Holy Blood, Holy Grail (70 page)

Peter obviously had considerable prestige, for after the taking of Jerusalem the crusading army embarked on another campaign leaving Peter in charge of the city. 8William of Tyre, History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, vol. 1, p. 380. See also Runciman, History of the Crusades, vol. 1, p. 292. This same bishop from Calabria was q friend of one Arnulf, a very minor ecclesiastic, who, with the help of the bishop, was later elected the first Latin Patriarch of

Jerusalem!

A strange group survived from the earlier “people’s crusade’ called Tafurs, who earned a certain notoriety when some of their members were accused of cannibalism by the emir of Antioch. Of this group there was an inner “college’ presided over by a King Tafur. The contemporary

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approached with humility, even reverence. It was this King Tafur who is said to have performed the coronation of Godfroi de Bouillon. Moreover, King Ta fur was said to be associated with Peter the Hermit.

Could it be possible that this inner group, and the king, were the representatives from Calabria? The name

Tafur, could, with one letter change, be an anagram for Artus, a ritual name. For a summary of the influence of the Tafurs see Cohn, N.” Pursuit of the Millennium, pp. 66 ff.

9 Lobineau, H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 4. 10 Ibid. 11Archives du Loiret, serie D.

357.

See-also Rey, E.-G.. “Chartes .. . duMont-Sion’, pp. 31 ff.” and Le Maire, Histoire et Antiquitez, part 2, eh. xxvI, pp. 96 ff. 12

Yates, Rosicrucian Enlightenment. 13See for example Yates, Giordano Bruno, pp. 312 ff.” and Yates, Occult

Philosophy, p. 38. In both these works Frances Yates explores the transmission of Hermetic thought and the secret societies which grew up around the central figures involved. 14We have this information from “Prieure’ sources. We have seen the manuscript in question at the Bibliotheque de Rouen, Histoire polytique de Gisors et du pays de Vulcsain by Robert Denyau, 1629 (Collection Montbret 2219, V 14a).

There are major difficulties in verifying the information. Of some 575 hand-written pages, the majority are barely legible and many pages are missing, while others have been cut, or had sections removed or deleted.

Only the Calendarium Martyrology is clearly legible. 15 Rohricht, Regesta, p. 375, no.

1440. 16 Bruel, Chartes d’Adam, pp. 1 ff. 17 Lobineau, H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 4. 18 Oursel, Le Proces des Templiers, p. 208. 19 Rey, E.-G.” Chartes .. . duMont-Sion, pp.

34 ff. 20It is perhaps worth comparing the given lists of Grand Masters of the

Knights Templar.

A The list as given in Henri Lobineau, Dossiers secrets:

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Hugues de Payen, 1118-31 Robert de Bourgogne, 1131-50

Bernard de Tremblay, 1150-53

Bertrand de Blancafort, 1153-70

Janfeders Fulcherine, 1170-71 ( = Gaufridus Fulcherius/Geoffroy Foucher) Frangois Othon de St. Amand, 1171-9

Theodore de Glaise, 1179-84 ( = Theodoricus/Terricus)

FranQois Gerard de Riderfort, 1184-90

BThe list as given in a modern source Seward, Monks of War, p. 306.

Hugues de Payen, 1118-36 Robert de Craon, 1136-46 Everard des Barres, 1146-52 Bernard de Tremelai, 1152-3 Andre de Montbard, 1153-6

Bertrand de Blanquefort, 1156-69 Philippe de Milly, 11fi9-70

Eudes de St. Amand, 1170-9 Arnold de Torroge, 1179-85 Gerard de Ridefort, 1185-91

It is worth reviewing a specimen of the evidence which supports the Prieure list, using the first Grand Master as an example.

The date of death for Hugues de Payen differs. The Prieure list puts it at 1131, while the modern list claims 1136. This latter date cannot be proved and, in fact, would appear to be wrong. 1136 is given in L’Art de verifier les dates, vo1.5 (Paris, 1818), p.338 and the normally stated day of death,

May 24th, is given in the thirteenth-century Obituaire de la command erie . de Reims (see Barthelemy), p. 321. However, this early document does not give any year of death. So scholars have been dependent upon the surviving charters signed by Hugues de Payen. These charters indicate that in fact Hugues did die around 1131, or shortly thereafter. In Alban,

Cartulaire general, several charters are given which have been signed by

Hugues. He uses his full name, generally given as Hugo de Pagano. The last charter signed in this way is dated 1130 (Albon, Cartulaire

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general, pp. 23 ff.). It would appear likely that he died some time following this date and before 1133, the year in which a charter appeared mentioning, but not signed by, Hugoni, magis tro militum ... Templi (Albon, Cartulaire general, p. 42). This charter has generally been attributed to Hugues de Payen, but it seems more likely that it is in fact referring to Hugues Rigaud, who appears in many other charters reproduced by M. dAlbon, and indeed, is now considered to have been the common master of Saint-Sepulchre and the Temple, or the Temple in Jerusalem, from 1130 to 1133. See Gerard and Magnou, Cartulaire, p. xxxviii. So the Prieure list appears to have the evidence in its favour.

It should also be noted that at no point does William of Tyre ever list

Everard des Barres or Andre de Montbard as Grand Masters of the Knights

Templar -which subsequent historians, on a highly questionable basis, do.

6 The Grand Masters and the Underground Stream

1Lobineau, H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 4, Ordre de Sion. 2Loyd, Origins of Anglo-Norman Families, pp. 45 ff. And Powicke, Loss of Normandy, p. 340. 3Roger de Hoveden, Annals, vol. 1, p. 322. It reads, “Thomas, the archbishop of Canterbury, and some of his fellow-exiles, came to an interview with the legates, on the octave of Saint Martin, between Gisors and Trie .. .” This meeting-place between the two adjacent castles is the site of the famous elm tree which was later cut down. In his Voyages Pittoresques (Normandy, vol. 2, p.

138) Charles Nodier says that “St. Thomas de Canterbury had there (under the Gisors elm) prepared for his martyrdom.” It is unclear exactly what he is implying here but it is provocative. 4Lecoy de la Marche, Le Roi Rene, vol. t, p. 69. The duke of Lorraine had no son, and by the conventions of the times it was to Rene that Jeanne was referring. 5 See Staley, King Rene d’Anjou, pp. 153 ff. 6Staley,

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King Rene d’Anjou, p. 29. Rene himself carved the inscription. 7Sir Philip Sidney was an associate of John Dee and also steeped in Hermetic thought. Frances Yates considers John Dee to be the source of the Rosicrucian manifestos Yates, Occult Philosophy, pp. 170 ff. For further information on Sidney and Dee see French. John Dee. Sidney then was well aware of the “underground stream’ flowing through European culture. 8All the manifestos are printed in Waite, Real History of the Rosicrucians. 9 Yates, Rosicrucian Enlightenment, p.

125. 10 Ibid.” p. 192. 11Some letters exist, which are held by the Royal Society, written to Robert

Boyle regarding a group called the Sacred Cabalistic Society of Philosophers who admitted him as a member. It appears to be based in France. See

Maddison, Life of .. . Robert Boyle, pp. 166 ff. 12Yates, Rosicrucian Enlightenment, pp.

223 ff. Frances Yates explains the connecting links between the Rosicrucian movement and the Royal Society. 13For further information on Ramsay see Walker, The Ancient Theology, pp. 231 ff.” and Henderson, Chevalier Ramsay. 14The text of the Oration is published in Gould, History of Freemasonry, vol. 5, pp. 84 ff.

15Waite, New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, pp. 353 ff.” and Le

Forestier, La Franc-Magonnerie, pp. 126 ff. 16This list is reproduced in Thory, Acta Latomorum, vol. 2, p. 282. The list follows Sion’s list only until the split in 1188. The Grand Master at that time was Gerard de Ridefort. 17Nodier, Voyages Pittoresques, Normandy, vol.2, pp. 137 ff. 18 Pingaud, La ]eunesse de Charles Nodier, p. 39. 19Ibid.”

pp. 231 ff.” contains the rules of the society. Some are curious.

Rule 18 states, “The brothers of the Society of the Philadelphes have a particular liking for the colour sky-blue, the figure of the pentagram

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and the number 5.” 20 Ibid.” p. 47. 21 Nodier, Contes, pp. 4 ff.

22 Nodier, History of Secret Societies, p. 105. 23 Ibid.” p. 116.

24The most significant figure in secret societies of the period was Filippo

Michele Buonarroti (a descendant of Michelangelo’s brother) who began his career as a page to the archduke of Tuscany (son of Franqois de Lorraine) and became involved in Freemasonry. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he went to Corsica, where he stayed until 1794 and became acquainted with

Napoleon. From the early 1800s he set up a succession of secret societies.

He founded so many that historians have no idea of the actual number founded. One comments that “Buonarroti was a true divinity, if not omnipotent at least omnipresent’, Eisenstein, The First Professional Revolutionist .. . Buonarroti, p. 48, quoting Lehning. He shared many mutual friends with Nodier and Hugo Petrus-Borel, Louis Blanc, Celestin

Nanteuil, Jehan Duseigneur, Jean Gigoux, so it is most likely that they knew each other. In fact the absence of any record of them meeting is highly suspicious, given the status which Buonarroti commanded later in his life in

Paris.

See also Roberts, Mythology of the Secret Societies, pp. 233 ff.” “for thirty years without’

ever stopping, like a spider in his hole, spinning the threads of a conspiracy that all the governments have broken, each in turn, and that he never tires of renewing.”

Eisenstein, The First

Professional Revolutionist .. . Buonarroti, p. 51.

It is most likely that Buonarroti and Nodier were both in the Prieure de

Sion especially as one of Buonarroti’s organisations was the Philadelphes, the same name Nodier used for his order. 25 See Chapter 7, n. 33. 26Lucie-Smith, Symbolist Art, p. 110. For Peladan’s life and associates see

Pincus-Witten, Occult Symbolism in France. 27 Lucie-Smith, Symbolist Art, p. 111. 28This was his comment when asked to do the painting which now forms part of a chapel in the church of Notre Dame de France, London. 29See Bander, Prophecies of St. Malachy, p. 93. The Latin phrase is Pastor et

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Nauta the word nauta, can mean either “seaman’ or “navigator’, which in old French is “nautonnier’. 30”Inde a primis’ published in L’Osservatore Romano (July 2nd, 1960), p. 1. An

English translation can be found in Review for Religious, vol. 20 (1961), pp. 3 ff.

7 Conspiracy through the Centuries

1Lobineau, H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 4, Ordre de Sion. 2De Sede, Les Templiers, pp. 220 ff. For the story of Lhomoy see de Sede, pp. 20 ff. and 231 ff. See also Chaumeil, Triangle d’or, pp. 19 ff. 3Le Maire, Histoire et Antiquitez, part 2, eh. xxvl, pp. 96 ff. 4The cardinal of Lorraine was behind the amnesty in favour of Huguenots given at Amboise on March 7th, 1560. The cardinal also secretly gave money to certain Protestant groups. 5It was through Rene d’Anjou that the double-barred cross became associated with Lorraine. Rene had adopted this cross as his emblem, using it on his seals and coinage.

The popularity of the cross dates from its use by Rene

II, duke of Lorraine, at the battle of Nancy in 1477. See Marot, Le Symbolisme, pp. 1 ff. 6Nostradamus moved in circles connected with the house of Lorraine. He lived for some years in Agen, and jean de Lorraine was bishop of Agen at the time, as well as head of the Inquisition in France. Research indicates that

Nostradamus received warning of the Inquisition’s interest in him, and all factors point to jean, cardinal of Lorraine having been the source of that warning. Moreover Nostradamus’s friend Scaliger in Agen was a friend of the cardinal and also acquainted with the Hermeticist and creator of the “Memory

Theatre’, Giulio Camino (see Yates, Art of Memory, eh. 6). The cardinal of

Lorraine was well acquainted with Camino. Also two court poets, Pierre de

Ronsard and Jean Dorat, were friends of Nostradamus. Ronsard wrote several poems in praise of Nostradamus and the cardinal. The cardinal

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supported both these poets. It was jean Dorat who sent Jean-Aime de Chavigny to Nostradamus as his secretary. Much research into these connections is presented in the novel The Dreamer of the Vine, by Liz Greene (London, 1979). 7Quatrain v: 74, for example, relates probably to Charles Martel driving back the Saracens, and beating them at the battle of Poitiers in 732. Quatrain

III: 83 may well refer to the long-haired Merovingian kings taking the kingdom of Aquitaine, which they did after 507. Many of the quatrains and presages mention the Rases which seems to be a pun both on the area of the

Razes and the exiled Counts, the “shaven ones’, the Merovingian descendants. 8De Sede, La Race fabuleuse, pp. 106 ff. De Sede’s credibility in this book tends to be somewhat undercut by his rather unlikely claim that the

Merovingians were extraterrestrials! In conversation he was asked the source for his assertion that Nostradamus spent time at Orval. He replied that a man named Eric Muraise had a manuscript proving this, which de Sede had personally viewed.

We questioned some of the monks at the Abbey of Orval about the possibility of Nostradamus having been there. They shrugged, and said it was a tradition, but they had no evidence either to prove or disprove it:

It was possible, one said wearily. 9Allier, La Cabale, pp. 99 ff. The author states that it was the Compagnie which suggested to Olier that he found Saint Sulpice. 10 Allier, La Cabale, p. 33. 11 Auguste, La Compagnie .. . d Toulouse, pp. 20 ff. 12 Allier, La Cabale, p. 3. 13Lobineau, H.” Dossiers secrets, planche no. 1, 1100-1600, n.” planche no. 19, 1800-1900. 14 Sainte-Marie, Recherches historiques, p. 243. 15Soul trait (ed.), Dictionnaire topographique .. . de la Nievre, pp. 8, 146.

The hamlet of Les Plantards was near to Semelay, later the birthplace of jean XXII des Plantard. 16See the Bulletin de la societe nivernais des lettres, sciences et arts, 2eme serie, tome vII (1876), pp. 110, 139, 140-41, 307. See also Chaumeil,