Despite being officially established in 1956 as a Catholic neo-chivalric society dedicated to the revival of Templarism in France, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, in their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, claim that the Priory of Zion has a long and illustrious history dating back to the First Crusade, that it is devoted to returning the Merovingian dynasty, that ruled the Frankish kingdom from 447 to 751 C.E., to the thrones of Europe as well as the Holy See and Jerusalem, and that the order protects these royal claimants because they are the literal descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
The ultimate goal of the Priory of Zion is suspected to be the reunification of Judaism and Christianity (possibly by exhibiting lost scrolls and relics from the Second Temple that would prove Ebionite views), and the creation of a monarchic, crypto-theocratic European Union that would become the next hyperpower and usher in a new world order of peace and prosperity.
Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln also claim that the Priory had, at the very least, a large role in partaking in and promoting the "underground river of esotericism," the Alph, in Medieval Europe.
Historians who specialize in the area do not accept their work as a serious contribution to scholarship.
| Table of contents |
|
2 See also 3 External links and references |
Alleged Grand Masters of the Priory of Zion
See also
External links and references