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116-572: Rennes-le-Château ( French pronunciation: [ʁɛn lə ʃato] ; Occitan : Rènnas del Castèl ) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza , in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in Southern France . This hilltop village is known internationally; it receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, drawn by conspiracy theories surrounding

232-471: A Mirror image of selected architectural features of his property. They also claim that Maurice Barrès 's roman à clef The Sacred Hill are largely based on the Rennes-le-Château story involving Bérenger Saunière (while novels by Jules Verne are cited to show that the enigma predates Abbé Saunière). The modern reputation of Rennes-le-Château rests mainly in claims and stories, dating from

348-598: A Parisian engineer, conducted several digs in the church, failing to discover anything noteworthy. In November 1956, Monsieur Cotte of the Société des arts et des sciences de Carcassonne asked the membership during its monthly session about the treasure of Rennes-le-Château, which led to an investigation of the subject. Two members conducted on-the-spot research in March 1957 that lasted one year. Local historian René Descadeillas commented: "They found no evidence anywhere to support

464-504: A book by Louis Fédié entitled Le comté de Razès et le diocèse d'Alet (1880), that contained a chapter on the history of Rennes-le-Château; published as a booklet in 1994. Noël Corbu incorporated this story into his essay L'histoire de Rennes-le-Château , deposited at the Departmental Archives at Carcassonne on 14 June 1962. Fédié's assertions concerning the population and importance of Rhedae have since been questioned in

580-592: A box of rock, chained with iron and thrown into the sea. or his association with the desires of the lower world. He features prominently as the antagonist of the prophet Solomon. He is sometimes identified with the ifrit who offered to carry the Throne of Solomon. In the story of Buluqiya, Asmodeus teaches a young Jewish prince about the seven layers of hell. Islamic exegesis ( tafsīr ) commentary about Asmodeus are abundant in Medieval Islam. Asmodeus became

696-513: A central figure in of the Quranic Ṣād verse 38:34 : "We allowed Solomon to be seduced by temptation, and we cast a body upon his seat. Then he repented." Tabari (224–310 AH; 839–923 AD) identifies the body mentioned in the verse as a shaytan in both his Annals of al-Tabari as well as his tafsir . Abd al-Razzaq Kāshānī comments on the same verse, "The satan who sat thereupon [sovereignity's throne] and took its ring away, represents

812-553: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At

928-643: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there

1044-575: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Asmodeus His story features variously in Talmudic stories where he is the king of the shedim . The Quran refers to a "puppet" in the Story of Solomon in Surah Ṣād verses 30-40, which

1160-499: A fish's heart and liver on red-hot cinders, Tobit produces a smoky vapour that causes the demon to flee to Egypt , where Raphael binds him. According to some translations, Asmodeus is strangled. Perhaps Asmodeus punishes the suitors for their carnal desire, since Tobit prays to be free from such desire and is kept safe. Asmodeus is also described as an evil spirit in general: "Ασμοδαίος τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον or τὸ δαιμόνιον πονηρόν, and πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον". The figure of Ashmedai in

1276-728: A lance with a banner and, amongst the Legions of Amaymon , Asmoday governs seventy-two legions of inferior spirits. Asmodeus is referred to in Book Two, Chapter Eight of The Magus (1801) by Francis Barrett . Asmodeus was named in the Order of Thrones by Gregory the Great . Asmodeus was cited by the nuns of Loudun in the Loudun possessions of 1634. Asmodeus' reputation as the personification of lust continued into later writings, as he

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1392-510: A letter, apparently mailed from Quincy. Duyckinck signed the letter "Asmodeus", with his initials below his pseudonym. His letter enclosed a newspaper clipping about an inappropriate joke allegedly told by Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference . The purpose of Duyckinck's letter was to advise Lincoln of "an important omission" about the history of the conference. He advised that the newspaper clipping be added to

1508-556: A month to a demon and considered November to be the month in which Asmodeus's power was strongest. Other demonologists asserted that his zodiacal sign was Aquarius but only between January 30 and February 8. He has 72 legions of demons under his command. He is one of the Kings of Hell under Lucifer the emperor. He incites gambling, and is the overseer of all the gambling houses in the court of Hell. Some Catholic theologians compared him with Abaddon . Yet other authors considered Asmodeus

1624-472: A new guise, and for an unbridled pluralism which mixes together erudition and extrapolation, and makes recourse to geology, history, prehistory, esotericism, religious history, mysticism, the paranormal, ufology and other fields. Rennes-le-Château conspiracy theories continue to be a popular ingredient in a publishing industry that is growing exponentially, and are the subject of press articles, radio and television programs, and films. Websites and blogs devoted to

1740-462: A night flight, and removes the roofs from the houses of a village to show him the secrets of what passes in private lives. Following Lesage's work, he was depicted in a number of novels and periodicals, mainly in France but also London and New York. Asmodeus was widely depicted as having a handsome visage, good manners and an engaging nature; however, he was portrayed as walking with a limp and one leg

1856-746: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with

1972-459: A pillar of black stone like a furnace chimney wherein was one sunken up to his armpits. He had two great wings and four arms, two of them like the arms of the sons of Adam and other two as they were lions' paws, with claws of iron, and he was black and tall and frightful of aspect, with hair like horses' tails and eyes like blazing coals, slit upright in his face." In the essay on the Arabic "Tale of

2088-556: A plagiarism suit against Brown in 2006. The extraordinary popularity of The Da Vinci Code has reignited the interest of tourists, who visit Rennes-le-Château to view the sites associated with Saunière. The sudden interest in Saunière's church generated by the stories circulated by Noël Corbu in the 1950s inspired two excavations of the church of St Mary Magdalene. The first, in May 1956, was conducted by Dr André Malacan who, after excavating

2204-419: A prince of revenge. The Dictionnaire Infernal (1818) by Collin de Plancy portrays Asmodeus with the breast of a man , a cock leg, serpent tail, three heads (one of a man spitting fire, one of a sheep , and one of a bull ), riding a lion with dragon wings and neck - all of these creatures being associated with either lascivity, lust or revenge in some cultures. The Archbishop of Paris approved

2320-533: A putative buried treasure discovered by its 19th-century priest Bérenger Saunière , the precise nature of which is disputed among those who credit its existence. Mountains frame both ends of the region—the Cévennes to the northeast and the Pyrenees to the south. The area is known for its scenery, with jagged ridges, deep river canyons and rocky limestone plateaus, with large caves underneath. Rennes-le-Château

2436-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in

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2552-489: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to

2668-606: A stone after his defeat. The idea of "Genie in a bottle" probably roots in the Islamic legend about the demon Asmodeus. In a story of Thousand and One Nights , the "Tale of the City of Brass" refers to Asmodeus' fate after his failure against the Prophet. According to this story, travelers discover the demon locked in a stone in the middle of the desert. The story goes as follows according to Sir Richard Burton: Then they came upon

2784-476: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to

2900-625: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from

3016-443: Is Samael's subordinate, and married to a younger or alternative form of Lilith (Samael is married to the older Lilith). Asmodeus is still able to inflict pain and destruction, but only on Mondays. In Islamic culture, Asmodeus is known as a demon ( Arabic : شَيَاطِين , romanized :  šayṭān Persian : دیو , romanized :  dīv ) called Sakhr (rock), probably a reference to his fate being imprisoned inside

3132-437: Is "This place is terrible"; the rest of the dedication, over the doors' arch, reads "this is God's house, the gate of heaven, and it shall be called the royal court of God." The quotation comes from Genesis 28:17. Inside the church, one of the figures installed by Saunière was of the demon Asmodeus holding up the holy water stoup . Its original head was stolen in 1996 and has never been recovered. A devil-like figure holding up

3248-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as

3364-567: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as

3480-464: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but

3596-634: Is according to the mufassirūn (authorized exegetes of the Quran) referring to the demon-king Asmodeus (Sakhr). In Christianity, Asmodeus is mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit . He is the primary antagonist and disrupts the marriages of Sarah. Peter Binsfeld classifies Asmodeus as the "demon of lust ". The name Asmodai is believed to derive from the Avestan *aēšma-daēva (𐬀𐬉𐬴𐬨𐬀𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀*, * aēṣ̌madaēuua ), where aēšma means "wrath", and daēva signifies "demon". While

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3712-459: Is alternatively spelled in the bastardized forms (based on the basic consonants אשמדאי, ʾŠMDʾY) Hashmedai ( חַשְמְדּאָי , Ḥašməddāy ; also Hashmodai, Hasmodai, Khashmodai, Khasmodai), Hammadai ( חַמַּדּאָי , Hammaddāy ; also Khammadai), Shamdon ( שַׁמְדּוֹן , Šamdon ), and Shidonai (שִׁדֹנאָי, Šīdōnʾāy ). Some traditions have subsequently identified Shamdon as the father of Asmodeus. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 rejects

3828-525: Is considered to be a king of the divs or ifrits . Another passage describes him as marrying Lilith , who became his queen. In the Testament of Solomon , a 1st–3rd century text, the king invokes Asmodeus to aid in the construction of the Temple. The demon appears and predicts Solomon's kingdom will one day be divided (Testament of Solomon, verse 21–25). When Solomon interrogates Asmodeus further,

3944-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being

4060-467: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to

4176-527: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it

4292-640: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It

4408-577: The Book of Tobit is hostile to Sarah, Raguel 's daughter, and slays seven successive husbands on their wedding nights, impeding the sexual consummation of the marriages. In the New Jerusalem Bible translation, he is described as "the worst of demons". When the young Tobit is about to marry her, Asmodeus proposes the same fate for him, but Tobit is enabled, through the counsels of his attendant angel Raphael , to render him innocuous. By placing

4524-595: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be

4640-506: The Holy Grail , ley lines , sacred geometry , the remains of Jesus Christ, including references to Mary Magdalene settling in the south of France, and even flying saucers . Well-known French authors like Jules Verne and Maurice Leblanc are suspected of leaving clues in their novels about their knowledge of the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. Christiane Amiel has commented: No new theory has ever succeeded in entirely replacing any of

4756-668: The Talmud is less malign in character than the Asmodeus of Tobit. In the former, he appears repeatedly in the light of a good-natured and humorous fellow. But besides that, there is one feature in which he parallels Asmodeus, in as much as his desires turn upon Bathsheba and later Solomon 's wives. Another Talmudic legend has King Solomon tricking Asmodeus into collaborating in the construction of Solomon's Temple (see: The Story of King Solomon and Ashmedai ). Another legend depicts Asmodeus throwing King Solomon over 400 leagues away from

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4872-468: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While

4988-582: The Val d'Aran cited c.  1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that

5104-660: The daēva Aēšma is thus Zoroastrianism 's demon of wrath and is also well-attested as such, the compound aēšma-daēva is not attested in scripture. It is nonetheless likely that such a form did exist, and that the Book of Tobit 's "Asmodaios" ( Ἀσμοδαῖος ) and the Talmud 's "Ashmedai" ( אשמדאי ) reflect it. In the Zoroastrian and Middle Persian demonology , there did exist the conjuncted form khashm-dev ( خشم + دیو ), where both terms are cognates. The spellings Asmoday , Asmodai , Asmodee (also Asmodée), Osmodeus , and Osmodai have also been used. The name

5220-631: The "Archives of the Nation". According to the Kabbalah and the school of Shlomo ibn Aderet , Asmodeus is born as the result of a union between Agrat bat Mahlat and King David . In the Treatise on the Left Emanation , which describes sitra achra (Aramaic: סטרא אחרא), meaning the "other side" or the "side of evil", Asmodeus is described as a figure living in the third ether of Heaven. He

5336-568: The 1999 adventure game Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned , set in Rennes-le-Château and surrounds, and later in 2003 by Dan Brown in his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code . While Brown's novel never specifically mentions Rennes-le-Château, he gave some its key characters related names, such as 'Saunière' and 'Leigh Teabing' ( anagrammatically derived from 'Leigh' and 'Baigent' ). The latter two authors brought (and lost)

5452-504: The City of Brass", Andras Hamori relied only on incomplete versions of the story without mentioning the name of the demon. In the story of Sakhr and Buluqiya, a young Jewish prince searching for the final Prophet ( Muhammad ), Sakhr is said to have reached immortality by drinking from the Well of Immortality. When Buluqiya arrives in an island during his search for Muhammad, he is greeted by two snakes as big as camels and palm trees, glorifying

5568-612: The Jewish Encyclopedia asserts that although 'Æshma does not occur in the Avesta in conjunction with dæva, it is probable that a fuller form, such as Æshmo-dæus, has existed, since it is paralleled by the later Pahlavi-form "Khashm-dev"'. Furthermore, it is stated that Asmodeus or Ashmedai "embodies an expression of the influence that the Persian religion or Persian popular beliefs have exercised" on Judaism. The Asmodeus of

5684-613: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,

5800-879: The Priory of Sion, via the Knights Templar , guarded the Merovingian bloodline, that this dynasty descended from a supposed marriage of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene , and that Pierre Plantard was a modern-day descendant; it suggested that Saunière may have discovered that secret and amassed his wealth through blackmail of the Holy See . Despite its popularity, historians think the book advances faulty premises and that several of its arguments merit questioning. The bloodline hypotheses of Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh, and their connection with Rennes-le-Château, have been picked up in various media, including by Jane Jensen in

5916-547: The Spanish playwright and novelist Luis Velez de Guevara published the satirical novel El diablo cojuelo , where Asmodeus is represented as a mischievous demon endowed with a playful and satirical genius. The plot presents a rascal student that hides in an astrologer's mansard. He frees a devil from a bottle. As an acknowledgement the devil shows him the apartments of Madrid and the tricks, miseries and mischiefs of their inhabitants. The French novelist Alain-René Lesage adapted

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6032-454: The Spanish source in his 1707 novel le Diable boiteux , where he likened him to Cupid . In the book, he is rescued from an enchanted glass bottle by a Spanish student Don Cleophas Leandro Zambullo. Grateful, he joins with the young man on a series of adventures before being recaptured. Asmodeus is portrayed in a sympathetic light as good-natured, and a canny satirist and critic of human society. In another episode Asmodeus takes Don Cleophas for

6148-849: The acknowledged historical mysteries present at Rennes-le-Château and environs exist in many different countries; authors' interviews can be accessed on podcasts . Archaeologist Paul Bahn considered the various hypotheses pertaining to the village of Rennes-le-Château as "beloved of occultists and 'aficionados' of the Unexplained". He groups the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château with those of the Bermuda Triangle , Atlantis , and ancient astronauts as being sources of "ill-informed and lunatic books". Likewise another archaeologist Bill Putnam, co-author with John Edwin Wood of The Treasure of Rennes-le-Château, A Mystery Solved (2003, 2005) dismisses all

6264-552: The area, building a castle in Rennes-le-Château around 1002, though nothing remains above ground of this medieval structure—the present ruin is from the 17th or 18th century. Several castles in the surrounding Languedoc region were central to the battle between the Catholic Church and the Cathars at the beginning of the 13th century. Other castles guarded the volatile border with Spain . Whole communities were wiped out in

6380-505: The assertion that, down the ages, any individual, family, group or clan could have accumulated a precious treasure-hoard at Rennes and then concealed it in the locality or its environs. What is more, the activities of the Abbé Saunière were undoubtedly eloquent of the sort of stratagems that he was accustomed to using in order to enrich himself." In more recent times, following up claims by a Canadian purporting to be related to one of

6496-456: The bishopric to appear before an ecclesiastical trial to face charges of trafficking in masses . He was found guilty and suspended from the priesthood. When asked to produce his account books, he refused to attend his trial. Supporters of the hypothesis that Rennes-le-Château and its environs enshrine unsolved enigmas have suggested that Saunière's estate was set up on a large-scale checkerboard, while others have suggested that Saunière produced

6612-740: The campaigns of the Catholic authorities to rid the area of the Cathar heretics , the Albigensian Crusades , and again when French Protestants fought against the French monarchy two centuries before the French Revolution . The village church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene has been rebuilt several times. The earliest church of which there is any evidence on the site may date to the 8th century. However, this original church

6728-575: The capital by putting one wing on the ground and the other stretched skyward. He then changed places for some years with King Solomon. When King Solomon returned, Asmodeus fled from his wrath. Similar legends can be found in Islamic lore. Asmodeus is referred to as Sakhr ( Arabic : صخر the Rock or the Stony One ), because Solomon banished him into a rock, after he takes his kingdom back from him. He

6844-430: The church, including works on the presbytery and cemetery, cost 11,605 Francs over a ten-year period between 1887 and 1897. With inflation that figure is equivalent to approximately 30 million Francs as of 2019, or 4.5 million Euros. Among Saunière's external embellishments was the Latin inscription Terribilis est locus iste displayed prominently on the lintel of the main entrance; its literal and most obvious translation

6960-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use

7076-543: The city around 500–600 AD. Until 1659–1745 the area was not considered French territory, being part of the Catalan Country since 988. However, British archaeologist Bill Putnam and British physicist John Edwin Wood argued that, while there may have been a Visigothic town on the site of the present village, it would have had "a population closer to 300 than 30,000". By 1050 the Counts of Toulouse held control over

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7192-549: The construction of Tour Magdala, a tower-like structure originally named the Tour de L'horloge and later renamed after Saint Mary Magdalene. Saunière used it as his library. The structure includes a circular turret with twelve crenellations , on a belvedere that connected it to an orangery . The tower has a promenade linking it to the Villa Bethania , which was not actually used by the priest. He stated at his trial that it

7308-435: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it

7424-418: The elemental earthly nature, ruler over the lower sea of matter, called Sakhr, the 'rock,' on account of its inclination toward the lowest things and clinging thereto, even as a stone on account of heaviness." Aziz ad-Din Nasafi  [ fa ] depicts Solomon as caliph , a symbol of the ruling intellect, whose task it is to reduce the physical passions to proper obedience, else the forces will capture

7540-586: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with

7656-431: The entry "Aeshma", in the paragraph "Influence of Persian Beliefs on Judaism", that Persian Zoroastrian beliefs could have heavily influenced Judaism's theology on the long term, bearing in mind that in some texts there are crucial conceptual differences while in others there seems to be a great deal of similarity, proposing a pattern of influence over folk beliefs that would extend further to the mythology itself. However,

7772-600: The fairy gold which, in the popular fables, turns into manure as soon as a human being touches it, it remains impalpable. It can only exist as long as it remains on the distinctive level of the dream, between the real and the imaginary." Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,

7888-460: The first steps to the Divine. Supplementary materials which usually included in Stories of the Prophets ( Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ ) give various reasons for Solomon's punishment and Asmodeus' consequently temporary victory; sometimes because of acting injustly before a family dispute or hands the ring to a demon in exchange for knowledge, while most sources (such as Tabari, ʿUmāra ibn Wathīma , Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi , ibn Asakir , ibn al-Athir ) invoke

8004-411: The focus of sensational claims involving Blanche of Castile , the Merovingians , the Knights Templar , the Cathars , and the treasures of the Temple of Solomon (booty of the Visigoths ) that included the Ark of the Covenant and the Menorah (the Jerusalem Temple 's seven-branched candelabrum ). Since the 1970s, the area's associations have extended to the Priory of Sion , the Jesus bloodline ,

8120-427: The foremen who supervised Saunière's works, a much-publicised 2003 excavation of the floor of the Tour Magdala by the Mayor of the village failed to exhume any anticipated treasure. A simultaneous request to excavate the church met with refusal from the Directions Régionales des Affaires Culturelles (or DRAC), the archaeological body of France. In the 1950s and 1960s, the entire area around Rennes-le-Château became

8236-402: The form of Postman Edzio. Asmodeus is played by Bohdan Smoleń . In the 2021 movie Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin , Asmodeus appears as an antagonist. On October 3, 2021, an episode of the web series Puppet History mentioned Asmodeus's naming in the Loudun Possessions , and a three-headed puppet rendition of Asmodeus both performed the episode's customary ending song and featured in

8352-534: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and

8468-791: The holy water stoup is a rare and unusual choice for the interior decoration of a Church but not exclusive to the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene; a similar subject can be seen in the Saint Vincent Collegiate church in Montréal , a short distance from Rennes-le-Château. The new figures and statues were not made especially for this church, but were chosen by Saunière from a catalogue published by Giscard, sculptor and painter in Toulouse who, among other things, offered statues and sculptures for church refurbishment. Saunière also funded

8584-435: The idea that one of his wives committed idolatry. When Asmodeus put the ring on his finger, he turned into the shape of Solomon and sat on his throne, ruling in wickedness, while the real Solomon emerged from his bath and not recognized by anyone in the palace, thus cast into the streets to wander as a beggar. Finally Solomon found work at a harbor, gutting fish. After 40 days the false Solomon's evil ways aroused suspicion and

8700-502: The infidels), whose surplus she had hidden at Rennes-le-Château. Having found only part of it, Saunière continued his investigations beneath the church and in other parts of his domain. Corbu, followed by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln , asserts that Rennes-le-Château had been the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom Rhedae , while other sources postulate Rhedae's hub as Narbonne . Corbu's claim can be traced back to

8816-490: The king learns that Asmodeus is thwarted by the angel Raphael , as well as by sheatfish found in the rivers of Assyria. He also admits to hating water. Asmodeus claims that he was born of a human mother and an angel father. In the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), Asmodeus was considered the demon of lust . Sebastien Michaelis said that his adversary is St. John . Some demonologists of the 16th century assigned

8932-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language

9048-460: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of

9164-480: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in

9280-461: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation

9396-515: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of

9512-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà  ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c.  780 ), though

9628-664: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c.  1054 –1076),

9744-467: The mid-1950s, concerning the 19th-century parish priest Bérenger Saunière . Those led researchers Michael Baigent , Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln to write The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , which became a bestseller in 1982; their work in turn fuelled the premise of Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code , published in 2003, as well as other media. The first known popular article about Saunière

9860-409: The mid-1950s, to turn the village into a household name. Corbu began circulating stories that, while renovating his church in 1892, Saunière had discovered "parchments" connected with the treasure of Blanche of Castile , and which "according to the archives" consisted of 28,500,000 gold pieces, said to be the treasure of the French crown assembled by Blanche to pay the ransom of Louis IX (a prisoner of

9976-412: The mind's seat and turn into an usurping demon. Solomon's ring signifies the imperial command over the forces of nature, while Solomon's lapse into lust and idolatry caused him to lose. Attar of Nishapur elucidates a similar allegory: one must behave like a triumphant 'Solomon' and chain the demons of the nafs or lower self, locking the demon-prince into a 'rock', before the rūḥ (soul) can make

10092-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate

10208-423: The name of God and Muhammad. They explain that they are tasked with punishing the residents of hell. Later on a different island, he meets Asmodeus the king of demons, who explains the seven layers ( ṭabaqāt ) and the punisher angels ( zabāniyya ) who sire hell's snakes and scorpions by self-copulation. In an episode of Polish sitcom The Lousy World titled "Nie bój żaby" (2000) Asmodeus is summoned by Mariola in

10324-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within

10440-537: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have

10556-484: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before

10672-596: The otherwise accepted etymological relation between the Persian "Æshma-dæva" and Judaism's "Ashmodai" claiming that the particle "-dæva" could not have become "-dai" and that Æshma-dæva as such—a compound name—never appears in Persian sacred texts. Still, the encyclopedia proposes that the "Asmodeus" from the Apocrypha and the Testament of Solomon are not only related somewhat to Aeshma but have similar behaviour, appearance and roles, to conclude in another article under

10788-403: The popular hypotheses as pseudo-history . Laura Miller, contributor to The New York Times books section, commented how Rennes-le-Château "had become the French equivalent of Roswell or Loch Ness as a result of popular books by Gérard de Sède." Christiane Amiel commented in 2008 that the treasure of Rennes-le-Château "seems to elude all the investigations that people make into it. Like

10904-497: The portrait. Asmodeus appears as the king 'Asmoday' in the Ars Goetia , where he is said to have a seal in gold and is listed as number thirty-two according to respective rank. He "is strong, powerful and appears with three heads; the first is like a bull, the second like a man, and the third like a ram or a goat ; the tail of a serpent, and from his mouth issue flames of fire." Also, he sits upon an infernal dragon , holds

11020-549: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of

11136-401: The previous ones and, as the researches have intensified, so the various lines of investigation have accumulated and crossed in a system of ramifications in which criticism of one line of approach simply gives rise to others and Today the vogue is for analyzing and checking the most minute details, for comparing and contrasting rival theories, for reviving old and unexplored lines of enquiry in

11252-572: The priesthood. At the end of the last century he had a rather original idea. He placed in foreign newspapers, especially in the United States, an advertisement announcing that the poor priest of Rennes-le-Château lived among heretics and had only the most meagre of resources. He moved the Christians of the whole world to such pity by announcing that the old church, an architectural gem, was heading for unavoidable ruin if urgent restoration work

11368-662: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which

11484-517: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using

11600-477: The royal minister Asaph recites some holy verses in the presence of the demon king, who screamed in rage, unable to bear the recitation, and tore off the ring. The ring then fell into a river and was swallowed by a fish. The fish eventually arrived at the table of the real Solomon who slipped the ring back on and was immediately surrounded by loyal jinn who carried him to his throne, where he and his army of men, jinn, birds, and beasts battle Asmodeus and locked him in

11716-465: The subsoil of the church at a depth of approximately one metre, discovered bones that included a skull bearing an incision, but failed to unearth anything else of interest. Dr Malacan died in 1997, and the skull remained in the possession of his family until May 2014, when it was finally handed back to the village following several years of legal wrangling(carbon-dating of the skull has dated it to between 1281 and 1396). Between 1959 and 1963, Jacques Cholet,

11832-560: The survival of the line of Dagobert II , from which Plantard claimed descent. Plantard and Sède fell out over book royalties and Philippe de Chérisey , Plantard's friend, was revealed to have forged some parchments as part of a putative plot. Plantard and Chérisey lodged documents relating to the Priory of Sion in France's Bibliothèque Nationale . Corbu's story inspired author Robert Charroux to develop an active interest, and in 1958, he, along with his wife Yvette and other members of The Treasure Seekers' Club which he founded in 1951, scoured

11948-632: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",

12064-544: The village and its church for treasure with a metal detector . In 1969, Henry Lincoln , a British researcher and screenwriter for the BBC , read Gérard de Sède's book while on holiday in the Cévennes . He produced three BBC2 Chronicle documentaries between 1972 and 1979 and worked some of their material into the 1982 non-fictional bestseller, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail , co-written with fellow researchers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh . Their book concludes that

12180-520: The work of archaeologists and historians. Corbu's story was published in the book by Robert Charroux Trésors du monde in 1962, that caught the attention of Pierre Plantard , who, through motives which remain unclear, used and adapted Corbu's story involving the apocryphal history of the Priory of Sion , inspiring the 1967 book L'Or de Rennes by Gérard de Sède . Sède's book contained reproductions of parchments allegedly discovered by Saunière alluding to

12296-471: Was almost certainly in ruins by the 10th or 11th century, when another church was built upon the site—remnants of which can be seen in Romanesque pillared arcades on the north side of the apse . This survived in poor repair until the 19th century, when it was renovated by the local priest, Bérenger Saunière . Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that the renovation of

12412-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in

12528-511: Was either clawed or that of a rooster . He walks aided by two walking sticks in Lesage's work, and this gave rise to the English title The Devil on Two Sticks (also later translated The Limping Devil and The Lame Devil ). Lesage attributes his lameness to falling from the sky after fighting with another devil. On 18 February 1865, author Evert A. Duyckinck sent President Abraham Lincoln

12644-484: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because

12760-406: Was intended as a home for retired priests. Surviving receipts and existing account books belonging to Saunière reveal that the construction of his estate (including the purchases of land) between 1898 and 1905 cost 26,417 Francs. Following Saunière's renovations and redecoratations, the church was re-dedicated in 1897 by his bishop, Monsignor Billard. In 1910–1911, Bérenger Saunière was summoned by

12876-488: Was known as the "Prince of Lechery" in the 16th-century romance Friar Rush . The French Benedictine Augustin Calmet equated his name with a fine dress. The 1409 Lollard manuscript titled Lanterne of Light associated Asmodeus with the deadly sin of lust . The 16th-century Dutch demonologist Johann Weyer described him as the banker at the baccarat table in hell, and overseer of earthly gambling houses. In 1641,

12992-410: Was not undertaken as soon as possible." Crouquet added: "The stoup which decorates the entrance to the chapel is carried by a horned devil with cloven hooves. An old woman remarked to us: 'It's the old priest, changed into a devil'." Crouquet's article faded into obscurity and it was left to Noël Corbu , a local man who had opened a restaurant in Saunière's former estate (called L'Hotel de la Tour ) in

13108-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to

13224-466: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not

13340-515: Was the site of a prehistoric encampment, and later a Roman colony , or at least Roman villa or temple, such as is confirmed to have been built at Fa , 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Couiza , part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis , the wealthiest part of Roman Gaul . Rennes-le-Château was part of Septimania in the 6th and 7th centuries. It has been suggested that it was once an important Visigothic town, with some 30,000 people living in

13456-521: Was written by Roger Crouquet in the Belgian magazine Le Soir illustré , published in 1948. The author was visiting the Aude to meet his friend Jean Mauhin, a Belgian who had moved to Quillan to open a bell and hat factory, and at his suggestion visited Rennes-le-Château. There Crouquet collected testimonies from villagers about Saunière. One person told how the priest "preferred wine and women to practising

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