If you’re interested in learning more about Rennes-le-Château, Bérenger Saunière, Marie Dénarnaud, or any other ideas that came up in The Priest’s Madonna, check out these resources:

Links:

http://www.renneslechateau.com. A very comprehensive site on all things RLC.

http://www.gnostique.net/. If you want to learn more about Gnosticism.

http://www.newadvent.org. They’ve got an online version of the nineteenth century Catholic Encyclopedia. Good for answers to those niggling questions about Catholic trivia pre-Vatican II.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/. This is a great site that accompanied the PBS series From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians.                                                                                      

http://priory-of-sion.com. For all your debunking needs. This site systematically (and even fanatically) debunks all the myths and theories out there about Bérenger Saunière and the related Priory of Sion hoax.

Books:

Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent, and Richard Leigh. The book that started it all: where I first learned about Bérenger.

L’Héritage de l’Abbé Saunière, by Antoine Captier and Claire Corbu. An excellent resource. Claire knew Marie Dénarnaud, and lived in the Villa Bethania when she was a girl. Antoine’s grandfather was the bellringer when Bérenger was priest in RLC. If you don’t read French, though, you’ll have a hard time with this one.

The Cathars, by Malcom Barber. One of the best books on the subject.

Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews, by Paula Fredriksen. A great book with a cool theory about Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem.

Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor, by Susan Haskins. For all things Magdalen.

Daily Life in Palestine at the Time of Jesus, by Daniel Henri-Rops. An indispensable source for imagining what life would have been like back then. Well-written, too.