Saunière and the « good food » guide to Durban-Corbières

 

It was Gérard de Sède who launched the mystery of Rennes-le-Château and its enigmatically wealthy priest Bérenger Saunière. Despite that, not all aspects of what de Sède wrote about the priest have received their due attention. Some aspects have received more attention than others, and some too much…
Let us look at one such forgotten titbit, from « Le trésor maudit de Rennes-le-Château », in its version of J’ai Lu, which appeared in 1971, a republication of the 1967 edition published by René Julliard.

Did someone mention Durban?

To quickly situate the position in which this piece of information sits: in 1902, Mgr de Beauséjour succeeds Mgr Billard as the bishop of Carcassonne. When Billard held office, he never made enquiries about Saunière, either because he did not know, did not care or approved. But de Beauséjour is interested. And not happy. He therefore asks questions about and of Saunière, specifically regarding the sources of his money. It spells the end of the happy life of our priest.
Let us now quote de Sède. From page 38 of his book (translated): “the new bishop proceeds prudently, by stages. His initially orders to Bérenger is to go, for a few weeks, on a retrait, in a convent […]. In January 1908, he offers him the cure of Coustauge (ie Coustouge!); the Charterhouse of Durban is not far and it is believed that this vicinity is enough to worry our man! Saunière takes one of his more beautiful pens and answers his bishop insolently: "I cannot leave a parish where my interests need me.”

There are some remarks to be made about this text. For one, de Sède is reporting on the details of the exchanges between Saunière and de Beauséjour and what he knows about what happened at the time. He does not seem to overplay this information, instead “just” reports the facts of the affaire. In fact, everyone after him will not point out anything in particular with this passage. Nevertheless, we need to draw specific attention to two words in this passage: “Charterhouse” and “Durban”.

An enigmatic charterhouse

Let us begin with the word “Charterhouse”. A charterhouse is nothing more or less than a home, a monastery, which belongs to the Carthusian order. Fortunately for us, the history of this order is well-known, well-documented, if only because the order still exists, and disposes of most of its archives – at the very least those which we require at present. Thus, we can conclude that there never was any charterhouse in Durban… In short, there is something wrong with the information with de Sède…

At the same time, we need to note that the Carthusian monks gave substantial donations to Saunière, though that is not of primary concern here.
Two questions need to be asked:
1. Where did de Sède learn that Saunière was afraid of the Carthusian monks of Durban? It is a strange statement, for we now know there were no Carthusian monks to be afraid of. Was it something else, which de Sède perhaps partially misunderstood? Furthermore, at the time there is no need to overcomplicate the life of Saunière, or to come up with new angles: de Sède was the first person to tackle the subject in any detail. De Sède, it is known, was merely reporting what he could read and what he was told. So who told him, or where did he read it?
2. Furthermore, even though Saunière received gifts from the Carthusian monks, there is no real reason to fear their proximity. If anything, he should be quite happy to be able to live closer to his generous benefactors – even though there were none present in Durban.

In summary, there are two inconsistencies within the same sentence, as reported by de Sède. Why did de Sède include this information, with which he never did anything… It seems clear that is was not an invention, as de Sède had no purpose for this information. So, at worst, it is an error… at best (and most likely), it is information that someone told him… and which contains some errors.

Fine wine and food for a priest

According to de Sède, Saunière feared the Carthusian monks and the area of Durban-Corbières in general. But why? What was it that made Saunière balk at taking up his posting in Coustouge? Was it merely stubbornness on his part, or a desire not to leave the village in which he had done several building works over the past decade.
It is intriguing to note that the connection between Saunière and Durban is not one that is made by any of the leading researchers in the past few decades. Before us, only de Sède touched upon it.
Still, let us state straight away that Saunière was indeed familiar with Durban-Corbières. We know that he regularly went there, staying with two families that accommodated him readily and discreetly. One of these families were notorious for their fine “table”, and it is perhaps merely for the excellent food that Saunière made the trip from Rennes-le-Château. But it’s a long way to go!
Furthermore, the second family which lodged Saunière did not have such an exceptional culinary reputation. Was it perhaps a religious reason that made the priest go to see this family? Or perhaps he was there to assist or tutor someone. Perhaps he was there to provide moral or spiritual comfort. Though all logical, they are all not very satisfactory. If only because the parish of Durban has a priest of its own, who would be more than capable and willing to provide all of these needs to his congregation. There would not be a need to call Saunière to the rescue… if only because Saunière himself was not particularly known as the most outstanding model of piety and devotion… Finally, the local priest could see any of the above reasons – save the culinary ones – as a direct intrusion of Saunière on his territory.

Family receptions

Let us look in some detail into the families that welcomed Saunière to their home. The first family is reserved and discrete. It has several trained scholars in its ranks, either specialists in art, culture and history. Though the food on the table does not warrant the trip, the spiritual nourishment on the library shelves and the intellectual discussions with the host may perhaps more than make up for that. Among the many rare works in this family’s possessions are old maps of the region, letters to and from César-François Cassini de Thyry, the man in charge of mapping France and other documents, documents that once belonged to parishes or councils in the region. It is reported that on his return to Rennes-le-Château, Saunière always carries one or two volumes with him, or reports.
We know that Saunière sometimes went to Perpignan (where he had a bank account, as well as other interests) and no doubt used the trip to stop over at Durban and talk to this local scholar, with whom he maintained a courteous relationship. We are able to count 4 or 5 such visits to this family, in the space of less than two years.

The same amount of visits in the same amount of space can be noted when we try to find out how often Saunière visited the other family in Durban. Though the family may lack the intellectual level of the other family, their fine cuisine makes up for it. So much so that after the meal, Saunière apparently always has to excuse himself from the table and go for a small digestive if not meditative walk. Who can deny him this indulgence? Still, every time he visits, he opts to make the same walk. Afterwards, he will leave the family and continue, either further on to Perpignan or back to Rennes-le-Château.

There is, on first sight, nothing out of the ordinary with these visits. We know Saunière likes his food and we know he likes rare and beautiful books. But when we go in a little more detail, things become slightly more intriguing. Going on the memory of the descendants of the first family, they report that Saunière’s interest was always drawn to the same work, or that he asked to go through the same batch of documents. He copied everything carefully, while he was at their house. This was necessary as the master of the house did not wish that these works left the house, not even for a short while and not even if a priest asked for them. We know that one of the works he studied was that of Dom Veysset, in its first dedicated and annotated edition (dedicated to the family of Durban, in whom its possession it was). The author himself wrote several pages of thanks, in consideration of the significant service rendered to him by the family. We suggest – based on the above and other evidence – that Saunière was in search of specific information, which he felt he could locate in Durban.
Roc Combach

What about the second family? What is of interest there are his “walks”, after the meal… These were, it seems, not merely the constitutional, digestive and meditative walks that he pretended they were. To begin with, they always make him end up in the same location. Perhaps he loved the view. But that location, known as “Roc Combach”, is a large and high rock, hanging over the village. Some archaeological discoveries were made in the vicinity, when the tracks for the train– now long since disappeared again – were laid. But I would doubt that it was these bits of archaeology that attracted Saunière to the site. The site is intriguing for it is one of the few – if not the only – location in the area that provides a good view of the Mount of Olives – Montailou Perilhou – the highest peak of Perillos. We note that there never was an olive tree there, but we do note that this name appears on the model Saunière commissioned at the end of his life and which we now know maps a specific area of Perillos.

Finally, let us note that when he is in Durban, he always goes to meet his colleague, resulting in long discussions. The topics of conversation, however, have since been forgotten …

Past lives

What was it that interested Saunière so much about Durban and its past? At first sight, Durban’s past is not notorious. The local lord, at the time of the Cathar crusades, made his allegiance with the king of France, and was thus against the Cathars – making the family no doubt quite unpopular locally, but equally not making Durban anything out of the ordinary, as there are no Cathar strongholds to visit, though there are many in the vicinity.
Durban did sit on the frontier between France and Catalonia, and thus the Roussillon. It meant that at one point, their opponents were the lords of Perillos, who not only did embrace the Cathar cause, but were also their Spanish neighbours – and potential enemies. Still, over time, the lords of Durban would acquire the rights over the lands of Perillos, and would afterwards even use the title of Viscount of Perillos as one of their titles.

Genealogy of the Lords of Durban,
as written by Dr. Paul Courrent

Was it the town’s history with Perillos that made Saunière drop by on occasion? Did he perhaps try to locate archives, as we know that the archives of Perillos (at least some of them) were transferred to Durban, which included some of the parish archives, as it became the priest of Durban who also had to steer the flock of Perillos. We also know that some of these archives disappeared in the decades before Saunière came to visit Durban. Did some of the archives of Perillos end up in one of the families Saunière frequented, a family that was known to possess and have a keen interest in the local history? Or did they perhaps have certain information on the whereabouts of these archives? Was this perhaps the reasons why Saunière decided to visit them?

In the end, it is a remarkable “coincidence” – if it is – that de Sède apparently accidentally and erroneously touches upon a Durban connection the mystery. But that our research has since shown that de Sède’s information, though not completely correct, seems to have contained an intriguing nugget of important information. It is not the only time that de Sède spoke about interesting subjects which over the following decades were largely forgotten.

André Douzet