Merovingian blood line is an interesting story which I have only

[whistle]

...begun to read and research based on the popularity of "The DeVinci Code" by Dan Brown.

Here is a summary that someone outlined to me about early traces of the secret that the Roman christ has kept from their followers for much of two thousand years.

An old secret society traces its roots all the way back to ancient Gaul which claims they were the protectors of the child and descendents of Jesus Christ. Unknown to many, Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, in order to make sure that this blood line never died out, a society was created in order to one keep the secrets of the Church in the “dark” and to protect the descendents of Jesus.

To help insure the safety of the child, the child was married off into a family of French Kings known as the Merovingians. Early members of the society were French knights and nobles. These members were loyal to the Pope of Rome and very willingly to assist in the crusades.

While fighting in the crusades members of the group brought back great treasures which still exist today, and much of them are within the largest society temple. However large portions of the treasures have since been sold and were invested in banks throughout Medieval Germany. This once great treasure through good investments has grown into an enormous wealth, and members of society found great riches upon joining.

Following the crusades some members of the society left and created the Knights of Templar who later became the Freemasons. A split was caused by the corrupt popes and kings of medieval Europe who feared the growing power of the benevolent society. So they bribed many members of the society into betraying their fellow members by releasing the names of the members. The members who betrayed ex-members then created the Knights Templar. Members of the society then experienced persecution from the Vatican and thus lost all original religious motives.

A link to the Merovingin blood line from about 481AD to about 800AD. The theory suggests that the blood line has survived to modern times.

<link> http://www.ordotempli.org/the_merovingians.htm

The movie by the same title as the book is due for relase sometime in mid- 2006

[Boomer]

1. Just curious, but...

...how exactly do you "research" a fictional novel?

Or do you just mean you're looking up the factual history that Brown used to construct his tale?

I've been meaning to read the DaVinci Code for quite some time, but never seem to have time. Sounds like a fun read.

[whistle]

4. Sorry, looking up the factual history because most of the things

...being brought up by the book, I have practically no knowledge of like the supposed decedents of Jesus, the true mission of the Knights Templar and the later heresies of the renaissance thinkers like De Vinci and others.

[autorank]

2. Excellent Post!

I read up on this about 12 years ago. It really spun my head around. I then got a book by Umberto Eco called "Foucault's Pendulum." If the stuff gets too heavy, I strongly recommend the book.

The Europeans live for this stuff. They put our Kennedy assassination buffs to shame with their devotion. It obscures the really interesting tangent to this story, which is the Gnostic Gospels, discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1948. The church fathers didn't do quite the job they thought they had 2000 or so years ago and these wonderful documents survive.

Here is an interesting passage:

2 Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. "

http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htm

cya :hi:

[cynatnite]

5. Gospel of Thomas fascinates me

I'm fairly gnostic myself...still trying to work through some of the deprogramming from my southern baptist childhood (looks up to make sure lightening doesn't strike) but when I found out about the Gospel of Thomas through some internet searching not long ago, I was astounded at many of the passages.

I've came away with this thinking: When you find peace within yourself, you will find heaven within and outside of yourself. I personally find that very comforting and reassuring.

I do think some of the christians who take the whole bible as fact see heaven as this place in the clouds with angels, the gate, old bearded guy lording over everything, gold streets, mansions and all that just really miss out on so much.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Fascinating. I read the DaVinci Code almost straight thru. Found it

fascinating.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. So where were the Franks living when the supposed child was married

into the ruling family? What was the sex of the child? Why do Merovingian family trees seem to start about 400AD - what happened in the intervening 350 years? What is the source for the idea of Jesus having a child?

[whistle]

7. That's the secret mystery for which the quest seems to be about..

...the "Quest for the Holy Grail"....Here is another link in the mystery:

<snip>

The Black Nobility

These people earned the title of "Black" nobility from their ruthless lack of scruple. They employed murder, rape, kidnapping, assassination, robbery, and all manner of deceit on a grand scale, brooking no opposition to attaining their objectives. These all have immense wealth. And money is power.


<snip>

The Prieure de Sion claim to hold the lost treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem plundered by Titus in AD70 which would be returned to Israel "when the time was right". This might explain why Rome must defer to the "kings of the earth" and how she will seal a covenant with the Jews who have long hidden behind the shield of baptism.

Prince Bernhard is in fact related to the Khazars, and therefore a Gentile. Revelation 2:9, "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but you are rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."

Assisted by the CIA, Prince Bernhard has brought the hidden ruling body of the Illuminati into public knowledge as De Bilderberg Group. (Established in 1954, its headquarters is 1 Smidswater, Den Haag, Nederlands). At the heart of the Bilderberg Group are 39 members of the Illuminati chosen from three committees drawn from the members of all the secret groups that comprise the Illuminati: the Freemasons, the Vatican and the Black Nobility. This committee works year round in offices in Switzerland.

The Committee of 300 now call themselves World Government Founders for the NWO. A reference no doubt to their hereditary claim to the "Divine Right of Kings". It is imperative that we realize that privately, the Black Nobility refuse to ever recognize any government other than their own inherited and divine right to rule. They believe the United States still belongs to England. And work diligently behind the scenes to cause conditions whereby they might regain their crowns. Every royal and so-called noble dynasty past and present of Europe have seats on the Committee of 300, most often by nominees. There are just too many of these "royal" families for them each to have representatives on the Committee of 300. Precedence is determined by rank: first royal family members, then dukes, earls, marquises and lords, then finally "commoners", who usually get the title of "Sir". (Conspirator's Hierarchy: The Committee of 300", Dr. John Coleman).

<more>
<link> http://illuminati-news.com/black-nobility.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. The Prieure de Sion is a known hoax

I thought you meant there was evidence for this?

If you're saying "it's a mystery", doesn't that mean that there's no evidence for it - ie it's all made up?

[whistle]

10. I can't refute or agree with that claim, but here is a recent article....

...which addresses that:

<snip>

Prieure of Sion: The Mystery Deepens
by Steven Mizrach
(Posted here by Wes Penre for Illuminati News, April 11, 2004)

Like many Americans, I first became aware of the mysterious Priory of Sion by reading about them in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail around 1987 or so. Although the organization had gotten quite a bit of European attention in the 60s and 70s, authors Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh first brought it to U.S. awareness with their bestselling book in the early 1980s. The book caused a firestorm of controversy, especially among the clergy, not so much for its discussion of secret societies and medieval history as for its frank assertion that Jesus Christ might have had children and might not have died on the cross. I was interested in the book for two reasons: the first was that, as a Fortean, I thought it detailed an interesting alternative (and somewhat conspiratorial) look at history which was worth considering and investigating.

The second requires some degree of confession. I don’t wish to offend people’s religious beliefs by stating my own. I am essentially a secular Jew that distrusts most forms of organized religion. I long believed that the essential narrative of Christ’s life as given in the New Testament was inaccurate, and the way it was given was especially redacted to place blame and guilt on Jewish people for his death. Thus, HBHG (how I shall heretofore abbreviate the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail) suggested to me a possible explanation of the life of Christ and the origins of Christianity that I found more plausible — that Christianity really began among a sect of Jews (known as the Nasoreans or Ebionites) who saw Jesus as a Messianic figure, but did not deify him.

<snip>

There is the curious question as to whether Chris Carter’s mysterious Millennium Group from his TV show Millennium is based on the Priory of Sion. In one episode, it was revealed that the group controlled (or protected) a ‘bloodline’ which according to ‘DNA schematics’ was ‘proven’ to be the offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. There seems to be some hints that if Sion has some sort of ‘plan’ for European unification under Merovingian rulership, that it is about to pass one of its major milestones around the turn of the millennium. There are hints that one or more republican countries in Europe may be restoring their monarchies soon (although only for ceremonial purposes, as Spain did with King Juan Carlos I) — with ‘Merovingians’ at the throne? Of course, the riddle of Sion already had Christian eschatologists going apeshit, since they see the whole scenario as coming straight out of the Book of Revelations (although others think it more closely follows the prophecies of Nostradamus, who may have been a Priory agent.) If the group exists, and it has connections to the existing power structure in the French government, some of the things going on in connection with France’s Millennial plans (which include highlighting the Paris Meridian, something Lincoln and Byrne find highly significant) may need to be examined more closely.

If the PoS is a hoax, it is one of the best orchestrated ones of all time. If it really exists, it may be one of the most powerful secret societies of all time. Sion’s goals may include a reunification of the world’s major monotheistic faiths and/or a unification of all of Europe. On the other hand, this all-powerful secret society — according to its own documents — never once managed, through the course of several centuries, to topple a single French king and put one of their ‘bloodline’ on the throne. So we should be cautious. "Members" of Sion such as Pierre Plantard and the Marquis de Cherisey have already admitted that they rely on disinformation to accomplish their objectives. Any strategy of that kind always tries first and foremost to make a group appear more all-powerful than it really is. Also, there is the possibility that the PoS is a fraud exploiting a nonetheless genuine mystery at Rennes-le-Chateau. Whichever the case may be, the mystery deserves closer scrutiny by people of a Fortean persuasion, for as far as I can see, it remains "case not closed."

<more>
<link> http://illuminati-news.com/prieure-of-sion.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. I can recommend "The Real da Vinci Code" , showing this week in Canada

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/artslife/story.html?id=155bf394-863e-4fac-8e57-0cdfe7f27a5c

and maybe in the USA sometime too, if you live there.

Plantard admitted under oath that he made it all up. What more can be done to close the case? There isn't a single scholar that takes it at all seriously.

Trying to bring a fictional TV series in as 'evidence' is quite desperate, don't you think? Is that the best that "Illuminati News" can do?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Using Illuminati News as a "proof"?

:shrug:

[regnaD kciN]

17. It certainly is...

...and here's a site where you can find the proof, as reported in respected European and U.S. newspapers. In particular, check out the links at the top of the page.

The fraudulent nature of the "Priory of Sion" stories has been well-known in Europe for years.

[whistle]

9. As I dig deeper into the connections of these secret societies...

...the reports and articles become more disturbing. This article outlines an interview that the author had with a woman who was raised in the Illuminati cult named Svali. She subsequently became a defector from the Illuminati at age 38. She describes in her interview how she was subjected to the programming and apparent assassin training by Illuminati teachers from an early age. She also divulges much of what she came to know and witnessed about the workings of the secret society and its many interconnections with other secret societies and the New World Order:

<snip>
Illuminati Defector Details
Pervasive Conspiracy
Satanic Cult Plans 'Fourth Reich'
By Henry Makow, Ph.D
10-14-2002

If you detect the devil's hand in current events, you may be closer to the truth than you think.

<snip>
Assassin Training
Svali: "Here is how it is done (how it was done to me):
<1> When the child is 2 years old, place them in a metal cage with electrodes attached. Shock the child severely.
<2> Take the child out, and place a kitten in its hands. Tell the child to wring the kitten's neck. The child will cry and refuse.
<3> Put the child into the cage, and shock them until they are dazed and cannot scream any more.
<4> Take the child out, and tell them again to wring the kitten's neck. This time the child will shake all over, cry, but do it, afraid of the torture. The child will then go into the corner and vomit afterwords, while the adult praises them for "doing such a good job".
This is the first step. The animals get bigger over time, as the child gets older. They will be forced to kill an infant at some point, either a set up or VR, or in reality. They will be taught by age 9 to put together a gun, to aim, and fire on target and on command. They will then practice on realistic manikins. They will then practice on animals. They will then practice on "expendables" or in VR. They will be highly praised if they do well, and tortured if they don't comply.
The older the child or teen, the more advanced the training. By age 15, most children will also be forced to do hand to hand combat in front of spectators (high people who come to watch the "games" much as the ancient gladiators performed). These matches are rarely done to the death, usually until one child goes down. They use every type of weapon imaginable, and learn to fight for their lives. If a child loses a fight, they are heavily punished by their trainer, who loses "face". If they win, they are again praised for being "strong' and adept with weapons. By the time they are 21, they are well trained combat/killing machines with command codes to kill and they have been tested over and over to prove that they WILL obey on command. This is how children in the German Illuminati are brought up, I went through it myself."

<more>
<link> http://illuminati-news.com/satanic-cult-plans-4th-reich.mht

[Igel]

11. There are a lot of claims and counterclaims concerning

prominent Bible figures and various ethnicities in Europe.

I once had a guy translate part of an Old German chronicle recounting Abraham's stay in Austria, and how the Austrians were actually descendents of Abraham (thus giving them prestige, authority, and claiming they fulfil OT prophecies).

There's the entire Anglo-Israel business, with the kings of England descended from David. And a claim that when Jerusalem fell descendents of David were taken to Tara, in Ireland.

Whenever a new ruler or tribe came to power, the first thing they needed to do was to find justification, to prove what they always knew: they were descended from a great and glorious dynasty.

Hence the Russian "third Rome" nonsense (Rome --> Constantinople --> Moscow), resurrecting fascia for Mussolini, Hitler's glorification of the glorious Teutonic past, and Britain's harking back to the Arthurian Celtic period (when not being descended from David). Ethiopians are from Israel, as well as various Xian communities claim that they were started by apostles. And let's not forget the claim that Jerusalem was founded by Arabs.

[whistle]

14. "History is written by the victors" I suppose

[whistle]

12. Then there is the Catholic condemnation of "The Da Vinci Code"

...novel by Dan

<snip>

Cracking The Da Vinci Code

1. The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction?

What is The Da Vinci Code?

The Da Vinci Code is a novel. Its publisher, Doubleday, released it with much fanfare in March 2003 and heavily promoted it. As a result, it debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and has remained on it since, selling millions of copies. The publisher claims that it is "the bestselling adult novel of all time within a one-year period." So popular has The Da Vinci Code become that it has created a marketing boom for books related to the novel, and it has become the subject of a major motion picture scheduled to be released in 2005 <actually in 2006>.

What is The Da Vinci Code About?

It is a thriller story involving secret societies, conspiracies, the Catholic Church, and the fictional "truth" about Jesus Christ. Here is the author's own summary:

A renowned Harvard symbologist is summoned to the Louvre Museum to examine a series of cryptic symbols relating to Da Vinci's artwork. In decrypting the code, he uncovers the key to one of the greatest mysteries of all time . . . and he becomes a hunted man.<1> During the course of the novel it is alleged that the Catholic Church is perpetuating a major, centuries-long conspiracy to hide the "truth" about Jesus Christ from the public, and it or its agents are willing to stop at nothing, including murder, to do so.

What does Leonardo da Vinci have to do with the story?

Da Vinci is portrayed as a former head of the conspiracy guarding the "truth" about Jesus Christ. In the novel he is said to have planted various codes and secret symbols in his work, particularly in his painting of the Last Supper. According to the novel, this painting depicts Jesus' alleged wife, Mary Magdalene, next to him as a symbol of her prominence in his true teaching. In reality, the figure that Dan Brown identifies as Mary Magdalene is John the Evangelist, who traditionally has been regarded as the youngest of the apostles and so is often pictured in medieval art without a beard.

Why should a Catholic be concerned about the novel?

Although a work of fiction, the book claims to be meticulously researched, and it goes to great lengths to convey the impression that it is based on fact. It even has a "fact" page at the front of the book underscoring the claim of factuality for particular ideas within the book. As a result, many readers-both Catholic and non-Catholic-are taking the book's ideas seriously. The problem is that many of the ideas that the book promotes are anything but fact, and they go directly to the heart of the Catholic faith. For example, the book promotes these ideas:

o Jesus is not God; he was only a man.
o Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
o She is to be worshiped as a goddess.
o Jesus got her pregnant, and the two had a daughter.
o That daughter gave rise to a prominent family line that is still present in Europe today.
o The Bible was put together by a pagan Roman emperor.
o Jesus was viewed as a man and not as God until the fourth century, when he was deified by the emperor Constantine.
o The Gospels have been edited to support the claims of later Christians.
o In the original Gospels, Mary Magdalene rather than Peter was directed to establish the Church.
0 There is a secret society known as the Priory of Sion that still worships Mary Magdalene as a goddess and is trying to keep the truth alive.
o The Catholic Church is aware of all this and has been fighting for centuries to keep it suppressed. It often has committed murder to do so.
o The Catholic Church is willing to and often has assassinated the descendents of Christ to keep his bloodline from growing.

Catholics should be concerned about the book because it not only misrepresents their Church as a murderous institution but also implies that the Christian faith itself is utterly false.

<more>
<link> http://www.catholic.com/library/cracking_da_vinci_code.asp

Copyright © 2004 Catholic Answers, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for quotations, no part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading to the Internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Catholic Answers, Inc.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Fact check:

The Merovingians were from a Germanic tribe known as the Franks (which is where the name "France" comes from.) They were pagans and first appear in history as one of the many tribes eating away at the Roman Empire in 256 AD.

Clovis was the founder of the Merovingian dynasty and the first Christian king of the Franks. He converted in 493, along with three thousand of his fellow tribal members, at the urging of his wife, Clotilda, who had been brought up Christian as a Burgundian princess.

It's odd that the tribe that supposedly fostered the child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene was Germanic pagan until the end of the fifth century.

[Roland99]

18. Read these books for your research...Dan Brown took some liberties

Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed - Laurence Gardner
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=dK8FQf1Bep&isbn=1931412928&itm=3


Holy Blood, Holy Grail - Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, Richard Leigh
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=dK8FQf1Bep&pwb=1&isbn=0385338457
(This is the key book upon which Dan Brown based his book)

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail - Margaret Starbird, Foreword by Terrance A. Sweeney
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=dK8FQf1Bep&pwb=1&ean=9781879181038
(Another book Brown used in his research)


You can also pick up this DVD:

DA VINCI CODE DECODED
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=RYK000007

Dan Brown's wildly popular bestseller THE DA VINCI CODE struck a chord with readers unlike anything the publishing world had ever seen. Constructing a mystery around various conspiracy theories, he drew upon myths surrounding the bloodline of Christ, Mary Magdalene, and the Holy Grail. Brown connected them with Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, his involvement with the secret society of the Knights of Templar, and the posited messages encoded in his most famous paintings. Martin Lunn's answer to Brown's novel, upon which this documentary is based, fills in the background information on these formerly obscure topics. Lunn draws together a wealth of information to flesh out the truth behind the mystery; his book, THE DA VINCI CODE DECODED, reached bestseller status itself, and this documentary delves further into the controversy that continues to mystify and intrigue people the world over. Shot on location in Paris, London, and Scotland, this exploration features candid discussions with all the key scholars of the field, including Dan Brown himself. Lunn provides the real history of the Catholic offshoot Opus Dei, which appears in the book, as well as little-known facts about the bloodline of Christ, the origins of the Knights of Templar, the Priory of Scion, Temple Church, Rosslyn Cathedral, and many other disputed topics.

I have finished the first book (which is an AMAZING book) and have started in on the 2nd.

VERY recommended reading to cut through the bull and see what the actual research is showing (or suggesting based upon evidence.)

[Desertrose]

20. "Bloodline of the Holy Grail" will blow your mind....thanks, Roland99

glad you read it....also "Woman with the Alabaster Jar" is excellent as is" Holy Blood, Holy Grail".

I was about to list these but you beat me to it :hi:

[Roland99]

21. Gardner's research must have been painstaking.

I'd love to tour Europe one day and hit all of these sites. :)

[toddaa]

19. Dan Brown v. Umberto Eco

Dan Brown sees tenuous connections where there aren't any, whereas Umberto Eco delves into why the human mind tries desperately to find patterns in chaos. One writes a crappy best seller, the other writes literature. More evidence in support of the argument that you can't go broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American.