by Paul Smith

from PrioryOfSion Website

 

Preliminary Note:

 

The Rennes-le-Château "mystery" was created during the mid-1950s when Noël Corbu opened a restaurant in the Villa Béthanie and needed a publicity gimmick to attract custom. A lot of the allegations concerning the Abbé Bérenger Saunière (his discovery of parchments, his 1891/92 trip to Paris, his immense wealth, etc) are simply post-1956 accretions – there simply was no "mystery" during the priest’s lifetime. For example, the priest’s Estate was only valued at 18,000 Francs in 1913 by the Crédit Foncier de France when Saunière was desperately in need of money and had asked it for a loan.

 


  • 1885
    Abbé François-Bérenger Saunière appointed parish priest of Rennes-le-Château.

    4 and 18 October 1885 - French General Elections

    The Abbé Bérenger Saunière delivered a political sermon from his pulpit by reading one of the articles from the local religious paper, La Semaine Religieuse de Carcassonne (which ran a series of articles about those elections in its issues, aimed at the ‘enemies of the Church’, dated 13 September, 27 September, 4 October, 11 October, and 18 October 1885).

    It is not known which of the above articles Saunière read from his pulpit, but it probably would have been the one dated 11 October that contained the following sentences:

    • "The victory is not yet complete. The ballot poll, fixed at Sunday October 18, must ensure our triumph or deliver us yet to the keen enemies of the Religion and Fatherland. The moment is thus solemn and it is necessary to employ all our forces against our adversaries. That is our great concern.... Yes, let us act, pray, amend ourselves, make penitence; and perhaps we will obtain that this day of October 18, becomes for us a day of delivery".

     

    Saunière would have asked his parishioners to vote for the ‘Union of the Right’, dedicated to the reversal of the anticlerical legislations of the Republican Government and towards the restoration of the French Monarchy – this Party was comprised of a coalition of the Conservatives, the Bonapartists and the Monarchists – with the Monarchists being the most successful part of the coalition during the 1885 elections winning the most Seats.

    It was this success by the Monarchists within the ‘Union of the Right’ coalition, by gaining so many extra Seats, that forced the Republic into introducing the Law of Exile in 1886 banishing all the French Royal Heads from France.

    On 8th February 1884 there appeared the Papal Encyclical of Leo XIII, ‘Nobilissima Gallorum Gens’ - ‘To the Most Noble French Nation’, On the Religious Question in France - addressed to the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of France - mentioning that France was alienating itself from its past Catholic Traditions and that it had to do all it could to restore those values.


    30 October 1885 – Mgr Billard receives a complaint from the Minister of Religion relating to the ‘reprehensible behaviour’ of four clerics during the electoral period of 1885 and asking for their transfers.

    15 November 1885 – Mgr Billard responded by stating that Saunière had no intention of attacking the Government, but had the right as the Defender of Religion to read an article from La Semaine Religieuse de Carcassonne, "to give advice to the voters of his parish in the presence of anti-Christian anti-Concordat programmes of several candidates of the deputation".

    2 December 1885 – René Goblet, the Minister of Religion, wrote to Mgr Billard stating that he had suspended four priests in the Rennes-le-Château region:

    B.Saunière, curate at Rennes-le-Château; Tailhan, curate at Roullens; Jean, curate at Bourriège and Delmas, vicar at Alet.

    13 December 1885 – Article appeared in La Semaine Religieuse de Carcassonne, criticising the suspension of the four priests by the Minister of Religion, mentioning:

    • "To the long list of priests who became victim of a systematic persecution since the last electoral period, are to be added the names of four priests of the diocese: Jean - Tailhan - Delmas- Saunière. M. the Prefect of the Aude has notified them a Ministerial decision that suppresses their salary, from 1st December 1885. Their Bishop opposed in vain a firm and dignified justification to the accusations carried against them; there was sorrow to see that M. the Minister of Religion didn't take any account of it. The blabbers triumphed. Can they understand the gravity of their fault, seeing the consequences in their respective dioceses of their malevolent denouncement...?"

     

    1885 election results: Republicans 383 seats; 'Union of Right' 201 seats (Royalists 73 seats; Bonapartists 65 seats; Conservatives 63 seats).
     

  • 1886
    Abbé Bérenger Saunière temporarily transferred to the Seminary of Narbonne for delivering anti-Republican, right-wing sermons during the elections.

    Republican Government confirmed the Law exiling the Heads of the Royal Houses from French soil (repealed after the Second World War).
     

  • 1887
    The Royalist politician, Baron de Mackau, instrumental in forming the alliance between French Royalists and General Georges Boulanger, becoming a most important intermediary between the two forces. Royalists hoped to use Boulanger as a ‘battering ram’ to topple the Republic. Boulanger was also backed by Radical politicians hoping to make him into the standard-bearer of constitutional revision in order to create a more democratic Republic.

    Bérenger Saunière reinstated at Rennes-le-Château: began renovating his church. New altar (with the help of a donation from Mme. Marie Cavailhé) and stained-glass windows installed in his church.
     

  • 1889
    1889 election results: Republicans 366 seats; Right 210 seats (Royalists 86 seats; Boulangists 72 seats; Bonapartists 52 seats).

    General Georges Boulanger elected in Paris on 27 January – seeking to gain the Catholic vote, offering religious peace and stability within a Republican framework.

    • "The clergy intervened more openly in the elections than in previous ones, taking a stand against the Republicans, who had just passed the law establishing 3 years military service and obliging seminarists, like students and future members of the teaching profession, to serve for a year. The military law and the educational laws were from then on the Catholics' great subject of protest."

      - J-M Mayeur & M Reberioux, The Third Republic from its Origins to the Great War, 1871-1914; Cambridge University Press, 1977.

     

    General Boulanger's speech in Tours on 17 March (written by Naquet):

    • "No one among the conservatives who follows me does me the insult of saying that I support the Republic in order to betray it."

     

    General Boulanger later fled to Belgium following threats of arrest for plotting to overthrow the state – he was tried in abstentia by the Senate sitting at a high court and was condemned to life imprisonment.

    On an Episcopal visit to Rennes-le-Château, Mgr Billard congratulated Saunière on everything he had done, consoling him, and encouraging him, in spite of all the difficulties that he had encountered, to try and continue his pastoral ministry.
     

  • 1891
    Monsignor Billard, Bishop of Carcassonne, inherits 1,200,000 Francs from the widow Madame Rose Denise Marguerite Victorine Sabatier of Coursan – not in his capacity as Bishop, but in his own private person (the Bishop was an active anti-Republican).

    Pope Leo XIII sanctioned a local Feast of the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes, authorizing a proper office and mass.

    Ceremony 21 June 1891: Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Visigothic Pillar installed by Bérenger Saunière at Rennes-le-Château, in the presence of a Lazarist from the church of Notre-Dame de Marceille. (Père Emmanuel d'Alzon, the founder of the Assumptionist Order, regarded Lourdes as the symbol of the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy.)

    Formation of ‘Union of Christian France’:

    • 'Co-operation of Christians and all respectable people, whatever their political opinions, to defend and demand unanimously civil, social and religious liberties.'
       

    In Toulouse on 19 July, Comte d'Haussonville, representative of the Comte de Paris, expressed the view that it was,

    • 'extremely probable' that at the next elections the candidates of the monarchist committees would identify themselves with those of the committees of the ‘Union of Christian France’.

     

    Archbishop of Paris, on 2 March, denounced anti-Christian sects who wanted to make 'a series of anti-religious laws the essential constitution of the Republic'.

    General Georges Boulanger died (Saunière noted in his journal for 30 September 1891: "Mort de Boulanger").
     

  • 1892
    Pope Leo XIII calls to French Catholics to rally in support of the Republic, putting to an end the solidarity between the Church and the Monarchists (‘Union of Catholic France’ dissolved soon afterwards).

    From 'La Croix':

    • "Let us attack these unfortunate laws and let us urge all Catholics - royalists, Bonapartists, republicans - to unite their efforts in order to try loyally establish a Christian Republic in France".

     

    'La Croix' accepted the Tricolor but only on condition that the white part bore a picture of the Sacred Heart, the sign of the consecration of the Republic to Christ. – J-M Mayeur & M Reberioux, The Third Republic from its Origins to the Great War, 1871-1914 (Cambridge University Press; 1977).
     

  • 1893
    1893 election results: Republicans 488 seats; Right 93 seats (Monarchists 58 seats; 'ralliès' 35 seats).

    Church of Notre-Dame de Marceille purchased by Monsignor Billard, the Bishop of Carcassonne.
     

  • 1894
    Philippe VIII, becomes the Orleanist Pretender to the French Throne.

    The National Pilgrimage to Lourdes was an overtly anti-Republican protest.
     

  • 1895
    Sanctions imposed against Saunière by the local Parish Council on 20 July for his refusal to assist in putting out a fire in the village on 14 July – Bastille Day.
     

  • 1896
    Bérenger Saunière’s selling of masses activities takes-off on a Grand Scale – with it becoming noticed by his superiors at the Bishopric of Carcassonne. Saunière advertised in religious magazines, journals and papers around the world, and the requests for masses just poured in – the priest had cashed-in on a religious activity during the height of the conflict between Church and State in France 1885-1905.
     

  • 1897
    Bérenger Saunière made major additions to his Church – installing the statues of the Saints, the Stations of the Cross, the ornate Baptismal Font, the Holy-Water Stoup, and a Bas-Relief of Jesus Christ on the Mount above the Confessional.

    The Baptismal Font depicted the Baptism of Christ, symbolizing the restoration of the French Monarchy; whilst the Holy Water Stoup was decorated with the figure of the Devil, symbolizing the vanquishing of the French Republic. The imagery was obviously regarded as a preliminary to the forthcoming 1898 French General Election.

    Monarchy                                                      Republic


    6 June 1897 – Saunière’s church re-consecrated by Monsignor Billard, the Bishop of Carcassonne in the company of R. P. Mercier, a Lazarist priest from the Church of Notre Dame de Marceille.

    The Calvary that was installed at Rennes-le-Château contained the opening-line to the French Coronation Anthem: Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!

    Bérenger Saunière was to write to Monsieur Giscard, the supplier of the additions to his Church:

     

    • Dear Monsieur Giscard,

      Our splendid Pentecost celebrations, which were accompanied by a temporary suspension of our mission and by the visit of our Lord Bishop, have made it impossible for me to acknowledge sooner the receipt of all the items – as rich as they are varied – that your firm has kindly supplied to us, and to tell you something of the effect they have made on the countless people who have seen them. Before a crowd that was much too large for our little church, His Grace cast his eye over all the beautiful items amassed in the House of God: statues, bas-reliefs, pulpits, Ways of the Cross, a font – nothing was overlooked. But what especially caught his eye were the piscina, the font and the bas-relief. He especially liked the last of these, and spent a long time studying it in great detail. He asked me in front of everybody who the artist was who had so beautifully rendered the scene of 'Come ye all to me'. Of course, I told him your name. And then, probably without even knowing you, he started praising you in the highest possible terms in front of all my many colleagues. The next day – Monday – we had some visitors, not only from neighbouring parishes but also from very far afield and, according to many people, news of all these wonderful objects has spread all over the département. Deo gratias! I'm delighted above all for you, Monsieur Giscard, since your name, which is already being passed around among those many colleagues of mine who attended the Pentecost celebrations, is certainly destined to become famous. Thank God, and may your excellent firm prosper even-more. This is what I ask heaven to grant to you all.

      B. SAUNIÈRES [sic], Priest.

       

  • 1898
    1898 election results: Republicans 489 seats; Right 96 seats (Monarchists 44 seats; 'ralliés' 32 seats; Nationalists 6 seats; Révisionists 4 seats; Diverse 10 seats).

    Monsignor Billard, Bishop of Carcassonne, struck down with paralysis – having also been suspended from his post for,

    • "having administered the assets of his diocese in the most irregular fashion and for having contracted staggering debts, which were completely unjustified"

      (Simon Laborde, Biographical notice on Monsignor Billard, late Bishop of Carcassonne, 1902).

     

  • 1899

    • "At the end of 1899, the diocesan bishop had put Saunière's name forward for approval by the préfet as a 'personnat' [a benefice in a cathedral that took precedence over the canons]. This proposal, as was then the custom, involved an official investigation, which was entrusted to the sous-préfet of Limoux. On 16 October 1899 this official replied to the préfet: "Monsieur Saunière is comfortably off. He has no family responsibilities. His conduct is good. He professes anti-government views. Attitude: militant reactionary. Negative recommendation"

      (*Arch. Aude, series O. Rennes). Abbé Saunière was not appointed to a personnat." – René Descadeillas, Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes (1974), page 28.
       

  • 1900
    Pope Leo XIII consecrates the whole human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
     

  • 1901
    LAW OF ASSOCIATIONS: promulgated by the French Government according to which no religious congregations could be formed without authorization from the State. Congregations had to submit an annual list of members, property, and financial status that had to be submitted to the Government authorities on request.
     

  • 1901-1905
    Bérenger Saunière builds his Estate: the Villa Béthanie; the Tour Magdala, the Gardens and Terraces, etc.
     

  • 1902
    1902 election results: Republicans 465 seats; Right 124 seats (Conservatives 89 seats; Liberals 35 seats).

    Monsignor Paul-Félix Beuvain de Beauséjour replaces Monsignor Paul-Félix-Arséne Billard as the Bishop of Carcassonne.
     

  • 1905
    Separation of the Church from State in France. Bérenger Saunière from this moment in time begins to live in poverty, the demise of his success in his selling of masses activities (what little he made from this point on was spent on his future legal fees relating to his Court Battles with his superiors at the Carcassonne Bishopric).
     

  • 1906
    Pope Pius X condemned the separation of the Church from State in France in two encyclicals.

    1906 election results: Republicans 441 seats; Right 174 seats (Conservatives 78 seats; Liberals 66 seats; Nationalists 30 seats).
     

  • 1907
    Pope Pius X extends the Feast of the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes to the whole church.
     

  • 1909
    Bérenger Saunière transferred to Coustouge: replaced by Abbé Marty at Rennes-le-Château. The Town Mayor wrote a letter of complaint in response to the Carcassonne Bishopric, advising the Bishop that the Presbytery would not be made available to any replacement priest.
     

  • 1910
    27 May 1910 – The Bishop’s Court of Carcassonne began an investigation into Bérenger Saunière’s activities at Rennes-le-Château, the bill of indictment referred to:

    • Trafficking in Masses

    • Disobedience to the Bishop (continuing to request fees for masses outside the diocese despite being forbidden to do so by the Bishop)

    • Exaggerated and unjustified expenses (resulting from receiving money for unsaid masses)

     

    Bérenger Saunière refused to appear before the Bishop’s Court on 16 July 1910 – and on 23 July 1910 was suspended of his priesthood for one month, and ordered to return the money that he was not able to say masses for [First Judgment]. Saunière was summoned again to appear before the Court on 23 August 1910 – but he managed to change the date to 15 October 1910 – and was instead represented by his Lawyer Canon Huguet – resulting in Saunière having to appear before the Court on 5 November 1910 – on which occasion Saunière actually appeared, and was sentenced to undertake spiritual exercises for 10 days at a monastery and to appear before the Bishop within one month producing documents of proof relating to his activities [Second Judgment]. It was during the hearing of 5 November 1910 that the following statement was made in the said Sentence:

    • CONSIDERING that Abbé Bérenger Saunière admits to having requested and obtained a considerable number of Masses, without contesting the figures given by the Official Prosecutor.

       

    This contradicts the claims Saunière made when he provided a List of Donors at his Trial totalling a huge sum of 193,000 Francs that he claimed to have received (including a sum of 3,000 Francs that he had allegedly received from the Comtesse de Chambord!) – claiming to have spent it on the renovations of his church and on the building of his estate – the more realistic estimate would have been in the region of 70,000 Francs, as Saunière himself claimed in the original drafts for his defense – and Saunière could only account for around 36,000 francs of his expenditure at his Trial. The reason for Saunière "inflating" his figures was simple: to divert attention away from a sum small enough to have been gained through the selling of masses.

     

    1910 election results: Republicans 441 seats; Right 149 seats (Conservatives 129 seats; Liberals 20 seats).

    • "I don't see what could prevent you from living in Lourdes, as we cannot go to Lourdes this week I am dropping the idea for this year" – Part of a letter to Bérenger Saunière from Abbé Gazel, the curé of Floure, dated 12 September 1910.

    5 December 1910 – La Semaine Religieuse de Carcassonne announced that Bérenger Saunière no longer had the right to say masses.
     

  • 1911
    The Bishop of Carcassonne issued a strong warning against Bérenger Saunière in February, accusing him of selling masses without his consent and forbidding him to administer the Sacraments.

     

    • La Semaine Religieuse De Carcassonne, 3 February 1911
      COMMUNICATION OF THE BISHOPRIC
      Relative advice to M. l’Abbé Saunière
      Former priest of Rennes-le-Château

      Following an account dated 11 December 1910, in the supplement to Nr13 of VEILLEES DES CHAUMIERES, thus: Always as before inform Violette de l’Aisne, that M. l’Abbé Saunière, in retreat at Rennes-le-Château, by Couiza (Aude), France, performs masses at 1 Franc per time and is obliged to receive money for other religious works, literary articles, pamphlets, stamps, etc.

      The Diocesan authority of Carcassonne deems it right to inform the faithful of this diocese, and so far as is able to inform other dioceses:

      • 1* That M. l’Abbé Saunière, former priest of Rennes-le-Château, is in no way authorised to demand beyond this diocese, or to receive from other dioceses, money for saying masses;
         

      • 2* That he has not been given any assignment or authorisation, to undertake or conduct any works whatever having as their objective the (Catholic) Ritual.

       

      Carcassonne, 1 February 1911

     

    On 5 December 1911 the Carcassonne Bishopric imposed a Third and Final Judgement on Bérenger Saunière: after citing a list of indictments against the priest involving disobediences against the Bishop, the following Sentence was passed:

    • "We condemn the priest Abbé Bérenger Saunière to a suspension a divinis for a period of three months, effective from the day of the notification of the present sentence, which suspension in any case will continue until he has undertaken the restitution into the hands of the rightful owner and according to canon law of the goods misappropriated by him."


    Since it was impossible for Bérenger Saunière to return the money that he had accepted for unsaid masses, the three month suspension turned out to be permanent, and the only hope Saunière had was to appeal against the Sentence to the Vatican, which proved unsuccessful (Saunière in fact began protesting to the Vatican about his treatment from 15 October 1910 onwards). Saunière never regained his priesthood following this Sentence.

     

  • 1913
    The Crédit Foncier de France offered Bérenger Saunière a 6,000 Francs loan, having valued the priest’s Estate at 18,000 Francs, after he had asked it for a loan to clear his debts.
     

  • 1914
    1914 election results: Republicans 475 seats; Right 120 seats (dont Fédération rép. 37; Action liberté 23; divers droite 15; non inscrits 45).
     

  • 1915-1917
    Bérenger Saunière enjoyed a second period of success at selling masses – although not as successful as during the 1896-1905 first period – France was at War and the priest received requests for masses from neighbouring dioceses, despite his interdiction.
     

  • 1916
    Saunière undertakes a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
     

  • 1917
    Bérenger Saunière died: his suspension from priestly duties only being lifted in articulo mortis ("at the moment of death"). He was not described as a priest in the Obituary column of Semaine Religieuse de Carcassonne dated 27th January. Marie Dénarnaud could not afford to pay for his coffin until 12 June 1917. Claims that Bérenger Saunière was immensely rich in 1917 and had ambitions to undertake another building project were the inventions of Noel Corbu during the 1950s.
     

  • 1925
    The Testimony of Monsieur Espeut from Perpignan:

    • "...I would like to state that the Abbé Saunière never found any treasure. You see, I was actually born in Espéraza. My family knew the Dénarnaud family. In 1925, when I was 14 years old, I used to go up regularly to Rennes-le-Château. I used to go and see Marie Dénarnaud. She was living in rather pitiable circumstances. I did my harmony lessons on the organs in the salon, which have now disappeared. In the library of the Tour Magdala, I read all the correspondence of the priest with his ecclesiastical lawyer at the time of his trial at the court of Rome. It was by collecting money for saying masses that the Abbé Saunière was able to construct his estate. He published small ads in the Catholic press throughout the world. I was able to read their texts, and I have seen thousands of replies. I would also like to state that, between the ages of 15 and 20, I thoroughly searched the area within a 500-metre radius of the Villa and the Tour Magdala. I never found the slightest evidence of a hidden treasure. I am telling you this out of respect for the truth..."

      (Midi Libre, 13 February, 1973).
       

  • 1946
    Marie Dénarnaud bequeathed Saunière’s Estate to Noel Corbu.
     

  • 1949-1954
    Jean Bousquet village schoolmaster at Rennes-le-Château, and a lodger with the Corbu family. His testimony:

    • "As for Mademoiselle Marie, she has, on each and every occasion, evaded the questions that I was able to put to her regarding, in particular, the source of Saunière's fortune. And yet, for 5 years, we even took our meals together at the table of Monsieur and Madame Corbu (who had been kind enough to offer me lodgings). Since I am mentioning Monsieur and Madame Corbu, let me say that I cannot ever praise their generosity and their kindness highly enough. They looked after Mademoiselle Marie with a great deal of affection, and for me they were the most charming of hosts. I shall always revere their memory."

      (Cited by Gilbert Tappa in Les Cahiers de Rennes-le-Château, volume 3; 1989.)
       

  • 1953
    Marie Dénarnaud died aged 85 – Corbu inherits her archives relating to Bérenger Saunière.
     

  • 1956
    The Beginning of the Myth of Rennes-le-Château: Albert Salamon’s La Fabuleuse Découverte du Curé aux Milliards de Rennes-le-Château (La Dépêche de Midi 12, 13 and 14 January) – claiming that Saunière had discovered a treasure – using Noel Corbu as his source.
     

  • 1958
    Robert Charroux unsuccessfully scanned Rennes-le-Château for gold and jewels using a metal-detector. The beginning of the Pilgrimages to Rennes-le-Château by those duped into the now-quickly escalating post-1956 myths and legends.
     

  • 1959
    Jacques Cholet, a Professor from Paris, undertook official excavations in the church of Rennes-le-Château, yielding negative results:

    • "On my own account I excavated both under and behind the altar but found nothing. I also excavated in line with and in front of the altar – again nothing.….I was also made to tear up the floor of the church, starting from the pulpit: my sponsor, a pendulum enthusiast, had located the entrance of the underground passageways there – but we found nothing. I persevered as far as the foundations of the church, digging as far as virgin soil. We found the outline of numerous empty vaults. We resumed the same task along the south wall, with approximately the same result, the only difference being that all the human remains, which were missing on the other side, had been placed there higgledy-piggledy. On the advice of a female clairvoyant we were urged to excavate behind the altar – but found nothing."

      (Cholet's Report, dated 25 April 1967.)
       

  • 1962
    Noel Corbu’s Essai Historique sur Rennes-le-Château – a five paged manuscript deposited in the ‘Archives de l’Aude’ in Carcassonne – being a possible transcript of a 1955/1956 tape-recording made for the guests to Corbu’s restaurant in the Villa Béthanie.
     

  • 1964
    Saunière’s Estate sold by Noel Corbu to Henri Buthion (Corbu was later killed in a car accident in 1968).
     

  • 1967
    Gérard de Sède’s L’Or de Rennes – primary addition to the myth-making process – the impact of which was to last for decades, despite its rebuttal by Monsignor George Boyer, the Vicar-General of the Bishopric of Carcassonne, who also wrote:

    • "That the Abbé Saunière could have received the last sacraments two days after his death is absolutely incredible. And that dear old Abbé Rivière, the curé of Espéraza, who died in 1929, and who was the Dean of Coursan (where I got to know him well) never smiled again after the death of the Abbé Saunière, to whom he had administered extreme unction, is another puzzling statement, as I myself saw him roar with laughter."
       

  • 1974
    René Descadeillas, Mythologie du Trésor de Rennes: Histoire Veritable de L'Abbé Saunière, Curé de Rennes-Le-Château (Mémoires de la Société des Arts et des Sciences de Carcassonne, Annees 1971-1972, 4me série, Tome VII, 2me partie; 1974). [Reprinted in 1991 by Editions Collot, Carcassonne.]
     

  • 1983
    Jacques Rivière, Le Fabuleux Trésor de Rennes-Le-Château! Le Secret de L'Abbé Saunière (Editions Bélisane; 1983).
     

  • 1985
    Pierre Jarnac, Histoire Du Trésor de Rennes-Le-Château (L'Association pour le développement de la lecture; 1985).
     

  • 1985
    Claire Corbu & Antoine Captier, L'Héritage De L'Abbé Saunière (Editions Bélisane; 1985).
     

  • 1987-1988
    Pierre Jarnac, Les Archives De Rennes-Le-Château, Tome 1 & 2. (Editions Bélisane; 1987-1988).
     

  • 1989
    Abbé Bruno de Monts, Bérenger Saunière, Curé à Rennes-Le-Château 1885-1909 (Editions Bélisane;1989)
     

  • 1989
    Formation of Association Terre de Rhedae – devoted to the history of Rennes-le-Château with its then President, Claire Corbu-Captier, also being the Curator of the ‘Saunière Museum’.
     

  • 1990
    Jean-Jacques Bedu, Rennes-Le-Château: Autopsie d'un mythe (Ed. Loubatières; 31120 Portet-sur-Garonne; 1990).
     

  • 1996
    Vinciane Denis, Rennes-Le-Château, Le trésor de l'abbé Saunière (Editions Marabout, Collection "les Grands Formats"; 1996).
     

  • 2003
    Excavations conducted beneath the Tour Magdala on 20 August 2003 by Professors Eisenman and Baratollo in search of treasure yielded negative results – the project dated from April 2001 and was based upon taking seriously the myths and legends about Bérenger Saunière found in pseudo-historical books. The scholars had overlooked titles by René Descadeillas (1974), Abbé Bruno de Monts (1989) and Jean-Jacques Bedu (1990).