Holy Blood, Holy Grail Quotes

“During the first century A.D., Alexandria was a veritable hotbed of mystical activity, a crucible in which Judaic, Mithraic, Zoroastrian, Pythagorean, Hermetic, and neo-Platonic doctrines suffused the air and combined with innumerable others.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“You can’t prove your conclusions.’ This was another indictment levelled against us by interviewers and theological critics – as if we might have been expected to produce a sworn affidavit signed by Jesus himself, duly witnessed and duly notarised. Of course we couldn’t ‘prove’ our conclusions. As we stressed repeatedly in the book itself, we were simply posing an hypothesis.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Jesus, the Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“For the novelist, knowledge is not subdivided into rigidly demarcated compartments, and there are no taboos, no ‘disreputable’ subjects.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Jesus, the Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The Nag Hammadi scrolls are a collection of biblical texts, essentially Gnostic in character, which date, it would appear, from the late fourth or early fifth century—from about A.D. 400.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In December 1945 an Egyptian peasant, digging for soft and fertile soil near the village of Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt, exhumed a red earthenware jar. It proved to contain thirteen codices— papyrus books or scrolls—bound in leather.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Jesus is generally believed to have been born around 6 B.C. The Crucifixion occurred no later than A.D. 36, which would make Jesus, at most, forty-two years of age.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The Gospel of Matthew states explicitly that Jesus was of royal blood—a genuine king, the lineal descendant of Solomon and David.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“According to tradition as well as certain early Church writers, Lazarus, the Magdalen, Martha, Joseph of Arimathea, and a few others were transported by ship to Marseilles.16”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Of all the Grail romances the most famous, and the most artistically significant, is Parzival, composed sometime between 1195 and 1216.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The sack of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the destruction of the temple prompted a massive exodus of Jews from the Holy Land.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Among the most popular and evocative of medieval myths is that of Lohengrin, the "Swan Knight.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The name derives from Charles Martel, although it is generally associated with the most famous of Carolingian rulers, Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or, as he is best known, Charlemagne.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The "Donation" further alleged that Constantine, for the first time, had declared the bishop of Rome to be "Vicar of Christ" and offered him the status of emperor.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The "Donation of Constantine" purported to date from Constantine’s alleged conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1977 a new and particularly significant "Prieuré document" appeared—a six-page pamphlet entitled Le Cercle d’Ulysse written by one Jean Delaude.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Without the Merovingians, the Prieuré de Sion would not exist, and without the Prieuré de Sion, the Merovingian dynasty would be extinct.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the Hiéron du Val d’Or was simultaneously Christian and "trans-Christian.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The Hiéron du Val d’Or was a species of secret political society founded, it would appear, around 1873.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1738 Pope Clement XII issued a papal bull condemning and excommunicating all Freemasons, whom he pronounced "enemies of the Roman Church.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the myth of the secret society, if not the secret society itself, played a major role in nineteenth-century European history.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“in 1444, Cosimo founded Europe’s first public library, the Library of San Marco, and thus began to challenge the Church’s long monopoly of learning.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“René d’Anjou—"Good King René" as he was known—was one of the most important figures in European culture during the years immediately preceding the Renaissance.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1099, immediately after the capture of Jerusalem, a group of anonymous figures convened in secret conclave.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the Ordre de Sion was founded by Godfroi de Bouillon in 1090,”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1956 a series of books, articles, pamphlets, and other documents relating to Bérenger Saunière and the enigma of Rennes-le-Chateau began to appear in France.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“When the king’s head fell beneath the guillotine, an unknown man is reported to have leaped onto the scaffold. He dipped his hand in the monarch’s blood, flung it out over the surrounding throng and cried, "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The final recorded act in the order’s history had been the burning of the last grand master, Jacques de Molay, in March 1314.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“between 1195 and 1220, Wolfram composed his epic romance Parzival, he conferred on the Templars a most exalted status.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“in 1522 the Templars’ Prussian progeny, the Teutonic Knights, secularized themselves, repudiated their allegiance to Rome, and threw their support behind an upstart rebel and heretic named Martin Luther.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“under the same cross that Christopher Columbus’s three caravels crossed the Atlantic to the New World.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail