suppressed ancient texts for its own ends - there are no footnotes and therefore no way to judge the reliability of most of the information given.
There is no central thesis and no conclusion. In fact, chapters of the book appear to be uncritical synopses of the books listed in the bibliography. Despite this, The Secret History of Christianity is still a good read for those unfamiliar with the world of RLC mysteries and conspiracies.
Masters of Deception - murder and intrigue in the world of occult politics
Guy Patton
This book covers various Rennes-le-Chateau treasure stories, concentrating on the sources of many possible caches of gold. It also covers the nature of and connections between a number of modern secret societies - generally unhealthy sounding right-wing esoteric groups. Connections between the Catholic Church and Nazi, Fascist and other far right organisations is well covered, as is some of the Catholic Church's more egregious recent criminal activities and its associated misuse of its diplomatic immunity.
The book is well written and the information interesting, although there is some repetition, and a willingness to accept questionable sources (Philippe de Cherisy was a known prankster who openly admitted helping Pierre Plantard to fabricate central elements of the Rennes-le-Chateau story)
There is no astonishishing central thesis but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The authors of too many books on this subject invent absurd new theories (such as that Jesus is buried under Mount Cardu, or that Bugarach is a huge intergalactic hangar for space aliens) patently in order to generate publicity. At least this book avoids that.
One small criticism is the footnotes. They are used to give additional background information and rarely to give references to primary sources which would have been much more useful.
Masters of Deception is a good read, but probably not for readers new to the world of RLC mysteries and conspiracies. If you have have already read a book or two on the subject and have an idea of the main threads of the story, then this one is for you.
No index but a good bibliography.
Rennes-le-Château in the Languedoc
Rennes-le-Château - castle and village
Rennes-le-Château and other Languedoc mysteries
Amazon Recommended Books on Rennes-le-Château and its mysteries