Philippe de Chérisey
Encyclopedia
The marquess Philippe de Chérisey (13 February 1923, Paris
– 17 July 1985) was a French
writer, radio humorist, and actor (under the name of Amédée). He is best known for his involvement in the creation of fake documents
relating to the activities of the Priory of Sion
1962-1985.
, De Chérisey decided to become an actor against the family's wishes. He enrolled in the Simon school in 1946 where he started his actor's training, and his most notable film appearance was in Jeux interdits in 1952. He was known as a bon viveur and enjoyed wine on a regular basis. He also regularly frequented public libraries where his natural curiosity made him follow up anything that took his fancy.
He is most well-known for being the #2 man in the Priory of Sion
hoax
, with his most important contribution probably being the forging of a set of medieval documents for his friend Pierre Plantard
. The documents "verified" Plantard's alleged descent from the Frankish king Dagobert II
, as well as attempting to verify the existence of an alleged 1000-year-old secret society, the Priory of Sion. These were reproduced in the 1968
paperback
Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château by a third associate, Gérard de Sède
. The book claimed to be about an alleged hidden treasure found by a 19th century priest in southern France. The two sets of documents were later used as source material for the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
, which was itself used as a primary source for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code
, which incorrectly stated that the Priory of Sion was a factual society. Other documents, containing fake genealogies, were planted in the French National Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris throughout the 1960s and the 1970s.
Philippe De Chérisey was a follower of the surrealist movement and a member of the College of Pataphysics, with a desire to subvert the norms of culture, or in other words, create an alternate reality that became more real than reality itself. He was also a joker, with the best example of this being his esoteric novella "Circuit" (1968) which also includes satirical overtones. He was also prone, like his friend Plantard, to adopt the persona of recently deceased persons. In 1977 he penned an attack against the historian René Descadeillas who had written a book refuting the fantasies pertaining to the Priory of Sion and Plantard, entitled Le Cercle d’Ulysse (a word play for ‘Le Cercle du Lys’), and signed the piece under an 'adopted' name, Jean Delaude.
Philippe de Chérisey died in Paris
in 1985, while working to finish an encyclopedia of trema. His funeral was held at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris and he was buried in the family plot in Rœux
(Pas-de-Calais).
, an Old Latin/Greek diglot from the 5th century CE contained in the book by Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux, Dictionnaire De La Bible (1895). Philippe de Chérisey's reason for copying the passage from the Codex Bezae was his interest in the phrase "In Sabbato Secundo Primo", also found in the Gospel of Luke
6:1. Philippe de Chérisey stated: "This phrase has given headaches to the anonymous (secret) societies. It has to be said that 'A day of Sabbath, second first' is not really translatable. No one has ever heard of that. So, as the disciples walk through a cornfield and, being hungry, eat the corn, there and then, it must mean 'Second Sabbath following the first day of the shewbread.' This is the only interpretation we could find." De Chérisey went on to provide his own interpretation: "In Sabbato Secundo Primo does not mean 'A day of Sabbath, second first' but rather 'As second in command, Sabassius became first.' What is interesting is that the witches' meetings are called 'Sabbaths', not because of the Jewish celebrations, but but because of Sabassius, god of the Phrygians".
This "parchment" also contained an encrypted message written in modern French: "À Dagobert II Roi et à Sion est ce trésor et il est là mort." (translated as "To King Dagobert II and to Sion does this treasure belong, and he is there, dead").
De Chérisey also chose to copy material from Vigouroux because he was a priest connected with the Church of St Sulpice
, a location that had been exploited as part of the Priory of Sion myths as created by Plantard and De Chérisey, so De Chérisey's utilisation of this priest fitted in nicely into these myths.
According to an investigation into the Priory of Sion
hoax by the American news program 60 Minutes
, the other document (parchment 2) was copied from a 19th century version of the Latin Vulgate
published by John Wordsworth and Henry J. White Novum Testamentum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi latine secundum sancti Hieronymi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889–1954), and the original forged "parchments" are now in the possession of Jean-Luc Chaumeil, a French writer, who states that he had their age analyzed, and it was confirmed that they were merely decades old, not centuries. Chaumeil also has letters by De Chérisey, which contain proof that De Chérisey was knowingly engaging in a fraud.
That Philippe de Chérisey did not understand Latin
is demonstrated in his copying of the Latin Text from the Codex Bezae for one of his "parchments": for instance, he made several of the most basic errors in copying the Latin uncial
s, which therefore garbles the spelling of multiple words. This information is frequently omitted by those who present the "parchments" as being authentic.
In an interview during the 1970s with author Jean-Luc Chaumeil, Philippe de Chérisey asserted: "the parchments of the Gospel according to Saint Luke fabricated by me and for which I pinched the uncial text from the work L'archéologie chrétienne (Christian Archaeology) by Dom Cabrol at the National Library, section C25".
Philippe de Chérisey asserted in a letter dated 29 January 1974 to French author Pierre Jarnac: "P.S. Do you know that the famous manuscripts supposedly discovered by the Abbé Saunière
were composed in 1965? And that I took responsibility for being the author?"
According to Henry Lincoln
, one of the co-authors of Holy Blood Holy Grail
, Plantard admitted to him in person that the various documents had been forged, and identified De Chérisey as their creator.
French author Pierre Jarnac reproduced part of a letter dated 22 May 1985 from Pierre Plantard: "You need to know only that I have no involvement whatsoever with the 'deathless prose' of Monsieur Philippe de Chérisey, who was the co-author with Monsieur Paul Rouelle of the book COURT-CIRCUIT, lodged with the BN in December 1984 or January 1985, which dragged my name through the mud. The Marquis de Chérisey was a good friend of mine from university days, but I very often disapprove of his books which are really quite bizarre."
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– 17 July 1985) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer, radio humorist, and actor (under the name of Amédée). He is best known for his involvement in the creation of fake documents
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
relating to the activities of the Priory of Sion
Priory of Sion
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard...
1962-1985.
Biography
Coming from a wealthy family in the LorraineLorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
, De Chérisey decided to become an actor against the family's wishes. He enrolled in the Simon school in 1946 where he started his actor's training, and his most notable film appearance was in Jeux interdits in 1952. He was known as a bon viveur and enjoyed wine on a regular basis. He also regularly frequented public libraries where his natural curiosity made him follow up anything that took his fancy.
He is most well-known for being the #2 man in the Priory of Sion
Priory of Sion
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard...
hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
, with his most important contribution probably being the forging of a set of medieval documents for his friend Pierre Plantard
Pierre Plantard
Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard was a French draughtsman, best known for being the principal perpetrator of the Priory of Sion hoax, by which he claimed from the 1960s onwards that he was a Merovingian descendant of Dagobert II and the "Great Monarch" prophesied by Nostradamus.-Surname:Pierre...
. The documents "verified" Plantard's alleged descent from the Frankish king Dagobert II
Dagobert II
Dagobert II was the king of Austrasia , the son of Sigebert III and Chimnechild of Burgundy. The Feast Date of St Dagobert II is 23 December -Biography:...
, as well as attempting to verify the existence of an alleged 1000-year-old secret society, the Priory of Sion. These were reproduced in the 1968
paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes-le-Château by a third associate, Gérard de Sède
Gérard de Sède
Géraud Marie de Sède de Liéoux was born in Paris to parents who supported the right-wing politics of Action Française....
. The book claimed to be about an alleged hidden treasure found by a 19th century priest in southern France. The two sets of documents were later used as source material for the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln....
, which was itself used as a primary source for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
, which incorrectly stated that the Priory of Sion was a factual society. Other documents, containing fake genealogies, were planted in the French National Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris throughout the 1960s and the 1970s.
Philippe De Chérisey was a follower of the surrealist movement and a member of the College of Pataphysics, with a desire to subvert the norms of culture, or in other words, create an alternate reality that became more real than reality itself. He was also a joker, with the best example of this being his esoteric novella "Circuit" (1968) which also includes satirical overtones. He was also prone, like his friend Plantard, to adopt the persona of recently deceased persons. In 1977 he penned an attack against the historian René Descadeillas who had written a book refuting the fantasies pertaining to the Priory of Sion and Plantard, entitled Le Cercle d’Ulysse (a word play for ‘Le Cercle du Lys’), and signed the piece under an 'adopted' name, Jean Delaude.
Philippe de Chérisey died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1985, while working to finish an encyclopedia of trema. His funeral was held at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris and he was buried in the family plot in Rœux
Rœux
Rœux is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Rœux lies on the banks of the Scarpe river about east of Arras at the junction of the D33, D42 and D46 roads...
(Pas-de-Calais).
Details of the forgeries
The text of one "parchment" (parchment 1) was copied from Codex BezaeCodex Bezae
The Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis, designated by siglum Dea or 05 , δ 5 , is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century written in an uncial hand on vellum. It contains, in both Greek and Latin, most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a small fragment of the 3 John...
, an Old Latin/Greek diglot from the 5th century CE contained in the book by Fulcran Grégoire Vigouroux, Dictionnaire De La Bible (1895). Philippe de Chérisey's reason for copying the passage from the Codex Bezae was his interest in the phrase "In Sabbato Secundo Primo", also found in the Gospel of Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
6:1. Philippe de Chérisey stated: "This phrase has given headaches to the anonymous (secret) societies. It has to be said that 'A day of Sabbath, second first' is not really translatable. No one has ever heard of that. So, as the disciples walk through a cornfield and, being hungry, eat the corn, there and then, it must mean 'Second Sabbath following the first day of the shewbread.' This is the only interpretation we could find." De Chérisey went on to provide his own interpretation: "In Sabbato Secundo Primo does not mean 'A day of Sabbath, second first' but rather 'As second in command, Sabassius became first.' What is interesting is that the witches' meetings are called 'Sabbaths', not because of the Jewish celebrations, but but because of Sabassius, god of the Phrygians".
This "parchment" also contained an encrypted message written in modern French: "À Dagobert II Roi et à Sion est ce trésor et il est là mort." (translated as "To King Dagobert II and to Sion does this treasure belong, and he is there, dead").
De Chérisey also chose to copy material from Vigouroux because he was a priest connected with the Church of St Sulpice
Saint-Sulpice (Paris)
Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris, France, on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the VIe arrondissement. At 113 metres long, 58 metres in width and 34 metres tall, it is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second largest church in...
, a location that had been exploited as part of the Priory of Sion myths as created by Plantard and De Chérisey, so De Chérisey's utilisation of this priest fitted in nicely into these myths.
According to an investigation into the Priory of Sion
Priory of Sion
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard...
hoax by the American news program 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, the other document (parchment 2) was copied from a 19th century version of the Latin Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
published by John Wordsworth and Henry J. White Novum Testamentum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi latine secundum sancti Hieronymi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889–1954), and the original forged "parchments" are now in the possession of Jean-Luc Chaumeil, a French writer, who states that he had their age analyzed, and it was confirmed that they were merely decades old, not centuries. Chaumeil also has letters by De Chérisey, which contain proof that De Chérisey was knowingly engaging in a fraud.
That Philippe de Chérisey did not understand Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
is demonstrated in his copying of the Latin Text from the Codex Bezae for one of his "parchments": for instance, he made several of the most basic errors in copying the Latin uncial
Uncial
Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic.-Development:...
s, which therefore garbles the spelling of multiple words. This information is frequently omitted by those who present the "parchments" as being authentic.
In an interview during the 1970s with author Jean-Luc Chaumeil, Philippe de Chérisey asserted: "the parchments of the Gospel according to Saint Luke fabricated by me and for which I pinched the uncial text from the work L'archéologie chrétienne (Christian Archaeology) by Dom Cabrol at the National Library, section C25".
Philippe de Chérisey asserted in a letter dated 29 January 1974 to French author Pierre Jarnac: "P.S. Do you know that the famous manuscripts supposedly discovered by the Abbé Saunière
Bérenger Saunière
François Bérenger Saunière was a Roman Catholic priest in the French village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region, officially from 1885 until he was transferred to another village in 1909 by his bishop, a nomination he declined and subsequently resigned...
were composed in 1965? And that I took responsibility for being the author?"
According to Henry Lincoln
Henry Lincoln
Henry Lincoln is an English author, television presenter, scriptwriter and former Supporting actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and —starting in the 1970s— authored a series of books and inspired documentaries for the British television channel BBC2,...
, one of the co-authors of Holy Blood Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln....
, Plantard admitted to him in person that the various documents had been forged, and identified De Chérisey as their creator.
Relationship with Plantard
A schism developed between Pierre Plantard and Philippe De Chérisey during the mid-1980s, when De Chérisey began collaborating with Paul Rouelle on a book which would have incorporated the Priory of Sion concepts.French author Pierre Jarnac reproduced part of a letter dated 22 May 1985 from Pierre Plantard: "You need to know only that I have no involvement whatsoever with the 'deathless prose' of Monsieur Philippe de Chérisey, who was the co-author with Monsieur Paul Rouelle of the book COURT-CIRCUIT, lodged with the BN in December 1984 or January 1985, which dragged my name through the mud. The Marquis de Chérisey was a good friend of mine from university days, but I very often disapprove of his books which are really quite bizarre."
Works
- Un mauvais quart d'heure à passer, ou La Vengeance de la grosse molaire (Pierre Billard et Pierre Tchernia, 1949).
- Le pied à coulisse (Radiodiffusion française, 1960).
- Circuit (dated 1968, deposited in the Bibliothèque nationale 28 June 1971; EL 4-Y-413). Slightly different versions of this novel exist in the possession of private individuals
- L'Or de Rennes pour un Napoléon (1975). Bibliothèque nationale, 4-LB44-2360
- L'Ënigme de Rennes (1978). Bibliothèque nationale, EL 4-Z PIECE-110 and EL 4-Z PIECE-111
- Lettre ouverte à Monsieur Laurent Dailliez (1980). Bibliothèque nationale, EL 4-Y PIECE- 344
- "Jésus Christ, sa femme et les mérovingiens", in Nostra L'Actualite Insolite (Number 584, 1983).
- L'Affaire Jean-Luc Chaumeil (1984). Bibliothèque nationale, EL 4-Z PIECE-245
- Un veau à cinq pattes: notes sur l'oeuvre de l'abbé H. Boudet, sur ses sources, son tempérament, son idéal et sa vie (France secret, 2008). ISBN 978-2-916797-16-8
External links
- "Philippe de Chérisey Biography in French"
- Codex Bezae and the Da Vinci Code A textcritical look at the Rennes-le-ChateauRennes-le-ChâteauRennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...
hoax