John J. Robinson

William Still publishes New World Order: The Ancient Plan of Secret Societies, linking Templars and various groups with a vast conspiracy for world control. 

Peter Partner publishes The Knights Templar and Their Myth.  

Jean-Jacques Bedu publishes Rennes-Le-Château: Autopsie d’un Mythe, another debunking of the Rennes-le-Château story.

John Dominic Crossan

 Robert Eisenman persuades the Huntington Library of San Marino, California to reveal it has a complete set of unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls photographs furnished by Betty Bechtel.  The wife of internationally connected construction magnate and Mason Steven Bechtel, she had the scrolls photographed in the early 1960’s despite opposition from the Ecole Biblique.

John J. Robinson publishes Dungeon, Fire, and Sword, a follow-up to Born in Blood about early Templar history.

Bernard Grun and Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004) publish The Timetables of History, an essential and comprehensive chronology of recorded events.  

Gene Matlock (born 1928) publishes Jesus and Moses are Buried in India.

Henry Lincoln publishes The Holy Place about Rennes-le-Château. 

John Dominic Crossan (born 1934), a member of the Jesus Seminar, publishes The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant.xe "Jesus" Crossan believes Jesus was a peasant who reacted to hypocrisy by well-dressed, properly-behaving Romans who secretly lied, cheated, stole, killed, and exploited in order to succeed in a ever more complex society.  Crossan details the complex history and politics of Jesus’ era with an extensive list of protesters, messiahs, prophets, and bandits.   He admires Jesus as a sage but casts aside any supernatural events.  "I do not think that anyone, anywhere, at any time brings dead people back to life."

Barbara Thiering

Niven Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair

 
Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe

 
Erling Haagensen

Dr. Barbara Thiering (born 1930) publishes Jesus and the Riddle of The Dead Sea Scrolls (a.k.a. Jesus the Man), deciphering what she believed are coded Gospels to portray a Jesus who marries Mary Magdalene, survives the crucifixion, divorces Mary Magdalene, and remarries a woman named Lydia when he is 57.

 Researchers Heinemeier and Junger take core samples from the Newport Tower but fail to conclusively carbon-date its construction. 

 On February 7, European nations sign the Maastricht treaty, setting up Europe for a common currency and a new legislative body to be based in Brussels.

Michael Bradley publishes The Columbus Conspiracy: An Investigation into the Secret History of Christopher Columbus. Bradley explains the conspiracy to give Columbus credit for discovering an America Prince Henry Sinclair discovered almost 100 years earlier. 

 In October, the Vatican admits its error in charging Galileo with heresy.

In April, Niven Sinclair (born 1923) and Judith Fisken, Curator of Rosslyn Chapel, found the Friends of Rosslyn, a non-profit group dedicated to the Chapel's preservation and careful exploration.  

Niven Sinclair obtains permission for ground scans and digging at Rosslyn Chapel.  His cousin Andrew Sinclair (born 1935) publishes The Sword and the Grail chronicling the exciting but unsuccessful excavation.  While encouraged by massive stone blocks that indicate a true crypt system, going further without damaging the building brings digging to a halt.  Other than a wooden bowl and a few small artifacts, the project reveals nothing.

Journalist Graham Hancock (born 1951) publishes The Sign and the Seal, tracking theories about the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia and the role of the Templars. 

Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe and Patricia Fanthorpe write Secrets of Rennes-le-Château.

Henry Lincoln and Erling Haagensen make The Secret, a video about similarities between churches near Rennes-le-Château and a geometric pattern of Templar churches on the Danish island of Bornholm.   Airs in four parts: “The Lost Treasure" about Templar sites in Bornholm, Denmark and Rennes-le-Château; "Guardians of the Grail" concerning Saunière's wealth; "Only for the Initiated" on the Merovingian bloodline and the Prieuré de Sion; “Exploration of the Invisible" back to Bornholm and Rennes-le-Château.  Shown later on the Discovery Channel as the Secrets of the Templars.

Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre

A. N. Wilson

Margaret Starbird  
Karen Armstrong

 In April, The Friends of Rosslyn purchase Gardiner’s Brae, land immediately adjacent and east of Rosslyn Chapel.

 As part of an unrelated investigation, Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair admits under oath to Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre that he fabricated the Prieuré de Sion and all its documents.

Robert Funk, Roy Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar publish The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say?, an analysis of the accuracy and likelihood, based on scholarship, history, and other sources, of statements attributed to Jesus in the Bible. 

Helen Nicholson publishes Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights:  Images of the Military Orders 1128-1191.

Biographer A. N. Wilson (born 1950) publishes Jesus:  A Life, demonstrating the Gospel versions of Jesus life and childhood are essentially legends.

Millie Evans publishes Nova Scotia's Oak Island: The Unsolved Mystery.

In January, William Crooker publishes Oak Island Gold. 

Margaret Starbird publishes The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail.

Karen Armstrong (born 1946) publishes A History of God.

James Deardorff

Tim Wallace-Murphy

Elmar Gruber

 The Vatican confirms December 25 is not the real birthday of Jesus but was chosen in the 4th century because it was already a popular festival day.  (The real birthday of Jesus is March 7).

Jean-Luc Chaumeil publishes Le Tresor des Templiers et son Royal Secret (a.k.a. The Templar Treasure and Their Royal Secret). 

Fida Hassnain publishes A Search for the Historical Jesus: From Apocryphal, Buddhist, Islamic, and Sanskrit Sources, concluding from Buddhist, Islamic and Sanskrit sources that Jesus did not die on the Cross.  Following the research of Nicholas Roerich and others in Tibet, he tracks legends of Jesus post-crucifixion to a real death in Kashmir. 

James Deardorff (born 1928) publishes a similar book called Jesus in India.

 In March, the Friends of Rosslyn bring in a French drilling crew and attempt to excavate Rosslyn Chapel’s crypts --- diagonally --- from Gardiner’s Brae.  Although the project is initially condoned by the Earl of Rosslyn, Peter St. Clair-Erskine (born 1958), the Scottish government agency for historic preservation brings it to a halt, embarrassing everyone and damaging relations between the Friends and the Earl of Rosslyn.

 The Friends of Rosslyn publish The Templar Legacy & The Masonic Inheritance within Rosslyn Chapel, by Tim Wallace-Murphy and Michael Green (born 1930), an attempt to interpret the symbolism of Rosslyn Chapel’s carvings and windows.

Holger Kersten and Elmar Gruber write The Jesus Conspiracy: The Turin Shroud and the Truth about the Resurrection, saying “What we today refer to as Christianity is a misinterpretation and twisting by Paul of the true teaching of Jesus.”

Edward Burman publishes Supremely Abominable Crimes: The Trial of the Knights Templar, a narrative of the Templars’ trial in Paris.

Malcolm Barber publishes The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple, exploring Templar reality and myth, including a brief chronology and a list of grand masters.  Barber also publishes The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick.

Seventh Arts Productions, using Malcolm Barber’s material, makes Ancient Warriors:  Knights of the Templar for The Learning Channel. 

 
Malcolm Barber

Graham Phillips’ cup

Rocco Zingaro di San Ferdinando and his cup

 David Tobias and Dan Blankenship close Oak Island to the public.

Malcolm Barber publishes Crusaders and Heretics, Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries.

Ian Wilson publishes an updated, illustrated version of Jesus: The Evidence. 

Richard Barber publishes The Knight and Chivalry.

Reverend Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe write The Oak Island Mystery:  The Secret of the World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt, a further investigation of the "money pit" on Oak Island.

In early August, British author Graham Phillips publishes The Search for the Grail (a.k.a. The Chalice of Magdalene), announcing his discovery of the Holy Grail, an onyx cup. 

 On August 18, Rocco Zingaro di San Ferdinando of Rome announces he is modern day Grand Master of the original Knights Templar, and what’s more, he is in possession of the Holy Grail, another small green cup. "We have unveiled the true Holy Grail partly in response to last week's false claim that the grail had been found in Britain and partly because as mankind approaches the year 2000 it is in need of the grail for its salvation," Zingaro said.   He says he received the cup in 1975 as a wedding gift from the late Italian academic Antonio Ambrosini, who “recovered” it from a Coptic monastery in Egypt. 

Niven Sinclair produces and his cousin Andrew Sinclair directs and stars in The Templar Renaissance.

 
Joan Bakewell

Devil at Rennes-le-Château

 Richard Andrews

Dr. Jack Miller

 
Bart Ehrman

Michel Lafosse

 Israel completes a second tunnel beside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, an action  which immediately brings riots from Palestinians and results in more than 100 deaths.

 Muslims dig into the Solomon’s Stables area of the Temple Mount and create a new underground Mosque called the Marwani Marsala.

 The 1980 ossuaries become public knowledge when The Sunday Times publishes a front-page article on March 31. 

On April 7, Joan Bakewell (born 1933) hosts BBC’s Body in Question about the 1980 ossuary inscriptions found in Jerusalem.

 The head of the devil statue in the Church at Rennes-le-Château is cut off and stolen. 

 In April, the Earl of Rosslyn Peter St. Clair Erskine (born 1958) creates the non-profit Rosslyn Chapel Trust to lease Rosslyn Chapel and allow public funding for restorations.  Attracting a blue-ribbon lineup of Directors, the Trust applies for and gets over £300,000 from various sources.

In November, historian Richard Andrews and civil engineer Paul Schellenberger publish the Tomb of God: Body of Jesus and the Solution to a 2000-Year-Old Mystery, claiming the body of Jesus is buried under a mountain (Pech Cardou) near Rennes-le-Château based on their interpretation of geometry within the Saunière parchments and paintings in which Saunière was especially interested.  

Shortly after publication of Tomb of God, BBC2’s Bill Cram produces Timewatch: The History of a Mystery, where Jean-Luc Chaumeil and others confirm the Saunière parchments were fakes dreamed up by Chérisey and Plantard de Saint-Clair with later help from Gérard de Sède.  Footage includes: Antoine Captier, Claire Corbu, Gérard de Sède, Robert McCrum, Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger, Martin Kemp (Oxford Art History Professor), Pierre Jarnac, John Hamill, Henry Lincoln, Christopher Cornford and Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair.  According to the program, "…the orders and the charters record an abbey of Sion, but never a priory."  Louvre records also show Sauniere did not purchase copies of paintings by Teniers and Poussin as described in Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Robert McCrum

Martin Kemp

Pierre Jarnac

 In October, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas arrange for Dr. Jack Miller, a Cambridge geologist, and Dr. Fernando Neves, visiting Professor at the Colorado School of Mines, to lead non-invasive ground scans around Rosslyn Chapel. They back out when the Rosslyn Chapel Trust requires "prior signature to a confidentiality agreement which would acknowledge the Trust's ownership of all intellectual property and other information which accrued in consequence of the investigation, including the fact that any investigation had taken place at all."

Laurence Gardner publishes Bloodline of the Holy Grail, an extensive genealogy of the Jesus bloodline based in part on the research of Barbara Thiering.  Gardner’s association with a claimant to the ancient throne of Scotland, Michel Lafosse, and Gardner’s “privileged access” to “private archives” casts doubt on a detailed and controversial genealogical work.   Lafosse, taking the grandiose title HRH Prince Michael of Albany, claims to have proof of his claim but also refuses to produce it.  In fact, all his claims turn out to have no basis in fact.  

Bart Ehrman publishes The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture : The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament.

Christopher Knight

Robert Lomas

James Charlesworth

Douglas Lockhart

Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett

Mark Finnan

In January, Christopher Knight and Robert

 In March, the Rosslyn Chapel Trust constructs a steel shell around Rosslyn Chapel to dry the stonework and allow extensive structural repairs.  

 Christopher Knight, Robert Lomas, and Princeton Professor James Charlesworth propose a scanning project to the Rosslyn Chapel Trustees -- who choose not to respond.

 Rosslyn Chapel has about 6,000 visitors a year.

 In summer, Friends of Rosslyn take over The Parsonage, a large house on the left side of the road leading to Rosslyn Chapel for a Sinclair Library, a Templar Museum, the Roslin Heritage Museum, a Research & Study Center, a Gift Shop and Tea Room. 

Douglas Lockhart (born 1938) publishes Jesus the Heretic.

 Niven Sinclair and others perform excavations at Gardiner’s Brae next to Rosslyn Chapel, digging holes into which they put closed-circuit TV cameras.  They discover a tunnel leading from the chapel to the castle and a new set of hidden steps leading from the crypt to the main vault.  Notified by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, Historic Scotland steps in and stops the dig.

 Archeologist James Whittal places the creation of the Newport Tower in the 1300’s.

 Muslims convert the Western Hulda Gate passageway at the Temple Mount into a mosque.

In September, Niven Sinclair sponsors The Sinclair Symposium, a research conference in the Orkney Islands to validate Prince Henry Sinclair’s 1392 voyage to North America.  He publishes the proceedings in the book and video Beyond any Shadow of Doubt.

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince publish The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Nature of Christ.  They determine that the Shroud of Turin is a five hundred year old "photograph" of Leonardo Da Vinci; that the highest secrets within the Templars and the Masons were Egyptian sacred sex practices leading to states of divine consciousness; that John the Baptist was a magician whose ministry was based on Egyptian Goddess rituals; and that Jesus stole these rituals from John the Baptist's movement.  Notably for future author Dan Brown, they originate the idea that the person to the right of Jesus in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper is not John but Mary Magdalene.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh publish The Elixir and the Stone, a history of magic, alchemy, and Hermetic thought over the centuries.  Meanwhile, their former writing partner Henry Lincoln explores sacred geometry in Key to the Sacred Pattern: The Untold Story of Rennes-le-Château.

Mark Finnan publishes Oak Island Secrets.

In December, The History Channel shows In Search of History:  The Holy Grail, featuring Laurence Gardner, Norris Lacy (Penn State University Professor of French and Medieval Studies), Bonnie Wheeler (Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University), and Celtic authors Caitlin and John Matthews.

Laurence Gardner

Norris Lacy

Bonnie Wheeler

Caitlin and John Matthews

 Pope John Paul II apologizes for Catholics who failed to do enough to help Jews against the Nazis during WWII but defending the actions of Pope Pius XII.

Martha Neyman publishes The Horse of God: Et in Arcadia Ego on CDROM, an extensive inquiry into the symbolism of Rennes-le-Château geography, concluding the Ark of the Covenant is buried beneath the eastern tower of the Castle.

 On April 2, H.R.H. Prince Charles of England (born 1948) officially opens a new visitor center at Rosslyn Chapel.

Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas publish The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons, and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus which argues that Rosslyn Chapel’s crypts contain the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Jesus.

Anne Gilmour-Bryson publishes The Trial of the Templars in Cyprus.

Robert Funk publishes The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus, a follow up to The Five Gospels on The Jesus Seminar’s conclusions about what Jesus really did and did not do.  

 
Stephen Dafoe

Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe of www.templarhistory.com publish The Warriors and the Bankers: A History of the Knights Templar from 1307 to the Present.  Stephen Dafoe also publishes Unholy Worship? The Myth of the Baphomet, Templar, Freemason Connection.

Margaret Starbird publishes The Goddess in the Gospels : Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine.

Michael Anderson Bradley publishes Grail Knights of North America: On the Trail of the Grail.

Steven Sora

Marilyn Hopkins and Tim Wallace-Murphy

Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins write in Rosslyn: Guardians of the Secret of the Holy Grail that a “leading American University will undertake ground scans of the vaults of Rosslyn Chapel and also examine the walls of the building.” 

 Stuart Beattie, Manager of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, assures George Smart in a personal interview there is no such permission for scanning or excavations.

Richard Andrews (sans Schellenberger) publishes Blood on the Mountain:  A History of the Temple Mount from the Ark to the Third Millennium,

William Mann reveals in The Labyrinth of the Grail evidence of a Templar settlement in Nova Scotia created by Prince Henry Sinclair’s voyage in 1399 from the Orkney Islands.  

Douglas Lockhart publishes The Dark Side of God: A Quest for the Lost Heart of Christianity.

Dominic Selwood publishes Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania.

BBC Four airs Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail concerning Heinrich Himmler’s (1900-1945) fascination with mysticism and archeology in areas including Tibet, France, and Germany.  With host Michael Wood and featuring Colin Renfrew (Cambridge University Archeologist), Florentine Rost van Tonningen (widow of one of Himmler’s senior SS officers), Wulff Brebeck (Director, Wewelsburg Museum), Gabriele Winkley (assistant to Himmler), and Henning Hassmann (Archeological Institute of Dresden).

Michael Wood

Colin Renfrew

Heinrich Himmler

Florentine Rost van Tonningen

Gabriele Winkley

Haft, White, and White write The Key to the Name of the Rose, a guide to the obscure references used in Umberto Eco’s famous novel.

Earl Doherty (born 1941), former student of George Wells, publishes The Jesus Puzzle claiming Jesus never lived and that New Testament authors invented much of his life to fit their own church-building agenda.

Paula Fredericksen

 

Paula Fredrickson publishes Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews : A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity.