The Da Vinci Code

[Lychon]

"Da Vinci" is Italian for "Of Vinci". Vinci is a town in Italy.
Therefore, "Leonardo Da Vinci" loosely translates as "Leonardo from Vinci". His actual name was just "Leonardo", but to distinguish him from other Leonardos, he was known as the Leonardo from Vinci.

And I completely disagree with everything the has been said about the Da Vinci Code being fact. Now don't get me wrong, I'm neither pro nor anti-Christianity, but most of the information contained in the Da Vinci Code is neither fact, <i>nor does Dan Brown claim it to be</i>. That is the biggest mistake that conspiracy theorists are making, and if they'd actually bothered to read the opening page in the book, would've noticed that it clearly states that the documents, rituals, organization, artwork, and architecture in the novel all exist. There is <i>no</i> mention of the theories addressed by the <i>fictional</i> characters in the book.

Sure, the Catholic Church has gotten all up in arms about it, denouncing it as blasphemy and whatnot; that doesn't mean that they're trying to hide something. They get up in arms over many things (take Harry Potter for example). Sure, the Knights' Templar existed, the Priory of Sion existed (albeit not as it was portrayed in the book, and has been all but proven beyond doubt that it was a fabrication of one man in the '50s), but all they were, were secret organisations. Much in the way the US Delta Force, or whatever the hell goes on at Area 51 is secret. The leaders of countries at war, suprisingly enough, don't want to reveal their strategies and secrets to the enemy, in this case which happened to be the Knights' Templar.

But tell me honestly, if you would believe, or even know of these things about Christianity if you had not read the Da Vinci Code. The book is a work of fiction and there are a select group who have taken it as fact and believed it.

True, the events and characters in The Da Vinci Code are obviously fictional, but the ideas addressed in the book (such as the Priory of Sion and many others) are supported by authentic research in non-fiction books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail or The Templar Revelations.

Secondly, the history of the Priory of Sion is greatly convoluted, and you are making the common mistake of confusing the Ordre de Sion with the Priory of Sion. I will not go into the details, but suffice it to say that the name "Ordre de Sion" originated in the 11th century, while the Priory of Sion most likely came about in the 1950s (as you stated). Dan Brown, and many other writers, have chosen to classify both organizations as one for the sake of simplicity or belief that they are the same organization, which seems to be inaccurate according to legitimate research.

Lastly, the ideas and concepts presented in the Da Vinci Code are much older than the publication date of that book. In modern times, literature having to do with the topic of an alternate history to the life of Jesus Christ was made present in the mid 20th century (1950s), shortly before the Priory of Sion was supposedly organized by the recently deceased Frenchman Pierre Plantard (d. 2000). If you consider the ideas and concepts of this alternate history of Christianity to be true (as I do because I know they are fact ), then they have been around for a much, much longer time than Dan Brown's prose has. So to answer your question, yes I did know about the ideas in The Da Vinci Code long before Dan Brown even began writing the book, and many other people have known about them as well. The bottom line is that they are no more 'facts' to the fundamentalist Christian than the Bible is 'fact' to an atheist or agnostic.

Oh, and Mary Magdalene is a Goddess that needs to be worshipped. BOW DOWN!!!!

-LYCHON