Philippe Louis Henri Marie de Chérisey, 9th
marquess
A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...
de Chérisey (13 February 1923 – 17 July 1985) was a French writer, radio
humorist
A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.
Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...
,
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
and
supporting actor
A supporting actor or supporting actress is an actor who performs a role in a play or film below that of the leading actor(s), and above that of a bit part. In recognition of important nature of this work, the theater and film industries give ...
(using the
stage name
A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...
Amédée).
He is best known for his
creation of fake parchments published in the 1967 book ''L'Or de Rennes'' by
Gérard de Sède, as part of his involvement in the
Priory of Sion
The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organisation founded in France and dissolved in 1956 by hoaxer Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantar ...
hoax between 1962-1983.
Early life
Coming from a wealthy family in the
Lorraine
Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...
, de Chérisey decided to become an actor against his family's wishes. He enrolled in the
René Simon drama 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, regularly enjoyed wine and frequented public libraries where his natural curiosity made him follow up anything that took his fancy.
Surrealism
Philippe de Chérisey was a follower of the
surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
movement. He claimed acquaintance with
Eugene Ionesco and was like him a member of the
College of Pataphysics, although - like his membership of
Oulipo - there is no evidence that he was actively involved. His desire to subvert the norms of culture, or in other words, create an alternate reality that became more real than reality itself, was done within the context of the Priory of Sion and to promote the claim that Pierre Plantard was the direct descendant of
Dagobert II. He considered himself a satirist from his days in French radio, and continued this persona within the theme of the Priory of Sion calling himself a prankster. The best known example of this is his esoteric novella ''Circuit'' (originally written in 1968, but not actually deposited within the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
until 1971).
Rennes-le-Château
By the early 1960s Philippe de Chérisey met
Pierre Plantard, and together they developed an interest in
Rennes-le-Château. From the mid-1950s local hotelier
Noël Corbu circulated a story to boost trade, that the 19th century priest
Bérenger Saunière
François-Bérenger Saunière (11 April 1852 – 22 January 1917) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest in the village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region. He was a central figure in the conspiracy theories surrounding t ...
of Rennes-le-Château had discovered the treasure of
Blanche of Castile. The author
Robert Charroux published Corbu's story in his 1962 book ''Trésors du Monde''. In a letter dated 2 April 1965 to his girlfriend, de Chérisey wrote: "Don't tell anyone, but I'll be setting out again for four days in the Pyrenees with Plantard to see if we can get any closer to Mary Magdalene." A mixture of de Chérisey's humor and surrealism can be identified within his activities relating to the
Priory of Sion
The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organisation founded in France and dissolved in 1956 by hoaxer Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantar ...
hoax, Gisors and Rennes-le-Château, contained in his correspondence as well as in his documents that he deposited in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
in Paris.
Parchments
During the early 1960s, de Chérisey forged two parchments, photocopies of which appeared in the 1967 book ''L'Or de Rennes'' by Gérard de Sède. De Sède's book adapted Corbu's story to fit-in with Plantard's claims about the Priory of Sion. The parchments hinted at the survival of the line of the Frankish king
Dagobert II, that Plantard claimed to be descended from, as well as attempting to verify the existence of the 1000-year-old secret society, the Priory of Sion. The two parchments 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
''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.”
Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...
''. Other documents, containing fake genealogies, were planted in the French National Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Pierre Plantard and Gérard de Sède fell out over book royalties when ''L'Or de Rennes'' was published in 1967, at the same time Philippe de Chérisey announced that he had forged the parchments. De Chérisey elaborated about this in his 1978 unpublished document ''L'Énigme de Rennes'', claiming they were originally made for his friend Francis Blanche, as material for a French radio serial entitled ''Signé Furax''. A second document by de Chérisey entitled ''Pierre et papier'' ("Stone and Paper") provides a more detailed explanation, giving the more complicated decoding technique to one of the parchments by using a
Knight's Tour
A knight's tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square exactly once. If the knight ends on a square that is one knight's move from the beginning square (so that it could tour the board again im ...
25-letter alphabet, omitting the letter "w", which can only be known to the forger. An English translation of this document, together with a reproduction of the original, was published by Jean-Luc Chaumeil in 2010.
Details of the forgeries
The text of parchment I was copied from ''
Codex Bezae
The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis is a bi-lingual Greek and Latin manuscript of the New Testament written in an uncial hand on parchment. It is designated by the siglum D or 05 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and � ...
'', 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
The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...
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 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
The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organisation founded in France and dissolved in 1956 by hoaxer Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantar ...
hoax by the American news program
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
, parchment II was copied from a 19th-century version of the Latin
Vulgate
The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...
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 was not a specialist of Latin paleography and had even a bit lost his Latin knowledge (got from high school) 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 is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...
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.
Relationship with Plantard
A schism developed between Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey in 1983, when de Chérisey began collaborating with Paul Rouelle (his dentist) on a book which would have incorporated the Priory of Sion concepts.
French author Pierre Jarnac reproduced part of a letter he received 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."
Later years
Philippe de Chérisey died in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 17 July 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 vault at
Rœux
Rœux () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais
The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all ...
(Pas-de-Calais).
[Pierre Jarnac, ''Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château'', page 525 (Tome 2, Editions Bélisane: Nice, 1988)] His former wife Phyllis Phillips died in 1987.
His death was announced by Gino Sandri in number 10 of ''Etudes Mérovingiennes'' (August 1985), the journal of the association ''Cercle Saint Dagobert II''.
Works
*''Un mauvais quart d'heure à passer, ou La Vengeance de la grosse molaire'' ( and Pierre Tchernia, 1949). Bibliothèque nationale, manuscript 4- YA RAD- 4097
* with Grégoire (= ), ''Livre à vendre'', Paris : Éditions de Paris (1957, new edition Paris : J.-C. Simoën, 1977).
*''Anacharsis à l'Exposition : Textes d'Amédée, présentés par Philippe Dasnoy'', Bruxelles: Éditions Jeune Belgique (1958), 2 vols (letters read by the author during the "Étoile 58" Belgian radio-programme).
*''Le pied à coulisse'' (Radiodiffusion française, 1960). Bibliothèque nationale, manuscript 4- YA RAD- 8630.
*''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'Enigme de Rennes'' (1978). Bibliothèque nationale, EL 4-Z PIECE-110 and EL 4-Z PIECE-111
* "Jarry lecteur de Poe et de Shakespeare", in ''AARevue'' 115 (janvier-février 1979), Liège.
* "Catalogue des circonflexes communs", "Circonflexe des propres" et "Circonflexe et Tréma", in ''AARevue'' 123 ("Absolu 107", sept.-oct. 1979).
*''Lettre ouverte à Monsieur Laurent Dailliez'' (1980). Bibliothèque nationale, EL 4-Y PIECE- 344
* ''Court-circuit'' by Paul Rouelle, ''avec un feu d'artifices de Ph. de Cherisey'', Liège : P. Rouelle (1983, enlarged ed. Paris : l'Oeil du sphinx, 2010).
* "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).
Notes
References
Information about his humorist career* ''Da Vinci Declassified'', 2006
TLC
TLC may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Television
* ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2
* TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network
** TLC (Asia), an A ...
video documentary
*
* , de Chérisey's most notable film
* "The Priory of Sion", 30 April 2006 segment on
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
, produced by Jeanne Langley, hosted by
Ed Bradley
External links
"Philippe de Chérisey Biography in French"Codex Bezae and the Da Vinci CodeA textcritical look at the
Rennes-le-Chateau hoax
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cherisey, Philippe De
1923 births
1985 deaths
Writers from Paris
Priory of Sion hoax