There was a secret treasure room behind the closet wall in his sacristy where he changed into his vestments. The room is bare and the dirt floor was excavated long ago. Perhaps the church had been built over a hidden cache. A symbolic yellow stripe marking is embedded into the foundation of Rennes-le-Chateau signifying that someone of royal blood is interred inside the church. It is a very out of the way spot for a royal tomb.

Berenger Sauniere had discovered a grave beneath the altar aisle with a carving of a Templar knight on the cover stone. This stone was turned over and re-cemented into place. Sauniere was the first priest to have the run of Rennes-le-Chateau without aristocratic supervision, he was appointed to the parish when the church was nearly in ruins. Having grown up within sight of the area, he knew of the tales of treasure there.

Rennes-le-Chateau hides a subterranean world of hidden passage-ways and natural faults which connect the buildings on the property. It was the church of Hautpoul castle built by the king of the Visigoths after the fall of Rome. This tunnel system was a closely held secret. It made the priest "The Keeper of the Vault". The entrance to the chamber below was under the chimney of the rectory and the kitchen fire burned on top of the trap-door.

The 19th Century Neo-Cathars

The founder of the Neo-Cathar church was a church librarian from Carcassonne named Jules Doinel. The Neo-Cathar movement raised alarm in the Vatican. There was a French occult revival going on and The Salon de la Rose + Croix was becoming more and more popular. In the Paris art world, the Symbolists were expressing these esoteric ideas in their paintings - they were dedicated occultists.

When Sauniere discovered the encoded parchments in the Visigothic pillar in his church, he was sent by his presiding bishop to St. Sulpice church in Paris to have them translated. St. Sulpice was named after a Merovingian bishop. Emile Hoffet was the cleric who translated the parchments, he introduced Sauniere to Claude Debussy who was the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion at that time.

Hoffet also introduced Sauniere to the opera singer Emma Calve, the famous diva who was also a high priestess of the Parisian esoteric underground, and a Cathar. She would visit him frequently at Rennes-le-Chateau. In the courtyard there is a fountain with her name and a heart carved on it, she was said to have been his mistress.