Priory of Sion: Lobineau and Lénoncourt

The home-made stencil-kit genealogies found in the Priory of Sion documents relating to Dagobert II (dating from 1964 onwards) are ascribed to ‘Henri Lobineau’. A genealogy done with exactly the same type stencil-kit and bearing identical draughtsmanship can be found in Pierre Plantard, Gisors et son secret (1961).

1977: Jean Delaude, Le Cercle d’Ulysse – a Priory of Sion document revealing that the true name of ‘Henri Lobineau’ was ‘Henri de Lénoncourt’ (revealed by ‘Jean Randsar’ within the context of an imaginary conversion between five people: René Lasdeilcadès, Jacques Cheri, Maurice Gueno and Georges Tecot being the other four) – the whole episode being a prank, as the author of the document claims the conversation was tape recorded by the plumbers of the French magazine Le Canard Enchaîné – being the French equivalent of the British satirical Private Eye magazine. This is underpinned by the statement in the document: "Of course the reader realises that all these shady individuals are purely imaginary, that the names of people and events mentioned in this chapter bear no relation to people or facts existing or having existed". Jean Randsar added that ‘Henri de Lénoncourt’ was 83 years old at the time of the conversation. It was also added by René Lasdeilcadès that all of the ‘Lobineau’ genealogies were copies of works originally made by "abbé Pierre Plantard, vicar of the basilica of Saint Clothilde of Paris, published in March 1939."

The widow of the Comte de Chambord and her supporters formed a Merovingian movement "Le cercle du Lys", comprised of 350 members with its headquarters based at the rue de l’Amiral Mouchez in Paris (Amiral Mouchez was Amédée Ernest Barthélemy Mouchez (1821-1892), a real clue to the identity of the author of this document).

The document finishes with a quote from Nostradamus Eleventh Century, XI.4:

"Of a circle, of a lily, there will be born a very great Prince,

Very soon, and late come into his Province"

1978: Philippe de Chérisey produces his document L’Enigme de Rennes, stating that Henri de Lénoncourt lived in Rue Lobineau, located by St Sulpice (St Sulpice being the central part of the original Priory of Sion Bérenger Saunière mythology involving Philippe de Chérisey’s ‘parchments’). De Chérisey announced that he found out about Henri de Lénoncourt’s death on 30 June 1978, even providing a fake obituary.

Henri de Lénoncourt is presented as being buried in the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise, where Balzac was buried – and where the artist Eugène Delacroix was buried: the artist who executed the painting in St Sulpice Heliodorus Driven from the Temple – that Philippe de Chérisey referred to in his 1971 novel, Circuit. That would have been important to Philippe de Chérisey.

Here is everything that Philippe de Chérisey wrote about Henri de Lénoncourt in L’Enigme de Rennes.

1978: In the same year appeared Louis Vazart, Abrégé de L’Histoire des Francs: Les Gouvernants et rois de la France, archives de la bibliothèque de Saint-Hillier (Château du Lys), containing illustrations by ‘Henri de Lénoncourt’ with the following dedication: "A la mémoire de HENRI, comte de Lénoncourt dit Henri Lobineau, décédé le 29 mai 1978, dans sa 87e année, qui fut mon guide et sans lequel ces présents écrits n’existeraient pas". (23 décembre 1978, Louis Vazart)

The 1989 ‘renewed’ mythology of the Priory of Sion referred to the ‘archives’ of Monsieur de Saint-Hillier (who came from the Château du Lys), who was the ‘great uncle of Philippe de Chérisey’.

Postscript:

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, or Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream by Francesco Colonna (1499)

This book was translated into French by Cardinal Lénoncourt in 1546 and the first edition bears a dedication by Jean Martin (Cardinal Lénoncourt’s secretary) to Henry de Lenoncourt:

If this book really was the inspiration behind the usage of the name Henry de Lenoncourt within the Priory of Sion mythology, it would have been for the following three reasons:

* Henry de Lenoncourt was an aristocrat

* Although Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is anonymous, an acrostic formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT, "Brother Francesco Colonna dearly loved Polia." (from Wikipedia)

* Hypnerotomachia Poliphili presents a mysterious arcane allegory in which Poliphilo pursues his love Polia through a dreamlike landscape, and is at last reconciled with her by the Fountain of Venus (from Wikipedia).

Philippe de Chérisey would have been instantly attracted to all of these elements.