Priory of Sion

For other uses of the word "Sion", see Sion.

File:Prieure de sion-logo.svg

The emblem of the Priory of Sion is based on the fleur-de-lis, which was a symbol particularly associated with the French monarchy.

The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French to English as Priory of Sion (or "Priory of Zion"), is a name that refers to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to a marginal French fraternal organization founded and dissolved in 1956. However, it has come to refer to a mythical secret society plotting to restore the Merovingian dynasty to the thrones of Europe and Jerusalem since the Middle Ages, which was speculated about in, and popularized by, the 1982 controversial non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and later claimed as factual in the preface of the 2003 conspiracy fiction novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code.

Although it came to be believed by many to be the most influential cabal in Western history, the mythical Priory of Sion has been exposed as a ludibrium started in 1961 by Pierre Plantard, a false pretender to the French throne. The evidence presented in support of its historical existence and role prior to 1956 was discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his accomplices. Nevertheless, many conspiracy theorists persist in believing that the Priory of Sion is a 1000-years-old secret society which conceals a subversive secret.

Despite the exhaustive debunking of the Priory of Sion as one the great hoaxes of the 20th century by journalists and scholars, some skeptics have expressed concern that the proliferation and popularity of books, websites and films inspired by this hoax have contributed to the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, pseudohistory, superstition and other confusions but also of the romantic reactionary ideology promoted in these works.

Priory of Sion history

The Priory of Sion was a fraternal organization that was founded in 1956 in the French town of Annemasse. As with all associations, French law required that the association be registered with the government. It was registered with its statutes at the subprefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois on May 7, 1956, and its registration was noted on July 20, 1956, in the Journal Officiel de la République Française. The founders and signatories inscribed with their pseudonyms were Pierre Plantard (also known as "Chyren"), André Bonhomme (also known as "Stanis Bellas"), Jean Delaval, and Armand Defago. In practice, the prime mover of the association was Pierre Plantard, its Secretary General, although its nominal head or President was André Bonhomme. Indeed, the offices of the Priory of Sion and its journal were at Plantard's apartment. The choice of the name "Sion" was based on a popular local feature, a hill south of Annemasse in France, known as Mont Sion, where the founders intended to establish a retreat center. The accompanying title to the name was "Chevalerie d'Institutions et Règles Catholiques d'Union Independante et Traditionaliste": this subtitle forms the acronym CIRCUIT and translates in English as "Knighthood of Catholic Rule and Institution and of Independent Traditionalist Union".

The purpose of the Priory of Sion according to its statutes was entered as "studies and mutual aid of the members". There is ample evidence that it had several members, as indicated by the numerous articles contained in its journal Circuit, written by a number of different people. The articles of the association as indicated in its statutes formalized the goal of creating a Traditionalist Catholic chivalric order. Article VII says that its members are expected, "to carry out good deeds, to help the Roman Catholic Church, teach the truth, defend the weak and the oppressed". Towards the end of 1956 the association had aims to forge links with the local Catholic Church of the area involving a school bus service run by both the Priory of Sion and the church of Saint-Joseph in Annemasse.

However, the bulk of the activities of the Priory of Sion bore no resemblance whatsoever to the objectives as outlined in its statutes. The first issue of its journal, Circuit, is dated May 27, 1956, and, in total, twelve issues of the journal appeared. It was indicated as a "news bulletin for the defence of the rights and the freedom of public housing" rather than for the promotion of chivalry-inspired charitable work. Some of the articles took a political position in the local council elections. Others criticized and even attacked real-estate developers of Annemasse. Considering the political instability of the French Fourth Republic, the objectives of the journal were regarded with suspicion by the local authorities.

The formally registered association was dissolved sometime after October 1956 but intermittently revived for different reasons by Plantard between 1961 and 1993, though in name and on paper only. The Priory of Sion is considered "dormant" by the subprefecture because it has indicated no activities since 1956. According to French law, subsequent references to the Priory bear no legal relation to that of 1956 and no one, other than the original signatories, is entitled to use its name in an official capacity. André Bonhomme played no part since 1956. He officially resigned in 1973 when he heard that Plantard was linking his name with the association so, as of last report, there is no one who is currently around who has official permission to use the name.

Priory of Sion myth

The Plantard Plot

In order to build a cult of personality and cult of intelligence around himself in esoteric circles, Pierre Plantard set out to have the Priory of Sion perceived as an aristocratic, Hermetic, Christian, chivalric order, which was the source of the "underground river" of esotericism in Europe since the Middle Ages, and now is dedicated to the installment of the "Great King", prophesied by Nostradamus, on the throne of France.

Between 1961 and 1984, Plantard contrived a mythical pedigree for the Priory of Sion claiming that it was the offshoot of a Roman Catholic religious order housed in the Abbey of Sion, which had been founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade in 1099 and later absorbed by the Jesuits in 1617. The mistake is often made that this Abbey of Sion was a "Priory of Sion", but there is a difference between an abbey and a priory. Calling his original 1956 group "Priory of Sion" presumably gave Plantard the later idea to claim that his organization had been historically founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades.

The tomb inscribed with the cryptic phrase "Et in Arcadia ego" in Nicolas Poussin's late 1630s painting Arcadian Shepherds was appropriated for Priory of Sion myth-making.

Furthermore, Plantard was inspired by a 1960 magazine Les Cahiers de l'Histoire to center his personal genealogical claims, as found in his Priory of Sion documents, around the Merovingian king Dagobert II. He also adopted "Et in Arcadia ego ...", a slightly altered version of a Latin phrase that most famously appears as the title of two paintings by Nicolas Poussin, as the motto of both his family and the Priory of Sion, because the tomb which appears in these paintings resembled one in the Les Pontils area near Rennes-le-Château. This tomb would become a symbol for his dynastic claims as the last devise of the Merovingian dynasty on the territory of Razès left to remind initiates that the "lost king", Dagobert II, would figuratively come back in the form of a hereditary pretender.

In order to give credibility to the fabricated lineage and pedigree, Plantard and his friend, Philippe de Chérisey, needed to create "independent evidence." So during the 1960s, they deposited a series of false documents, the so-called Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau ("Secret Files of Henri Lobineau"), at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Paris. Also in the 1960s, Plantard began writing a manuscript and had a series of "medieval parchments" forged by de Chérisey which contained encrypted messages that referred to the Priory of Sion. They adapted and used to their advantage, the earlier claims put forward by Nöel Corbu that a Catholic priest named Bérenger Saunière had supposedly discovered these seemingly ancient parchments inside of a pillar while renovating his church in Rennes-le-Château in 1891. Inspired by the popularity of the stories in France surrounding the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, they hoped this same theme would attract attention to their parchments. Their version of the parchments was intended to prove Plantard's claims about the Priory of Sion being a medieval society.

Plantard then enlisted the aid of author Gérard de Sède to write a book based on his unpublished manuscript and forged parchments, alleging that Saunière had discovered a link to a hidden treasure. The 1967 books L'Or de Rennes ("The Gold of Rennes") and Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château ("The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château") became a popular read in France. It included copies of the "found" documents (the originals were of course never produced), though it did not provide translations. One of the Latin texts in the documents was copied from the Novum Testamentum ("New Testament"), an attempted restoration of the Vulgate by John Wordsworth and Henry White. The versions of the Latin texts found in the "parchments" can be precisely dated based on the wording being used, which show that the Latin version in one of the "parchments" was copied from a book first published in 1889, which is problematic considering that de Sède's book was trying to make a case that these documents were centuries old.

In 1969, an English actor and science-fiction scriptwriter, Henry Lincoln, read Le Trésor Maudit, and became intrigued. He discovered one of the encrypted messages, which read "À Dagobert II Roi et à Sion est ce trésor, et il est là mort" ("To Dagobert II, King, and to Sion belongs this treasure and he is there dead"). This was an allusion to a treasure belonging to the lost Merovingian king Dagobert II, who had been assassinated in the 7th century. Lincoln expanded on the conspiracy theories, writing his own books on the subject, and creating a series of BBC Two documentaries in the 1970s about the mysteries of the Rennes-le-Château area. In response to a tip from Gérard de Sède, Lincoln claims he was also the one who "discovered" the Dossiers Secrets, a series of planted genealogies which appeared to further confirm the link with the line of Merovingians. The documents claimed that the Priory of Sion had been founded in 1099, and created the Knights Templar.

Letters in existence dating from the 1960s written by Plantard, de Chérisey and de Sède to each other confirm that the three were engaging in an out-and-out hoax, describing schemes on how to combat criticisms of their various allegations and how they would make up new allegations to try to keep the whole thing going. These letters (totalling over 100) are in the possession of French researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who has also retained the original envelopes. Jean-Luc Chaumeil during the 1970s was part of the Priory of Sion hoax ring, and wrote books and articles about Plantard and the Priory of Sion before splitting from it during the late 1970s and exposing Plantard's past in French books. A letter later discovered at the subprefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois also indicated that Plantard had a criminal conviction as a con man.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

Further information: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

After reading Le Tresor Maudit, Henry Lincoln persuaded BBC Two's factual television series of the 1970s, Chronicle, to make a series of documentaries, which became quite popular and generated thousands of responses. Lincoln then joined forces with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh for further research. This led them to the pseudohistorical Dossiers Secrets at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which though alleging to portray hundreds of years of medieval history, were actually all written by Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey under the pseudonym of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier". Unaware that the documents had been forged, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln used them as a major source for their 1982 controversial non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in which they reported claims they accepted as "facts" while acknowledging some may not be true:

• there is a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, which has a long history starting in 1099, and had illustrious Grand Masters including Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton;
• it created the Knights Templar as its military and financial front; and
• it is devoted to returning the Merovingian dynasty, that ruled the Franks from 457 to 751, to the thrones of Europe and Jerusalem.

However, re-interpreting the Dossiers Secrets in the light of their own interest in undermining the Roman Catholic Church's institutional reading of Judeo-Christian history, the authors asserted that:

• the Priory of Sion protects Merovingian dynasts because they may be the literal descendants of the historical Jesus and his alleged wife, Mary Magdalene, and/or both King David and High Priest Zadok; and
• the Inquisition tried to kill off all remnants of this dynasty and their guardians, the Cathars and the Templars, in order to maintain the Church's power through the apostolic succession of Peter, instead of the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene.

The authors therefore concluded that the modern goals of the Priory of Sion are:

• the restoration of chivalry and Merovingian popular monarchies across the European Union;
• its control of, or transformation into, a dominant political party in the European Parliament;
• the European Union declaring federal status as the final step of European integration;
• the return to Israel of the lost treasure of the Temple in Jerusalem, which supposedly contains proof that the Merovingian dynasty is of both the Davidic and Zadokite lines;
• the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a one-state solution and the accession of the city-state of Jerusalem to the "United States of Europe";
• the grooming and installing of a Davidic/Zadokite pretender on the throne of Jerusalem,
• the election of the King of Jerusalem to the Presidency of the European Parliament;
• the transfer of apostolic succession from the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church to the sacred king; and
• the establishment of an imperial cult and the "Holy European Empire", ideally marking the dawn of an "European Century".

Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln also incorporated the anti-semitic tract known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion into their story, concluding that it actually referred to the activities of the Priory of Sion. They viewed the Protocols as the most persuasive piece of evidence for the existence and activities of the Priory of Sion by arguing that:

• the original version emanated from a lodge observing an irregular rite of Freemasonry, which adopted a Christian supersessionist interpretation of Zion and Davidic messianism, but had nothing to do with a "Judaeo-Masonic conspiracy";
• the original version was not intended to be inflammatory or released publicly, but was a program for gaining control of Freemasonry;
• the person responsible for changing the text in about 1903 was Sergei Nilus in the course of his attempt to gain influence in the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The presence of esoteric cliques in the royal court led to considerable intrigue. Nilus' publication of the text resulted from his failure to succeed in wresting influence away from Papus and others; and
• since Nilus did not recognize a number of references in the text that reflected a background in an esoteric Christian cultural context, he did not change them. This fact established that the original version could not possibly have come from the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897.

In reaction to this memetic synthesis of investigative journalism with religious conspiracism, many secular conspiracy theorists added the Priory of Sion to their list of secret societies collaborating or competing to manipulate political happenings from behind the scenes in their bid for world domination through synarchy;some occultists speculated that the emergence of the Priory of Sion and Pierre Plantard closely follows The Prophecies by M. Michel Nostradamus; while fringe Christian eschatologists countered that it was a fulfillment of prophecies found in the Book of Revelation and further proof of an anti-Christian conspiracy of epic proportions.

However, academic historians do not accept The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail as a serious contribution to scholarship and regard it as one of the best examples of "counterknowledge". French authors like Franck Marie (1978), Jean-Luc Chaumeil (1979, 1984, 1992, 2006) and Pierre Jarnac (1985, 1988) and more recently Marie-France Etchegoin (2004), Massimo Introvigne (2005), Jean-Jacques Bedu (2005), have never taken Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion as seriously as Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln. They eventually concluded that it was all a hoax, outlining in detail the reasons for their verdict, and giving detailed evidence that the Holy Blood authors had not reported comprehensively. They imply that this evidence had been ignored by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln in order to bolster the mythical version of the Priory's history that was developed by Plantard during the early 1960s after meeting author Gérard de Sède.

As a consequence, in 1989, Plantard tried but failed to salvage his reputation and agenda as a mystagogue in esoteric circles by claiming that the Priory of Sion had actually been founded in 1681 at Rennes-le-Château, and was focused on harnessing the paranormal power of ley lines and megaliths in the area, rather than restoring the Merovingian dynasty.

The Pelat Affair

In September 1993, while investigative judge Thierry Jean-Pierre was investigating the activities of multi-millionaire Roger-Patrice Pelat in the context of the Pechiney-Triangle Affair, he was informed that Pelat may have once been Grand Master of a clandestine Masonic lodge known as the Priory of Sion. Indeed, Pelat's name had been on Plantard's list of Grand Masters since 1989. In fact, Pelat had died in 1989, while he was being indicted for insider trading or "délit d'initié" in French. Plantard may have been naive about financial terms and interpreted the word "initié" esoterically, to mean "initiate". Following a long established pattern, Plantard "recruited" the "initiate" Pelat soon after his death and included him as the most recent Priory of Sion Grand Master.

Pelat had been a friend of François Mitterrand, then President of France, and at the centre of a scandal involving French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. As an investigative judge, Thierry Jean-Pierre could not dismiss any information pertaining to his case that was brought to his attention, especially if it might have led to a Propaganda Due-like scandal, but since he never considered it worthwhile meeting Plantard, he ordered the search of Plantard's home by his officers. Plantard had first claimed that Pelat had been a Grand Master in a Priory of Sion pamphlet dated March 8, 1989, then claimed it again later in a 1990 issue of Vaincre, the revived publication of Alpha Galates, a pseudo-chivalric order created by Plantard in Vichy France to support the "National Revolution". The search turned up a hoard of false documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true king of France. It has been reported that, under oath, Plantard had to admit that he had fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with the Priory of Sion. Quoting fringe researcher Laurent Octonovo:

Plantard was threatened with legal action by the Pelat family and the time had therefore come for him to do a disappearing act to his house in the south of France. He was then 74 years old and his life was effectively over – nothing more was heard of him.

Plantard died in Paris on February 3, 2000.

The Sandri Revival

On December 27, 2002, an open letter announced the revival of the Priory of Sion as an integral traditionalist esoteric society, which stated that: "The Commanderies of Saint-Denis, Millau, Geneva and Barcelona are fully operative. According to the Tradition, the first Commanderie is under the direction of a woman", claiming there were 9,841 members. It was signed by Gino Sandri (who claims to be Pierre Plantard's former private secretary) under the title of "General Secretary", and by "P. Plantard" (Le Nautonnier, G. Chyren). Quoting Laurent Octonovo:

I’ve personally met this Gino Sandri on one occasion, and I had the opportunity to have a really good talk with him, but I think that he's simply seeking attention. He seemed to me to be something of a mythomaniac, which would certainly be an excellent qualification for being Secretary of the Priory of Sion. During our conversation he said something in passing that I found quite extraordinary. He said, “Ultimately, what is the Priory of Sion? It's nothing more than a well-known brand name, but with goodness knows what behind it?” He gave a good brief account of the phenomenon of the Priory of Sion. Thanks to Dan Brown, hundreds of millions of people now have “brand awareness”, and several million of them seem to take it seriously.

The Da Vinci Code

Further information: The Priory of Sion in the Da Vinci Code

As a result of Dan Brown's best-selling 2003 conspiracy fiction novel The Da Vinci Code and the 2006 film made from it, there has been a new level of public interest in the Priory of Sion. Brown's novel promotes the mythical version of the Priory but departs from the ultimate conclusions presented in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Rather than plotting to create a "United States of Europe" ruled by a Merovingian sacred king descended from the historical Jesus, the Priory of Sion initiates its members into a mystery cult seeking to restore the feminist theology necessary for a complete understanding of early Christianity, which was supposedly suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church. The author has presented this speculation as fact in a non-fiction preface, public appearances, and interviews.

Furthermore, in their 1986 sequel The Messianic Legacy, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln suggested that there was a current conflict between the Priory of Sion and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which originated from the real rivalry between the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades. However, for the dramatic structure of The Da Vinci Code, Brown chose the controversial Roman Catholic prelature Opus Dei as the Assassini-like nemesis of the Priory of Sion, despite the fact that no author had ever argued that there is a conflict between these two groups.

The Sion Revelation

Further conspiracies are alleged in the 2006 non-fiction book The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince (authors of the 1997 book The Templar Revelation, the principal source for Dan Brown's claims about hidden messages in the work of Leonardo da Vinci). They accept the evidence that the pre-1956 history of the Priory of Sion was a hoax created by Pierre Plantard, and that his claim that he was a Merovigian dynast was a lie, but they insist that this was part of a complex red herring intended to distract the public from the hidden agenda of Plantard and his handlers. They argue that the Priory of Sion was a front organization for one of the many secret societies that have been plotting to create a "United States of Europe", in line with French occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre's synarchist vision of an ideal form of government.

The Bloodline Movie

The 2008 dramatic documentary Bloodline by filmmakers Bruce Burgess and René Barnett expands on the "Jesus bloodline" thesis and other elements of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Accepting as valid the testimony of an amateur archaeologist codenamed "Ben Hammott" relating to his discoveries made in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château since 1999; Burgess claims to have found the treasure of Bérenger Saunière: several mummified corpses (one of which is allegedly Mary Magdalene) in three underground tombs created by the Knights Templar under the orders of the Priory of Sion.

Alleged Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion

The Priory of Sion was supposedly led by a "Nautonnier", an Old French word for a navigator, which means Grand Master in their internal esoteric nomenclature. The following list of Grand Masters is derived from the Secret Dossiers of Henri Lobineau compiled by Pierre Plantard under the pseudonym of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier" in 1967: All the names on this list were selected after the people in question had died. Many of the names chosen seem to have a common thread of being known for an interest in esoterica or heresy.

Leonardo da Vinci, alleged to be the Priory of Sion's 12th Grand Master

1. Jean de Gisors (1188-1220)
2. Marie de Saint-Clair (1220-1266)
3. Guillaume de Gisors (1266-1307)
4. Edouard de Bar (1307-1336)
5. Jeanne de Bar (1336-1351)
6. Jean de Saint-Clair (1351-1366)
7. Blanche d'Evreux (1366-1398)
8. Nicolas Flamel (1398-1418)
9. René d'Anjou (1418-1480)
10. Iolande de Bar (1480-1483)
11. Sandro Filipepi (1483-1510)
12. Léonard de Vinci (1490-1519)
13. Connétable de Bourbon (1519-1527)
14. Ferdinand de Gonzague (1527-1575)
15. Louis de Nevers (1575-1595)
16. Robert Fludd (1595-1637)
17. J. Valentin Andrea (1637-1654)
18. Robert Boyle (1654-1691)
19. Isaac Newton (1691-1727)
20. Charles Radclyffe (1727-1746)
21. Charles de Lorraine (1746-1780)
22. Maximilian de Lorraine (1780-1801)
23. Charles Nodier (1801-1844)
24. Victor Hugo (1844-1885)
25. Claude Debussy (1885-1918)
26. Jean Cocteau (1918-1963)

A later document, Le Cercle d'Ulysse, identifies François Ducaud-Bourget, a prominent Traditionalist Catholic, as the Grand Master following Cocteau's death. Plantard himself is later identified as the last Grand Master.

When the Dossiers Secrets were exposed as a forgery by French researchers and authors, Plantard kept quiet but had to acknowledge that the above list was a fraud when investigated by the police. In 1989, he tried to make a comeback and revive the Priory of Sion by publishing a second list of Priory Grand Masters. This second list, which included the names of the deceased Roger-Patrice Pelat and his own son Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair, should not be confused with the first. Post-1989, Plantard sought to distance himself from the first list, which belonged to an older, discredited version of the Priory. The second list of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion appeared in Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22.

1. Jean-Tim Negri d'Albes (1681-1703)
2. François d'Hautpoul (1703-1726)
3. André-Hercule de Fleury (1726-1766)
4. Charles de Lorraine (1766-1780)
5. Maximilian de Lorraine (1780-1801)
6. Charles Nodier (1801-1844)
7. Victor Hugo (1844-1885)
8. Claude Debussy (1885-1918)
9. Jean Cocteau (1918-1963)
10. François Balphangon (1963-1969)
11. John Drick (1969-1981)
12. Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair (1981)
13. Philippe de Chérisey (1984-1985)
14. Roger-Patrice Pelat (1985-1989)
15. Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair (1989)
16. Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair (1989)

In popular culture

The Priory of Sion myth has had several minor and major influences on popular culture. Notable examples include:

• The 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco is a parody of the Priory of Sion myth where a group of editors construct a hoax as a joke, only to find occultists taking them seriously, with deadly consequences.
• In the 1995-2000 comic book series Preacher by Garth Ennis, the Grail, an organization modeled after the Priory of Sion, is a powerful secret society that protects the bloodline of Jesus but whose plans to immanentize the eschaton are doomed because, after 2000 years of inbreeding "to keep the bloodline pure", the would-be savior is a mentally retarded and physically gawky child who frequently urinates in public and speaks gibberish.
• In the 1998 episode of the Millennium television series, Anamnesis, a drama teacher is secretly a member of The Family, a former faction of the Millennium Group, who was planted in a high school to protect a female student because she is a Marian apparition mystic and a descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Both the The Family and, to a lesser extent, the Millennium Group are organizations that may been modeled after the Priory of Sion.
• In the 1999 third installment of the Gabriel Knight adventure game series by Jane Jensen, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, the main character discovers that the Priory of Sion is involved in a supernatural conspiracy he is investigating.
• The band Priory of Brion formed by Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant in 1999 is an amalgamation of the name "Priory of Sion" and Monty Python's Life of Brian.
• In the 2001 Vampire: The Masquerade live action and role-playing game book, Clanbook: Followers of Set, the Church of the Black Magdalene is a Cainite heretical cult which renamed itself the Priory of the Black Magdalene in the 17th century. The Priory claims to guard the descendants of Christ and preserve the bloodline through selective breeding. They are said to have a cathedral below Marseille.
• In the 2003 conspiracy fiction novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and the 2006 film made from it, the mythical Priory of Sion is a central element of the plot.

Further reading

• BBC News. (2004) Code points away from Holy Grail
• Emick, Jennifer. About - Alternative Religions - Priory of Sion (R+C): Alternative Religions Resource Guides
• Johan (2006) Chaumeil - Plantard. (Gazette of Rennes-le-Château)
• Polidoro, Massimo. (2004) The Secrets of Rennes-le-Château: Notes on a Strange World.
• Pourtal, Jean-Patrick. (2005) Priory of Sion.
• Introvigne, Massimo. Beyond "The Da Vinci Code": What is the Priory of Sion?
• MalGo Media Services Ltd. The Priory of Sion Hoax
• Miller, Laura. (2004) The Last Word: The Da Vinci Con
• Mizrach, Steven. Priory of Sion: the Facts, the Theories, the Mystery
• Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (Knights Templar). Prieure de Sion & The Treasures of Rennes-le-Château
• Willker, Wieland. (2005) Codex Bezae and the Da Vinci Code: A textcritical look at the Rennes-le-Chateau hoax
• Netchacovitch, Johan. (2006) Interview of the "Sole survivor of the Priory of Sion"