January 2004

George A. Wells publishes Can We Trust the New Testament?

Richard Barber publishes Holy Grail:  Imagination and Belief.

February 2004

Laura Miller of the New York Times writes an article about the Prieuré de Sion hoax in “The Da Vinci Con.”

Barbara Frale publishes The Knights Templar.

March 2004

 Apprentice producer Mark Burnett (born 1960) buys film rights to Lewis Perdue’s The Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God, novels with similar themes to he Da Vinci Code but written 20 years earlier. 

William Mann publishes The Knights Templar in the New World: How Henry Sinclair Brought the Grail to Acadia, a revised edition of 1999’s The Labyrinth of the Grail.

 Steve Kellmeyer publishes Fact and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code.

April 2004

Darrell Bock

Dan Burstein

 
Stuart Beattie

 Rosslyn Chapel begins a £4 million preservation program, including a new visitor's center.  Project Director and Chapel spokesperson Stuart Beattie says improvements will be complete by 2008.

De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of The Da Vinci Code by Amy Welborn (born 1960).

The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code by Richard Abanes.

 James Garlow and Peter Jones publish Cracking Da Vinci's Code.

 Martin Lunn publishes Da Vinci Code Decoded.

Breaking the Da Vinci Code, by Darrell Bock, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Journalist Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer compile Secrets of the Code, with contributions from Michael Baigent, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Amy Bernstein, Peter Bernstein, David Burstein, Esther de Boer, Denise Budd, John Castro, Michelle Delio, Jennifer Doll, David Downie, Betsy Eble, Bart Ehrman, Riane Eisler, Glenn Erickson, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Deirdre Good, Susan Haskins, Collin Hansen, Stephan Hoeller, Kathering Jansen (Catholic University professor of History), Karen King, David Klinghoffer, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, James Martin, Richard McBrien, Craig McDonald, Brendan McKay, Laura Miller, Sherwin Nuland, Lance Owens, Elaine Pagels, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, James Robinson, David Shugarts, Simon Singh, Margaret Starbird, Kate Stohr, Annalyn Swan, David Van Biema, Brian Weiss, David Wilk, Kenneth Woodward, and Nicole Zaray.

National Geographic Channel shows Da Vinci and the Mystery of the Shroud, featuring Lynn Picknett.

The History Channel shows Investigating History: The Holy Grail, in which host Bill Kurtis (born 1940) interviews Michael Baigent, Malcolm Barber, Robert Eisenman, the excavation of the Rennes-le-Château’s Tour Magdala in 2003, and Barbara Frale.

Bill Kurtis

Tour Magdala

Michael Baigent

May 2004

The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago.

The Da Vinci Code:  Fact or Fiction by Hank Hanegraaff & Paul Maier.

Alan Butler publishes Goddess, the Grail and the Lodge: Tracing the Origins of Religion.

June 2004

Ben Witherington III

 With renewed interest in his books generated by The Da Vinci Code, Michael Baigent signs with Bluebook Films to produce a television series tentatively called Revelation.

 Alan Kostrzewa of Centre Road Ventures LLC in Traverse City, Michigan, buys 5.1 acres (lot 25) on Oak Island from David Tobias for $230,000.  This includes access rights across the causeway.

 Ben Witherington III (born 1951) publishes The Gospel Code.

July 2004

 Sandra Miesel (born 1941) and Carl Olsen publish The Da Vinci Hoax.

Patrick Macnee (born 1922) hosts Unlocking the Da Vinci Code, featuring Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Tim Wallace-Murphy, William Peterson (Penn State Professor), Daniel Smith-Christopher (Professor at Loyola Marymount), Paul Maier (Professor at Western Michigan University), Ray Riegert (author, The Gospel of Thomas), Father Benjamin Flores (Professor at Canlsus College), and Karen Jo Torjenson (Religion Professor at Claremont College).

August 2004

Brandon Gilvin

Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe publish Mysteries of Templar Treasure & the Holy Grail

Brandon Gilvin publishes Solving the Da Vinci Code Mystery.

Simon Cox publishes Cracking the Da Vinci Code and issues a rather creepy DVD featuring Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Gnostic Church founder Stephen Hoeller, and Mark Oxbrow.

Simon Cox

Mark Oxbrow

Stephen Hoeller

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince

September 2004

Graham Phillips

 To prevent tampering from treasure hunters, the mayor of Rennes-le-Château exhumes Saunière's corpse from the church graveyard and reburies it in a concrete sarcophagus.

Graham Phillips publishes The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant: The Discovery of the Treasure of Solomon, claiming that Templars once had the Ark of the Covenant and moved if from France to the area near Burton Dassett, England.

Mark Amaru Pinkham publishes Guardians Of The Holy Grail, evaluating competing claims for the Holy Grail, interviewing members of modern-day Templar-inspired orders, and his creation of the International Gnostic Templars.  In an interview, Prince Henry Sinclair Preceptory and Study Center librarian Ian Sinclair announces plans to open vaults revealed by groundscans beneath Castle Sinclair-Girnigoe in 2004 or 2005.  Sinclair also declares there are five tunnels running between Rosslyn Chapel and Rosslyn Castle – and that photographs were taken of two skulls found in those tunnels.  James Foster of Cleveland, Primate of the Johannite Church, tells Pinkham the head of John the Baptist and other elements of the Church’s “Plan of Five” will tentatively be revealed May 5, 2005.

October 2004

 
Lewis Perdue

 Baigent and Leigh consider suing Dan Brown, saying he "lifted the whole architecture" of their Holy Blood, Holy Grail research with co-author Henry Lincoln.  Author Lewis Perdue considers similar litigation against Brown for plagiarism of his novels Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy.

Steven Sora publishes The Lost Colony of the Templars:  Verrazano’s Secret Mission to America.

November 2004

Tim Acheson

 A neo-Templar order based in Hertford UK claiming to be descended from the original Knights Templar asks the Pope to make an apology.  Member Tim Acheson says “This letter is a serious attempt by a Templar group which traces its roots back to the medieval Order to solicit an apology from the Papacy.”  A Vatican spokesman says their request will be given “serious consideration.”

Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins write Templars in America: From the Crusades to the New World.

Release of The Da Vinci Code Decoded featuring Dan Burstein, Henry Lincoln, Martin Lunn, Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince, Karen Ralls, James Robinson, Margaret Starbird, and archival footage of Dan Brown.

Karen Ralls

Martin Lunn

December 2004

 Jerusalem’s Committee for the Prevention of Destruction of the Antiquities on the Temple Mount gets a temporary injunction against further removal of dirt.

Daniel Burstein and Arne De Keijzer publish Secrets of Angels and Demons.

ABC News runs a longer version of Jesus, Mary, and Da Vinci featuring additional interviews with Ellen McBreen and Helen Nicholson.

January 2005

George Smart

Sean Martin

The Louvre under pressure from French President Jacques Chirac (born 1932) agrees to onsite filming of the The Da Vinci Code.

 To protect its carvings from damage, Rosslyn Chapel restricts the ever-increasing number of visitors to guided tours only. 

George Smart publishes The Knights Templar Chronology: Tracking History's Most Intriguing Monks, a year by year timeline of the Order’s activities.   It is an immediate bestseller within his family and sells literally dozens nationwide.

Sean Martin publishes The Knights Templar: The History and Myths of the Legendary Order.

Sharan Newman publishes The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code.

On the History Channel’s Beyond The Da Vinci Code, Edward Herrman (born 1943) narrates interviews with Richard Leigh, Karen Ralls, Timothy Freke, Dan Burstein, George Gorse (Pomona College Professor of Art History), Margaret Starbird, Deirdre Good (New Testament Professor at the General Theological Seminary), Jean-Luc Chaumeil and Andrew Soane (Director of the Opus Dei Information Office in Britain).

Edward Herrman

Richard Leigh

Timothy Freke

George Gorse

Deirdre Good

Andrew Soane

February 2005

H. Paul Jeffers

As to proof of a Jesus bloodline,

“There's none whatsoever – that’s purely hypothesis on our part – but I think it's a plausible hypothesis - that the Holy Grail is the bloodline of David – and if Jesus and Mary Magdalene had been married and she was pregnant with this child – "yes, she would have carried the Grail to France" – and I think this is the way that we need to look at this material – Is it true? I don't know – Is it plausible? Yes.”  -- Michael Baigent in The Real Da Vinci Code

 Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh file suit for copyright infringement against Dan Brown’s publisher, the Random House Group in the UK, claiming Brown “lifted the architecture” of their work in Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

H. Paul Jeffers publishes Freemasons: A History and Exploration of the World's Oldest Secret Society.

On BBC Four's The Real Da Vinci Code, Tony Robinson interviews Michael Baigent (see quote on left) plus Graham Phillips claiming to have the cup used by Mary Magdalene to collect Jesus’ blood, Dr. Gabriel Barkay saying “We do not have any evidence for any excavations carried out by the Knights in Solomon’s stables,” Helen Nicholson, Rosslyn Chapel expert Robert Brydon, Andrew Sinclair, Stuart Beattie, Masonic historian Robert Cooper maintaining there is no link between the Templars and Rosslyn Chapel, Jean-Luc Chaumeil discussing that the Prieuré de Sion was made up in 1956 by Plantard de Saint-Clair, Arnaud de Sède (Gérard de Sède’s son), Elaine Pagels, Margaret Starbird, Oliver Davies (Research Institute of Systematic Theology), Juliette Wood (Grail expert at Cardiff University), Richard Barber, Canon Jaime Sancho of the Valencia Cathedral (with the Valencia Grail), Tom Asbridge, Michael Baigent, Jonathan Sumption (Cathar historian) saying there is no link between the Grail and the Cathars, Father Thierry Vregil, Michel Rouge, author Charles Nicholl, Ann Graham Brock, and archival footage of Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, Dan Brown, and Henry Lincoln.

March 2005

 
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone

 On March 15, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, is appointed by the Vatican to rebut claims made in The Da Vinci Code.

 After the death of John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict XVI.  

Robert Lomas, minus frequent collaborator Christopher Knight, publishes Turning the Hiram Key on the meaning of Freemasonry, including specific details of initiation rituals.

Alain Demurger publishes The Last Templar: The Tragedy Of Jacques De Molay, Last Grand Master Of The Temple.

Jean-Jacques Bedu publishes Les Sources Secrètes du Da Vinci Code (a.k.a. The Secret Sources of the Da Vinci Code).

April 2005

 After much negotiation with Rosslyn Chapel’s Trustees, producer Ron Howard gets permission to film the ending scenes of The Da Vinci Code there.

Laurence Gardner publishes The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy.

Charles Raymond Dillon publishes Templar Knights and the Crusades.

Paul Naudon publishes The Secret History of Freemasonry: Its Origins and Connection to the Knights Templar.

Conspiracies On Trial: The Da Vinci Code on the Discovery Channel features art historian Sister Wendy Beckett, Rabbi Jonathan Romain, Edward Adams, Paul Fouracre (University of Manchester Professor of Medieval History), John Gordon, Michael Baigent, and Jean-Luc Chaumeil.

NBC runs Secrets To The Code with Stone Phillips interviewing Father Thomas Williams (Dean of Theology at Regina Apostolorum University), Bart Ehrman saying “there’s not one scrap of historical evidence whatsoever” about a Jesus bloodline, Karen King (Harvard Divinity Professor), Ben Witherington saying “no evidence whatsoever” of a Jesus bloodline, Darrell Bock, Elaine Pagels, Margaret Starbird, David Nolta, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, archival footage of Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, and finally Bill Putnam regarding the Prieuré de Sion: “the whole thing is made up.  It’s the greatest hoax in my experience.”

May 2005

Marilyn Hopkins and Tim Wallace-Murphy

 Rosslyn Chapel turns down Pittsburgh’s Dr. David Conley’s request to scan the building electronically.  According to an article in The Scotsman by Linda Summerhayes, Conley claims to be a direct descendant of Templar grand master Hugues de Payens.

Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe and Patricia Fanthorpe publish Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars: The Story Behind the Da Vinci Code.

Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins write Custodians of Truth: The Continuance of Rex Deus, further discussing a Jesus bloodline based on an anonymous modern-day source.

June 2005

 Rosslyn Chapel installs a new entrance and triples the parking lot to accommodate visitors generated by the Da Vinci Code.  Trustees predict over 100,000 visitors in 2005.

Tracy Turner publishes The Da Vinci Quiz : 501 Questions to Crack the Code.

July 2005

 Former Rosslyn Chapel Curator Judith Fisken, who researched the Chapel for over 25 years, warns that the release of The Da Vinci Code movie will mean damage to the Chapel, with “souvenir hunters removing pieces of stone, taking rubbings, carving their initials and generally leaving litter.”  The same month, author and St. Clair descendant Andrew Sinclair criticizes Rosslyn Chapel trustees, saying that permission to film will damage the building’s reputation and give credence to “preposterous” claims.  Sinclair says “As far as I’m concerned it is a load of rubbish.  It’s appalling.  What it says about the grail and Rosslyn is absolute invention.”  Rosslyn Chapel Trustee Graeme Munro sees the situation differently, saying that the £7,000 a day proceeds from filming will help fund a £3,000,000 renovation project.

 Subterranea Britannica, a group of amateur archaeologists, receive anonymous threats about their proposed investigations into tunnels beneath Hertford Castle, a site long associated with Templars.

 Dan Blankenship and David Tobias, both in their 80’s, agree to end 40 years of exploration (and seven years of disputes and lawsuits against each other) by selling their property on Oak Island.  

Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy publish The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom.

Former fundamentalist Brian Flemming produces The God Who Wasn’t There questioning the existence and divinity of Jesus, featuring Scott Butcher (creator of RaptureLetters.com), Richard Carrier (author of Sense and Goodness Without God), Alan Dundes (Professor of  Folklore and Anthropology at the University  of California, Berkeley), Sam Harris (author of The End of Faith), Barbara and David Mikkelson (Urban Legends Reference Pages at snopes.com), Robert Price (Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute), Ronald Sipus (superintendent of Village Christian Schools), Richard Dawkins (noted atheist), and audio commentary by Earl Doherty.

Release of the DVD Origins of the Da Vinci Code featuring Henry Lincoln and Erling Haagensen discussing sacred geometry around Rennes-le-Château and Bornholm.

August 2005

 Lewis Perdue loses his $154M plagiarism suit against Dan Brown with US District Judge George Daniels saying Brown's book is not substantially similar to Perdue’s Daughter of God.  Perdue appeals.

Filming of the Da Vinci Code begins at Lincoln Cathedral.

Margaret Starbird publishes Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile.

September 2005

Gabriel Barkay

 Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay of Bar-Ilan University digs through Temple Mount rubble secretly moved in 1999.   He finds a cross-shaped bronze pendant, originally gold-plated.  On one side is a hammer, pincers and nails; the other side has a sun, altar, and a cup lying on a crown of thorns. This could have belonged to Charles Wilson or one of his colleagues during 1867 excavations at the Temple Mount, Professor Andrew Prescott of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield studied photographs of the pendant and believes the symbols are Masonic but not connected with British Masons.

Robert Price publishes The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.

ITV shows The Grail Trail: In Pursuit of The Da Vinci Code.  Three fans of the book travel to the various Da Vinci Code sites to verify the claims in the book.  With Raj Persaud, Leagh Ganpatsingh, Philip Lindholm (Ph.D student, Oxford), Lynn Picknett, Ronald Hutton, Charles Nicholl (Leonardo researcher), Father John Wauck (Opus Dei), and Nigel Bryant (Grail expert).

October 2005

Stuart Mitchell

 Composer Stuart Mitchell announces he has deciphered the cubes in Rosslyn Chapel’s ceiling.  As reported in The Scotsman, the 213 cubes at base of 12 pillars represent a six-and-a-half-minute work for 13 musicians, "Everyone wants to hear something miraculous but William Sinclair, who designed the chapel, was an architect, not a musician," he said. "It is in triple time, sounds childlike, and is based on plain chant, which was the common form of rhythm at the time."  Mitchell plans to make a recording of the piece but must first assemble the rare medieval instruments for which it is scored.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln in name only, publish The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail Illustrated Edition.

Graham Hancock publishes Talisman, a sprawling web of conspiracy ideas involving Masons and Templars.

Bill Putnam and John Edwin Wood publish The Treasure of Rennes-Le-Chateau: A Mystery Solved.

Mark Reynolds publishes The Mystery of the Oak Island Treasure: Two Hundred Years of Hope and Despair.

Michael Bradley  and Joelle Lauriol publish Swords at Sunset: Last Stand of North America's Grail Knights.

 Simon Cox, Mark Oxbrow, and Ian Robertson publish Rosslyn and the Grail.

November 2005

Bart Ehrman publishes Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why.

Tim Wallace-Murphy publishes Cracking the Symbol Code: The Heretical Message Within Church and Renaissance Art.

The History Channel shows Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, a two-part documentary narrated by Edward Herrman with Sean Martin, Alan Butler, Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins, George Smart, and Karen Ralls.

The Learning Channel shows Da Vinci Declassified, a profile of Leonardo featuring Robert Brydon, Steven Mizrach, Lynn Picknett, David Barrett (author, Secret Societies), Henry Lincoln, Clive Prince, Jessica Teisch (author, Da Vinci for Dummies), Heather Sexton (art historian), Craig Dickens (prop designer), Dan Duling, Sharan Newman, Arthur Benjamin (mathematician), John Edwin Wood and Bill Putnam, Peter Caine (Paris tour guide), Michel Rouge (Administrator, Church of Saint Sulpice), and Stuart Beattie.

Channel Five shows Revealed…The Da Vinci Code Myth, an update of January 2005’s Beyond the Da Vinci Code.

December 2005

Suzanne Olssen writes Jesus Last King of Kashmir: Life After the Crucifixion.

Discovery Channel shows Legend Detectives: The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château with Ronald Top, “glamourous historian” Tessa Dunlop, Massimo Polidoro, medium Tony Stockwell, Jean-Claude de Brou, Claire Corbu and Antoine Captier, Maitre André Salaün, Laurent Bucholtzer, André Douzet, and Robert Eisenman.

BBC Four shows Opus Dei & The Da Vinci Code with host Mark Dowd and guests Bobby Boone (NY office of Opus Dei), member Silas Agbim, member Lynn Frank, John Allen (author, Opus Dei), director Jack Valero, members Paul and Benedicte Nagy, member Adrienne Treleaven, member Eileen Cole, former member Father Vladimir Felzmann, Father Flavio Capucci, ODAN founders Tammy and Dianne DiNicola, Art Thelan and Brian Parker of Midtown Center, Father Gerard Sheehan, Father Ian Dickie, Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Kenneth Woodward (author, Making Saints), and archival footage of Father Jose Maria Escriva.