[Music]
00:01
[Music]
00:12
[Music]
00:27
in. France, a tiny village has attracted
00:29
treasure hunters for the last 70 years.
00:32
Renal Chatau is one of the most
00:37
mysterious places on Earth.
00:39
It's got buried treasure. It's got
00:43
secret codes. It's got conspiracies.
00:45
It's all because at the end of the 19th
00:49
century, the priest of Ren Lhateau, Bonj
00:51
Sonier, became fabulously
00:55
rich and nobody quite knows how.
00:58
The big mystery about Sonia is where the
01:03
money came from.
01:05
Some say the priest discovered buried
01:08
treasure,
01:10
but others claim Sonier uncovered a
01:13
secret so profound it could rock the
01:16
foundations of the Catholic Church.
01:19
The truth is Sonier was the tree that
01:24
hides the forest.
01:26
The mystery of where Sonier got his
01:30
money is only superficial. There are
01:33
other things that go a great deal
01:36
deeper. This is the true story of the
01:39
treasures of Ren
01:43
[Music]
01:45
Lhatau. In the odded region in the south
01:51
of France in the foothills of the
01:53
Pyrenees lies the village of Ren
01:57
Lhatau.
02:02
[Music]
02:03
Here in 1953, an elderly French woman
02:09
lay on her
02:14
deathbed. Mari Dano was ill and her
02:17
health failing
02:21
fast. Her friend Noel Kobu hung on her
02:26
final words.
02:30
She said, "When I know that I am dying,
02:33
not a moment
02:38
before, then I will tell you a secret
02:39
which will make you rich and
02:43
famous." It was a secret that could be
02:48
worth millions.
02:51
[Music]
02:52
Noel Koru sits anxiously beside the bed,
02:57
hoping that she will recover
03:02
sufficiently to tell him what she
03:04
promised. It was the secret of the
03:09
buried treasure her lover, Bonj Sonier,
03:12
was supposed to have discovered 70 years
03:16
earlier.
03:19
[Music]
03:24
It all began when Beron Sonier was
03:31
appointed the new priest of Ren Lhatau.
03:35
[Music]
03:39
When Beron Sonier arrived in Renle
03:44
Chateau in
03:47
1885, the place he had come to was a
03:49
small rather impoverished hilltop
03:52
village. It was not a promising place
03:58
for an ambitious young priest to further
04:01
his career in the church.
04:04
It had a population then of about 300.
04:08
It was in a very dilapidated state. No
04:11
water supply. Just a rough track up to
04:14
the
04:16
village. The church was pretty well
04:21
dilapidated. The roof was leaking. The
04:25
birds were flying in and out of the
04:28
building through various holes in broken
04:31
windows and in other places. And it was
04:33
almost unusable.
04:37
Sonier's new church was originally a
04:47
private chapel to the lords of Reno
04:50
Chateau who lived in the castle nearby
04:52
which gives the village its name.
04:56
The church, like many others in the
05:01
region, was dedicated to Mary Magdalene,
05:04
which intrigued its new
05:08
priest. Sonia had a thing about Mary
05:13
Magdalene. But of course, the reason
05:17
that the church is dedicated to Mary
05:19
Magdalene is because there is such a
05:20
sort of cult of of her and to her in
05:22
that part of France.
05:25
Mary Magdalene's role in Christ's life
05:31
has been the subject of debate within
05:34
the church for
05:35
millennia. The Bible says she was the
05:38
only person who witnessed both Christ's
05:41
crucifixion and
05:44
resurrection. But then Mary Magdalene
05:47
suddenly disappeared from the New
05:50
Testament.
05:52
Some legends say she fled to
05:55
France carrying the Holy Grail, the cup
05:58
Christ was said to have drunk from at
06:03
the last supper.
06:05
In this region, we have a centuries old
06:10
great tradition that Mary arrived here.
06:13
The idea is that Mary Magdalene, like so
06:17
many persecuted in Palestine, flees and
06:20
finds a refuge
06:22
[Music]
06:26
in myths about her life in the south of
06:29
France flourished here in the Middle
06:32
Ages.
06:35
[Music]
06:41
In the 12th century, a heretic sect
06:45
known as the Cathars were said to have
06:48
worshiped her and protected and hid a
06:50
fabulous treasure that could even have
06:54
included the Holy Grail
06:57
itself. Many mysteries derive from this
07:03
period. the katar, the templar, the
07:05
grail. That is why it is very important
07:09
for all
07:12
meat. The Catholic Church brutally
07:16
suppressed the
07:20
Cathars, but their hidden treasure was
07:22
never found.
07:25
The myths of Mary Magdalene and Cathar
07:33
treasure were well known to the new
07:35
priest of Reno Chateau, Bonj
07:37
[Music]
07:40
Sonier. In
07:44
1885, Sonier's income was low. He had no
07:46
money to renovate his crumbling
07:50
church. Like a lot of priests at the
07:54
time, he longed for more.
07:56
And yet somehow he had to get his church
07:59
into a workable
08:02
[Music]
08:07
condition. Despite Sonier's meager
08:09
income, he found enough to employ a
08:11
housekeeper, Mari Dano.
08:14
[Music]
08:20
The relationship between Sonier and
08:22
Marie Dartnau was something rather more
08:25
than that of a priest and his
08:29
housekeeper.
08:31
She becomes Sonia's housekeeper and
08:34
closest confidant for the rest of his
08:38
life.
08:40
[Music]
08:42
In
08:46
1886, Sonier said he received a donation
08:47
from a sympathetic countess to renovate
08:50
his crumbling
08:53
church. During the works, something
08:58
happened that would transform Sonier's
09:01
life as a humble village priest.
09:04
During the renovations, the bell ringer
09:12
who used to ring the bells every day
09:14
comes down to where the work is taking
09:17
place and sees a wooden pillar that had
09:19
been supporting the pulpit lying on the
09:23
floor. It was opened and he sees inside
09:25
a little bottle, a small file. He picks
09:29
it up and sees a bit of paper inside.
09:32
The bell ringer's greatgrandson, Antoine
09:38
Captier, still has the pillar that was
09:41
said to have contained the file.
09:43
He told us that he found a document in a
09:49
wooden ballastrate. In this ballastrate,
09:52
there was a small piece of parchment.
09:55
for me.
09:59
However, we don't know what happened to
10:00
the document because my greatgrandfather
10:02
gave it to Sonier and he just told him
10:06
that it was just a bit of a
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[Music]
10:11
relic. Sonier took the parchment away
10:19
for closer inspection.
10:24
It appeared to be some sort of map
10:32
indicating treasure below the church and
10:34
the
10:39
graveyard. Sonier ordered the floor of
10:42
the old church to be
10:45
lifted. His workers then made a
10:48
startling discovery.
10:51
Shortly afterwards, Sonier found a pot
10:57
full of gold coins and shiny objects
11:00
which was witnessed by the workers and
11:03
therefore fact.
11:06
[Music]
11:13
[Music]
11:24
Sonier quickly took the pot of coins
11:26
away, dismissing the
11:28
find. He wanted to make the workers
11:34
believe they were worthless. The workers
11:36
were naive, but not to that extent.
11:38
After this first discovery, Sonier
11:46
became convinced there was more treasure
11:48
hidden somewhere in the graveyard in a
11:51
crypt known as the Lord's tomb.
11:54
[Music]
11:59
We know from the records that this crypt
12:05
exists, but we don't know where it is. I
12:08
think this little parchment contains the
12:11
location of where one can find the crypt
12:13
of the Lord's tomb.
12:15
Many believe something else on the
12:21
parchment has made Sonier think the
12:23
Lord's tomb could contain the missing
12:26
Cathar
12:28
treasure, possibly even the Holy Grail
12:30
itself.
12:33
[Music]
12:39
The priest enlisted his housekeeper and
12:47
now lover, Mari Dernano, to help him
12:50
find the tomb.
12:54
[Music]
12:58
He searches at night, not in the church,
13:04
but in the cemetery
13:07
and he starts to excavate the cemetery
13:14
to reach the crypt from the
13:17
[Music]
13:20
outside. The work is quite complicated
13:23
because he had to do it at night and
13:25
most of all hidden from the villages.
13:26
But word soon spread of the nocturnal
13:40
activities of the village priest.
13:43
The villagers are complaining that he's
13:50
basically desecrating the the graveyard.
13:52
He's digging up graves. He's moving
13:56
headstones. which is taking the old
13:57
bones and putting them into an ocery.
14:00
[Music]
14:03
People talked about how he locked
14:06
himself in the cemetery and they didn't
14:08
see him until hours later. So, he was
14:10
looking for something underground.
14:13
[Music]
14:16
Sonier's diary then recorded the night
14:19
he discovered the Lord's tomb.
14:22
He writes everything down in his
14:31
ledgers. The ledgers that I have
14:32
studied. At a certain point in September
14:34
1891, he writes discovery of a tomb.
14:36
Evening rain.
14:40
[Music]
14:45
It was that day that he goes under the
14:48
church and finds the tomb of the lords
14:51
of rain.
14:53
[Music]
15:08
[Music]
15:15
Some say Sonier discovered a nobleman
15:18
buried with jewelry and gold.
15:22
But exactly what he found in the lord's
15:25
tomb, he never disclosed.
15:27
So what did he find? We don't know.
15:33
Otherwise, there wouldn't be a secret.
15:34
However, we are convinced that he found
15:36
an entrance to a tomb which led to a
15:39
subterranean space which then led him to
15:41
somewhere else.
15:43
Soon afterwards, Sonier began to
15:51
disappear for long periods of time and
15:54
on his return continue to excavate the
15:57
graveyard.
16:00
It's after the discovery of this tomb
16:03
that Sonia starts behaving strangely.
16:06
He's definitely up to something.
16:09
I think he was looking for money. He
16:14
must have been lured by a small
16:16
discovery of some buried jewelry
16:17
belonging to the lords of Ren.
16:19
[Applause]
16:22
[Music]
16:23
But something else very strange was
16:26
going on with
16:30
[Music]
16:32
Beh. Mari would collect from the local
16:33
post office up to 150 letters a day from
16:36
all over the world and give them to
16:40
Sonier. It was another secret they
16:45
shared together.
16:47
Whatever Sonier was up to, all of a
16:51
sudden he became fabulously rich.
16:53
As soon as he starts finding things
16:59
underground in the cemetery, he starts
17:01
paying for everything up
17:04
front. We found he had about 100,000
17:09
francs in the bank. He's someone who
17:12
suddenly gets into a lot of money.
17:14
[Music]
17:18
When he first comes into money, he
17:24
starts to spend it on the church. The
17:26
weird decoration is put in. You know,
17:28
the statue of the devil bearing the holy
17:31
water stoop. There were about 90
17:35
anomalies in the decoration. Things that
17:39
are surprising or you wouldn't expect.
17:41
somebody wearing a kilt, for example.
17:46
What's that doing in a biblical scene?
17:48
[Music]
17:51
Some believe these strange decorations
17:53
are clues as to what Sonier had
17:56
[Music]
18:00
found. What was the significance of two
18:04
baby Jesus's in the church? One in the
18:07
arms of
18:10
Joseph, one in the arms of his mother
18:12
Mary. What was Sonier trying to
18:15
say? One particular example is the the
18:20
big mural of Christ preaching on the
18:24
hill and at the foot of the hill there
18:27
lies a money bag. The money bag has a
18:32
hole in it and a gold coin is peeping
18:35
through the hole. As if symbolically
18:39
Sonier is saying in this picture, I have
18:42
found treasure. I've used some, not
18:46
much, and there's a great deal more to
18:49
be used.
18:52
Some people regard this as kind of in a
18:55
way a treasure map. Directions to
18:57
different places in the vicinity of Ren
18:59
the Shadow where eventually you're going
19:01
to find the
19:03
[Music]
19:05
treasure. Once his church was fully
19:09
restored, Sonier unashamedly began to
19:11
spend the money on himself.
19:15
He starts to buy up land in the village
19:21
to construct his his domain, his estate,
19:23
his gardens. He has this um villa
19:26
built. He was a man of great appetites
19:33
in numerous directions and his building
19:37
displayed the luxury that he longed for.
19:41
Sonier pays for the construction of an
19:47
extravagant new tower, the tour Magdala,
19:49
named after Mary
19:53
Magdalene. Sonier even had llamas and a
19:58
monkey put into his sumptious new
20:02
gardens.
20:07
His new house, the Villa Betani, was
20:10
used for showing off his new wealth,
20:14
entertaining distinguished guests with
20:16
expensive wines and food.
20:18
[Music]
20:21
The invoices survive for the food and
20:24
the drink that he bought to throw these
20:27
parties. It's vast amounts.
20:29
I found his bills. He ordered lambustine
20:36
a lobster 50 liters of rum straight from
20:38
Martineik. So he's really living the
20:40
high life in Ren Lhat.
20:43
He almost does start to become like the
20:50
king of Renhat.
20:52
He starts to produce postcards not just
20:55
of the village but making sure that he's
20:57
in the
20:59
pictures almost as if he's suddenly
21:00
thinks of himself as a celebrity.
21:03
Whatever money he had, he spent and he
21:07
lived like a medieval aristocrat would
21:11
live. In total, Sonier spent around
21:17
200,000 Franks, the equivalent of
21:21
several million pounds today.
21:24
Sonier's spending was so extraordinary
21:38
the villagers of Ren Chatau started to
21:41
ask
21:44
themselves where did all this money come
21:45
from.
21:47
Soon others started asking the same
21:49
[Music]
21:53
question. In 1902, the new bishop of
22:01
Kakason, Monscin Bosour, was appointed
22:04
overseeing Sonier's
22:08
[Music]
22:12
parish. asked to explain his
22:17
extraordinary spending to him. Sonier
22:20
refused.
22:24
A new bishop was appointed who started
22:28
putting his long pointed nose into what
22:30
Sonier was doing and uh asking him to
22:32
explain the source of his wealth which
22:36
Sonier stoidly refused to do. No. No.
22:38
Just pull them off. Just pull them off.
22:42
What's illegal? No.
22:45
[Music]
22:51
Sonier was removed from his post and
22:59
banned from giving
23:01
services. In defiance, he set up his own
23:05
altar in the Villa Betan and continued
23:09
to attract
23:12
worshippers. He refused to leave his
23:14
estate.
23:16
[Music]
23:18
He says, "My possessions are here in
23:21
Ren, so I'm staying here." So, actually,
23:24
he chooses his possessions over
23:28
spirituality.
23:31
Eventually, Sonier was put on an
23:36
ecclesiastical trial in the Vatican,
23:38
which he never attended.
23:41
Instead, he sent expensive lawyers to
23:45
fight his
23:48
case. The trial lasted 6 years, and
23:50
before it could reach a judgment in
23:54
1917. After years of high living, Sonier
23:56
died of heart failure caused by liver
24:00
cerosis.
24:03
[Music]
24:05
Yet for all his extraordinary spending,
24:10
Sonier died penalous and without
24:14
property in his
24:16
name. It was said that to stop the
24:19
church seizing his wealth. Sonier
24:22
transferred his entire estate to his
24:25
housekeeper and confidor Marie Dano.
24:27
The villagers say that she actually
24:33
visited Sonier's grave every day and
24:36
every night. So she obviously remained
24:40
devoted to
24:42
[Music]
24:45
him. In later life, Marano became a
24:48
recluse, but was once seen wearing some
24:52
of the jewelry Sonier was alleged to
24:54
have found.
24:57
She doing it so that the sunlight would
24:59
shine on the antique jewelry with which
25:02
she had encrusted both her
25:04
hands. The neighbor said, "Oh, Marie,
25:07
they're beautiful." She ran
25:10
indoors, came back without them, and was
25:13
never seen wearing them
25:16
again. The stories of Sonier's
25:21
incredible discovery spread. Had he
25:24
found the legendary treasure of the
25:27
Cathars or something even more
25:30
extraordinary? What was the secret of
25:33
the mysterious priest of Ren Lhatau?
25:36
[Music]
25:43
The first answers to this mystery
25:48
started to appear in
25:50
1946, almost 30 years after Sonier's
25:52
death, when Noel Corbu and his family
25:55
arrived in the village.
25:59
N Corbu is an interesting uh character
26:04
because he's mainly a businessman with
26:07
quite a few business ventures but he's
26:09
also um had tried his hand at writing
26:11
novels. One day there are people family
26:18
who live nearby in Bugarash going for a
26:23
walk in Rhatau.
26:26
They go to the bell tower and see that
26:28
someone lives in the estate.
26:30
[Music]
26:33
The Corbuz discovered the estate was
26:41
owned by Marie
26:43
Denano. Noel Corbu's daughter Claire
26:46
remembers the encounter.
26:49
[Music]
26:51
The first time we met Marie when we were
26:54
children, we thought she was like a real
26:57
grandmother, dressed in black, very
27:00
small. She loved to laugh, always
27:03
smiling.
27:06
[Music]
27:07
Having lived as a recluse for years,
27:10
Mary was delighted with her new
27:12
visitors.
27:14
My father really liked the place. He
27:20
loved hilltop locations, castles, all
27:22
these impressive
27:26
things. My father really liked Mr.
27:28
Narno's property.
27:31
[Music]
27:35
After several visits, Noel Corbu was so
27:39
enamored by Marie's estate in Ren
27:42
Lhateau, he offered her a deal.
27:45
is that if we adopt you as a family
27:49
member, as a sort of adopted
27:52
grandmother, we will treat you to the
27:55
very best of our
27:58
ability. We will be your friends, we
28:00
will be your family, we will take care
28:04
of you in return for uh us having what
28:06
had been Sonia's old estate.
28:11
[Music]
28:16
Mari allowed the Corbus to run the
28:18
estate and little by little took Noel
28:20
Corbu into her confidence, sharing with
28:24
him the secret of her lover, Behon
28:27
Sonier, and their discovery of buried
28:29
treasure. But she didn't reveal where
28:35
the treasure was hidden. She told Corbu
28:38
she would only do that at the moment she
28:41
is about to die.
28:44
And
28:51
then she gets a
28:52
[Music]
28:55
stroke. She can neither write nor speak.
29:03
Noel Corbu sits anxiously beside the
29:09
bed, hoping that she will recover
29:13
sufficiently to tell him what she
29:16
[Music]
29:19
promised. Mari died in
29:23
1953. Childless, she left her entire
29:28
estate to the Coroos.
29:31
[Music]
29:34
And then the stories of what Mari had
29:46
told Noel Corbu about Sonier began to
29:48
emerge. In a series of sensational
29:52
newspaper articles, Corbu revealed that
29:55
Dano and Sonier had discovered a great
29:58
horde of treasure.
30:02
[Music]
30:08
But the treasure wasn't anything to do
30:09
with Mary Magdalene, the
30:12
Cathars, or the Holy Grail. It was
30:14
something quite different. A treasure
30:18
that was a king's ransom. A treasure
30:22
that had been hidden and seemingly
30:25
forgotten by history.
30:27
Corbu said that in the 13th century,
30:36
Blanch Castile, Queen Regent of France,
30:40
had hidden her nation's entire treasury,
30:44
some 18 million gold pieces and jewelry
30:47
somewhere under the church of Ren
30:51
Lhatau.
30:54
It was to pay the ransom of her son, the
30:56
future Louis the 9th, who had been
30:59
captured by the Egyptians during the
31:01
Crusades.
31:03
[Music]
31:06
He loved this story, my father. He loved
31:10
telling it to his clients, and he made a
31:13
recording so he didn't have to repeat it
31:15
all the
31:17
time.
31:19
According to Noel Corbu, Mari had said
31:21
that she and Sonier had found just a
31:25
fraction of the Blanch Castile treasure
31:27
and much more was still to be
31:30
discovered.
31:32
She says to him, "My dear Noel, with
31:39
what Sonier has left, we can feed Ren
31:41
for a 100 years."
31:45
She also tells him, "You merely have to
31:47
bend over to pick up gold."
31:50
Mar told Corbu that Sonier's frequent
31:56
disappearances were when he would go
32:00
abroad to sell bits of treasure and then
32:02
send the money back by
32:04
post. But Marie had died before she
32:12
could reveal the really vital
32:16
information where the horde was buried.
32:18
Taking the secret of the Blanch Castile
32:21
treasure to her
32:24
[Music]
32:26
grave. But Corbu was certain it was down
32:30
there somewhere.
32:34
[Music]
32:37
She had convinced him that there was
32:38
something of immense value waiting to be
32:41
discovered. And he um looked for it
32:45
[Music]
32:52
everywhere. Soon the entire Corbu family
32:59
were treasure hunting.
33:02
As a child and a young girl, it was my
33:07
principal activity, looking for the
33:09
treasure and with my brother, it was our
33:16
most important
33:19
hobby. Given all the publicity
33:24
surrounding Ren Lhatau's buried
33:27
treasure, Corbu opened a hotel and
33:29
restaurant in Sonier's old estate to
33:32
cater for the new flood of treasure
33:36
hunters.
33:38
His clans were treasure hunters drawn to
33:42
the history of Ren as told by my father.
33:44
Among them was one of the most famous
33:51
treasure hunters in France. In
33:53
1958, Robert Shahu arrived in Ren
33:57
Lhatau. written several books. He was
34:09
very well known for treasure hunting and
34:13
in it caused a lot of
34:16
publicity. Shahu used metal detectors to
34:26
search for the treasur's hiding place in
34:30
the
34:32
church and the cemetery.
34:33
But despite all his experience, Shahu
34:37
couldn't find the treasure which quietly
34:40
pleased Noel Kobu.
34:43
I think Shahu said he was convinced that
34:48
my father-in-law knew a lot more than
34:50
Ion. Maybe that is why he never
34:52
succeeded.
34:54
[Music]
34:58
Corbu and Shahu's stories spread like
35:00
wildfire throughout
35:04
France. So much so that in 1961, French
35:06
channel OTF made a program about the
35:11
mystery. Such was his deep involvement
35:15
in the creation of the myth. Corbu
35:18
himself played the part of Sonier.
35:20
Like many treasure hunter Jean Brunal
35:26
was drawn to the stories of Bonj Sonier.
35:29
It is treasure that has brought me to
35:36
Renless Chatau. We heard stories here
35:38
and there. Someone made a hole here.
35:41
Others made a hole there. Someone used a
35:43
drill to blow air from one side to see
35:46
if it came out the other.
35:48
[Music]
35:50
But after years of treasure hunting and
35:55
several official archaeological digs, no
35:57
treasure was ever
36:00
found. This treasure hunting in and
36:06
around Ren became so intense and became
36:09
well the whole place was honeycombed
36:13
with these tunnels and in
36:15
1965 further excavations were banned.
36:18
[Music]
36:23
But the story was about to take a new
36:29
dramatic twist and lead to even more
36:31
extraordinary theories about Sonier's
36:34
wealth. It was all to do with the
36:40
parchment that was supposed to have been
36:43
found in the pillar that first set
36:45
Sonier off treasure hunting.
36:47
Everyone believed it had been lost
36:51
[Music]
36:55
forever. But in
36:57
1967, a book by journalist Gerard Deed
36:59
sensationally claimed Sonier had found
37:03
not one but two parchments and published
37:05
them for the first time.
37:09
the step between it becoming kind of a
37:13
regional
37:16
um sensation to a national one to an
37:18
international one. The big step there is
37:20
a book called the gold of Ren.
37:23
According to Deed Sonier had taken the
37:29
parchments to his
37:33
bishop who had advised him to take them
37:34
to the highest church authorities in
37:38
Paris.
37:40
De said claimed when Sonier returned
37:43
from Paris he was suddenly rich beyond
37:46
his wildest dreams. So had he found a
37:49
great treasure after
37:52
[Music]
37:56
all?
38:00
Desauthor Pierre Plantar appeared in a
38:01
BBC interview to give some clues to
38:05
their theory.
38:08
Will the treasure of shadow ever be
38:10
found? But if Plantar and Desered were
38:29
right and Sonier hadn't found a material
38:32
treasure, what had he found that had
38:36
made him so
38:39
rich? What they do, they take the Sonia
38:42
story, the Ren Chateau mystery as it
38:45
originally was, and use it as the hook
38:47
for a whole other story.
38:49
Deed and Plantar claimed the parchments
38:57
held a secret to prove that the lineage
39:00
of the last meravenian king of France,
39:03
Daggo bear II hadn't died out but still
39:07
existed today and that a shadowy
39:10
organization called the Priaryy of Sion
39:13
was founded to protect
39:15
it. A few years later, it was then a
39:18
British author, Henry Lincoln, who said
39:22
he had separately decoded Deed's
39:25
parchments and took the story even
39:28
further.
39:31
He claimed that the parchments were a
39:34
series of clues that sensationally
39:36
proved Mary Magdalene had indeed fled
39:39
the Holy Land for France, but did so
39:42
when pregnant with Jesus's
39:46
child and that Christ's bloodline became
39:50
the French Maravvenian kings of whom the
39:54
mysterious Pierre Plantar was the only
39:57
living survivor.
40:01
The Holy Grail was known as the San
40:04
Graal, but it wasn't a cup at all, but
40:08
that sang Ria, meaning royal blood. And
40:11
this was Sonier's great
40:16
[Music]
40:19
secret. Lincoln appeared on American
40:20
television to reveal his discovery. The
40:23
mystery which triggered the discovery
40:27
which we eventually made, triggered the
40:30
whole course of research was concerned
40:31
with a small village in France where a
40:34
priest had apparently found a treasure.
40:36
We looked into the history of that area
40:38
and the grail kept surfacing and the
40:41
grail in turn leads us into the
40:43
bloodline.
40:45
The bloodline was the holy grail and
40:49
Sonier had discovered it on the
40:53
parchments. It was an earthshattering
40:58
claim that could shake the Catholic
41:00
Church to its
41:03
foundations. It was a huge bombshell for
41:05
all kinds of of reasons. not only Jesus
41:08
fathered children with all the
41:13
implications that has for our
41:15
understanding of of Christ and
41:16
Christianity
41:19
um but also that descendants of that
41:20
bloodline are still around
41:23
today. The
41:30
revelations seemed to turn the story of
41:32
the Bible on its
41:35
head. The bloodline secret was the
41:37
source of Sonier's
41:40
wealth. It wasn't the blanch of Castile
41:44
treasure, but a huge bribe from the
41:47
Vatican to keep him
41:51
[Music]
41:52
quiet.
41:56
However, just a year later, it was
41:57
announced that the parchments were in
42:00
fact
42:02
forgeries. It was all a huge hoax. by
42:05
plantar and
42:09
said Henry Lincoln wasn't part of the
42:11
hoax but a victim of it.
42:14
This book is like a punch in the face.
42:21
It's not possible. In this book he talks
42:24
of meovvenians or scion spies. It's not
42:26
possible. So we investigated all these
42:31
clues from the said, but in fact the
42:34
said was tricking us. We were hooked and
42:36
he was just reeling us in
42:40
what the motivation was. Um, nobody
42:45
knows. A lot of people have regarded it
42:49
as a bizarre bit of performance
42:53
[Music]
42:56
art. But the story didn't end
43:00
there. 20 years later, the hoax became
43:03
the basis for one of the bestselling
43:07
books of all
43:09
time. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code took De
43:12
said and Plantar's invention of the
43:16
Priaryy of Scion and Jesus's bloodline
43:18
to a whole new level.
43:22
The story of Ren Lehatau still generates
43:25
an extraordinary frenzy amongst treasure
43:28
hunters and writers.
43:31
For commercial reasons, this mystery is
43:34
much more interesting to claim that
43:36
Sonier kept a terrible secret.
43:38
[Music]
43:41
But if the source of Sonier's wealth
43:44
wasn't a huge bribe from the Vatican,
43:47
what was it? It certainly wasn't by
43:50
finding the Blunge Castile treasure as
43:53
told by Noel
43:56
Corbu. There is no record of this
43:58
treasure in any history
44:00
book. While it is true that Louis the
44:03
9th had been captured, the ransom was
44:06
paid and he was released. So where had
44:08
all Sonier's money come from?
44:12
[Music]
44:17
The answer, it seems, may lie in the 150
44:20
letters Sonier was getting
44:24
daily. What was shown during the trial
44:28
was that the letters weren't the
44:32
proceeds of selling treasure, as Mari
44:33
had said, but something far more
44:35
grubby. By male order, Sonier had been
44:42
dishonestly selling prayers to people
44:46
around the world known as trafficking in
44:48
masses. According to church rules, a
44:53
priest was allowed to say three masses a
44:56
day. Sonier was getting requests to say
44:58
hundreds. And by doing this, Sonier had
45:03
accumulated a fortune.
45:08
[Music]
45:11
So how did he traffic in masses? He was
45:16
very good. He invented something we are
45:20
still doing today. He put ads in
45:23
magazine. Poor priest in a poor village
45:26
needs masses to restore the church. He
45:29
received a lot of money.
45:33
[Music]
45:40
This then was Sonier's secret. He was a
45:42
highly
45:46
enterprising
45:47
crook. It's in's temperament. He wants
45:52
to make money from everything. From the
45:55
moment he finds a new source of income,
45:57
he is going to use it.
45:59
He had actually made the biggest part of
46:06
his fortune by trafficking in masses.
46:08
But he was also an agent for booze, an
46:10
agent for oil, produced postcards. He
46:13
made money out of everything and he made
46:16
a lot of money.
46:18
[Music]
46:22
But if Sonier was just a crook, why had
46:29
Marie always claimed that he had found
46:32
treasure?
46:35
The villagers seem build this nice villa
46:42
by land and give money to everyone. They
46:45
think it's weird. And afterwards, smart
46:48
mar to give people a reason says that he
46:51
has found a treasure. This explains
46:54
everything.
46:58
But the other reason is that after
47:02
Sonier died, she was almost
47:04
destitute. Marie needed someone to
47:07
support her. She had spun a yarn to the
47:10
core booze.
47:14
[Music]
47:16
She is smart. Marie Marie is always
47:20
scared. She has nothing. What can I do
47:24
if these people throw me out on the
47:27
street to keep them interested? She says
47:29
at the end of my life, I will tell you
47:32
something that will make you powerful.
47:35
So, was Corbu just naive, a victim of
47:42
Marie's story?
47:46
Or perhaps he had reasons to believe.
47:48
Corbu was a very successful
47:52
businessman. And when he arrived in
47:55
Ren, what he needed was to make the
47:59
place a universal attraction. And so
48:03
whatever the attraction is, whatever the
48:06
mystery is, the more you can make of it,
48:09
the more tourists you will attract.
48:12
[Music]
48:15
When Corbu first came to Ren, there were
48:21
only on average 200 tourists a year.
48:24
Nearly 70 years later, thanks to Mari
48:29
and Corbu's stories and more recently
48:32
the Da Vinci Code, tens of thousands
48:35
visit to learn the strange tale of the
48:38
treasures of Ren Lhatau.
48:42
[Music]
48:45
And even though so much has been
48:47
revealed to be a hoax, many continue to
48:49
search for the tomb containing
48:52
treasure or a
48:55
secret. You have the feeling that when
49:02
you come to Renahatau, you can solve an
49:04
[Music]
49:08
enigma. I think that explains his global
49:11
success. It is a game in which you can
49:14
play a role.
49:16
[Music]
49:19
In the end, we all need dreams. Who
49:22
needs the truth when we can have a
49:25
mystery?
49:26
[Music]
49:29
歌词与翻译
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重点词汇
开始练习
| 词汇 | 含义 |
|---|---|
|
treasure /ˈtreʒər/ B1 |
|
|
mystery /ˈmɪstəri/ B2 |
|
|
discover /dɪˈskʌvər/ B1 |
|
|
secret /ˈsiːkrət/ A2 |
|
|
church /tʃɜːrtʃ/ A2 |
|
|
priest /priːst/ B1 |
|
|
wealth /welθ/ B2 |
|
|
discover /dɪˈskʌvər/ B1 |
|
|
buried /ˈberid/ A2 |
|
|
ancient /ˈeɪnʃənt/ B2 |
|
|
legend /ˈledʒənd/ B1 |
|
|
hidden /ˈhɪdən/ A2 |
|
|
grave /ɡreɪv/ A2 |
|
|
wealthy /ˈwelθi/ B1 |
|
|
investigate /ɪnˈvestɪɡeɪt/ B2 |
|
|
rumor /ˈruːmər/ B1 |
|
|
reveal /rɪˈviːl/ B1 |
|
重点语法结构
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我们正在更新此部分，敬请期待！
相关歌曲