The Code vs. history
Separating fact from fiction
BRIAN BETHUNE | Dec 20, 2004
The 24 breathless hours covered in The Da Vinci Code take place against an enormous backdrop of 2,000 years of alternative Western history. None of it is original to Brown. As his plot requires, he dips into a rich stew of wild conspiracy theories more than a century old and serious works from contemporary feminist scholars. Alt history vs. the official line:
c. 30 - 325 CE
CODE Jesus and Mary Magdalene, both of royal Jewish blood, marry. After Jesus's death, his pregnant wife flees to safety in France. Mary Magdalene, who male Church leaders later deliberately malign as a prostitute, is really the incarnation of the feminine principle, the Christian version of a pagan goddess in a world much more woman-friendly than now. She becomes the true Holy Grail, as a proper understanding of the words will show: the Old French Sangreal should not be separated after the "n"(San Greal or Holy Grail), but after the "g"(sang real or blood royal).
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FACT It's not much of a leg to stand on, but no one can prove Jesus and Mary Magdalene weren't married, and the supposition that early female disciples were prominent among Christ's followers is reasonable. In 591 CE an influential pope, Gregory I, did confuse Mary Magdalene with a sinful woman elsewhere mentioned in Scripture, thereby setting in motion later medieval legends about her. The Church issued a correction in 1969. As for the royal bloodlines, the spurious etymology and the idea Christians did not think their saviour was divine -- not a chance.
4TH CENTURY
CODE Pagan Roman Emperor Constantine decides to use Christianity to unite his empire. Wanting a divinity-based religion like the paganism he knew, Constantine calls the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and commissions a new Bible, throwing out any of the 80 or so gospels extant that tell the whole truth about Jesus(only Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are left). Excluded books are banned and burned, almost burying the true story for all time. Women-hating clerics eagerly join the bandwagon, denying Jesus's marriage and driving the sacred feminine right out of Christianity.
FACT What 80 gospels? Long before Nicaea, today's four Gospels were the most authoritative books in the faith; far from denying Christ's humanity, they tell how he suffered, died and was buried.
AFTER NICAEA
CODE Jesus's descendants marry into the Merovingian family and become the famous long-haired kings of France(476 to 750 CE). Even after they're deposed -- and supposedly exterminated -- by a Church-backed conspiracy, secret descendants survive.
FACT The Merovingians have always fascinated conspiracy theorists. Those who believe they were the descendants of extraterrestrials from the star Sirius make the Grail theorists look sober.
THE FIRST CRUSADE 1095
CODE The Church launches it, in part at least, to find and destroy records in the Holy Land pertaining to Jesus's family and his true mission. Unknown to the pope, one Crusade leader, Godefroy de Bouillon, is a secret descendent of Jesus.
FACT The Crusades' complex mix of motives did not include archaeological research.
THE PRIORY OF SION AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
CODE After conquering Jerusalem in 1099, Godefroy founds the Priory to protect his family secret. The Priory, which keeps to the shadows, creates a public military wing, the Templars, in 1119.
FACT The Templars are certainly known to history, as well as to seemingly every esoteric theory ever concocted, but the Priory was invented by a shady Frenchman named Pierre Plantard in 1956. An old friend, one of the founding members, told the BBC in 1996 that Plantard "always had a great imagination."
THE RISE OF THE TEMPLARS
CODE After secret excavations under the Jerusalem temple, the knights find something of enormous value. Back in Europe, it solidified their power and wealth overnight. Grail enthusiasts are split on whether the find was treasure or Grail documents, or both. The Code doesn't commit itself. If it was the documents alone, theorists assume the knights grew rich by using them to blackmail the papacy.
FACT In the current film National Treasure, the Templars discover a vast haul of gold(which eventually finds its way into the hands of George Washington and, later, Nicolas Cage). Equally believable.
FALL OF THE TEMPLARS
CODE In 1307, fed up with the Templars, Pope Clement V sends sealed orders to his troops across Europe, to be opened simultaneously on Fri., Oct. 13(which is why Friday the 13th is now thought unlucky). Countless knights were swept up, tortured and burned at the stake. But many escape capture and go underground -- they influence world events to this day. And the precious documents, held by the secret Priory, eluded the papal grasp.
FACT Crucifixion on Good Friday, 13 at the unlucky Last Supper -- these are why Friday the 13th was a scary day long before 1307. As for Church troops stationed across Europe, the pope could only dream. Clement was wandering about Provence at the time, looking for a permanent base. He was politically under the thumb of the French king, the man who actually issued the sealed orders to his officers in his realm. And the Knights Templar are long gone.
MODERN TIMES
CODE Since the destruction of the Templars, the Priory of Sion has carried on -- often under such leaders as Victor Hugo or Leonardo da Vinci -- seeding clues everywhere while awaiting the right moment to reveal all. Brown, to his credit, does tackle a tricky question. If going public will restore the sacred feminine to a place of honour, why is the Priory waiting? A Grail guardian says that letting the story be told via the arts -- the better to have it seep into our cultural DNA -- is working.
FACT The Priory(remember Pierre Plantard?)wasn't led by an artistic elite, because the Priory never existed. Nonetheless, the stealth process of getting the story out through artistic works strikes a chord. Non-fiction versions get laughed out of bookstores; The Da Vinci Code has sold 17 million copies.
