Rex Deus

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View books by Tim Wallace-Murphy, Marilyn Hopkins, Graham Simmans.

More Muddle on Rennes-LeChateau - Rated
The mystery surrounding Rennes-Le-Chateau is endlessly fascinating and has spawned innumerable books attempting to unravel the secret and explain how an impoverished country priest became a wealthy mover and shaker and spent tons of dough converting his little church into a giant puzzle box. Most of these books are fascinating nonsense recounting a secret bloodline descended from Jesus, Templars, Masons, Rosicrucians and secret Kabalistic wisdom. "Rex Deus" is no different.

The problem with this glut of books is that they have created a bizarre feedback loop; each book takes as fact the previous books' suppositions and uses them to prove or further their own theories. The bibliography of Rex Deus contains "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Sign and the Seal", among others, though, in true academic fashion, the authors are careful to discredit the work of the other researchers, even while using their work as research of their own. Here the authors outline the theory of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", then say they think it's all nonsense. But *their* theory, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who escaped with Jesus' children to France after the crucifixion and founded a sacred bloodline, called "Rex Deus", is perfectly logical.

Different in Rex Deus is the addition of an anonymous informant named "Michael" who claims to be a member of the Rex Deus clan. Sadly, he is unable to provide any proof of this, as the desk containing the sacred documents has gone missing. Michael feeds the authors anything and everything they want to hear and they gleefully write it all down and present it as fact.

The first half of this book is fascinating, presenting the Rennes-Le-Chateau mystery, a thought-provoking interpretation of early Christianity, the formation of the Knights of the Temple and a plausible explanation for the Knights' strange behavior. The book quickly becomes bogged down in a dull recitation of Rex Deus comings and goings, family alliances, politics and muddled reporting, so the last half to one-third of Rex Deus is slow going.

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading this book. I like conspiracy theories and unsolved mysteries, and plan to read more of the bibliography that is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

A dissapointment - Rated
There are better books that deal with the Rex Deus' subject, definitely.
Ninety percent of RD is compiled from various other books. The rest is a story told to authors by one man who claims to be a member of the so called Rex Deus family line, that allegedly originated from priests of the Jerusalem Temple. He has no documents to support his claim, just a story told to him by his father.
In a nutshell, authors retell a story already told in The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, and numerous similar books: "Jesus survived crucifiction, married Mary Magdalene, have children and founded the dynasty. He was just a man, and he has not come to redeem and save, but to bring some secret knowledge - not to all men - just to a chosen few", etc.etc. Furthermore - "St. Paul has distorted original message of Jesus and was a first heretic. Templars, Cathars and Freemasons were/are keepers of the true faith"
It's clear that authors of the Rex Deus fell in the same trap as many before them: they DO NOT take Gospels in their wholeness.
On the contrary, they take one or two Gospel's lines out of context, compare them with some esoteric text and make a conclusion that fits their preconceptions. They completely ignore Jesus miracles, and they don't pay attention not only to when a Gospel writer clearly states the Divine origin of Christ but also when Jesus himself talks about it...

the implications about the grail famelie are intriging - Rated
If you read the book you are intriged about the world wide reach of the rex deus famelie. The decendens of jesus are spread over the hole world according to this boek and there infuens on world politieks is strong, if the famelie realy beliefs in the teachings of jesus than, i think that it is posible that the next millenium wil bring us a beter peaceful world.