Priory of Sion Debunked

"All ignorance is dangerous, and most errors must be dearly paid. And good
luck must he have that carries unchastised an error in his head unto his death."
Arthur Schopenhauer.

The original Priory of Sion was founded in 1956 as a social group of friends by two people - André Bonhomme and Pierre Plantard. The outline of the
story can be found here.
André Bonhomme definitely existed - I have spoken to him myself - as have many other researchers - and he has constantly confirmed that the original
Priory of Sion had nothing to do with Bérenger Saunière, Rennes-le-Château, politics or secret societes - the story goes that one day, when someone
commented on the bad state of the lodgings - it was decided to form a society devoted to the cause of Low-Cost Housing: and so the Priory of Sion was
created! It was actually named after the hill of Mont Sion located outside the town of St-Julien-en-Genevoise. They produced an amateur journal called
"Circuit" devoted to the cause of Low-Cost Housing, that simply comprised of A4 pages stapled together, and containing a crude text that was both
stencilled and printed. The first issue can be found here.
Pierre Plantard had a shadowy background - he was a supporter of the Vichy regime in Wartime France - and his past involved anti-semitic, right-wing
politics within an esoteric framework - in 1942 he founded an Order of Knighthood called the Alpha Galates, and was sentenced to four months in
Fresnes prison for not registering it with the authorities (Secret Service Report, dated 13 February 1945).
Evidence that Plantard served time in prison for 6 months between 1953 and 1954 for fraud and embezzlement exists in the form of a 2-page letter
dated 8 June 1956 written by the Mayor of Annemasse to the Sub Prefect of St Julien-en-Genevois; the letter is found in the File that contains the 1956
Statutes of the Priory of Sion, File Number KM 94550. The letter cannot be photocopied because that would violate Article 2 of the Law of
Associations dated 16 August 1901 - the letter however can be inspected by the General Public and a Transcript of it can be made.
During the mid-1980s a conflict erupted between Pierre Plantard and a French researcher, Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who conducted some investigations on
Pierre Plantard that yielded the above-mentioned information. By the 1980s Plantard had acquired quite a name for himself by reviving the Priory of
Sion from 1962 onwards, and creating a mystique involving the legends of Gisors, Bérenger Saunière and Rennes-le-Château, secret societies, his
claim to be from a French Line of Kings, the keeper of secrets and possessor of secret parchments - he also claimed that the Priory of Sion was founded
during the Crusades by Godfrey de Bouillon, was linked with the Knights Templar, and produced a List of Grand Masters spanning centuries. All of
this was bogus and fraudulent and Jean-Luc Chaumeil had all the evidence to prove it.
That the Priory of Sion did not exist before 1956 can easily be proved. Its 1956 Registration Documents and 1956 Statutes, deposited in the Police
Station at St Julien-en-Genevois, can be found here.
The conflict involving Jean-Luc Chaumeil - who found out that Plantard was imprisoned over allegations relating to fraud, embezzlement, and child
corruption - caused Plantard to resign from his confidence-trickery activities - but he made a comeback by 1989 with a revised and amended version of
the Priory of Sion. Pierre Plantard produced a new List of Grand Masters that included the name of Roger-Patrice Pelat.
Pierre Plantard's use of Pelat's name in his new 1989 version of the Priory of Sion was to bring about his ultimate downfall - when later in 1993 Judge
Thierry Jean-Pierre investigated the financial scandal involving Roger-Patrice Pelat he ordered the search of Plantard’s house, and also interrogated
Plantard over the whole matter. This produced a hoard of "Priory of Sion documents" and the claim that he was the "true King of France". This resulted
in Plantard being given a severe warning and regarded as a harmless crank. When Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre ordered Plantard to Swear on Oath that
Pelat was involved with the Priory of Sion, Plantard admitted that he had made the whole thing up. Pierre Plantard was never to involve himself with
his Priory of Sion activities again following this episode.
The origin of Plantard's 1960s claim to be descended from the Merovingian Kings of France was investigated during the mid-1980s and has been traced
to an article by Louis Saurel which appeared in the 1960 French magazine ‘Les Cahiers de l'Histoire’ Number 1, ‘Les Rois et Les Gouvernements de la
France: des origins à nos jours’. This article creates the impression that Dagobert II (who Plantard claimed to be descended from) was the last
Merovingian King before the advent of the "Mayors of the Palace" took over (the forerunners to the later Carolingian Kings of France).
Saurel’s article was copied virtually word-for-word in a 1965 Priory Document ascribed to Anne-Léa Hisler ‘ Rois et Gouvernants de la France: Les
Dynasties depuis l’origine’, and the whole genealogical framework found in other documents by a ‘Henri Lobineau’ which contained the added
fictitious names of Plantard’s "ancestors" were all inspired this 1960 article by Louis Saurel.
Pierre Plantard’s version of the Priory of Sion that existed between the years 1962-1993 had nothing at all to do with the original 1956 Priory of Sion -
when André Bonhomme, the co-founder of the original 1956 Priory of Sion discovered Plantard’s later activities and how the name of the group was
used for different reasons he tendered his official resignation to the Police Station at St Julien-en-Genevois in 1973. André Bonhomme’s letter of
resignation can be found here.
The whole history of the Priory of Sion is one of deception and confidence trickery - it was a fake society that never existed - simply the product of
someone by the name of Pierre Plantard who had spent time in prison during the 1950s over breaking French Law relating to fraud and embezzlement.