Michael Baigent > Quotes

“During the first century A.D., Alexandria was a veritable hotbed of mystical activity, a crucible in which Judaic, Mithraic, Zoroastrian, Pythagorean, Hermetic, and neo-Platonic doctrines suffused the air and combined with innumerable others.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“You can’t prove your conclusions.’ This was another indictment levelled against us by interviewers and theological critics – as if we might have been expected to produce a sworn affidavit signed by Jesus himself, duly witnessed and duly notarised. Of course we couldn’t ‘prove’ our conclusions. As we stressed repeatedly in the book itself, we were simply posing an hypothesis.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Jesus, the Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1977 a new and particularly significant "Prieuré document" appeared—a six-page pamphlet entitled Le Cercle d’Ulysse written by one Jean Delaude.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Among the most popular and evocative of medieval myths is that of Lohengrin, the "Swan Knight.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“in 1522 the Templars’ Prussian progeny, the Teutonic Knights, secularized themselves, repudiated their allegiance to Rome, and threw their support behind an upstart rebel and heretic named Martin Luther.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“On January 18, 1982 The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was published in England.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“in March 1314, Jacques de Molay, the grand master, and Geoffroi de Charnay, preceptor of Normandy, were roasted to death over a slow fire.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“But it was not just Freemasonry in itself — not just the rites, rituals, traditions, opportunities and benefits of Freemasonry. It was also an ambience, a mentality, a hierarchy of attitudes and values for which Freemasonry provided a particularly effacious conduit. The Freemasonry of the age was a repository for an imaginatively stirring and potent idealism, which it was able, in a fashion uniquely its own, to disseminate. Most colonists did not actually read Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot or Rousseau, any more than most British soldiers did. Through the lodges, however, the currents of thought associated with such philosophies became universally accessible. It was largely through the lodges that 'ordinary' colonists learned of that lofty premise called 'the rights of man'. It was through the lodges that they learned the concept of the perfectibility of society. And the New World seemed to offer a species of blank slate, a species of laboratory in which social experiment was possible and the principles enshrined by Freemasonry could be applied in practice.”
― Michael Baigent, The Temple and the Lodge

“The declared objective of the Templars, Guillaume de Tyre continues, was, "as far as their strength permitted, they should keep the roads and highways safe ... with especial regard for the protection of pilgrims.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“To drink like a Templar" became a cliché of the time.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the Ordre de Sion was founded by Godfroi de Bouillon in 1090,”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1099, immediately after the capture of Jerusalem, a group of anonymous figures convened in secret conclave.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“between 1195 and 1220, Wolfram composed his epic romance Parzival, he conferred on the Templars a most exalted status.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“I TEGO ARCANA DEI (BEGONE! I CONCEAL THE SECRETS OF GOD.)”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Of all the Grail romances the most famous, and the most artistically significant, is Parzival, composed sometime between 1195 and 1216.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The "Donation of Constantine" purported to date from Constantine’s alleged conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Without the Merovingians, the Prieuré de Sion would not exist, and without the Prieuré de Sion, the Merovingian dynasty would be extinct.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The sack of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the destruction of the temple prompted a massive exodus of Jews from the Holy Land.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“There was, in the American War for Independence, no conclusive victory comparable to Waterloo, no ineluctable 'turning point' comparable to Gettysburg. It seems almost as if everyone simply got tired, became bored, lost interest, decided to pack up and go home ... In fact, Britain did not lose the war in North America for military reasons at all. The war was lost because of other, entirely different factors. It was a deeply unpopular war, much as the war fought in Vietnam by the United States two centuries later was to be. It was unpopular with the British public, with most of the British government, with virtually all the British personnel directly involved — soldiers, officers and commanders. Clinton and Cornwallis both fought under duress, and with extreme reluctance. Howe was even more adamant, repeatedly expressing his anger, his unhappiness and his frustration about the command with which he had been saddled. His brother, Admiral Howe, felt the same way. The colonists, he declared, were 'the most oppressed and distressed people on earth.”
― Michael Baigent, The Temple and the Lodge

“When the king’s head fell beneath the guillotine, an unknown man is reported to have leaped onto the scaffold. He dipped his hand in the monarch’s blood, flung it out over the surrounding throng and cried, "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1969, en route for a summer holiday in the Cévennes, I made the casual purchase of a paperback. Le Trésor Maudit by Gérard de Sède was a mystery story—a lightweight, entertaining blend of historical fact, genuine mystery, and conjecture.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1956 a series of books, articles, pamphlets, and other documents relating to Bérenger Saunière and the enigma of Rennes-le-Chateau began to appear in France.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The "Donation" further alleged that Constantine, for the first time, had declared the bishop of Rome to be "Vicar of Christ" and offered him the status of emperor.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the myth of the secret society, if not the secret society itself, played a major role in nineteenth-century European history.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“under the same cross that Christopher Columbus’s three caravels crossed the Atlantic to the New World.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“In 1146 the Templars adopted the famous splayed red cross—the cross pattée.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Rennes-le-Château and its environs had been on the ancient pilgrim route, which ran from northern Europe to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“the first historical information on the Templars is provided by a Frankish historian, Guillaume de Tyre, who wrote between 1175 and 1185.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“The Nag Hammadi scrolls are a collection of biblical texts, essentially Gnostic in character, which date, it would appear, from the late fourth or early fifth century—from about A.D. 400.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail

“Jesus is generally believed to have been born around 6 B.C. The Crucifixion occurred no later than A.D. 36, which would make Jesus, at most, forty-two years of age.”
― Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail: The Secret History of Christ. The Shocking Legacy of the Grail