Rennes le Chateaux is a sleepy mountain-top village in southwest France, which has a somewhat mysterious past. The area surrounding the village is steeped in history and Visgoth and Templar ruins abound. This is the heartland also of Cathar country, whose believers were massacred by the Inquisition in one of the longest wars in all of history. The village once housed a population of 30,000 inhabitants, but today, only 100 or so remain. The French say that Rennes le Chateaux is to them what Glastonbury is to England.
On June 1, 1885 the village received a new Parish Priest, named Francois Beringer Sauniere. Until 1891, Sauniere existed on a modest income of around £6 per year. He appears to have lived a somewhat idyllic life. He employed a young peasant girl, Marie Denarnaud as his housekeeper, who was to become his lifelong companion and confidante.
Within a few months of his arrival, Sauniere was in trouble for preaching an anti-Republican sermon. He was suspended, but reinstated the following summer. When he first arrived at Rennes, the Church, built in 1059 and dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, was in a state of disrepair. The roof leaked so much that his parishioners had to take umbrellas to worship. In 1889, Sauniere therefore embarked on a restoration programme.
Sources vary as to where the initial funds came from. Some say that they came as a result of borrowing money from village funds. According to others, he received a gift of 3000 Francs from the Countess of Chambord, widow of Henri V, who hearing of Sauniere's anti-Republican stance, decided to pay him a visit.
During the Church restorations, bell ringer Antoine Captier, supposedly discovered four parchment scrolls hidden inside an altar pillar. Two of these were said to contain details of the bloodline of local families, dating back to 1644 and 1244 respectively (the date for the fall of Montsegur, the last Cathar stronghold). Both were also said to contain a secret code. The two remaining scrolls were said to have been written and placed there by Abbé Antoine Bigou, some time in the 1780s. Some soruces suggest that these scrolls also contained details of a hidden crypt beneath the altar, with a list of its contents.
As the restorations continued, a flagstone in front of the altar was raised. Beneath this was found an etching of a Knight on horseback holding a child, while next to him a Priest performed mass. This has since become known as the Knight's Stone. When the Knight's Stone was removed, something of great importance seems to have been found. Whatever it was, Sauniere dismissed the restoration workers. He then spent 10 days doing excavations of his own.
Sauniere told the Bishop of Carcassone, Felix-Arsene Billard about the parchments, and was summoned to Paris to meet with the Church officials. They advised to take the parchments to be decoded by a young man named Emile Hoffet, who at the time, was in training for the Priesthood. Hoffet is known to have had connections with several secret societies that brought him into contact with, among others, Claude Debussy, who is rumoured to have been Grand Master of the mysterious Priory of Sion, as mentioned in the Holy Blood and Holy Grail, and later, the Da Vinci Code.
During his time in Paris, Sauniere purchased copies of three paintings, one of which was Shepherds of Arcadia by Nicholas Poussin. This painting portrays a scene of three shepherds and a shepherdess gathered around a tomb, which is inscribed with the words 'Et in Arcadia Ego'. This has been translated as 'In Arcadia I…' In the background are a series of peaks that have been identified as being in the vicinity of Rennes le Chateaux. During the 1970s, the tomb in the painting was located near the village of Arques, six miles from Rennes le Chateaux. Unfortunately it no longer exists, as the land owner got so fed up with treasure hunters that he destroyed it.
Noting that the inscription on the tomb seemed to be lacking a verb, the authors of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail wondered whether it may be an anagram. Following the showing of a documentary based on their work, they were contacted by a viewer who had rearranged the letters to form 'I Tego Arcana Dei'. In English this means 'Begone! I Conceal the Secrets of God', prompting speculation that the tomb may at one time have housed the remains of Jesus, or one of his descendants, assuming he had any.
On his return to Rennes, Sauniere resumed his restorations. He also began to spend on an unprecedented scale. He built a tower, the Tour Magdala that perches precariously on the side of a mountain, a mansion known as the Villa Bethania that he never lived in, zoological gardens and a library, as well as collecting artwork and antiques. In all he is said to have spent in excess of 250,000 Francs over and above his declared income, an extraordinary sum of money for an ordinary Parish Priest. Where this came from is a complete mystery.
