The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard. In the 1960s, Plantard created a fictitious history for that organisation, describing it as a secret society founded on Mount Zion in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, which is devoted to installing a secret bloodline of the Merovingian dynasty on the thrones of France and the rest of Europe. This myth was expanded upon and popularised by the 1982 controversial book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and later claimed as factual in the preface of the 2003 conspiracy fiction novel The Da Vinci Code.

After becoming a cause célèbre from the late 1960s to the 1980s, the mythical Priory of Sion was exposed as a ludibrium created by Plantard as a framework for his false pretention to the French throne. Evidence presented in support of its historical existence and activities before 1956 was discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his accomplices. Nevertheless, many conspiracy theorists still persist in believing that the Priory of Sion is an age-old cabal that conceals a subversive secret.

The Priory of Sion myth has been exhaustively debunked by journalists and scholars as one of the great hoaxes of the 20th century. Some sceptics have expressed concern that the proliferation and popularity of books, websites and films inspired by this hoax have contributed to the problem of conspiracy theories, pseudohistory and other confusions becoming more mainstream. Others are troubled by the romantic reactionary ideology unwittingly promoted in these works.

 

History

The fraternal organisation was founded in the town of Annemasse, Haute-Savoie in eastern France in 1956. As with all associations, French law required that the Priory of Sion be registered with the government; the registration took place at the subprefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois on 7 May 1956 and was noted on 20 July 1956 in the Journal Officiel de la République Française. The founders and signatories inscribed with their real names and aliases were Pierre Plantard, also known as "Chyren", and André Bonhomme, also known as "Stanis Bellas". André Bonhomme was the President while Pierre Plantard was the Secretary General. The registration documents also included the names of Jean Deleaval as the Vice-President and Armand Defago as the Treasurer. The offices of the Priory of Sion and its journal Circuit were located 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 Indépendante 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 statutes of the Priory of Sion indicate its purpose was to allow and encourage members to engage in studies and mutual aid. The articles of the association expressed the goal of creating a Traditionalist Catholic chivalric order. Article 7 of the statutes of the Priory of Sion stated that its members were 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 planned to forge partnerships with the local Catholic Church of the area which would have involved a school bus service run by both the Priory of Sion and the church of Saint-Joseph in Annemasse.

The bulk of the activities of the Priory of Sion, however, bore no resemblance to the objectives as outlined in its statutes: Circuit, the official journal of the Priory of Sion, was indicated as a news bulletin of an "organisation for the defence of the rights and the freedom of affordable housing" rather than for the promotion of chivalry-inspired charitable work. The first issue of the journal is dated 27 May 1956, and, in total, twelve issues appeared. Some of the articles took a political position in the local council elections. Others criticised and even attacked real-estate developers of Annemasse.

The formally registered association was dissolved some time 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 in the association after 1956. He officially resigned in 1973 when he heard that Plantard was linking his name with the association. In light of Plantard's death in 2000, there is no one who is currently alive who has official permission to use the name.

 

Alleged Grand Masters

The mythical 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 Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau compiled by Pierre Plantard under the nom de plume of "Philippe Toscan du Plantier" in 1967. All those named on this list had died before that date. All but two are also found on lists of alleged “Imperators” (supreme heads) and “distinguished members” of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis which circulated in France at the time when Plantard was in touch with this Rosicrucian Order. Most of those named share the common thread of being known for having an interest in the occult or heresy.

 

The Dossiers Secrets asserted that the Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar always shared the same Grand Master until a schism occurred during the "Cutting of the elm" incident in 1188. Following that event, the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion are listed in French as being:

  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. Leonardo Da Vinci (1510–1519)
  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 priest who Plantard had worked for as a sexton during World War II, as the Grand Master following Cocteau's death. Plantard himself is later identified as the next Grand Master.

When the Dossiers Secrets were exposed as a forgery by French researchers, Plantard kept quiet. During his 1989 attempt to make a comeback and revive the Priory of Sion, Plantard sought to distance himself from the discredited first list, and published a second list of Priory Grand Masters, which included the names of the deceased Roger-Patrice Pelat, and his own son Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair:

  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 1993 Plantard acknowledged that both lists were fraudulent when he was investigated by a judge during the Pelat Affair.