The Da Vinci Code: Take it With Several Grains of Salt
Religious controversy is particularly enticing. Challenge religious principles, and believers will leap to defend their faith while non-believers proclaim, “Aha!” People will flock to bookstores and movie theaters to find out what the flap is about. Only hard evidence can quell the argument one way or another. In most matters of faith, however, such evidence does not exist, so the controversy rages. Meanwhile, books and movie tickets sell while writers and producers get rich.
The Da Vinci Code was just such a book, and now it is just such a movie. Dan Brown’s tale deals with an investigator who discovers an ancient conspiracy fostered by the Roman Catholic Church, based on a legend spawned in the French village of Rennes-le-Chateau. One Internet source sums up the controversy this way, “The two principal arguments contained in The Da Vinci Code concern the Priory of Sion and the marriage of Jesus Christ to Mary Magdalene that produced children.” According to the story, for centuries the Roman Catholic Church has engaged in a cover-up, even resorting to murder most foul to protect its interests.
This conspiracy theory has been hyped to a fare-thee-well, dominating the media for months. Every newspaper, magazine, and major television network has joined the fray. (And made money as a result.) Despite the sensationalism, however, No one has produced a shred of evidence to prove the story is true. On the contrary, although Dan Brown does present certain details as facts, he shows how easily any writer can bend “facts” to suit his purpose. For example, Mr. Brown states that there is a real organization called the Priory of Sion. In his story, the Priory has existed for a thousand years and its leaders have been some of the most illustrious names in history, including Leonardo Da Vinci. The existence of the Priory and its members can be traced through secret documents found in the French National Library.
But my Internet source says: “To quote French Researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil from his 1994 book The Table of Isis, Part 2, The Templars of the Apocalypse: The Message of a Sacred Enigma – Tales, Legends and Myths of Rennes-le-Chateau: ‘Finally, the Priory of Sion was created in 1956. We were able to contact former members of this office, who all burst out laughing when we mentioned Rennes-le-ChÃ?¢teau. According to its former President, the association was at the time a ‘club for boy scouts and NOTHING MOREâÂ?¦!'”
In another entry, the same source notes: “AndrÃ?© Bonhomme was one of the four founding members of the Priory of Sion in Annemasse in 1956, along with Pierre Plantard. He is tired of being harassed by inquiries about the nature of the association and doesn’t want any publicity-he refuses to be interviewed on television or on radio. He doesn’t understand where people get the idea that the Priory was anything other than what it was-‘just a small club of friends.'”
In 1996, Bonhomme told the BBC, ‘The Priory of Sion doesn’t exist anymore. We were never involved in any activities of a political nature. It was four friends who came together to have fun. We called ourselves the Priory of Sion because there was a mountain by the same name close-by. I haven’t seen Pierre Plantard in over 20 years, and I don’t know what he’s up to but he always had a great imagination. I don’t know why people try to make such a big thing out of nothing.'”
From the BBC 2 Timewatch documentary The History of a Mystery: “There’s no evidence for a Priory of Sion until the 1950s; to find it, you go to the little town of St-Julien. Under French Law every new club or association must register itself with the Authorities, and that’s why there’s a dossier here showing that a Priory of Sion filed the proper forms in 1956. According to a founding member, this eccentric association took its name not from Jerusalem, but from a nearby mountain (Col du Mont Sion Alt. 786 m). The dossier also notes that the Priory’s self-styled Grand Master Pierre Plantard, who is central to this story, has done time in jail.”
Indeed, Pierre Plantard was a con man whose agenda got him convicted of fraud. Why would he generate such a story? For the same reason that writers and producers do: To make money.
Another source notes: “Plantard originally hoped that the Priory of Sion would become…dedicated to the restoration of chivalry and monarchy, which would promote Plantard’s own claim to being a legitimate pretender to the throne of France. In the 1960s, Plantard began writing a manuscript and produced ‘parchments’ (created by his friend, Philippe de Cherisey) that Father BÃ?©renger SauniÃ?¨re had supposedly discovered whilst renovating his church in Rennes-le-ChÃ?¢teau. These forged documents alluded to the survival of the Merovingian line of Frankish kings. Plantard manipulated SauniÃ?¨re’s activities at Rennes-le-ChÃ?¢teau in order to ‘prove’ his claims relating to the Priory of Sion.”
In other words, Plantard wanted to be King of France. Certainly being descended from a bloodline founded by Jesus Christ could give a whole new meaning to the term “divine right of kings.” Small wonder, then, that Plantard planted his forged documents in the French National Library and took steps to make sure they were discovered. On one TV documentary, a source said that Plantard was thorough enough to use old parchment for some of his “paperwork.” Unfortunately, tests proved that the parchment dated back to the 1800’s, not 1000 years. At any rate, yes, existence of the Priory of Sion is a “fact.” But it was a hoax that had little to do with any conspiracy except that of its creators.
Indeed, the entire “conspiracy theory” contained in Dan Brown’s book and pursued in the movie has been thoroughly investigated for over a decade. The following specials have appeared on television:
BBC 2: The History of a Mystery (in 1996)
The Discovery Channel: Conspiracies on Trial – The Da Vinci Code
Channel Four Television: The Real Da Vinci Code
CBS News ’60 Minutes’: The Secret of the Priory of Sion
BBC Four : The Da Vinci Code – The Greatest Story Ever Sold
NBC News, Dateline, Secrets Behind the Da Vinci Code
The BBC production The Real Da Vinci Code is available from amazon.com, as are other documentaries, including one from National Geographic. A transcript from the PBS series Religion and Ethics, available on the Internet, is well worth reading.
In all candor, NBC’s Dateline version, which ran Friday, May 26, 2006, “plays” the audience skillfully, tantalizing viewers with questions. The program even gives Dan Brown’s own views of his material. But then the report debunks the details, presenting logical explanations and pointing out that no evidence supports them. Indeed, the BBC documentary title The Da Vinci Code – The Greatest Story Ever Sold hits the nail on the head.
Movie critic Roger Ebert commented, “Dan Brown’s novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard’s movie is preposterously entertaining. Both contain accusations against the Catholic Church and its order of Opus Dei that would be scandalous if anyone of sound mind could possibly entertain them. I know there are people who believe Brown’s fantasies about the Holy Grail, the descendants of Jesus, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei and the true story of Mary Magdalene. This has the advantage of distracting them from the theory that the Pentagon was not hit by an airplane.”
Some people love the movie, but most that I have asked found it was tedious and boring. Some felt suckered by the hype and were sorry they had fallen for it. I was one who found the film tedious and boring. Sometimes I thought it was downright silly. I thought perhaps I was missing something because I had not read the book before seeing the film. But I asked others who read The Da Vinci Code first, and they were no happier with the movie than I had been. A producer of my acquaintance commented that the film was a nice travelogue but, despite all of its action, it lacked real drama. I don’t know. Maybe our problem was simply a low tolerance for pseudo-history: “Fiction, as if it were fact, as if it were history…”
If you want to read the book or see the film, feel free. If you are entertained by it, that’s fine. But keep your objectivity. Remember, folks, that this is FICTION. It came first from the mind of a writer and then from the vision of a screenwriter. As a writer and a screenwriter, I can tell you with complete confidence that The Da Vinci Code has only one purpose: to make MONEY. No one should allow their religious beliefs to be shaken nor their non-religious beliefs to be re-enforced by such a flimsy tale.
