A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code

Nashotah House Theological Seminary, 2006

 

Lecture 9 (28 March 2006):  Prof. Rev. Dr. Arnold Klukas, Nashotah House

 

Part I:  Leonardo Da Vinci meets Fr. Klukas

 

1.   Introduction:

  1. Brown’s Fact Sheet claims that “... all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
  2. Martin Kemp, England’s foremost Leonardo scholar, writes in his recent book, Leonardo (Oxford, 2005), page 243 that Brown’s art criticism “weaves fancy words into dense patterns that glorify the writer rather than illuminate the subject.”

2.   The truth about the man called Leonardo Da Vinci:

  1. Born  out of wedlock to Piero di Antonio di Vinci [d. 1504] and a farmer’s daughter named Caterina on 15th April 1452, and “subsidized” by his grandfather.
  2. Leonardo appears in the account book of the Florentine painters’ confraternity in 1472, aged 20.
  3. Leonardo, along with another of  Verrocchio’s apprentices, charged with sodomy.
  4. Leonardo, with his father’s help, receives his first commission in 1478 for an altarpiece in the Palazzo dell Signoria in Florence, never finished.
  5. Monks of San Donato a Scopeto commission, through his father’s influence, an altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi, which they never receive.
  6. Leonardo leaves Florence for Milan in September, 1481.
  7. Madonna of the Rocks commissioned by Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for their chapel in San Francesco Grande in Milan in 1483, they receive a copy in 1508 after much litigation.
  8. Ludovico Sforza commissions Leonardo to paint the Refectory of the Dominicans  at Santa Maria della Grazie in 1495 and becomes impatient with the slowness of its progress.
  9. French conquer Milan and Leonardo returns to Florence in 1500.
  10. At request of the French governor of Milan, Leonardo returns to Milan in 1506 but soon goes to Rome.
  11. At request of French king Leonardo moves to France with two apprentices and is provided with a chateau at Amboise and a pension in 1516.
  12. Leonardo dies at Amboise on 2 May 1519 and is buried in the church of Saint-Florintin.

3.   The art historical evidence regarding Leonardo’s paintings:

  1. Mona Lisa or La Giaconda [Paris, Louvre, c. 1503–16] sfumato technique most evident.
  2. Adoration of the Magi [Florence, Uffizi, c. 1479–81] begun for San Donato, never finished.
  3. Madonna of the Rocks I [Paris, Louvre, 1483–c.1490] commissioned by Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for their chapel in San Francesco Grande in Milan.
  4. Madonna of the Rocks II [London, National Gallery, c. 1495–1508] to replace Madonna I as altarpiece.
  5. St. John the Baptist [Paris, Louvre, c. 1508–16] androgyny of the figure.
  6. The Last Supper [Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, c. 1495–8].

4.   Leonardo and the supposed Priory of Sion:

  1. Modern-day Occultists attempt to prove a secret lineage back behind Christianity to the “original” truths of the Great Mother [Ishtar/Astarte/Isis/Aphrodite/Venus] or to Egyptian/Mesopotamian Gnostic Truths, i.e.

i.    Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince, The Templar Revelation (NY, 1997). [Occultist]

ii.    Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (NY, 1987).  [Primal religion was goddess worship.]

iii.   Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (UK,1983 & NY, 2004).  [Almost all of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is derived from Holy Blood, Holy Grail.]

  1. The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail based all of their research on a set of “secret documents” that they claim were “discovered” in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1975.
  2. NB These are Listed on Brown’s Fact Sheet as ‘Les Dossiers Secrets.’
  3. These “secret documents” were provided by Pierre Plantard, an anti-Semitic Frenchman and convicted fraud who actually created these documents to prove that he was in direct lineage to the Merovingian Dynasty and therefore the rightful inheritor of the French monarchy!  His hoax was discovered during a court case in 1993 involving a political scandal, where under oath he confessed that he had forged all documents.
  4. Plantard had played upon a real person and an actual historical puzzle: Fr. Berenger Sauniere was the parish priest in a small village in the Pyrenean foothills called Rennes-le-Chateau.  This priest became suddenly rich, never disclosed the source of his fortune, and lavishly restored his parish church.  In 1970, Plantard entices Henry Lincoln, an envoy of the BBC, to Rennes-le-Chateau and weaves an intriguing story of  the           Templars’ hidden treasure, of an ancient map that shows a pentagram whose lines link isolated objects to a pathway that leads to the hidden chamber where the treasure lies.  Plantard tells of Fr. Sauniere’s ‘discovery’ in 1885 of the map and  other documents, etc. Lincoln makes a BBC series out of this material, and later collaborates on the writing of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
  5. Lincoln and BBC also develop a series on Ley Lines which supposedly channel “earth energies” in straight             lines, which when they intersect, create “energy centers” where pagan shamans established their sacred sites.
  6. These concepts are modern.  Occultist Dion Fortune, in The Goat-Foot God (1936) invented the idea of “lines of power,” and John Michell, in The View Over Atlantis (1969), established the concept in the media.

PART II:  Sex, Lies and Architecture

 

1.   Introduction:  N.B. Brown’s Fact Sheet claims that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

2.   The French Connection:

  1. Paris, St. Sulspice [begun in 1646 by Christophe Gamard]:
    1. Sign in the nave states “contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not a vestige of a Roman temple …”
    2. Another sign states that the brass line in the crossing floor “is part of an astronomical instrument built here in the 18th century” and has nothing to do with a ‘Rose Line.’
  2. Paris, The Louvre [Royal Palace begun in the 16th century and continually enlarged through the 19th century].
  3. At the insistence of President Mitterrand in 1981, a world-wide competition was held to select an architect to renovate and enlarge the Museum; the Sino-American I. M. Pei was chosen.
  4. Excavations began in 1984, and uncovered the remains of  a royal fortress dating back to 1190, all of which was exposed to view in the new construction which was completed in 1988.
  5. Because of the proximity of the Seine River and the exceedingly high water table the lower level had to be ‘floated’ over the shallow foundations [allowing for no possible entombment of relic].

3.   The truth about the Templars and the Jerusalem Temple:

  1. Jerusalem, The Temple Mount [photograph: as seen today from the Mount of Olives].

                     i.            Golden Gate [which Jews and Christians believe will welcome the return of the Messiah].

                   ii.            Dome of the Rock [built in 691–2 over an exposed rock]. Jews believe that the rock was part of the Temple altar of sacrifice and Muslims believe that from it the Prophet ascended to Heaven.

                  iii.            Aqsa Mosque

  1. Jerusalem, The Temple Mount at the time of the Crusades [graphic].
  2. Mappa Mundi, c. 1200 which shows Jerusalem as the center of the earth [axis mundi].
  3. Woodblock of Jerusalem, c. 1500  which shows the Dome of the Rock as the Temple.
  4. After the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 72 the Emperor Titus had the Temple demolished, the only part of the Herodian Temple left standing was the western retaining wall.
  5. Constantine, c. 325, rebuilds Jerusalem and erects lavish shrines on those sites related to Jesus’ life and death; but intentionally leaves the Temple Mount as a ‘desolation’ to manifest the end of the Old Covenant and its sacrifices

                     i.            Islam and Arab domination overtake the Holy Land in the early 7th century, and Jerusalem becomes one of the holy cities of Islam and supposed departing-place of the Prophet.

                   ii.            Dome of the Rock is built c. 691 in imitation of the Christian Holy Sepulcher.

                  iii.            In 1118 Hugo de Payne, with the assistance of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Innocent II, establishes an order of warrior-monks whose aim is to recapture the Holy Land for Christendom.

                 iv.            After the capture of Jerusalem, the Templars are offered the Temple Mount as their headquarters; the Dome of the Rock becomes their chapel, with its high altar on the sacred rock; the Aqsa Mosque, which they think was part of Solomon’s palace [stables], becomes their hostel.

                   v.            The Templars establish Commanderies all over Europe, especially along pilgrimage routes, and become unofficial bankers for the crusaders’ enterprise.

                 vi.            Jealous of their wealth, the King of France receives papal approval to suppress the Order in 1308.

                vii.            When Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin, the Dome of the Rock was returned to Islam.

 

4.   The archeology of the other Holy Land:

  1. London, Temple Church [Rotunda begun c. 1160, consecrated by Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1185]:

                     i.            First of more than 20  Templar or Hospitaler churches built in imitation of the Dome of the Rock/Holy Sepulcher in Britain, another example being Holy Sepulcher in Cambridge (12th c.).

                   ii.            Circular plan has no reference whatsoever to pre-Christian temples or pagan rites, but based on the Byzantine martyrium of which the Holy Sepulcher is the most significant exemplar.

  1. Edinburgh, Roslyn Chapel [begun after 1445, high altar consecrated 1450, final consecration in 1523]:

                     i.            Founded as the Collegiate Church of St. Matthew whose charter specified that it be staffed by a provost, 6 prebendaries, and 2 cantors.

                   ii.            Founder was William Sinclair, 3rd and last Prince of the Orkneys and Lord Chancellor of Scotland, but his intended building program was halted at his death in 1484 by his son and successor.

                  iii.            Original plan is known from excavations [which also proved that the site had no previous buildings, i.e. Druid Temples, etc.] where foundations for a cruciform church were clearly demarcated.

                 iv.            In 1960 rubble was removed to re-open a large lower crypt 36’ long, used as a sacristy—there is no unexcavated secret chamber under the church.

                   v.            Comparison of Roslyn with Solomon’s Temple shows no similarities, i.e. in  the Temple 2 pillars were outside the eastern door and had nothing to do with the Holy of Holies.

                 vi.            There is no Star of David incised in the floor [indeed Jews did not use it as a symbol; Nazis did].