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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 |
“Not authorised”
On the 3rd of February, 1911, as Saunière continued to traffick in Masses in defiance of the Bishop’s order, the Bishop issued the following in La Semaine Religieuse de Carcassone:
COMMUNICATION OF THE BISHOPRIC
Relative advice to M. l’Abbé Saunière
Former curé of Rennes-le-Château
Following an account dated 11th December 1910, in the supplement to Nr. 13
of VEILLEES DES CHAUMIERES, thus: Always as before inform Violette de l’Aisne,
that M. l’Abbé Saunière, in retreat at Rennes-le-Château,
by Couiza (Aude), France, performs masses at 1 Franc per time and is obliged
to receive money for other religious works, literary articles, pamphlets,
stamps, etc.
The Diocesan authority of Carcassonne deems it right to inform the faithful
of this diocese, and so far as is able to inform other dioceses:
1. That M. l’Abbé Saunière, former curé
of Rennes-le-Château, is in no way authorised to demand beyond this
diocese, or to receive from other dioceses, money for saying masses;
2. That he has not been given any assignment or authorisation, to undertake
or conduct any works whatever having as their objective the (Catholic) Ritual.
Carcassonne, 1 February 191140
Saunière continued to live high – the receipts for liqueurs, rum, wine, crockery, vases, upholstery, fashionable clothing, and a costly bust of himself from Monna of Toulouse (costing 1,6000 francs) show that in no way did Saunière curtail his expenditure. Correspondence does exist in which it is made obvious there were some problems in the paying of bills for all of this luxury. This was despite the money that was still coming in from his trafficking in Masses – for example, between April 1911 to August 1911, he received 3,750 francs from payments for Masses.41
But since Saunière had to pay for the expenses of his defence, and finance Abbé Huguet’s trip to the Vatican on his behalf (to protest the judgement of the Ecclesiastical Court), it is not surprising that Saunière had problems covering all his costs.
Final suspension
All through the year of 1911, Saunière received increasingly insistent demands for documentation and proofs. On the 14th July 1911, Saunière presented his accounts to the Ecclesiastical Court, with the expenditure and income as shown (expenses, 193,000 francs; income, 193,150 francs).
41 Bedu, Jean-Jacques. “Rennes-le-Château - Autopsie d'un mythe.” Priory of Sion. 1990. 06 Apr. 2006 <http://priory-of-sion.com/bedu/autopsie.html>
