These are the four accounts of the document or documents. Now, we can immediately rule out the hollow pillar tale. There is a small square hole in one of the pillars, but this was part of a mortise and tenon when the pillar was part of a larger structure. This hole is not large enough to hold documents. Clearly this is an apocryphal explanation.

What of the remaining three possibilities? Each of the three is plausible, and both Descadeillas’ account of what the locals said of the discovery, and Claire Corbu’s version as handed down by her husband’s family, are likely to have generated some interest in the village. Taken in conjunction with the curé’s later behaviour and the enormous spending spree in which he later indulged, there’s enough cause there for village gossip and a nice little village myth to spring up.

According to the RLC mythology, there were two documents – parchments of some antiquity, bearing within the text some secret clues in code. However, according to the historian Descadeillas (writing in 1962), there were two or three scrolls “whose text related to the construction of the church and the altar”. In this case, the documents had only historical interest relevant to the church.

What is clear is that there is no contemporary evidence that the documents were anything other than that. The idea that the documents were related to a secret treasure was a myth that arose from Noël Corbu’s clever re-shaping of the local tall tales, because only after January 1956 is there any reference at all to such an idea.

Saunière did not keep the documents – there is in fact no reference to the discovery of them in his notes or diary. Some people have said that this is because Saunière wished to keep a great mystery hidden, but this is extremely unlikely because the villagers were aware of the discovery of the documents, and at least two of the accounts of the discovery mention witnesses to the discovery. In keeping with his usual disregard for history and artefacts, the truth is that Saunière did not keep the documents because they seemed unimportant to him. If they were indeed related to the church and altar’s construction, of what use were they to him? Saunière demonstrated again and again that he valued the past not one whit. The historical artefacts of the church had no value to him in themselves – he used them carelessly in his refurbishing and modernising of the church.

Tomb-and-treasure

It was either during 1885 or 1886 that there is evidence Saunière found something of value in a tomb exposed during the reflooring of the church. Workmen related that they saw something glinting in the tomb, and that they were sent away by Saunière who told them it was only valueless “medals of Lourdes” that glinted so. This explanation is possible – but it is also possible that some small but quite valuable object had been placed in the tomb, and that Saunière took advantage of his position as parish priest to do some grave-robbing. Descadeillas relates that the object thus disclosed was actually a pot containing gold pieces (buried for safekeeping by a former priest of the 18th century, Abbé Antoine Bigou). However it was, that he found something is likely. That it was a tremendous secret of earth-shattering proportions is an uncalled-for speculation unattested by any reliable evidence.