Of the three authors who co-wrote the pseudo-historical masterpiece The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent may be considered as being the main one who contributed the most towards the "Jesus-Bloodline" theory – his obsession with the Jewish Line of David was evident from what he contributed to the recently screened satellite documentary on the History Channel Investigating History: The Holy Grail (26 April 2004).

Michael Baigent's involvement in this subject matter seems to have begun during the late 1970s when he contributed research for the BBC 2 Chronicle documentary In The Shadow of the Templars broadcast on 27 November 1979. The Producer Roy Davies, who wanted a different ending to his documentary, categorically rejected his proposed "solution" to the activities of the Abbé Bérenger Saunière, which involved his theory of the "Jesus-Bloodline" and the survival of the Line of David in the region of Rennes-le-Château. Between the late 1970s and 1982 when The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was originally published, Baigent took his theory 'on the road' giving Talks and Lectures in various locations – on 31 January 1981 he addressed the membership of the Pendragon Society (of which he was once a member) at its Annual General Meeting held in Bristol University (the Pendragon Society was founded in 1959 and pursues Arthurian Studies: history and archaeology, legend, myth and folklore, the Arts and popular culture). Even then Baigent's theories were not taken seriously – it was suggested by several people who listened to his various claims that because he had a Degree in Psychology he was pursuing some sort of "social experiment".

The superimposition of Baigent's "Jesus-Bloodline" theory over the Priory Documents and linking it with the person of Pierre Plantard has been, needless to say, highly damaging. There are no references in the Priory Documents to the New Testament, and Pierre Plantard – the perpetrator of the Priory of Sion hoax – never claimed to be descended from Jesus Christ (he merely claimed to be descended from the Merovingian King Dagobert II, and desired to be the newly restored King of France). Because of the enormous worldwide success of Baigent's 1982 book it is uncritically accepted by a lot of people today that the "Jesus Bloodline" theory and the Priory of Sion are one and the same thing. Such beliefs can only exist in the minds of those who haven't actually read the Priory Documents themselves.

Pierre Plantard first distanced himself from the "Jesus-Bloodline" theory in 1983 on a French radio interview, quoted by Philippe de Chèrisey in his 1983 article 'Jesus Christ, his wife and the Merovingians' that appeared in Nostra Magazine – ‘Bizarre News’ N° 584, 1983. Then, later on during the late 1980s, Plantard modified and changed the mythological pedigree of his Priory of Sion, giving it a totally different history and repudiating the version found in the "Dossiers Secrets" that was accepted as "plausible history" by the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, and the following passage was written in Vaincre No. 3, September 1989, page 22 (a phantom publication edited by Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair, Plantard's son):

"We are now able to officially state that the PRIORY OF SION has no direct or indirect connection with the ORDER OF THE TEMPLE, and that all this fantastic succession of Grand-Masters that authors such as Philippe TOSCAN, Mathieu PAOLI, Henry LINCOLN, Michael BAIGENT, Richard LEIGH, etc. have attributed to it derive merely from people’s imaginations and the realm of fantasy" (in an article entitled Some Archives Of The ‘Priory Of Sion’ Discovered In Barcelona… by "Ursanne").

I met Michael Baigent in person at his Winchester Home in February 1993. I found him very hospitable, courteous to talk with, but still believing in the Priory of Sion, in Merovingian Bloodlines existing to the present day, and his Line of David obsession was evident. He cordially gave me the use of his photocopier, with which I could photocopy parts from his archives that I found interesting, and Baigent even later provided me with a photograph of Marie Denarnaud's receipt for Saunière's coffin – showing that Baigent himself obtained it from Pierre Plantard's archives (thus proving that there once existed a liaison between Plantard and Noel Corbu). But what really interested me from this meeting with Baigent was his vast archive relating to the evidence of Saunière's wealth originating from the selling of masses. There it was – in Baigent's own home – all the photocopied evidence – highly substantial in its volume – proof of the source of the priest's wealth – but that it was in the possession of somebody who did not know how to use it properly because they preferred to pursue non-sequiturs relating to pseudo-history. Marie Denarnaud's receipt, which Baigent gave me, has been used on this website as evidence that Saunière's coffin was not paid for by Marie Denarnaud until some 6 months after his death – the date is there plainly to see: 12 June 1917 – and not 12 January 1917 – a week before Saunière's death – as claimed in Baigent's book.

In 2004 Michael Baigent was interviewed by Italian Rennes-le-Château investigator Francesco Garufi, where he claimed that my website was "built on evidence originating from his archives" from our 1993 meeting, and that I could not be considered as an "expert" on this subject matter. Here it must be stated that this is a reference to Marie Denarnaud’s receipt of Saunière's coffin and to nothing else. I did not use anything else from Baigent's archive for the website apart from that – so the website cannot be regarded as "built on his archive". The pieces from Baigent's archive that I did photocopy in 1993 were extracts from René Descadeillas' Mythologie du trèsor de Rennes (showing that the authors were well aware of material that contradicted the claims found in their book) and a black and white copy of a painting of the Magdalene by David Teniers. That was all that I copied from Baigent's archives in 1993.

Francesco Garufi's interview with Michael Baigent appeared in the Italian magazine Gli enigmi di Rennes-le-Château that was a special supplement to the Italian magazine Hera dated February 2004. This was later reprinted in Francesco Garufi's book Rennes-le-Château: Un'inchiesta? (now out-of-print).

Here it is, from page 28:

Marie Denarnaud's receipt for Saunière's coffin appeared in the public domain long before it appeared on this website originating from Michael Baigent's archives. It was reproduced in 1985 in Captier and Corbu's book, L'Heritage de l'Abbé Saunière.

The popularity of Dan Brown's recent novel The Da Vinci Code has inspired several documentaries, one of which in particular featured Michael Baigent which put his theories to the critical test. Broadcast on 3 February 2005, Channel Four's The Real Da Vinci Code presenter Tony Robinson asked Michael Baigent the following question in relation to the claim that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and produced offspring:

Tony Robinson:
Do we have any evidence that there was a child?

Michael Baigent:
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.

Tony Robinson:
So the inspiration for 'The Da Vinci Code' and a whole Canon of secret Grail Hunts is no more than a Big Guess...

Michael Baigent remains undaunted by such criticisms and sticks to his guns. His 1982 book has recently been translated in Norway on the strength of the success of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code – and he has recently toured Norway with an "illustrated evidence" of the Priory of Sion and promoting yet again, his "Jesus-Bloodline" theory and trying to prove that the Abbé Saunière knew about this and that it could have been his "secret" – basing the latter allegation on Station XIV of the Cross in Saunière's church that depicts a Full Moon whilst Jesus' body is being "smuggled away from the tomb".

Baigent's "illustrated evidence" for the Priory of Sion merely consists of Charters that relate to the Abbey of Notre Dame de Mont Sion, a monastic order that ceased to exist during the 17th century, and which had no historical link with Plantard's Priory of Sion hoax. Station XIV of the Cross in Rennes-le-Château church is not that unique – Saunière obtained it from the Giscard Company in Toulouse who specialised in providing religious ornamentary for Churches – and the Stations of the Cross that exist in the Church in Rennes-le-Château can also be found in churches in Couiza and Rocamadour.

A copy of the Catalogue of the Company of Giscard of Toulouse has been discovered, and here is what the Company offered in terms of Stations of the Cross from this Catalogue:

Michael Baigent's claims and allegations stem not from historical evidence but from desired beliefs. The survival of the Line of David to the time of Jesus Christ is an impossibility, never mind its survival to the present day. The last Jewish King of the Line of David was dethroned in 586BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and took away the Jewish people to captivity. When they were liberated from Babylonian bondage by Persia and returned to Jerusalem the Jewish Monarchy was not restored. There was nobody then in existence to be the King of Judaea from the Line of David.

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon (2 Kings 25: 7).

Michael Baigent's The Jesus Papers: Exposing The Greatest Cover-Up In History (HarperCollins, 2006)

On 24 June 2010 Henry Lincoln reproduced on his blog the copy of Reverend William Bartlett's letter claiming he knew that Jesus Christ had survived the crucifixion and was still alive in A. D. 45. Reverend Bartlett claimed to have heard the story from Canon Alfred Leslie Lilley who allegedly travelled to St Sulpice during the 1890s to help decipher a “strange document”

In 2006 Michael Baigent tried to elaborate on Reverend Bartlett's claims in his book The Jesus Papers: Exposing The Greatest Cover-Up In History.

Reverend Bartlett's letter is dated 29 March 1972 and just a few days previously on 27 March was published Irving Wallace's novel The Word – about the discovery of a parchment proving that Jesus Christ had survived the Crucifixion and died 19 years later.

Evidently, Irving Wallace's novel inspired Reverend Bartlett's prank on the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, who took it all too seriously.

Michael Baigent died in 2013