The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

{{conspiracynav}}{{title-italics}}
'''''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail''''' ({{Isbn|9780224017350}}, retitled '''''Holy Blood, Holy Grail''''' for the US) is a 1982 book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which claims to expose the true secret of the [[Holy Grail]].

==The theory==

The theory proposed in the book is:
* [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]]'s death [[Surviving crucifixion|was faked]].
* Jesus and [[Mary Magdalene]] married, had children, and moved to a nice little gîte in the south of [[Fun:France|France]].
* Jesus' descendants became the Merovingian dynasty and, through them, the basis for all of [[Europe]]'s royal families
* This secret is that the "Holy Grail" is not, as traditionally accepted, a cup that once held the blood of Christ, but literally the blood of Christ itself. The idea comes from the similarity between the phrases, ''san greal'' (holy grail) and ''sang real'' (royal blood).
* The [[Priory of Sion]] is a secret organization devoted to keeping this secret and helping Jesus' heirs.
* The [[Roman Catholic Church]] is aware of all this and has been involved in covering it up.
* The end goal is a pan-European government headed by one of these descendants; in particular, the current head of the house of Habsburg.

==Dan Brown==
[[Dan Brown]]'s massive best-seller novel ''The Da Vinci Code'' <del>stole</del> ''[[Plagiarism|borrowed]]'' many aspects of these theories. The theories are not generally accepted by historians, or even most readers of wild-eyed fiction. The biggest flaw with the novel (among countless many) is that it takes the forged Priory of Sion documents at face value. In fact, the Priory of Sion never existed except as a small secret society (read: bored circle of friends) created by one Pierre Plantard in 1956. Plantard and his friends then proceeded to forge numerous documents and plant them in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/60minutes/main1552009.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody The Priory of Sion], CBS ''60 Minutes''</ref> <ref>[http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_20.htm The Crucifixion Was A Fraud]</ref>

==Rat Scabies==
The book ''Rat Scabies And The Holy Grail'' by music journalist Christopher Dawes is the probably-mostly-true story of Dawes and his neighbour Rat Scabies (Chris Millar), one-time drummer of punk rock band The Damned, going a-grail-hunting. It includes meeting Henry Lincoln, and recounts just how pissed off Lincoln was by Dan Brown monetising his life’s obsession and redigesting his tedious book (it really is terrible) into ''The Da Vinci Code''. Rat likes the Dawes book ‘cos it means interviewers have to ask him questions about ''two'' things now.<ref>http://andrewgough.co.uk/interview_rat/</ref> (It's also the only one of these three books worth reading.)

== Bibliography ==

*''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' (1982) [[Special:Booksources/0440036623|ISBN 0440036623]]
*''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' (2004 reprint) [[Special:Booksources/9780385338455|ISBN 9780385338455]]
*''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003) [[Special:Booksources/9780552149518|ISBN 9780552149518]]
*''Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail'' (2003) [[Special:Booksources/9780340832110|ISBN 9780340832110]]

==See also==
*[[Anti-Catholicism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Blood and the Holy Grail}}
[[Category:Books]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

Categories: Books, Pseudohistory, Conspiracy theories