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four men escaped on a rope, down the sheer western face of the fortress. According to legend,
the risk was made to protect their treasure. But if all their gold and silver had been smuggled out
three months before, what did they risk their lives to protect. Was it the Holy Grail?
The Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table searched for the Grail, and legend has it that
three of them seen it– Galahad, Percival, and Bors. Later stories revealed that the Grail was kept
at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rennes-le-Chateau, which is where she made her home.
Others believe that the treasure Sauniere found may have been the Temple treasure. In 70 AD
when Rome ransacked Jerusalem, carrying its treasure back to Rome, it was believed that they
may have gotten all of the Temple wealth, including the Ark of the Covenant. In 410, when the
Visigoths invaded Rome, they carried away, “the treasures of Solomon, the King of the Hebrews,
a sight most worthy to be seen, for they were adorned in the most part with emerald’s and in the
olden time they had been taken from Jerusalem by the Romans.”
Or, could the treasure discovered by Sauniere been the treasure plundered from the Temple
grounds by the Knights Templar.
Many of the Crusaders who went to Palestine to fight against the Moslem invaders were
French Catholics, and by 1061, they had conquered Jerusalem, and put Godefroi de Bouillon
(1061-1100), Duke of Lower Lorraine, on the throne of Jerusalem. Known as the ‘Guardian of
the Holy Sepulcher,’ he claimed to be of the lineage of David, and between 1090 and 1099,
organized a secret society called the Prieuré de Sion (Order of Sion). His aims were to possess
the wealth of the world, including the Temple treasure, and to establish world government which
would be controlled by a Merovingian king in Jerusalem.
Though deposed in the 8th century, the Merovingian dynasty and bloodline continued, and
was perpetuated with Dagobert II, and his son, Sigisbert IV. Through alliances and
intermarriages, this line continued through Godefroi. This bloodline was known as a “royal
tradition ... founded on the rock of Sion,” which was considered to be equal to other European
dynasties.
Their headquarters was at the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion, in southern Jerusalem
on Mount Sion, where the ruins of a Byzantine basilica from the 4th century stood, which was
called the Mother of All Churches. It was Godefroi’s younger brother, Baudouin I, who became
the first king of Jerusalem; it was the Prieuré de Sion that created the Knights Templar as its
military arm.
In 1118, Hugues de Payen, a nobleman from Champagne, and Godefroi de St. Omer, a
French Knight, along with seven other Knights, founded the Order of the Knights Templar
(Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon). They swore to live according
to the rules of St. Augustine, and to use their swords, arms, and strength to defend the Christian
faith. They also took vows of chastity and poverty, and promised not to join any other
organization. They pledged to “keep the roads and highways safe ... for the protection of
pilgrims” and not to surrender any wall, or foot of land. They offered their services to Baudouin
I, the King of Jerusalem, and an entire wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount (the site of
Solomon’s Temple) was given to them to be used as a living quarters. In 1139, Pope Innocent II
decreed that these Knights of Christ owed their allegiance to no one but the Pope (thus becoming
a military arm of the Catholic Church), and they began to wear white robes with a red cross on
the front. They carried a black and white striped banner which displayed the cross, and the
words: “Non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam,” which became their battle cry. Their
meetings were carried out in secret.
It is known, that for nine years, the Knights were searching for something beneath the