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The Bérenger Saunière Myth:
Turning Straw into Gold
| Introduction | Early Years | Appointment as curé | Political hot water | Church project | Documents | Tomb-and-treasure | Building & borrowing | Gifts & 3-per-day | Absences | Moving the bones | Mass destruction | Fire & refurbishment | Bulk Masses | Land & luxuries | Change of Bishop | Bills & belvedere | Family estrangement | Extravagant life | Conflict with the Bishop | Continued enquiries | The Bishop & Masses | First indictment | The money fairytale | Second indictment | Continued advertisements | "Not authorised" | Final suspension | The Rome trial | Health and war | Death & Last Rites | Saunière's legacy | Conclusion |
The money fairytale
His advocate was to be Abbé Huguet, the curé of Espiens. It is at this time that Saunière gave Huguet a very detailed memoire, part of which has already been quoted in this article. It is full of self-justifications and evasions and lies – what one might call “weasel words”. In this memoire he lists his financial sources, including:
| Savings from his income over 30 years | 15,000 francs |
| Various donations (donors unnamed) | 71,600 francs |
But this might be considered just the “rough draft” of his financial fairytale. The actual figures submitted to the authorities had undergone extensive rewriting and revision, so that his sources of revenue ended up totalling 193,150 francs. There are various anonymous gifts listed, including 20,000 francs from a Monsieur de C, and 30,000 francs in anonymous gifts via his brother Alfred. These figures were arrived at by some determined juggling to get the amounts he wanted. There exist early drafts of this document.36 The confusion arising about the real amount donated by the Countess of Chambord is due to this figure-juggling. In the first draft, it is listed as 1,000 francs. In later drafts, it appears as 3,000 francs. Saunière includes in the first draft fictitious receipts for the accommodation of two hatters for twenty years of lodging with him, totalling 40,000 francs, but later drafts have this as lodging for a family at a rent of 300 francs per month, totalling 52,000 francs. (Clearly this particular item was inspired by the fact that since 1897, the Dénarnauds had been living with him.)
How did Saunière decide what the final figure he wanted was to be? The answer is clear: he wanted to match the amount of his expenditure with the amount of money he had coming in – from legitimate sources. He had to find some explanation other than trafficking in Masses for his extravagant expenses.
His expenses, in a rough draft that still exists, are listed as follows37:
| Buying of three pieces of land | 1,550 francs |
| Restoration of the church | 16,293 francs |
| Calvary | 11,200 francs |
| Villa Béthanie | 90,000 francs |
| Tour Magdala | 40,000 francs |
| Garden | 19,050 francs |
| Interior decoration | 5,000 francs |
| Furniture | 10,000 francs |
These costs actually do look inflated. Some of them correspond reasonably well with the receipts that still exist (for instance, the restoration of the church and the cost of the Calvary – we know that the amount spent on the Church by the time of its re-consecration in 1897 came to 27,000 francs). The costs listed for interior decoration and furniture seem to correspond to the actual amounts spent. But the total cost of the garden, in comparison to the existing bills, is certainly inflated, as is the total cost for the Villa Béthanie and the Tour Magdala. In fact, the amounts of 90,000 francs and 40,000 francs respectively for the villa and tower are massively bloated.
37 Saunière and the bishopric. Retrieved Apr. 06, 2006, from Rennes-le-Château Web site: http://www.renneslechateau.com/anglais/proces.htm
