Three words are responsible for the creation of “The Grand Parchment”:

Philippe de Chérisey

It does not matter what people say about the alleged system of “decipherment” because it is all ultimately bogus anyway.

What does the original 1781 epitaph on the gravestone of Marie Nègre d'Ables de Blanchefort have anything to do with a parchment that dates from at least 1965? Anyone can use the epitaph of any tombstone dating from centuries ago to construct a code that can be only 5 minutes old.

“The Grand Parchment” cannot be traced beyond 1965 and the story of the “parchments being found in the pillar in 1891” as originally claimed by Noël Corbu was definitively discredited by René Descadeillas in his study, “Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes: Histoire Veritable de L'Abbé Saunière Curé de Rennes-le-Château” (Mémoires de la Société des Arts et Sciences de Carcassonne, 4ème série, tome VII, 2ème partie, Carcassonne, 1974). The replacement of the Main Pillar for the church of St Mary Magdalene that held up its Main Altar in Rennes-le-Château was donated by the rich widow Madame Marie Cavailhé, from Coursan; on 27 July 1887.

Again – it has to be repeated that we possess testimony in the form of correspondence between Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey, which cannot be published because it would violate French Privacy Law – and that the parchments were created because of the popularity of books about the Dead Sea Scrolls during the 1960s. The correspondence has been independently confirmed by witnesses involved in the making of Rennes-le-Château documentaries – and the correspondence was originally in the possession of Colette Ladsous following the death of her common-law husband, Philippe de Chérisey. The original copy of the “Grand Parchment” was given by Pierre Plantard to Jean-Luc Chaumeil whilst he was working on his book “Le Trésor du Triangle d'Or” (Éditions Alain Lefeuvre, 1979). Plantard was hoping that Chaumeil would use it in his book as a means of further criticising Gérard de Sède. This information has been around for a few decades and it is systematically (and shamefully) ignored by the Believers, for obvious reasons.

The story of the “decipherment” is not always that accurate anyway – for example the “solvers of the code” never mention the small letters in the “Grand Parchment” that spell out the words “Rex Mundi” – nor do they mention the stand-out word written backwards for SION: NOIS.

The following video on YouTube by Philippe Duquesnois does not validate authenticity.

The book devoted to the authenticity by Philippe Duquesnois, does not validate authenticity: “J'irai cacher sur vos tombes (Variations sur le Grand Parchemin)” (Independently Published, 2025)

Philippe de Chérisey may have died in 1985 and Pierre Plantard in 2000 – but the Priory of Sion continues to live on as the “The Grand Parchment”.