An essential notion in the #1 New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code is the existence of an age-old French society, the Priory of Sion, whose task it is to protect Christ's sacred bloodline. In The Sion Revelation, Picknett and Prince reveal the story of the Priory, taking readers on a highly significant, disturbing, and even alarming ride through history into an intriguing world where a great many uncomfortable facts will have to be faced, both religious and political. Drawing on a wealth of astonishing evidence, they answer numerous questions that shroud this society, including: • Does the Priory actually exist or is the group's entire history an elaborate hoax? • Was Leonardo da Vinci really one of the Priory's Grand Masters? • What is the truth behind Pierre Plantard, the enigmatic French aristocrat who claimed to be a Priory Grand Master -- and who some claim was a Nazi sympathizer? • Could the Priory be a front for other occult societies in Europe with religious or even political agendas? By carefully untangling centuries of obfuscation, rumor, and documented fact, The Sion Revelation unravels the great intricacies of this secret society and takes us on a historical journey that is as groundbreaking in its explanation as it is riveting in its telling. The authors' previous book, The Templar Revelation (1998), a primary source for The Da Vinci Code, looked at the symbolism in Da Vinci's art as well as exploring the notion that a secret group, the Priory of Sion, was charged with guarding the secret of Jesus' bloodline. Since then, most researchers have debunked the Priory. Picknett and Prince now argue that the Priory is neither the centuries-old society Brown posited nor a complete hoax but a real group that wants to bring about a United States of Europe. To get to their explanation of that concept (a notion that will be of most interest to Europeans), readers must wade through lots of convoluted logic. So, why bother? Well, for the very asset the authors tout--their connection to The Da Vinci Code . Thanks to Brown's novel, there is great interest in the topics covered here, everything from bloodlines to Merovingian kings to Gnostic gospels. That's enough to spark interest in this wildly speculative book. When the authors write that a presumed assassination of Princess Diana is outside their scope, one can only sigh in relief. Ilene Cooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Lynn Picknett is a writer, researcher, and lecturer on historical and religious mysteries. Her seminal book, written with Clive Prince, The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ, inspired the New York Times bestsellers The Da Vinci Code and The Secret Supper . They are also the authors of The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline . She lives in London, England. Clive Prince is a writer, researcher, and lecturer on the paranormal, the occult, and historical and religious mysteries. With Lynn Picknett, he is the author of The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ and Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? He lives in London, England. The Sion Revelation The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline By Lynn Picknett Touchstone Copyright © 2006 Lynn Picknett All right reserved. ISBN: 0743263030 Introduction When we presented our discovery of the secret symbolism in Leonardo da Vinci's paintings in our 1997 book, The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ, little did we realize that we were making a significant contribution to a remarkable phenomenon of the twenty-first century. Not only did our book directly inspire Dan Brown to weave his blockbuster The Da Vinci Code (2003) around the concept of da Vinci's love of hidden heresies and dangerous codes, but we were taken aback to realize that in doing so we had also assisted at the birth of a new, impassioned wave of interest in the truth about the origins of Christianity. A central part of Brown's fiction is the notion that there exists an age-old French society, the Priory of Sion, whose task it is to protect the sacred bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene -- the implications of which are truly shocking to those who remain true to the traditional teachings of the Church. The inevitable backlash against all the subjects raised in Brown's book has seen the Priory of Sion roundly trounced, dismissed once and for all as a straightforward hoax. However, we became increasingly dissatisfied with either extreme -- complete acceptance of everything claimed by or on behalf of the Priory or blanket dismissal -- for two reasons. While there is evidence that the Priory is a modern creation, rather than the ancient and venerable secret society it is supposed to be, there is considerably more to it than a simple hoax. As our continuing research has found,