FATE Magazine, July 1997
Ó 1997 Llewellyn Publications
Rennes-le-Chateau: The Priest and the Puzzles
Article and Photos by Jon C. Crusoe
Ó July 1997, FATE Magazine
In the south of France, hiding in the foothills of the Pyranees, is the tiny village of Rennes-le-Chateau. Reached only by a narrow, twisting road, it perches high atop a remote peak that overlooks the surrounding countryside. It seems an unlikely place for a mystery, but in reality, one of France’s greatest fiddles has been a major part of this village since the late 1800’s.
Central to the mystery was the parish priest, Berenger Sauniere. A powerful and intelligent man, the handsome cleric first came to Rennes-le-Chateau in 1885.
For the next six years, Sauniere lived simply on his small salary. Then in 1891, he borrowed funds to begin a restoration of his deteriorating church. The foundations fo this church dated back to the sixth-century Visigoths, and the altar was even supported on Visigothic columns.
When the altar stone was removed, a hollow section was revealed in one of the columns. Within, Sauniere found four parchments sealed inside wooden cylinders.
Two of the parchments were reported to be genealogies, one from 1244 and the other from 1644. The other two had apparently been written in the 1780’s by a pervious priest of Rennes-le-Chateau. These latter two initially appeared to contain only quotations from the New Testament written in Latin. When examined closely, however, the passages contained run-on words and sentences, added letters, and in some cases, letters and words positioned in ways that made no sense.
The eighteenth-century parchments were actually ciphers - codes so complex that without the key on one has been able to completely break them.
A translation of the first parchment reads, "Shepherdess no temptation that Poussin Teniers holds the key peace 681 by the cross and this horse of God I complete [or I destroy] this demon guardian at noon [or mid-day] blue apples."
In the second parchment, letters raised above the others can be read to say in French, "A Dagobert II roi et a Sion est ce tresor et il est la mort. (To Dagobert II king and to Sion belongs this treasure and he is there dead.)"
The Artistic Clue
Sauniere knew he had stumbled onto something important enough to take to the bishop at Carcassonne. The bishop was so impressed that he sent the village priest on to Paris. There, Sauniere was to present the documents to even higher officials fo the Catholic Church.
While in Paris, he met not only with Church authorities at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, but was welcomed into the company of several secret and occult societies. During his stay, he also visited the Louvre and bought reproductions of three paintings.
The first was a portrait of Pope Celestine V by an unidentified artist. The second was a work by David Teniers. And the third - the most important to the mystery - was Nicolas Poussin’s painting Les Bergers d’Arcadie, or the Shepherds of Arcadia. Do the three paintings provide part of the key to deciphering the first parchment? -"Shepherdess no temptation that Poussin Teniers holds the key."
No one knows what was depicted in the unidentified work by David Teniers, but the Poussin painting shows a group of shepherds gathered around a tomb in a valley.
The tomb was a representation of one that Sauniere knew to exist in a valley near his village. A closer examination of the painting show that one of the mountains in the background is the same crag that holds Rennes-le-Chateau.
A Sinister Restoration
After three weeks in Paris, the priest returned to the mountains and continued his restoration of the church, but in a strange and sinister way. He found and opened a curiously carved flagstone over a burial vault from the seventh or either century. But his disturbance of the dead did not stop there.
In the church’s graveyard was the sepulcher of Marie, Marquise d’Hautpoul de Blanchefort. The headstone and coverstone had apparently been placed there by the same priest who had written the coded parchments a century before. The headstone’s inscription contained a number of spelling and spacing errors similar to those found on the mysterious scrolls.
Sauniere had the inscription destroyed, not knowing that it had already been copied. Then, leaving strict instructions with the work crew for the restorations, he and his housekeeper began to make long journeys on foot into the countryside surrounding Rennes-le-Chateau.
Rags to Riches
Suddenly, in 1896, the supposedly poor parish priest began to spend money as if he had an unlimited supply. It is estimated that over the rest of his life, he spent tens of millions of francs.
He built a tower (the Tour Magdala, shown below) on the edge of a cliff and used it as his library and as an observation point, though no one knows what he was observing. He built an elaborate house, the Villa Bethania.
And he continued the church’s restoration, redecoration it in a strange and frightening way. Over the entrance he had the workers inscribe, "Terriblis est locus iste (This place is terrible)."
Just Inside the doorway, the holy water basin was held by a hideous statue of the demon Asmodeus - the protector of secrets and guardian of treasures. Asmodeus may be the demon referred to in the first coded parchment, "I complete [or I destroy] this demon guardian."
The paintings depicting the stations of the cross were filled with deviations from the religious norm and strange additions. The most interesting occurs in Station XIV, which shows Jesus’ body being carried into the tomb. The Bible says that Jesus was placed in the tomb before nightfall, but this painting shows a full moon, as though it depicts a scene several hours later. One interpretation is that the painting actually portrays a body being removed from the tomb.
Over the years, Sauniere continued his spending, furnishing his home with fine china, statuary, and rare antiquities. Notable visitors began appearing in Rennes-le-Chateau, including the Archduke Johann von Hapsburg, cousin to the Emperor of Austria, Franz Josef.
The Secrets of God
What else did the priest and his housekeeper discover besides gold? And why did a fellow priest refuse Sauniere the last rites?
Rumors abound concerning the ‘secret’ and the ‘true treasure’ of Rennes-le-Chateau. All seem to point to a major religious artifact or secret hidden in the area.
Interestingly, the tomb in Poussin’s Les Bergers d’Arcadia bears an inscription. The words form an incomplete sentence in Latin that read Et in Arcadia ego (And in Arcadia I). Treating the sentence as an anagram, the letters of the Latin inscription can be arrange to read: I tego arcana Dei (Begone I conceal the secrets of God).
Many of the clues to Sauniere’s discovery still remain in and about the village, although the tomb does not. The owner of the property destroyed it just a few years ago "for the sake of privacy" - or was there another reason?
Each year, the curious arrive along with the serious researchers, each trying to find the answer. Someday, perhaps someone will discover the missing pieces of the puzzle. Until then, the mystery of Sauniere, his housekeeper, and whatever they found in the tiny village of Rennes-le-Chateau will remain unsolved.
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