Shadow of the Templars

In 1972, British script writer Henry Lincoln introduced the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château to the English speaking world through his documentary "The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem." It immediately created a storm of publicity and eventually led to the production of a 2nd documentary "The Priest, the Painter and the Devil" in 1974 and the "Shadow of the Templars" in 1979. This last documentary was already co-researched by Michael Baigent which later led to Henry, Michael and the late Richard Leigh writing the international bestseller Holy Blood Holy Grail.

The script and presentation of Shadow of the Templars, were done by Henry Lincoln. It was produced by Roy Davies for the BBC Chronicle series.

A poor French village priest, Bérenger Sauniere (1852-1917) finds some ancient, coded parchments in his church, visits Paris, meets with ecclesiastical authorities and occult groups, and thereafter lives the life of a very wealthy man.

The mountain top of Rennes-le-Chateau and of four other adjacent mountain tops precisely mark out a pentagram, the tips of a five-pointed star that stretches across the landscape. Moreover, an interlocking geometry of circles, alignments, and five, six and ten pointed stars extends for miles into the countryside roundabout, fixed precisely by the positioning of churches, chateaux and other landmarks.

Timewatch produced The History of a Mystery (1996) in which, by debunking a book, they tried to destroy the Saunière story, labelling it as 'pseudo-history'.

Henry Lincoln commenting on the BBC about-face towards his documentary: "What has happened? This is a confusing tale and it is not easy to draw together all the various elements, but something curious has occurred. ...
Those of you who have taken the trouble to check my findings know that I have been careful to restrict myself to "that which is demonstrable and provable". The mathematics and the geometry stand. Why do some people wish to pretend that they do not?"