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to assert that it ever existed in actuality. Even if it did, we could not imagine that a cup or bowl, whether it held Jesus’s blood or not, would be so very precious to the Cathars for whom Jesus, to a significant degree, was incidental. Nevertheless, the legends continued to haunt and perplex us.
Elusive though it is, there does seem to be some link between the Cathars and the whole cult of the Grail as it evolved during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A number of writers have argued that the Grail romances -those of Chretien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach, for example are an interpolation of Cathar thought, hidden in elaborate symbolism, into the heart of orthodox Christianity. There may be some exaggeration in that assertion, but there is also some truth. During the
Albigensian Crusade ecclesiastics fulminated against the Grail romances, declaring them to be pernicious, if not heretical. And in some of these romances there are isolated passages which are not only highly unorthodox, but quite unmistakably dualist in other words, Cathar.
What is more, Wolfram von Eschenbach, in one of his Grail romances, declares that the Grail castle was situated in the Pyrenees an assertion which Richard Wagner, at any rate, would seem to have taken literally.
According to Wolfram, the name of the Grail castle was Munsalvaesche -
a
- 47 -
Germanicised version apparently of Montsalvat, a Cathar term. And in one of Wolfram’s poems the lord of the
Grail castle is named Perilla. Interestingly enough, the lord of Mpntsegur was Raimon de Pereille whose name, in its Latin form, appears on documents of the period as Perilla.9
If such striking coincidences persisted in haunting us, they must also, we concluded, have haunted Sauniere -who was, after all, steeped in the legends and folklore of the region. And like any other native of the region, Sauniere must have been constantly aware of the proximity of Montsegur, whose poignant and tragic fate still dominates local consciousness. But for Sauniere the very nearness of the fortress may well have entailed certain practical implications.
Something had been smuggled out of Montsegur just after the truce expired.
According to tradition, the four men who escaped from the doomed citadel carried with them the Cathar treasure. But the monetary treasure had been smuggled out three months earlier. Could the Cathar
‘treasure’, like the ‘treasure’ Sauniere discovered, have consisted primarily of a secret? Could that secret have been related, in some unimaginable way, to something that became known as the Holy Grail? It seemed inconceivable to us that the
Grail romances could possibly be taken literally.
In any case, whatever was smuggled out of Montsegur had to have been taken somewhere. According to tradition, it was taken to the fortified caves of
Ornolac in the Ariege, where a band of Cathars was exterminated shortly after. But nothing save skeletons has ever been found at Ornolac. On the other hand, Rennes-leChateau is only half a day’s ride on horseback from
Montsegur. Whatever was smuggled out of Montsegur might well have been brought to Rennes-leChateau, or, more likely, to one of the caves which honeycomb the surrounding mountains. And if the ‘secret’ of Montsegur was what Sauniere subsequently discovered, that would obviously explain a great deal.
In the case of the Cathars, as with Sauniere, the word ‘treasure’ seems to hide something else knowledge or information of some kind. Given the tenacious adherence of the Cathars to their creed and their militant antipathy to Rome, we wondered if such knowledge or
- 48 -
information (assuming it existed) related in some way to Christianity
-to the doctrines and theology of Christianity, perhaps to its history and origins. Was it possible, in short, that the Cathars (or at least certain Cathars) knew something -something that contributed to the frenzied fervour with which
Rome sought their extermination?
Elusive though it is, there does seem to be some link between the Cathars and the whole cult of the Grail as it evolved during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A number of writers have argued that the Grail romances -those of Chretien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach, for example are an interpolation of Cathar thought, hidden in elaborate symbolism, into the heart of orthodox Christianity. There may be some exaggeration in that assertion, but there is also some truth. During the
Albigensian Crusade ecclesiastics fulminated against the Grail romances, declaring them to be pernicious, if not heretical. And in some of these romances there are isolated passages which are not only highly unorthodox, but quite unmistakably dualist in other words, Cathar.
What is more, Wolfram von Eschenbach, in one of his Grail romances, declares that the Grail castle was situated in the Pyrenees an assertion which Richard Wagner, at any rate, would seem to have taken literally.
According to Wolfram, the name of the Grail castle was Munsalvaesche -
a
- 47 -
Germanicised version apparently of Montsalvat, a Cathar term. And in one of Wolfram’s poems the lord of the
Grail castle is named Perilla. Interestingly enough, the lord of Mpntsegur was Raimon de Pereille whose name, in its Latin form, appears on documents of the period as Perilla.9
If such striking coincidences persisted in haunting us, they must also, we concluded, have haunted Sauniere -who was, after all, steeped in the legends and folklore of the region. And like any other native of the region, Sauniere must have been constantly aware of the proximity of Montsegur, whose poignant and tragic fate still dominates local consciousness. But for Sauniere the very nearness of the fortress may well have entailed certain practical implications.
Something had been smuggled out of Montsegur just after the truce expired.
According to tradition, the four men who escaped from the doomed citadel carried with them the Cathar treasure. But the monetary treasure had been smuggled out three months earlier. Could the Cathar
‘treasure’, like the ‘treasure’ Sauniere discovered, have consisted primarily of a secret? Could that secret have been related, in some unimaginable way, to something that became known as the Holy Grail? It seemed inconceivable to us that the
Grail romances could possibly be taken literally.
In any case, whatever was smuggled out of Montsegur had to have been taken somewhere. According to tradition, it was taken to the fortified caves of
Ornolac in the Ariege, where a band of Cathars was exterminated shortly after. But nothing save skeletons has ever been found at Ornolac. On the other hand, Rennes-leChateau is only half a day’s ride on horseback from
Montsegur. Whatever was smuggled out of Montsegur might well have been brought to Rennes-leChateau, or, more likely, to one of the caves which honeycomb the surrounding mountains. And if the ‘secret’ of Montsegur was what Sauniere subsequently discovered, that would obviously explain a great deal.
In the case of the Cathars, as with Sauniere, the word ‘treasure’ seems to hide something else knowledge or information of some kind. Given the tenacious adherence of the Cathars to their creed and their militant antipathy to Rome, we wondered if such knowledge or
- 48 -
information (assuming it existed) related in some way to Christianity
-to the doctrines and theology of Christianity, perhaps to its history and origins. Was it possible, in short, that the Cathars (or at least certain Cathars) knew something -something that contributed to the frenzied fervour with which
Rome sought their extermination?
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