Resources > Ask Jeff Dan Brown says that The DaVinci Code is based on fact. What are the facts that he uses that have created such a stir? Posted by CCC CyberMinistries on May 3, 2006, 08:59

Dan Brown says that the book is based on fact. What are the facts that he uses that have created such a stir?

The best place to start any exploration is at the beginning….

Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code said…

“My hope for The DaVinci Code was, in addition to entertaining people, that it might serve as an open door for readers to begin their own explorations and rekindle their interests in topics of faith.”

He goes on to say…

“The more vigorously we debate these topics, the better our understanding of our own spirituality.” (www.danbrown.com)

To his credit the book has done just that. People have not only made the book a bestseller but have given the book a credibility that rarely is given a work of fiction. But since you have read the statements that Dan Brown has made…lets take a look at The DaVinci Code…just before the prologue there is a page that says the following….

FACT:

The Priory of Sion-

A European secret society founded in 1099-is a real organization.

In 1975 Paris’s Bibliotheque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Issac Newton, Boticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci.

The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of brain washing, coercion, and a dangerous practice known as “corporal mortification.” Opus Dei has just completed construction of a $47 million World Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City.

ALL descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. (DVC intro)

So the question is…are these the facts???

The question is an important one because these are the facts that the novel is claiming to build upon. Lets break them down and see where the truth lies in the list of Dan Brown’s facts.

The Priory of Sion-

The Priory of Sion is Brown’s central focus of conspiracy, power, wealth, and historical significance. He based much of his “research” on the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, written by Michael Baigent (who has now released the same concepts in The Jesus Papers), in which supposedly long undiscovered documents (Les Dossiers Secrets) reveal the history of this society and contain an actual list of the society’s Grand Masters-including such men as Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Issac Newton, and Victor Hugo.

In truth, the Priory was a club created in 1953 by Pierre Plantard, who later testified under oath that he had fabricated the ENTIRE hoax.

Plantard wrote a manuscript and produced “parchments” that he had created…that supposedly a local priest found when renovating his church.

He went on to create an entire history of this mythical group. No documents before the 1960s in any shape or form reflect the history that he created. As a matter of facts the documents that he wrote planning this trick and hoax have been discovered and they included how to answer criticisms of this history

These documents include:

A list of Grand Masters and line of succession of all the members of the group dating back to the Knights Templar

The Order exists to protect the blood line of the Merovingian dynasty because they contain the literal descendants of Jesus and King David

The Order is sworn to restore the dynasty to the throne of Europe and Jerusalem one day

The Catholic Church tried to kill off the dynasty and their guardians..The Templars, in order to maintain power and control by allowing Simon Peter to retain the title of the First Pope and keeping the descendants of Jesus from running the church

This is the stuff of a great book. It became on in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. However serious historians don’t believe a historical book should be built upon forgeries and fabrications, no matter how loudly the author says it is true. This Priory of Sion can be dated all the way back to the primitive date of 1956.

While this is lousy non-fiction, Dan Brown made it bestselling fiction.

Opus Dei-

This is a real organization founded in 1928. It is a controversial group that believes there is great value in pain and suffering for one’s faith. It has 80,000 members world wide and many of those are catholic who hold to a belief system that is similar to a system of beliefs held prior to the reformation.

Brown described this as a monastic order, a group made up of monks. That is not the case at all. It is a group comprised of catholics, both priests and lay persons.

ALL Descriptions of….

Artwork- Dan Brown describes the artwork itself accurately in the appearance…but does not accurately give the history or the story behind the artwork. He has created it

Architecture-Again the description of the look of the architecture is accurate. Again, as he describes the history, meaning, and implications of each design he moves into the unknown and the fabrication.

Documents-Actually Brown misses the mark here over and over again. The documents he refers to are not what he says they are, are not complete, and do not have the meaning he attributes to them.

Secret Rituals-By design secret rituals are secret. So if any one knows them, then they are no longer secret. Modern day secret rituals of course he could not know, ancient secret rituals may be documented and we have mentioned his ability to be inaccurate with those. Any others that are rumored or made up have no way to prove or disprove.

So as you can see…from the very start The Da Vinci Code is a great work of fiction. Even the FACTS of the fiction are fiction at it’s finest. If these are the fictious facts the story is based on then it only stands to reason that all that comes after these statements will be fiction as well.