In recent years I have built and furnished, at Rennes-le-Château, where I now live in retirement, a quite extensive and reasonably comfortable house. I have built it, first because I wanted to end my days in my old parish, second to provide a replacement for the existing presbytery (since, like everyone else in the priesthood, I was under threat of having this building taken away from me by the government), and third, because I had the idea of offering the house and all its outbuildings, once they were completed, to Monsignor the Bishop of Carcassonne for use as a retirement home for elderly and infirm priests – a place where these poor old people would have everything they could possibly want: a chapel in which to celebrate Mass, a library and reading-room, different kinds of garden, terraces, a veranda for taking promenades, and so on. I repeat that they would have wanted for nothing: they even would have had a place reserved for them in the parish cemetery… The ecclesiastical authorities are, however, insinuating and implying – indeed, they even seem to be alleging – that these various constructions which I have built with my own income, savings and personal donations, were not built with donations and my income at all, but with fees for Masses which I have not said, fees with which I have actually enriched myself. The Bishop bases his allegations on reports from priests and lay people, as well as on several letters emanating from college or seminary superiors, from members of religious orders or superiors of religious communities, asking if, in the light of conscience, Mass intentions can safely be entrusted to the parish priest of Rennes, or whether they should continue to give me such intentions – adding that, for some considerable time now, no one has been willing to trust me with fees for Masses – or else alleging that it is not possible that I could have said all the Masses myself, but that even so, in spite of that fact, I am continuing to request such intentions, etc.

Because of all these letters and complaints and all their various reports, the authorities have become nervous, and have taken it into their heads that I have, over the years, accumulated thousands and thousands of francs from Mass fees, and that it was, for the most part, with such fees, and not with donations and my own savings, that I had undertaken my building works. It was upon such a basis that I was summoned to appear before the Bishop's Court to hear the serious allegations laid against me, and to hear myself threatened with the most severe disciplinary penalties if I were not successful in defending myself, and refuting these allegations. Summoned to the Bishop's offices on 7 July by a letter from Monsignor Cantegril dated the 4th of the same month, with a view to my offering certain explanations before the despatch of the first summons, I replied to the Vicar-General that I had no intention of appearing in person, because I did not have anything to tell them (and could not have told them anything, in any case) about the persons who had made the donations to me, and that, in addition, not having either the necessary presence of mind or the sang froid or sufficient facility in expressing myself, I did not feel up to appearing in person. Finally, in my doctor's opinion, my sensitive and highly impressionable nature, forbade any such appearance, strong emotions posing a threat to my state of health and thus having to be avoided at all costs. I therefore departed from the Bishop's offices, leaving these gentlemen in no doubt that I would not be appearing at their meeting in person.

On the next day, the 8th, I received the first summons to appear before the Bishop's Court on 16 July, a Saturday. I replied to the Monsignor that, as I had already had the honour of telling him, I would have gladly appeared, but was unable to do so for the reasons which I had had the honour of setting before him. When the 16th arrived, and I failed to appear before my judges, I received on the following day (Sunday) a second summons which turned out to be the last. Having given the matter some thought, and at the repeated insistence of certain of my friends, I decided to instruct an advocate, and since the summons did not make clear whether the advocate concerned had to be a civil lawyer or a cleric, I wrote simultaneously to you and to Monsignor Molinier, parish priest of Azile, putting forward both your names for the Monsignor's (Cantegril's) approval via two consecutive letters dated 20 and 22 July, requesting at the same time a stay of execution. On my letters arriving at Carcassonne – since the Monsignor (Cantegril) was at Vesoul and time was short – Monsignor Molinier forwarded my letters to Monsignor Cantegril, but was too late in doing so, the Bishop's Court having already met on the day indicated. As neither the accused nor the advocate had appeared, the Court carried on regardless, a contempt of court was declared, the matter was put to judgment, and sentence pronounced. Since, according to the terms of the letter advising me of the sentence, the plea for clemency to the Monsignor asking for my case to be reconsidered had not been received, I wrote again to the Bishop asking him for such a reconsideration, and begging him to be so kind as to accept you as my legal representative.

We come now to the allegations made against me. According to my accusers, I had built my house and its outbuildings, furnished the house, restored, decorated and embellished the church, and repaired the presbytery, not with donations, but with fees from Masses which have not been said.

My reply is that you would have to be mad to entertain such a notion. What!? Where could I have got 140,000 to 150,000 francs in Masses – because that is what all these building works cost in total – and this figure does not include, of course, all the excavation and labouring work I myself have carried out. You would really have to be crazy to make an assumption like that.

I restored my church, and decorated it, repaired the presbytery, built my house and its outbuildings, and furnished it – not with money from unsaid Masses, but with my savings from my thirty years of ministry, together with the offerings, alms and donations made by people whose names, with a few rare exceptions, can no longer be published. To divulge these names would be to sow seeds of discord among households, and of upset and disorder among families. Certain ladies have made donations to me unbeknown to their husbands or their children, and elderly noblewomen unbeknown to their heirs, etc., etc. Not only do I not have permission to disclose these names, but this is an action which is formally forbidden to me, i.e. it would be simply unforgivable if I carried on regardless and disclosed them to you.

The ecclesiastical authorities still suspect, on the basis of the letters which they have in their possession, and the reports and complaints which they have received, that my building projects are accounted for largely, if not entirely, by the fees received from Masses, and are demanding to know the names of the donors, the sums which each of them has donated, and the intentions of these people in entrusting their money to me. In addition, the authorities are calling for my account receipt, and expenditure books, the details of my building works, the documents in proof and my Mass register. Names which I cannot disclose without going back on my word are names which my judges will never learn from my own mouth. May it be sufficient for them to know that the sums of money which have been given to me by these people were given to me unconditionally, and in a personal capacity. I was, in consequence, free to make use of them as I pleased, and have spent them as I intended.

Of the accounts of receipts and expenditure and details of my building works I possess absolutely nothing, and, indeed, of the documents in proof I retain only certain receipts which are not and could not be of any possible value. As for my Mass Register, at the beginning of my Ministry I used for such purposes a tiny notebook which, once it was full, was torn up and burned. Since then I have used only loose sheets, which I keep inside myordo, [a priest's directory, containing the Holy Office for each day] each of which, once it is finished with, is destroyed and replaced by another.

As for the fees for Masses which I have received, either from within the diocese or outside it: having said all those which I had the opportunity of saying during the year, I arranged for the others to be said by colleagues and priests who were short of Masses. In acting thus I was, after all, only doing what everyone else does. I entrusted some of these Masses to, among others, my brother the Abbé while he was in residence at Montazels; to Abbé Tisseyre, former parish priest of Serres; and some even to his predecessor Abbé Strabaud; to Abbé Gabelle , former parish priest of Arques; to Abbé Cassignac, former parish priest of St. Just and Le Bézu, who subsequently retired to Limoux; to Abbé Cabrel, former priest of Bécéte in retirement at Limoux, to Abbé Raynaud, former parish priest of Fa; and to others who came to see me, both from the diocese itself and from neighbouring dioceses, whose names I cannot recall. I also entrusted a large number of Masses to the Reverend Father Ferrafiat , a Lazarist from Notre Dame de Marceille, to give to the priests who were under his spiritual direction. I have often given Masses, and was still giving them quite a short time ago, to three regular clergy living in exile in Spain – Messieurs Angelot, Dogat and Crabier – who used to come to see me every year. Their last visit was in April. Since, so it is said, the ecclesiastical authorities have absolutely no confidence in me, they have placed no faith at all in all this because, they say, all the priests to whom I have entrusted Masses are dead, and since, in addition, they do not have any receipts of the Masses from these gentlemen, they cannot determine whether anything I have told them is true. The fact is that I do not have any receipts, because the people who entrusted their Masses to me did not ask for any. I have never felt obliged to ask for receipts from other people. I sincerely hope that it is sufficient for me to say that all these Masses have been scrupulously discharged, and that I accept full responsibility for my own actions in the light of my conscience.

Here is a list of some of the people from whom I have obtained funds [deleted: people who have given me money] for my various building projects, the amounts involved being shown in the second column:

My savings from 30 years of ministry – 15,000
From Madame de Beauxchorte – 10,000
2 hatmakers in 20 years – 40,000
From [deleted: inheritance] the paternal house – 1,800
Parish of Coursan – 1,400
Madame Labatut – 500
Rennes Church Council – 500
Parish Collection – 300
From various families via my Brother – 600
From Madame Lieuzère de Lezanet – 400
From the Carthusians (twice) – 400
From Monsignor Billard (twice) – 300
From my father – 200
From my aunt – 200

= 71,600

There is no point in asking me for the names of the other people who have made donations, as I do not have permission to make their names known. If, as I have told the Monsignor, I subsequently become free to speak on this subject, I will not hesitate to do so, and will supply other names.

[Bérenger Saunière]