THE DOSSIERS SECRETS

This collection of documents, deposited anonymously in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris during the 1960s, is the inspiration for most of the later accounts of the Rennes-le-Château mystery.

All were written under pseudonyms or attributed to people later found to be deceased and who, as far as researchers can tell, had nothing to do with them. For various reasons it is thought that they were all the work of one person or group of people. Pierre Plantard is the favoured candidate, and some believe he was assisted by Philippe de Chérisey. Plantard, however, consistently denied having anything to do with them.

These controversial documents consist of:

Table I from Lobineau's work showing the Merovingian descent.

• HENRI LOBINEAU: GENEALOGY OF THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS
  
  Although dated 1956, this was deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1964.
  
  Its full title is Genealogy of the Merovingian Kings, after the Abbé Pinchon (1814), Dr Hervé (1843), the genealogist Hamberg in 1912 and copied from the parchments of Abbé Saunière (February 1892), also the manuscript of Abbé Denyau (2nd volume in folio - 1629) and G. Dubreuil (1857 - History of Gisors) - which is fairly self-explanatory!.
  
  It comprises of a series of genealogical tables ostensibly showing the descendants of the Merovingians through to the 19th century. It is the first known reference to the documents found by Saunière relating to the Merovingian descent.
  
  'Henri Lobineau' is a pseudonym, derived from the Rue Lobineau that runs past St Sulpice in Paris. Later texts in the Dossiers secrets name the real author as Leo Schidlof - although, conveniently, these texts did not appear until after Schidlof's death in October 1966. He was an Austrian art dealer who settled in London in 1948.
  
  Schidlof's daughter denied that he used the pseudonym 'Henri Lobineau' or had any connection with these publications.
  
  Just to add to the confusion, further Priory of Sion related texts published in the 1970s say that Henri Lobineau was really a French aristocrat, Henri, Comte de Lénoncourt.

MADELEINE BLANCASSAL: THE MEROVINGIAN DESCENDANTS OR THE ENIGMA OF VISIGOTHIC RAZÈS
August 1965

This purports to have been produced for members of the Association Suisse Alpina, part of the Swiss Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, in Geneva. However, the Grand Lodge Alpina has denied that it has any connection with the work.

The name of the author is a composite derived from 'Magdalene' and the name of two rivers that flow through the Rennes-le-Château area, the Blanques and Sals.

This document gives an account of the Saunière story that supports the 'Henri Lobineau' genealogies, linking the affair with the Priory of Sion. Its key claims are:

• · The secret of the Hautpoul family was confided to Abbé Bigou by Marie de Nègre d'Ables on her deathbed in 1781. As a result, Bigou recovered four parchments beneath the ruins of the chapel of St Peter in Rennes-les-Château. From the description they are clearly supposed to be the same ones that later came into Saunière's possession - the two containing coded messages that were subsequently widely circulated and two containing 'Litanies to Our Lady'. Bigou used them to compose the epitaph on Dame Marie's headstone, as a way of concealing the secret given to him by Dame Marie. He then hid the parchments in the Visigoth pillar in Rennes-le-Château church.

   

• · In 1891, Saunière was visited by two members of the Priory of Sion who told him that a secret existed in his parish, directing him to the inscription on Dame Marie's grave. Under the pretext of renovating his church, he looked for the 'secret' and found the parchments hidden in the Visigoth pillar. (In fact, this actually happened during the renovations of 1887.)

   

• · Saunière took the parchments to Paris where they were decoded by Emile Hoffet, revealing the 'Shepherdess no temptation' message. 'Madeleine Blancasall's' text was the first to give this now-famous message - although it did not show the parchment or the coded version, which were not published until 1967.

   

• · The Priory of Sion funded Saunière, and directed the building work in Rennes-le-Château. The decoration and other work in his church were intended to obliterate any clues left by Bigou.

   

• · The first mention is made of the Knight's Stone covering the tomb of Sigebert IV.
  
   

• ANTOINE L'ERMITE: A MEROVINGIAN TREASURE AT… RENNES-LE-CHATEAU
  
  Dated May 1966, this was simply a collection of copies of pages from other publications, some genuine and others not. It includes the Knight's Stone and the 1905 reproduction of Marie de Nègre's headstone. It seems to have been primarily designed to include pages from the alleged fictitious Eugène Stüblein work (see Note), showing the second of Marie de Nègre's grave stones. This was swiftly brought to the attention of Gérard de Sède.
  
  Antoine L'Ermite is Anthony the Hermit, one of the saints whose statue is in Rennes-le-Château church. Legend has it that Anthony the Hermit lived in the Gorge de la Galamus, very near to Rennes le Chateau.

Note: The copy of the headstone was found in a book allegedly written by Eugene Stüblein  called 'Pierres Gravées du Languedoc'. It is normally declared to a fake because no copy has been found and it is not registered in the any library has having been written, however the famous book written by Abbé Boudet called 'La Vraie Langue Celtique.... is not to be found in any library lists either but is known to exist.

A family called Stüblein is buried in the graveyard at Alet le Bains. Whilst nothing in the Dossiers is proven here, nothing is positively not proven either.