Rennes-Le-Chateau, Parchment Analysis

Let me start out by sharing my thoughts and insights on what I believe is the purpose and meaning of the two parchments reportedly to have been found by the priest, Abbe Sauniere, in the church of Rennes-le-Chateau located in the south of France, sometime around the late 1890's. First, my thoughts concerning the small parchment. This parchment has been determined to contain a rudimentary cipher that was constructed by simply copying a passage from a Latin biblical text and raising certain letters in the precise order needed to form the words of the "hidden" text. For anyone to deploy such a simplistic method, for encoding a "secret" message, can only lead one to assume a.)the perpetrator was not very well trained in the art of encryption or b.)just wasn't seriously trying to hide the message in the first place and wanted it to be easily found. As far as concealing or hiding the message, this method is the equivalent of a person hiding behind a curtain with his feet still sticking out. The author could have just as easily wrote out the sentence as is, and stated that it was a clue to a puzzle and accomplished the same level of secrecy that this method provides. The real mystery of this parchment is the reason why, for one, the author broke the sentences where he did (leaving very odd line lengths), and two, why he added some words and left out others from the original Latin bible text of which he was copying. He also went through some trouble to make sure the reader was well aware that the word SION was of great importance, by carefully lining up the letters at the end of four consecutive sentences to obviously and intentional spell out this word. What this tells me is, the author was not so much concerned with the words of which he was hiding his message in, as much as he was concerned with the placement of various letters in key positions. An analysis of the letter positions does indicate the author may have been trying to leave his calling card or possibly implicate somebody else as being the originator. I have discovered that by taking every thirtieth letter and un-scrambling the result, you can spell out the name "ABBOT BOUDET II", abbot being an English translation for abbe. This name often pops-up in relation to this story yet his role remains a mystery. As for the inclusion of the two additional "I"'s, I haven't a clue to what they might represent.

The hidden text, once extracted, is even more puzzling:

"A DAGOBERT II ROI ET A SION EST CE TRESOR ET IL EST LA MORT"

Translates to English as,

"TO DAGOBERT II KING AND TO SION BELONGS THIS TREASURE AND IT IS DEATH"

Or alternatively,

"TO DAGOBERT II KING AND TO SION BELONGS THIS TREASURE AND HE IS THERE, DEAD"

This cryptogram really makes little sense and gives us very little information to go on. It might represent some sort of anagram, one created by re-ordering the letters from an entirely different more comprehensible message, into the words that make up this sentence. If this were in fact the case, there would be no way for anyone to un-scramble the correct message with out having a key. This is due to the fact there are far too many letters to work with here, making numerous word combinations possible. The key would have to tell the decoder, the exact order in which to re-arrange the letters to make the message complete and understandable. Another possibility is, it could simply be the method for which the author choose to inform his intended recipient(s) to research the history of King Dagobert II and the Order of Sion, or that the other parchment is related to these topics. The fact that the message is left in plain sight, to me indicates that it is just that, a sign post, left so as to inform the intended recipient(s) that they are indeed on the right path and that the other parchment is in fact the real deal. It may have been used as an important validation tool. If the time had come to reveal the secrets hidden in the real parchment, it would probably be a good idea not to bring all the key holders together (more on this later) until you had proof positive that the "vault" you are attempting to open is in fact the right vault and not just some ploy or trick to gain access to the key holders. In any case I came to the conclusion that, 1.) If there was an encrypted message within the text, it could never be decoded without the use of a key or 2.) It was only intended to serve as a validation for the large parchments authenticity. With this, I decided to focus my attention on the large parchment.

The large parchment is by far more complicated in its encryption technique then that of the smaller parchment. The creator(s) of this parchment really seemed to have a thorough understanding of how to encrypt a message to the point of making it almost, if not entirely, impossible to crack. It uses several levels and types of encryption, some of which require the knowledge of a keyword. Of course, anyone familiar the encoding techniques and having the correct keys for unlocking the code wouldn't have much trouble, but it would still require a great amount of time and effort to complete. Not only would the decoder have to have a couple of keys, he would also have to know the exact order to which those keys need to be applied. It is for this one reason alone; I believe this to be a real document, hiding a real secret. The fact of the matter is, if one were going to try and create a scam, they wouldn't want to make it almost impossible to solve. Plus, seeing as there objective would be for some one to eventually solve the puzzle, they would not require the use of nearly impossible to find keys. They would also want the puzzle, once decoded, to present a clear and easily understandable message. That's not the case with this parchment, and the fact that to this day no one has come forth with a clear-cut, straight and to the point, explanation as to what the decoded text means, only makes the argument that it is genuine even more convincing. Also the fact that those claiming to have created this as a hoax, have not been able to clearly explain exactly why they did certain things in certain ways, making their claims appear all the more suspect. With that said, here is my analysis of this parchment and its already deciphered text.

The first thing that catches your eye when examining this parchment, is the symbol found on both the top and bottom of the page, just above and below the first and last lines. This symbol is said to be a depiction of a compass rose. A compass rose is a direction indicator found on almost every map produced starting sometime around the 14th century. These small symbols placed on the parchment seem to be very carefully drawn and therefore must have been of some great importance. In my mind, the inclusion of them in this manner was an instant indication that what was contained in the parchment was to be interpreted as directions. It was with this mindset that I proceeded to try and figure out how these enigmatic riddles left with-in the decoded text, could be used to lead the intended recipient, to a target location. One thing that is important to keep in mind is that the complexity of the process used to encode the message contained in this parchment makes it almost mandatory that certain steps be followed in a very precise order, and that it probably was not meant to be solved by just one individual, but rather by a group of individuals all responsible for knowing how to perform one or two particular steps. These individuals could be considered as key holders, so to speak, and I will demonstrate later how I believe the entire structure of this parchment is based on a number of unique keys being used in conjunction with one another, making the decoding of the whole, next to impossible with out the collaborative effort of all the key holders.

Next, when examining the text of the decoded message one quickly realizes that the very first line contains the names of two very well know artist (Poussin and Teniers). Upon a closer examination and a little research, it becomes quite clear that the author is not only directing us towards these two artists but also referencing the exact paintings of which we are meant to examine. The first section of the decoded text states:

"Shepherdess no temptation which Poussin and Teniers hold the key Pax 681"

"Shepherdess", most likely referring to the painting by Nicolas Poussin "Et in Arcadia Ego", of which a shepherdess is the central character. And "No Temptation" referring to a painting by David Teniers, specifically, the only version of "The Temptation of St Anthony" he painted in which St. Anthony is not actually being tempted by the devil, rather the devil is quietly watching from a hut a safe distance away. The text also states that these two artists hold "the key" or that their paintings may contain the key. A key, in reference to two paintings would certainly be an indication that something depicted in those works could unlock at least a portion of this puzzle. The next word, "Pax", being a Latin word for peace, as in a musical sense, more on the order of harmony than anything else, could be telling the reader that the solution can be found by locating elements in these two paintings that appear to be in "tune" with one another. It could also be telling the reader that what is discovered in the two paintings is in harmony with 681 and the other clues to be found in the parchment, and together they will provide the answer. If this is the case, then what is in harmony in these two paintings is an 18-degree angle (see my work on the Poussin / Teniers geometry). An angle logically, to me anyway, would indicate a direction (even more so, knowing a compass rose is introduced front and center), and the best way to use it for determining a direction is by aligning one reference line with the north /south axis of a compass rose and simply reading the compass barring at which the other line points. Thus, by aligning the cross in the Teniers painting and the staff on the right in the Poussin painting with the NS axis of a compass, a direction of roughly 18 degrees Northwest is indicated by the relative angle of the adjacent staff.

If my suspicion is indeed correct, that the purpose of the parchment is to lead those who hold the keys to a secret location, then we can quickly come to the conclusion that in order for the parchment to be successful in accomplishing this task, two other important pieces of information are required. Once we obtain a direction, we then need to know exactly how far we'll need to travel and from what starting point. Now, if the key that Poussin and Teniers hold is in fact the direction, then it is quite logical to assume that the very next portion of the decoded text (PAX 681) must be giving us the distance. So, all in the course of one sentence, we are being told to travel 18 degrees NW for a distance of 681 miles (or whatever unit of measure the creators of the parchment had used to calculate the linear distance). The only other piece of information that would now be needed to find the precise "hidden" location, would be a starting point or reference location. The most logical place to mark-out a starting point would be to do so on a map. Instead of making one map that could be lost, destroyed or stolen, it would be more sensible and secure, in the long run anyway, if a common well circulated map were selected (much in the same way famous works of art were used to hide the directions). In this way the creators of the parchment would not be required to handout a copy of the map to everyone who held a key for solving the puzzle. That would be a bit dangerous, as then you would be directly indicating to everyone, that their key is related to unlocking a location, and that this location is somewhere on this particular map. The safer thing to do, would be to just choose the reference location from a map already widely circulated and leave clues in the parchment that once solved, would tell the key holder exactly what map to look for. In this way the different key holders would only have knowledge of what their key unlocked and not necessarily understanding how their particular portion relates to the whole. Most likely, there would have to be a master key, one that tells the holder exactly how all the other keys fit together. Then, even after the parchment was decoded, the only way all the pieces could be put together is through the co-operation of all the other key holders.

This brings us to the last piece of the puzzle, or at least to the last piece needed for unlocking the target location. I believe the second portion of the decoded text gives the details for pinpointing the precise location after the first part has been solved and the general location is discovered. To find this general location it was clear that the most important key (the one containing the starting point) needed to be found. I was convinced it would be found on a map, and that the exact map to be used must be encoded somehow in the parchment. Having no luck decoding this information from the parchment, I decided to take a backdoor approach and see if it was at all possible, by carefully examining all the maps I could find from in and around the time frame of the events in question, that I might come across something that would make a connection back to the parchment. It was after countless hours, looking over these maps in minute detail, that I was able to discover what I believe was the reference point required to fit all the clues together. This point happened to be directly related to the peculiar symbol that appears at the bottom of the parchment in the form of the letters NOIS with a line passing between the NO and the IS. What a surprise when I discovered the exact same symbol on a map from 1680.

Then, I was further amazed when I placed my recently discovered reference angle over the map and aligned one of the reference lines parallel with the north and south observation line using the town of Nevers as my reference point (as it is located right next to the NOIS symbol on this map), then following the direction of 18 degrees northwest as indicated by the angle found in the paintings, it just so happened to point right to Edinburgh (listed as EDENBURG). As anybody up at all on this mystery is well aware, Edinburgh is only a short distance away from the infamous Rosslyn Chapel. I thought this was too good to be true, so I hurried to see if I could calculate the distance between these two points. What I discovered was that if you take the Longitude and Latitude of Rosslyn (lat. 55:51N lon. 3:10W), and calculate the distance to a point just south of Nevers (lat. 46:51N lon. 3:10E), approximately where the NOIS is located on the map, it is just about exactly 681 miles (I have no way of knowing if mapmakers in the 1600's could calculate a distance this accurately or if the distance was actually calculated at a later date, when the parchment was being created).

The odds of all of this just being one big coincidence seemed to be astronomical. But if this wasn't enough evidence, after researching the source of the map that I was using, there also appears to be some evidence that it may have been originally created using the plates of a cartographer by the Name of Nicolas Sanson (more research needs to done on this). What's interesting about this, if it does prove to be true, is the fact that both Nicolas Sanson and Nicolas Poussin were both working for King Louis XIII in the 1640's and could have possibly known one another. Whether or not King Louis was involved in any of this, or possibly one of his many handlers, is not yet entirely clear. It is important to note that his mother was a member of the infamous Medici family, who a couple of generations earlier, employed Leonardo da Vinci as their court painter.

Now that I have demonstrated how I went about unlocking some of the secrets of this parchment, you maybe wondering how this could be at all possible, seeing as I didn't actually own any of the keys? The only thing I can say to this is, if one has a fairly good idea of what it is they are looking for, it is possible to reverse engineer the keys in the manner I described by simply looking at the evidence that's available. Also, I don't believe those in charge of the encryption of the text, ever thought their parchment could be decoded without the use of the keys required to perform each task, so they did not see any reason for making the decoded text so cryptic that it would require the use of more than one key to unlock any single section. Fortunately for me, the hard part had already been accomplished, that is the deciphering the text in the first place. In my opinion, whoever it was that was able to complete this task, must have had some inside information. I don't believe, without having at least one of the main keys, even in this day and age with all of our modern computing power at our disposal, that anyone could have cracked the first part of this code. With that said, the probability of this task being accomplished by a group of people in the 1890's seems highly unlikely. So, if Sauniere couldn't crack this code without having access to the keys, how does one explain all his strange activities and how did the first level of the parchment get decoded? I have a plausible theory about this, but first I need to explain the method by which I believe this parchment and its contents were meant to remain secure. I have already shown how the parchment was designed to be "unlocked" by the use of various keys in a precise order, and how each key could be designed to solely open one fragment, without compromising the whole.

As to how many keys in total would be needed to secure such an elaborate puzzle and still make it solvable? I would contend it would take 12, and here's why: There would be more likely than not, 3 keys just for unlocking the encryption. Not that 1 or 2 keys couldn't contain all the information needed to do the job, but by the way the structure of the encryption is set up it just seems more suitable for 3 keys. There would be 1 key for each of the 2 major encryption techniques used. An additional key would be needed that reveals to its holder, exactly how to locate the keywords and the order for which all the keys need to be applied. 4 keys for this situation would probably be considered overkill, so I'll stick with 3. Next, I believe 3 keys would be required to keep the hidden location safe, once the main code had been cracked. 1 key is required to locate the direction via the art, 1 would be needed to tell its owner to look for a distance, and 1 key is necessary for locating the correct map and starting point referenced within. That brings us to 6. Now, the last part of the decoded text, which I am convinced pinpoints the exact location of the hidden secret once you arrive at the general location, I believe would also require the use of 3 keys, and here's why. The text can be broken down to 3 parts, they are; "By the cross and this Horse of God", "I complete this Demon Guardian " and, "at Midday Blue Apples". Now none of this text appears to make much sense but, as we have seen in regards to the previous section, with the use of a key, all can become quite clear. If I am right about this, that would bring us to a total of 9 keys, thus far.

We now have 3 groups of 3 keys of which when combined could solve the entire parchment and lead the key holders to the hidden location. The one problem that has to be overcome now is, how do these 3 groups of 3 know, how and when to come together. This dilemma makes me believe there has to be a master key. If this is the case we are back to the problem of one individual holding all the power. For this reason I contend that the master key would in actuality have to consist of 2 keys. One key would give its holder access to the parchment when and if it was every deemed safe to bring forth and unlock the secret within, and a second master key, that once the correct parchment was brought forth and agreed to be "opened", would contain the information needed to bring all the other keys together. In this way, after the death of the individual who created the parchment, the chances of any one rouge member of the group stepping out and trying to claim the secret for himself, would be virtually eliminated. This brings us to 11 keys, and for the same reasons that these last 2 keys need to exist, 1 final key is needed. This key, held by the highest most trusted official of the organization, would contain the knowledge of where the other 2 master keys reside and perhaps, under what circumstances the "vault" is to be unlocked. This top key holder would be the sole individual that could call together the "keeper of the parchment" and the "keeper of the keys", who in turn could locate and cause to come together all 9 of the lower level key holders.

This brings us to the last and final step for making the secrets contained within this parchment secure and survivable. One way to accomplish this would be to devise a contingency plan for each and every key. As the scenario is put forth thus far, there remains a great danger for the entire plan to crash if one or more keys were to get lost or possibly destroyed, especially over the great course of time we are contemplating. The best solution to this problem would be an initiation process. For every key, I would suggest, there are 3 copies created, each being assigned to an appropiately initiated member, who has reached a pre-determined level in the organizations hierarchy. Each initiate is then in charge of its safekeeping and its "passing down" to subsequent qualified members. In this way, if something were to happen to any individaul key holder, a suitable replacement would always be "in the wings", standing-by, ready to fill the vacant position. These 3 initiated key holders would also have the added responsibility of devising a system in which the key could be re-assembled, by other select members, in the event the entire group were to meet with some irremediable calamity. In support for this theory being a potentially legitimate scenario, I recommend looking at the structure of some of the leading secretive organizations, in particular, ones rumored to be hidding just such secrets. They are all built on a structure much similar to what I am contending would be the ultimate way to hide something over a long period of time. This method also contains a built-in security feature that makes it invulnerable from attack by any rouge member of the group or from outsiders intent on stealing the secrets through the use of force, coercion or just plan good detective work. The practices of initiation and the step process of reaching higher degrees that many of the so-called "secret societies" use, allows for various members at different levels to obtain certain knowledge. Knowledge of rituals and symbols of which they may, or may not have a clue as to what they represent in the grand scheme of things, only that it is connected in some way, to the organizations overall reason for existing. Initiates are simply informed, "all will be made clear", when they reach the next level in the initiation process. After reaching the next level they are then faced with a whole new set of mysteries that appear, on the surface, to have no apparent meaning. Knowing what we know now, it wouldn't be hard to imagine, within the various degrees of these organizations, part of their initiation process is to memorize a key, maybe the initiate has no idea of what that key unlocks but knows it is his special obligation to the society to keep it safe and whole for the future initiate.

This brings us back to the abbe Sauniere and Rennes-le-Chateau. If the reality of the situation was in fact, that neither he nor anybody else he might have been in contact with, could have been capable of cracking this code without having at least a few critical keys, then how does one explain his relationship to this mystery, other then the fact that he found the parchments? What accounts for his sudden wealth and the apparently strange actions in regards to the re-building of the church and its rather bizarre decoration? If we conclude that the parchments are real, then we must also conclude that they were most likely hidden by a former "keeper of the parchments" key holder, as a safety precaution. When Sauniere first stumbled upon them he must have been fairly convinced they were something of great value. Why else would anybody go through all the trouble of hiding them in the first place? With that said, would Sauniere be foolish enough to just hand them over to somebody else, in the hope that they would unlock the secrets they contained, and then simply turn everything back over to him? I highly doubt it. Sauniere may have been a trusting man of the cloth but I hardly think he was that naive. He would have, more likely then not, made backup copies and kept the originals in a safe place, possibly in some hidden cave in the vicinity of the church. It is said that Sauniere was an avid explorer and was very familiar with the remote countryside and surrounding area, having spent the greater part of his life living and working in the general vicinity. It is also very possible that the person who originally hide the parchments for safe keeping, also choose this spot to hide away some of his own personal wealth. This "stash" may have been the "treasure" that the abbe used to re-build his church and enhance his life style. Another scenario that could explain not only Sauniere's sudden raise in financial statue but also the sudden interest in him and this remote area by a number of enigmatic social elites of the day, is the possibility that he may have been an unknowing patsy in a much wider more complex plot. A plot that may have almost succeeded in unlocking the entire mystery of the parchments and brought down the group in charge of its protection. For once the secret is revealed, there may no longer be a need for a secret society whose sole reason for perpetuating its existence is based on keeping this treasure safe.

The following scenario is based on my interpretation of what may have occurred back at Rennes-le-Chateau soon after Sauniere discovered the parchments. This scenario is dependent on a schism of sorts, having taken place amongst the upper echelons of this secret organization. Let's suppose that, the designated time for which certain secrets were to be revealed, had arrived. Now, consider for the moment that the theory, that unlocking the parchments will lead to the discovery of a hidden vault that contains proof of world changing truths, is true. If that were the case then it wouldn't be hard to imagine that some of those responible for its unlocking, may have felt strongly that the world just wasn't ready, and that revealing the contents to soon could result in disasterous consequences. Now let's take this scenario one step farther and imagine what might happen if the members in charge of keeping the parchment safe, refused to allow those in charge of the keys, from doing what they felt was their sworn duty. This type of internal strife could easily cause a calapse in the overall structure of the organization. Something of this nature could also have led to various factions "breaking-away" from the main group and forming there own secretive sub-groups. If this sub-group was intent on carrying out what they believed to be their sacred duty, the unlocking of the parchment, then their main goal would be to try and obtain as many keys as possible and then hopefully piece together all the others, and crack the code on their own.

So when it was discovered that a parish priest stumbled across some hidden documents and that those documents contained coded information along with the validation text proving them to be real, the rouge group holding the keys for deciphering the text probably thought they struck pay dirt. In their eyes it was the moment they been waiting for. This group may have been convinced that since the main parchment was found hidden in the church, perhaps some of the other keys they had not been able to obtain could also be hidden there as well. For this reason they would most certainly require additional help from the abbe Sauniere, it would look a bit suspicious if they just went in and started tearing the place upside down. The logical thing to do would be to gain the confidence of the abbe, give him whatever he wanted to keep him quiet and happy, and then covertly search for additional keys that might be hidden within the church, all under the disguise of a restoration project. Of course, Sauniere would have to have been "let in" on whatever it was the secret pertained to, and he must have completely believed in whatever it was he was being confided. Sauniere may have also used the groups dependence on him as their "inside guy", to his advantage as much as possible, knowing he had the power to "blow the cover" off the whole operation at any point. He might have played the game and made himself appear far more important and knowledgeable than he actually was. The group may have in turn, felt Sauniere was holding back, trying to take complete advantage of the situation. Whatever the case, it does appear that Sauniere did get himself accepted as a member of this group and enjoyed great benefits from the relationship. Unfortunately, so much so, that his new lifestyle started attracting unwanted attention and a lot of questions were starting to be asked.

"He and I discussed certain things, which I shall with ease be able to explain to you in detail - things which will give you, through Monsieur Poussin, advantages which even kings would have great pains to draw from him, and which, according to him, it is possible that nobody else will ever discover in the centuries to come. And what is more, these are things so difficult to discover that nothing now on this earth can prove of better fortune nor be their equal.”

                                                                            JIM BECK

See also Jim's website Da Vinci Secrets for more of his work.