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When Pierre Plantard wrote his 1990 letter referring to the “tomb of Gnaius Pompey” he was re-enforcing his seperation from all his previous material (Henri Lobineau, Madeleine Blancassall, Philippe Toscan de Plantier, etc) whilst at the same time introducing Roman elements within a ‘renewed’ version of the Priory of Sion. Pierre Plantard must have been fed-up twice over – firstly when Gérard de Sède went off with all the royalties pertaining to L’Or de Rennes in 1967 (it was originally Plantard’s manuscript that de Sède had re-written); and secondly when the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail turned him into the direct lineal descendant of Jesus Christ in 1982. On the latter problem, Pierre Plantard wrote: “We are now able to officially state that the PRIORY OF SION has no direct or indirect connection with the ORDER OF THE TEMPLE, and that all this fantastic succession of Grand-Masters that authors such as Philippe TOSCAN, Mathieu PAOLI, Henry LINCOLN, Michael BAIGENT, Richard LEIGH, etc. have attributed to it derive merely from people’s imaginations and the realm of fantasy.” (Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22) Nevertheless, Plantard’s appearance on one of the BBC2 ‘Chronicle’ Rennes-le-Château “documentaries” presented by Henry Lincoln (In The Shadow of the Templars, 1979) inspired him to try and make his very own film on the subject matter entitled L’or du diable – unsuccessfully seeking out Roger Hanin to play the leading role of Bérenger Saunière (Le Point, 17 December 1993). His troubles with Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre put an end to all those dreams. Plantard made a point of introducing Roman elements into his ‘renewed’ Priory of Sion of the 1990s – an article by "Jacques d'Arthuys" (name of a film director) stated: “The ARCH was the origin of the foundation of the PRIORY of SION and in our own times represents its pinnacle. It is composed of 13 members. The ROSE+CROIX meets in the round temple of the Roc Noir which, according to legend, was formerly a temple of MITHRAS. It has the shape of a semicircle of 12 toises 15 [a toise is obsolete unit of measurement; 1 toise = 1.949 metres] having 13 seats of stone. Each seat is engraved with a letter, namely: AB URBE CONDITA.” (Paris, 21 May 1989, Le Cercle - Rennes-le-Château et le Prieuré de Sion; Vaincre, 1992, page 57). ‘Ab Urbe Condita’ is Latin for “from the founding of the City (Rome)”, traditionally set in 753 BC. Plantard’s Circular dated 4 April 1989 stated: “Our TREASURE, that of the PRIORY OF SION, is the SECRET of the BLACK ROCK” – and the article ‘The Dubosc Affair’ by “M. Sangui” further stated how during the 1780s efforts were made to “establish a communicating ‘way’ between the old underground passages of the former Celtic sanctuary known as the TEMPLE ROND (Round Temple) on the Roc Noir” (Vaincre No 3, September 1989, page 19). The key to the Roman Elements found in the ‘renewed’ 1990s version of the Priory of Sion lies in the person of Otto von Habsburg, whom Plantard held in great esteem for he bestowed upon the Titular King of Jerusalem the honour of being the direct lineal descendant of ‘Sigisbert IV’, the ‘surviving son’ of Dagobert II (in his article, The Merovingian Myth; Vaincre No 1, April 1990). Otto von Habsburg was President of the International Paneuropean Union between 1986 and 2004. The Habsburgs were once Holy Roman Emperors and Plantard was of course a lifelong supporter of Traditionalist Roman Catholicism. |
