The secret popes

 

The papal schism made Avignon into a papal city, reaching its apogee during the rule of Benedict XIII. This pope, Pedro de Luna, hastily left Avignon, to withdraw from the official papal office in Spain, to disappear definitively from public life… but could it be that before disappearing in the twilight, he continued a line of secret popes?

The election of Pedro de Luna

On April 6, 1378, after the death of Gregory XI, the Roman conclave considered an Aragonese cardinal, Pedro de Luna, to be his successor. He received the pontifical tiara with an unanimity of votes.
Unfortunately, there was one significant problem: Pedro was not Italian. The possibility that the pope was not Roman caused one night of terror, during which hordes of people threatened to assassinate the prelates. As a consequence, the cardinals end up yielding to the pressure of the people and the archbishop of Bari is elected, assuming the name of Urban VI.
After this sign of weakness, the prelates organise a new conclave on September 20, 1378. This time, they elect Robert of Geneva, who becomes pope and takes the name of Clement VII, settling the papal office in Avignon. Europe thus enters a long period of conflict, dividing into two camps, each one scrambling around one pope, according to personal political interests. In Rome, Urban VI reigns in what is a largely a deserted Church and in Avignon, Clement VII rules with wisdom.
In the end, Pedro de Luna will succeed to the Avignon papal throne, as Benedict XIII. In the book “The Carrier of Light”, Gerard Bavoux states that he in the end had to leave that citadel, for Peñiscola, “where the hidden life of the Holy Church was to begin.”

The secret life of the Church

Many have spoken of the Church of Love in opposition to the Church of Roma, as underlined in the Latin words of AMOR and ROMA, inversions, one indicating Love, the other the city. This astonishing pun was apparently a favourite of the Cathars, to highlight that their core values were the inverse of the papal powers – whom in the end would organise a crusade against them.
But the time of the Cathars is two centuries before the time when Benedict XIII leaves Perpignan, to withdraw in Peñiscola, near Valencia, where he was born and had personal property.

History paints a picture of Benedict XIII as a disabled person, who nevertheless remains daring to his last breath. But it is said that this pope did not finish his life in all solitude. It is said that he worked on the foundation of a secret church… an authentic church of the shadows, working within the Holy Church – in fact, being holier than the Holy Church.

If a schism existed in the 15th century, it should not come as a surprise to find similar diversions of opinion in the 20th century. At the Second Vatican Council and the death of Pius XII on October 9, 1958, a persistent rumour circulated that the Vatican had, at that time, deviated from the Christian faith. As a consequence, various Christian movements tried to preserve the true belief. They thus elected “popes” that have never been officially recognised. One of these is one Pius XIII, elected in 1998.
Of course, such a schism has nothing to do with the schism of the 15th century. The only purpose of this digression is to show that the polemic existed – and exists – in the Christian faith.

Can one Church mask another?

Canon law is clear as to how sovereign pontiffs should be elected: the elected of a pope is null and void if the election was done under pressure – which is what occurred for the election of Urban VI. Those who consequently elect, in all conformity to the law, another pope, give rise to an authentic second church, which is supposed, according to them, to be the only authentic agent of the “Church of Peter”. Such legal detail may seem strange in the 21st century, but it is of paramount importance for the Christian faith… and thus the fight begins as to which pope should be known and recognised as the true “shepherd” of the Christian church.

In this interpretation, the recognised pope is not Clement VII, but Benedict XIII, who is without official statute, as he chose to withdraw from the papal office – or was at least urgently “asked” to leave. But would he nevertheless continue to be the true pope and thus would he have the functions and capacities of that office? There are those who say “yes” to all these questions.

Although in exile, Pedro Luna named cardinals in November 1422: Jean Carrier, Julian de Loba, Jimeno Dahé and Domenica de Bonnefoi. History states that these four cardinals remained loyal to Benedict. Actually, three of these cardinal elect Gil Sanchez de Munos as pope, who takes the name of Clement VIII. He will, however, never reign and he abdicates. The three cardinals then ally themselves with Martin V, the Roman pontiff.
The first cardinal, Jean Carrier, hears of the treason and simony and declares himself to be the only authentic cardinal; he takes it upon himself to preserve the line of secret popes.

The secret line

Carrier thus organised the only legitimate conclave, in his interpretation of Canon law. In 1425, he elects Bernard Garnier, a French priest from the diocese of Rodez, who takes the name of Benedict XIV. One can see the hand of the Aragon kings and the Perillos family in this election. The Perillos family remained a constant support and influence on Pedro de Luna. Let us also not forget that the bond with the Aragonese pope was even welded through marriage. Thus, the family of Perillos, itself in the possession of this diocese, seem to have continued to sponsor Benedict XIII and his descendants.

Peñiscola

Persecuted, the cardinal and the “pope” hide in France. Benedict XIV dies four years later, but not without having named four cardinals (oneo f whom is Jean Farald), who elect Jean Carrier as the new pope in 1430. He immediately names his candidates: Pierre Trahinier (cardinal of Bethlehem), Bernard (cardinal of Hebron), Pierre Tifane (cardinal of Tibériade), Jean (cardinal of Gibelet), "X" (Cardinal of Iona) and Jacques (cardinal of Caesarae). They are the cardinals who will elect Pierre Tifane (Benedict XV) in 1437 and Jean Langlade (Benedict XVI) in 1470. It is from there that the secret life of this church really starts.

The Benedictine church

This forgotten line hides in the shades of time and the popes themselves indicate a desire to continue this secret succession. They make the decision to choose the successors amongst the cardinals of France; amongst them, a secret pope will hide. And this person will be the true pope, the true shepherd of the church.

There is no evidence that shows that this invisible line ever stopped, even though there is nothing that shows that the tradition continued – and continues to this day. Still, the question needs to be asked whether within the Church, there are cardinals that have an alliance to the pope, but not primarily to the Roman pope.
On this matter, what do we need to think about the history of the A.A., which was organised as a secret organisation within the church? Obviously, this society is there for the protection of a secret. But which one? Is it really pure chance that this AA became the last secret organisation within the French church? Where there is apparently – or possibly – still a secret alliance in connection with a secret pope?

Few researchers talk about this strange tradition. There are the books o Paul Arnould, "Une larme pour tous", and Jean Raspail with "L’anneau du pêcheur" (1995). In this novel, we find a man, in 1993, who appears in Rodez, who states he is “Benedict”. Curiously, the book’s author was then summoned to explain his book to the local authorities. As the book was labelled a novel, we need to ask why the authorities were interested in hearing more…

"When Rome becomes the center of the Antichrist"

In political debates, the same polemic is always present: a situation is perceived as such, whereby the opposition will attack this point of view, often by proposing an alternative, which is normally exactly the opposite. As such, there are those who state that the Church is that of the devil, because of the material treasures of the Church. The opposite would thus be a spiritual message, preaching the message of God, detached from the powers of finance and the temptations of the flesh. It is the message of the AMOR versus ROMA of the 13th century.
But in the case of the papal office, we should indeed wonder whether during the 15th century, certain important factions were created within the Church, that brought the entire problem to a boiling point… even though the history books may not seem to mention too much about them.

Where one finds Saunière and Perillos

It is clear that Saunière had both chance and bad luck. When Billard was his superior, he was left alone. His successor, Mgr. de Beauséjour, took an interest in the affairs of our priest.
After the death of Marie Dénarnaud, we see how Noël Corbu makes contact with the Church, and even with the pope. Even though one does not know exactly why… There is the testimony of Gérard de Sède, who states that it was the bishop who performed intense monitoring of what was going on in Rennes-le-Château. They had tried to acquire the properties bequeathed by Saunière to Dénarnaud. The religious authority does seem to have set up a strategy. One of the parents of Marie apparently did not have an exemplary record during the times of the Occupation. When he is still in a prison camp, the bishop sends an emissary to him, a priest named Gau. He proposes a deal: his release, provided he can guarantee that Marie will sell the property of Saunière.
The man was released, but once outside, does not seem to have respected the contract – if he ever agreed to it; at the same time, perhaps he was unable to bend the will of Marie.
But the incident does not stop here. Some years later, the bishop of Carcassonne receives the unexpected visit of the apostolic nuncio. He is there to enquire about Saunière and the entire affaire. It seems that someone, whom de Sède identifies as “C” and which others have identified as Noel Corbu, has written to the Church, with a request. As he is extremely poor, he wants the Church to pay for the education of his children in Carcassonne. The question the nuncio poses himself is whether he deserves this favour. The bishop states that Corbu is caught up in unpleasant businesses, that his manners are doubtful and that finally he is definitely not a poor man. The nuncio thus has all the information he requires, to report back to Mgr. Angelo Roncalli, who will soon be voted Pope John XXIII. It is clear that the image that was painted by the bishop of the new owner of the domain of Saunière was poor, but nevertheless, a few months later, to everyone’s surprise, the Vatican does grant Corbu the requested purse for the education of his children. Many have therefore asked what type of control or influence Corby had that could change the minds of the Vatican…

We know that the attention of Saunière was directed towards Perillos, the old territory of the sponsors of Benedict XIII and his successors.
The “unofficial” succession of Benedict XIII occurred after 1415 and specifically after 1422. It is the same timeframe where Ramon de Perillos dies, without children. The territories return, by inheritance, to his nephew. As he is in debt, he decides to sell the territory of Perillos at once.

In Perillos, there is the strange presence of a “royal tomb”, noted in a document by the royal notary Courtade, which is indicated on the model that was ordered by Saunière late in his life. He identifies the two sites as the “Tomb of Christ” and “Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea”. It is a strange choice, specifically for a priest, who should know that the two tombs according to the bible are just one. But, then again, is there supposed to be just one pope, or two?

If… the cardinals of France maintained their secret succession of popes, living in the shadow of the Church, what were they aiming to do? Were they secretly fighting or preparing to fight with the pope of Rome? In this case, it is a difficult exercise, which would require substantial means to maintain this type of combat… and it would require money.

If… we are 600 years after the foundation of the secret tradition of Benedict XIII, and we are unable to state whether the secret line exists or not. We can, however, argue quite reasonably that its existence continued for half a decade after the refuge of Benedict XIII to Peñiscola. In 1420, Benedict XIII and de Perillos must have understood that the fight would occur in the future… without perhaps being able to locate it precisely – though they may have hoped for a more immediate future rather than a remote one. Would de Perillos thus have left a precious deposit on his territories, or would a precious deposit on his territories enable a descendant of Pedro de Luna to fight the “false pope” of Rome and recover the pontifical tiara? On the model of Saunière, there is the presence of certain key words, such as the cartouche which states “Primitive State”. This is a state without corruption. It represents the landscape of Jerusalem, where the last moments in the life of Jesus occurred and the Christian Church was born as a consequence of this.

It is the inversion of the model that shows the landscape of Perillos. Do we need to see in this inversion an invitation – an aide – which can aide that person what will take on the Church to revert it to its “Primitive State”? Of course, this is a speculative scenario and we are not the only ones to have followed it. Jean Robin speaks of this same tradition, and equally brings it in line with the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. Is this the ruit of chance, or a piece of forgotten information that is at the heart of the mystery?

Filip Coppens & André Douzet