The Priory of Sion: Fiction Unmasked from a Masonic Perspective
It’s a quiet evening after lodge. A brother settles into his chair, coffee in hand, and asks with a half-smile: “So, that Priory of Sion from Dan Brown’s book — is that basically the same thing as Freemasonry?” The question lingers. It’s one many Freemasons have heard before, because ever since The Da Vinci Code hit bookshelves, all secret societies tend to get lumped together in the public imagination. But does that picture hold up? And what can Freemasons learn from the stubborn confusion between fiction and reality? The Origins of a Modern Myth In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown presents the Priory of Sion as an ancient secret society dating back to the Crusades. According to the novel, this organization guards an explosive secret about the bloodline of Jesus Christ. Illustrious figures from art and science are listed as its supposed Grand Masters: Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo. It sounds fascinating — almost too good to be true. And that is precisely the point. The historical reality is far more mundane. The Priory of Sion was founded in 1956 in the small French town of Annemasse by Pierre Plantard, a man with a highly questionable reputation. […]