Did the Templars really discover or inherit something amazing?
Despite the various theories there is no evidence that they did. The three main suggested sources for the treasure are the Priory of Sion, the Temple Mount and the Cathars. All rest on shaky or non-existent ground. The Priory of Sion story is the invention of a convicted French conman and fantasist named Pierre Plantard. After World War II Plantard concocted an elaborate fantasy version of history in which he was the descendant of the Merovingian kings and, by extension, of Christ himself. He then invented a secret society with supposedly mystical and portentous antecedents, called the Priory of Sion, and recruited a few members for quasireligious activities of vaguely distasteful nationalist-royalist political character. He even had forged documents smuggled into the French national archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale. When later researchers unearthed these it lent credence to the tale Plantard himself was spinning for them. Although he eventually fell foul of the law and was order
