Author: John R. Pollard

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 9780954188108

Ever since Berenger Sauniere arrived as cure of the tiny church in Rennes-le-Chateau, in the south west of France, and unearthed its mystery, nothing but more mystery has surrounded it. Sauniere began his career there in 1885, and although himself poor and impoverished did manage to raise sufficient funds to begin much needed restoration work on the church. In the course of that work it was discovered that one of the altar pillars was hollow. Inside the pillar were several wooden scrolls, and inside the scrolls were parchments. Two of these parchments turned out to be encrypted messages, which when decoded pointed to Rennes-le-Chateau as the repository of secret treasures. With help, Sauniere decoded these messages, and as a result acquired vast wealth almost overnight. There has been a great deal of speculation, delivered in the form of TV documentaries, a great many books, and even these days various websites, as to exactly what Sauniere''s discovery was. One theory suggests that Rennes-le-Chateau inherited the treasures of Jerusalem, plundered by the Romans in AD 70, then plundered again by the Visigoths when they sacked Rome. Thereafter the Visigoths spread their kingdoms into what is now France. Whatever this treasure was, with his new-found wealth Sauniere embarked on a wide range of private and civic building projects in Rennes-le-Chateau. He lived out the remainder of his life there, until 1917, in comfort and well-being. Precisely how he found these riches has stimulated much interest since, with most who have studied the subject believing the treasure still remains in Rennes-le-Chateau, and awaits re-discovery. So far, all scholarship and writing surrounding it has failed to offer even the slightest insight as to where the treasure is located. However, it is now the case that John R. Pollard''s Paradise Co-ordinates can and does reveal the point in Rennes-le-Chateau where the author determines the treasure is buried, through a reasoned working out of just those same clues and codes that were available to Sauniere. This is a subject that recurrently surfaces in the national press, has been featured in TV documentaries, and whose related websites receive an enormous number of visitors. First intimation that treasure was at some point secreted at Rennes-le-Chateau occurred during the seventeenth century, when a shepherd called Ignace Paris went looking for a lost sheep. Ignace stumbled on the entrance to a cave, and went inside to look. He found himself in a crypt. The crypt was littered with coffers, under the dead gaze of several skeletons. Amazingly the coffers were filled with gold coins. Naturally Ignace helped himself, and with his pockets full of gold returned to his village, where he was quizzed. When he refused to tell anyone where the vault was, he was accused of theft and executed. Much later, in 1885, the church of Rennes-le-Chateau received a new curate - Berenger Sauniere, who fared a good deal better than Ignace. Initially Sauniere was taken in and looked after by a family more impoverished than he. Their name was Denarnaud. Somehow Sauniere was granted church permission to move the Denarnaud family into the presbytery, and he arranged also for Marie - the Denarnaud daughter, still then a teenager - to help him run the church. Thereafter he and Marie became lifelong companions. In 1891 Sauniere raised funds to carry out restoration work to the church, in the course of which it was found that the altar pillars were hollow. Inside one pillar were four or five sealed wooden rolls, one of which contained a parchment. This parchment bore an inscription, its text a mix of French and Latin, which at first glance appeared to be a passage from the Gospels. The mayor got to hear of it and was soon asking Sauniere all about it. Satisfied that the mayor would never on his own interpret the text, Sauniere showed it him, and offered the view that the parchments were to do with the Revolution, but were without real value. That temporarily kept the mayor quiet, though Sauniere called a halt to his restoration project. In February 1892 it is believed that Sauniere went to Paris. Here he sought the help of church paleographers, who examined the parchment text. At this time Sauniere also made a few social calls - notably on Emma Calve, world-famous opera star and friend to Claude Debussy. He and Emma entered a relationship that was destined to endure. Probably as a result of the paleographers'' findings, Sauniere next headed off to the Louvre, where he acquired a copy of Poussin''s Shepherds of Arcadia. Poussin was a Renaissance painter, born near Paris in 1594, and who died in Rome in 1665, where he had spent most of his working life. He is known today principally for his scenes from the Bible and from Greco-Roman antiquity, of which Shepherds of Arcadia might be said to be an example. With his print and his paleographers'' report, Sauniere returned to Rennes-le-Chateau, having assembled sufficient information to locate whatever treasure was hidden in or around or beneath his church. Evidently one of the parchments yielded a measurement from the church altar to a position outside called the ''castle''. The documents also drew attention to a specific tomb in the churchyard - that of Marie de Negri D''Ables, Dame d''Hautpoul de Blanchefort - whose grave- and headstone bore slightly eccentric inscriptions. These turned out to provide a key to the encrypted text of his parchments, which Sauniere was now able to decode. When he and Marie dug, it was at the entrance to a vault, whose treasures were intact. Inevitably Sauniere may have sold certain pieces, and thereby amassed his fortune. Whatever was the case, he returned to his restoration work, now conceiving it on a far larger scale than before. The presbytery was repaired and a new wall put up round the churchyard. New works included a summer house, a rock garden, fountains. The five-kilometre cart track that led to the village Sauniere remade nearby as a modern highway. He purchased houses and land. He and Marie kept open house for the local gentry, and persons such as Emma Calve were known to visit. Generally both he and Marie lived high, with Sauniere careful enough to cover his tracks. Title deeds were put in Marie''s name, and the inscriptions on the Blanchefort grave- and headstone he obliterated (not knowing that a written copy had previously been made). The mayor called round again, superficially angered at Sauniere''s treatment of the tomb, but in truth curious as to his new-found wealth. Sauniere fobbed him off, with food, wine and cash, as was also the case with the bishop of Carcassonne, who himself came snooping. Undeterred, Sauniere went on with his projects. He built a villa, with ramparts and a tower, where he installed an extensive library. Soon after that the then bishop of Carcassonne retired. His successor, a Monsignor de Beausejour, was a little more forceful, and demanded to know the source of Sauniere''s wealth. Sauniere prevaricated. The bishop had him summoned to the court of Rome, and suspended. A new priest came to Rennes-le-Chateau, but was given the cold shoulder - not only by Sauniere, but by the villagers, whose loyalties hadn''t changed. Eventually the bishop accepted defeat. In January 1917 Sauniere arranged for a new water supply to the entire village, work that he himself didn''t live to see carried out. He died on 22nd January of cirrhosis of the liver (all that high living), leaving Marie as his sole beneficiary. That left Marie as the only person who knew his secret - which meant Marie was richly provided for throughout the remainder of her life. She shut herself away, and for many years lived as a recluse. In 1946, a M. Corbu and his wife came to live with her. To M. Corbu she related her fantastic story. She promised him her house and told him his future was certain to be secure, while not exactly saying how. The bad news for Corbu