The Templars

[Aenlic]

I don't think that show with Tony Robinson was as conclusive as you think, Brutus. I watched it and what I got out of it was basically they went through the list of controversial statements of "fact" in the book and then set about asking Christian scholars and various people on the street to refute them. The only "fact" actually disproven is the one about the modern Priory of Sion, which is acknowledged as a hoax. But when it comes down to things like Mary being married to Jesus, the show relied upon Church officials basically saying "no, the Bible doesn't say that and the Bible is the definitive source" or things to that effect. In the case of Mary coming to southern France, they interviewed people there who agreed with the legend, but when asked if they thought Mary brought Jesus' offspring with her, it was all "no that would be heresy" and similar things. Frankly, interviewing the man on the street for his opinion does not constitute proving something wrong; nor does interviewing Church officials who conveniently seem to forget that their own church once held similar views, in the writings of Hippolytus and Origen. The arguments on the Da Vinci Code side are no less unsupported than the people who think "because God said so in the Bible" makes a decent statement of fact.

[Brutus]

I agree completely Aenlic, I was just happy to see a documentary in which the Da Vinci Code wasn't defended for a change. And as for proving the Priory of Sion false: most of the theories seem to stand or fall with that. Of course one cannot be conclusive (at least not in this way) if Mary Magdalen had children with Jesus, but this way there doesn't seem to be any real 'proof' that she did. Same for all the weird theories surrounding the Merovingians, the Templars, Leonardo da Vinci and the Sinclairs, methinks.

[Aenlic]

I agree completely Aenlic, I was just happy to see a documentary in which the Da Vinci Code wasn't defended for a change. And as for proving the Priory of Sion false: most of the theories seem to stand or fall with that. Of course one cannot be conclusive (at least not in this way) if Mary Magdalen had children with Jesus, but this way there doesn't seem to be any real 'proof' that she did. Same for all the weird theories surrounding the Merovingians, the Templars, Leonardo da Vinci and the Sinclairs, methinks.

Agreed. The whole modern Priory of Sion thing was a cleverly concocted fiction begun in the 1960's by Plantard and de Cherisey and de Sede. They got Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh to buy into it and off the story went. As hoaxes go, I'd put it right up there above even Piltdown Man; because there are still people that believe in the Priory!

The other stuff, which sadly got tied up in with the Priory will remain a mystery.

The Templars certainly did excavate under the Temple of Solomon. Their origins as 9 knights sworn to supposedly protect pilgrims in the holy land seems a little dubious. There is no evidence that they did any such thing; and 9 knights hardly seems sufficient for the task. And yet, they went from that to the largest and richest organization in the world in a relatively short span of time.

The Merovingians are just plain mysterious. A group of rulers who are said to refuse to have their long hair cut like Sampson and some of their symbolism is odd; but those times are mysterious for just about everything. They are called the Dark Ages for more than one reason!

I find it likely that Jesus was married to Mary. If he was a rabbi, then he would have been required to marry. The Gospels say he stated that the laws of the fathers must be followed, meaning Jewish law. The marriage at Cana seems to indicate the ceremony performed by a married couple in which newlyweds serve the guests. It was Jewish custom at the time. But the two people serving are Jesus and Mary. Odd, unless looked at as if they were the ones who were married. The early Church didn't seem to have a problem with the concept, at least as far as the Christian writers Hippolytus and Origen were concerned. Both are considered great fathers of the early Roman Church; and both wrote that the Song of Solomon was a prophecy of the marriage of Jesus and Mary. It wasn't until the Church began to suppress women in leadership roles as part of the fight against heresies such as Arianism and Manicheaism that Mary began to be villified as a prostitute and fallen sinner; reaching official status as such with the homilies of Pope Gregory the Great.

Sauniere certainly found something. And the practice of selling masses doesn't even come close to accounting for the vast sums of money he spent. The church he built in Rennes-le-Chateau is one of the oddest churches in the West. There are heretical images all over it, including an inscription over the door which is not exactly the thing one expects to find on a church. It is said he died penniless, but there are credible reports that when the France changed its currency to stamp out black marketeering some years after his death, Sauniere's supposed mistress and confidant Marie Denardaud was seen burning suitcases full of money in her garden. The currency was worthless unless exchanged at a bank; and that would have required answering questions about where such large sums had originated.

The Sinclairs and Rosslyn Chapel is another mystery. The place is just plain wall to wall symbolism, which might simply be explained by the Freemasons. and yet, that's rather early in the history of the Freemasons for all that symbology. It's as if they sprang fully mysterious out of nothing, replete with all their symbology intact.

Another mystery I came across recently is on the tiny island of Bornholm in the Baltic. It has lot of medieval churches on it. The odd thing about four of these churches is that they're built in the round Templar style between 1150 and 1200. At the time, as far as I know, only the Templars built in that style. And yet, there is no record of the Templars going that far north, or any surviving record of who, exactly, built those churches on Bornholm. Interesting stuff.

It's just a shame that the hoax of the Priory of Sion allows people to easily dismiss all the other interesting little mysteries. It gives the true believers an easy out on everything else.