The Da Vinci Code book cover (UK edition)

The Da Vinci Code, a popular suspense novel by Dan Brown, generated a great deal of criticism and controversy after its publication in 2003. Many of the complaints centered on the book's speculations and alleged misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Additional criticisms were directed towards the book's inaccurate descriptions of European art, history, architecture, and geography. Charges of plagiarism were also leveled by the authors of the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail, though Brown was cleared of these charges in a 2006 trial. The name The Da Vinci Code may refer to: The Da Vinci Code, the original 2003 novel by Dan Brown Criticisms of The Da Vinci Code, criticism and controversy around the novel The Da Vinci Code (film), the 2006 film based on the novel The Da Vinci Code (video game... Image File history File links Davinci_code. ... Image File history File links Davinci_code. ... This article is about the novel. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... This article is about the author. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... “Catholic Church” redirects here. ... Holy Blood, Holy Grail is a controversial New York Times bestselling book by authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, which was published in 1982 by Dell (ISBN 055212138) in London. ...

It is difficult to assess how many of the book's errors resulted from poorly executed research or editing, or whether they were merely a product of artistic license. The Artistic License is a software license used for certain free software packages, most notably the standard Perl implementation, most of CPAN modules and Parrot, which are dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the GNU General Public License (GPL). ...

Fact or fiction

A woman protesting against The Da Vinci Code film outside of a movie theater in Culver City, California

Although the book is readily identifiable as a thriller—a work of fiction—and not as a historical tome, Brown does preface his novel with a page he calls "Facts" and has published a page at his website^[1] which repeats some disputed claims. Although Brown's website makes use of words such as "alleged," "rumored," and "seem to be," some critics consider the qualifiers misleading. Image File history File linksMetadata Davinciprotestor. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Davinciprotestor. ... Motto: The Heart of Screenland Location of Culver City in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country State County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1917-09-07 [2] Government  - City Manager Jerry Fulwood [1] Area  - City  5. ... The thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television. ...

Much of the controversy caused by the book stems from the fact that the novel, as a work of fiction, asserts opinions on debates that have not been resolved as facts. To the typical layperson, the book's claims cause considerable confusion as to where the truth lies. Multiple tourist attractions in Europe have had to post signs and release other information emphasizing that the descriptions in Brown's book about their locations are wrong -- such as to state that there is no secret chamber under the floor in a particular chapel, or that a particular building was not built by a secret society.^[2]

In the earlier publicity for the novel, Dan Brown made repeated assertions that, while the novel is a work of fiction, the historical information in it is all accurate and well-researched. For example:

and

These claims in the book and by the author, combined with the presentation of religious opinions that some regard as offensive, have caused a great deal of debate and partisan material to erupt. This confusion has overlapped into real politics. For example, a front-page article in The Independent on May 10, 2006 stated that Ruth Kelly, a senior British Government Minister, was questioned about her affiliations: "Ms Kelly's early days as Education Secretary were dogged with questions about her religion, and her membership of the conservative Opus Dei organisation which features in the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code." For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation). ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May 1968) is a British politician. ... For other uses, see Opus Dei (disambiguation). ...

Religious disputes

A display protesting the release of the film The Da Vinci Code outside of a movie theater in Culver City, California

There have been widespread criticisms of the book reflecting antiquated Protestant calumnies against Catholicism (for example, on the BBC's Sunday program on 24 July 2005), or more general anticlerical traditions. On 15 March 2005, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa and former second-in-command of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, castigated the book and those who sell it on grounds of anti-Catholic bias, calling it "a throwback to the old anti-clerical pamphlets of the 1800s," and a "gross and absurd" distortion of history, full of "cheap lies." The Archbishop also objected to the book's portrayal of the Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic prelature. Image File history File linksMetadata Davinciprotests. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Davinciprotests. ... is the 205th day of the year (206th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone is the Archbishop of Genoa and was considered papabile following the death of Pope John Paul II. His Eminence Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone (born 2 December 1934) is Archbishop of Genoa and a Cardinal Priest in the Roman Catholic Church. ... For other uses, see Genoa (disambiguation). ... The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) (Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei) is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. ... Anti-Catholicism is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at Catholics or the Catholic Church. ... A prelate is a member of the clergy having a special canonical jurisdiction over a territory or a group of people; usually, a prelate is a bishop. ...

On Easter Sunday, 2006, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also attacked the book in his Easter sermon, asserting that the Bible was not compiled as a conspiracy to hide the truth, but was inspired by God. In May 2006, the primary topic on the televised religious program The Coral Ridge Hour was The Da Vinci Code, with the host repeatedly referring to Brown and his work as "deceptive." And brochures entitled, "The Da Vinci Code: A Catholic Response," have been distributed in Catholic churches to address the book and movie from various Christian points of view. For the English boxer, see Rowan Anthony Williams. ... The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader and senior clergyman of the Church of England, recognized by convention as the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... Dennis James Kennedy, Ph. ...

Jesus' "marriage" to Mary Magdalene

The story claims the "Holy Grail" is not a chalice but a bloodline sprung from the marital union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This idea is not original to Brown; it was previously hypothesized by others, including Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in their non-fiction pseudohistory 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Many textual and historical scholars have characterized this claim as without evidence.^[5] The Church Fathers, while admittedly making claims years after Jesus had died, were unanimous in their belief that Jesus was celibate.^[6] For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... Chalice For other uses, see Chalice A chalice (from Latin calix, cup) is a goblet intended to hold drink. ... The Jesus bloodline is the theory that Jesus Christ had a natural child with Mary Magdalene which was then taken to Egypt and then to France, either during Magdalenes pregnancy or as a young child, and whose blood descendants in later centuries founded the Merovingian dynasty of the early... This article is about the disciple of Jesus. ... Author Michael Baigent Reuters Michael Baigent, born March 1948 in Christchurch, New Zealand, is an author and conspiracy theorist who co-wrote (with Richard Leigh) a number of books that question mainstream perceptions of history and many commonly-held versions of the life of Jesus. ... Richard Leigh (born 1989) is a novelist and short story writer born in New Jersey and currently living in England. ... Book cover of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail 2005 illustrated hardcover edition. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers...

While the book is correct that it was a cultural norm for Jewish males (especially rabbis) to be married, there were exceptions to the rule, like the Essenes (see the documents of the Dead Sea scrolls). As portrayed in the canonical Gospels, Jesus was not a rabbi in the traditional sense of the Jewish office it would become after AD 70, but an informal teacher; the Gospel of Mark refers to him as "the carpenter."^[7] The Essenes (sg. ... The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. ... This article is about the year 70. ... The Gospel of Mark (literally, according to Mark; Greek, Κατά Μαρκον, Kata Markon),(anonymous[1] but ascribed to Mark the Evangelist) is a Gospel of the New Testament. ...

Women in the Gospels were usually identified with husbands or male relatives, especially if they shared their names with others. For example, there are many mentions of women called "Mary," all designated differently (any possible identification with each other nonwithstanding). There is Mary "the mother of Jesus," Mary Magdalene, Mary "the mother of James and Joses", Mary "[the mother] of James," "the other" Mary, Mary "the wife of Cl[e]opas" and Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. Mary Magdalene stands out from most of the other Marys as she is not directly associated with any man. Mary "Magdalene" means "Mary of Magdala", just as Jesus "the Nazarene" means "Jesus of Nazareth." Some researchers have claimed that, if indeed she was married to Jesus, she should have been designated, following custom, Mary "the wife of Jesus" instead.^[8] However, her special distinction as "the Magdalene" is taken by supporters of the Jesus/Mary bloodline theory (and other non-traditional Christians) as simply a sign of her "specialness" within the early church.^{[citation needed]} Magdala (tower) was a small village in Galilee, which seems to have been the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, in the Christian New Testament. ... Hebrew נָצְרַת (Natzrat) (Standard) Náẓərat Arabic الناصرة (an-Nāṣira) Name Meaning Ancient word in Hebrew Government City District North Population 64,800[1] (2006) Jurisdiction 14 200 dunams (14. ...

The development of the term "bride of Christ" for the Church may refute the existence of a typical marriage.^[9] Though Jesus himself is never recorded as directly referring to the church or any group of believers as his "bride" (though he uses the metaphor of a "bridegroom" in some parables in the Gospel of Matthew, namely in verses 22:1-14 and 25:1-13), the comparison can be found as early as Paul (Ephesians 5:25-27, 2 Corinthians 11:2-3) and the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of Matthew (literally, according to Matthew; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον, Kata Maththaion or Kata Matthaion) is a synoptic gospel in the New Testament, one of four canonical gospels. ... Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...

Also, some scholars have speculated that Jesus' teaching that "those people who can remain celibate, for the kingdom of heaven's sake (Matt. 19:12) should do so" was made in response to criticisms about his own celibacy.^[9] The authors of the Gospels were expecting the Second Coming to come soon, as were most Christians, and thought that entangling alliances would be a great hindrance to their duties and their opportunities for salvation at this time. The Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God, Hebrew מלכות השמים, malkhut hashamayim, Greek basileia tou theou) is a key concept detailed in all the three major monotheistic religions of the world — Islam, Judaism and Christianity. ...

In the novel, the Gospel of Philip refers to Mary Magdalene as Jesus' "companion", and says Aramaic scholars know that this means "wife." However, James M. Robinson, an authority on the gnostic gospels, has pointed out that "companion" was not necessarily a sex-related term. Also, "the Gospel of Philip is in Coptic, translated from Greek, so there is no word in the text for Aramaic scholars to consider. The Gospel of Philip depicts Mary as Jesus's koinonos, a Greek term indicating a 'close friend', 'companion' or, potentially, a lover. However, in context of Gnostic beliefs, Gnostic writings use Mary to illustrate a disciple's spiritual relationship with Jesus, making any physical relationship irrelevant.^[9] The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers until it was rediscovered by accident in the mid-20th century. ... This article is about the disciple of Jesus. ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a four-thousand year history. ... James M. Robinson is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. ... The Coptic language is a direct descendant of the ancient Egyptian language which was once written in Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts. ...

Jesus in Church teaching

According to the story, prior to AD 325, Jesus's followers considered him no more than a "mortal prophet," and it was only Emperor Constantine's politicking and a close vote at the First Council of Nicaea that made Christianity view him as divine. Various authors dispute this, using with extensive reference to the Bible and the Church Fathers, sources that predate the First Council of Nicaea^[10][11]. According to these sources, the central question at the Council was whether Jesus and God were homoousios, "of one substance," and thus one, or whether instead Jesus was homoiousios, "of like substance," and thus the first created being, inferior to the Father, but still superior to all other beings (see Arianism). The vote at the Council was overwhelming against Arius (there is some debate over the actual number of voting Bishops, anywhere from 200 to 318) rather than being "close," as the book claims.^[12] Events May 20 - First Council of Nicaea - first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church: The Nicene Creed is formulated, the date of Easter is discussed. ... Head of Constantines colossal statue at Musei Capitolini Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[1] (February 27, 272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic[2] Christians) Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on... The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first Ecumenical council[1] of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      This article...

Portrayal of Gnostic Christianity

The novel claims Constantine wanted Christianity to unify the Roman Empire but thought it would appeal to pagans only if it featured a demigod similar to pagan heroes, so he destroyed the Gnostic Gospels that said Jesus was a human prophet and promoted the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which portray Jesus as divine.^[13] The term demigod, meaning half-god, is a modern distinction, often misapplied in Greek mythology. ...

Historically, however, Gnostic Christianity did not portray Jesus as merely human. In fact, the Gnostic Jesus was less human than the Jesus of orthodox Christianity. While orthodox Christianity generally considered Christ both divine and human, many Gnostic sects considered Christ purely divine, his human body being a mere illusion (see Docetism). The Gnostics saw matter as evil, and believed that a divine spirit would never have taken on a material body.^[14][15] In Christianity, Docetism (from the Greek [dokeō], to seem) is the belief that Jesus physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not...

The "sacred feminine"

Characters in the book claim Christianity has suppressed the sacred feminine, the representation of the earth or mother Goddess's mystic power that's often linked to symbols of fertility and reproduction. This is particularly true of the two primary goddesses Brown discusses, Venus and Isis. The sacred feminine refers to the mythic representation of the mother goddess symbolized through images and events connected with fertility and reproduction from the earliest times. ... For the 1934 film, see, see The Goddess (1934 film). ... Marble Venus of the Capitoline Venus type, Roman (British Museum) Venus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love and beauty, the rough equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. ... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ...

Christians point out that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches do give special veneration to the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Jesus. However, the book alleges that this is a desexualised aspect of femininity, through which the sacred feminine is suppressed. Some scholars, such as Joseph Campbell, believe that this image of Mary was specifically derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus. Campbell states in The Power of Myth, "The antique model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast"^[16] Brown actually echoes this charge. Others counter that the symbol of the "Mother and Child" is universal and can be found in many faiths, being part of the general human experience; thus it makes no sense to claim that Christianity specifically copied this element from Egyptian mythology.^[9] Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Coptic Orthodox Pope · Roman Catholic Pope Archbishop of Canterbury · Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Faith... Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. ... For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ... The Power of Myth is a book and six part television documentary first broadcast on PBS in 1988 as Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. ... For other uses, see Mother (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Child (disambiguation). ... Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam. ...

Early Christian devotion to female Martyrs (such as Perpetua and Felicity) and the apocryphal writings about figures like St. Thecla seem to indicate that women did play a role in the early Church, far more than either Brown or some modern Christians and critics of Christianity acknowledge.^[17]; though historical evidence does not suggest men and women shared all roles of office.^[9] Perpetua and Felicitas are two 3rd century Christian martyrs venerated as saints. ... The Acts of Paul and Thecla (Acta Pauli et Theclae) is an apocryphal story of St Pauls influence on a young virgin named Thecla. ...

It is important to note that these documents and traditions tend to stress the virtues of chaste womanhood, but this is in keeping with a general notion in Christianity that chastity is a greater good, for both genders. The Gnostics also expressed anti-female views (for example, in the Gospel of Thomas's famous ending verse where Jesus says he will make Mary into a male to make her worthy to enter the Kingdom)^[18][9] and accepted the distinctly Greek notion of male and female being two degrees of human being rather than two types (as moderns tend to think of them), with "man" (masculine) being the norm or "natural" state of humanity.^[19] The Gospel of Thomas is a New Testament-era apocryphon completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. ...

It is a matter of controversy whether historical religions held the view assigned to them in The Da Vinci Code of the "sacred feminine." In particular, Brown's equation of goddess worship with gender equality is questionable. For example, as found in Symposium and other Greek works, ancient Greeks believed women played no role in human reproduction; men planted the "seed" of life within the woman, who was likened to a field, and Hesiod's Works and Days contains numerous references to male deities who can reproduce life by themselves. Dan Brown may have been influenced by Neopaganism, which has a high regard for women but may distort the perception of women held by ancient religions. Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means to drink together) but has since come to refer to any academic conference, whether or not drinking takes place. ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... The book Works and Days Works and Days (in ancient Greek , which sometimes goes by the Latin name Opera et Dies, as in the OCT) is a Greek poem of some 800 verses written by Hesiod (around 700 BC). ... Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is any of a heterogeneous group of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by ancient, primarily pre-Christian and sometimes pre-Judaic religions. ...

Goddess worship

Israelites

While a character in the book claims early Israelites worshiped the goddess Shekinah as Yahweh's equal, in fact, the term Shekinah (derived from Hebrew for "dwelling") does not appear in early Judaism at all, but later Talmudic Judaism used it to refer to the God's "dwelling" or presence among his people. The term describes a spiritual radiance.^[20] Critics argue that this comes from a distorted understanding of Kabbalah, which speaks of God as having "male" and "female" attributes in the Sephirot.^[9] Shekhinah (- alternative transliterations Shekinah, Shechinah, Shekina, Shechina, Schechinah, שכינה) is the English spelling of a feminine Hebrew language word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling presence of God, especially in the Temple in Jerusalem. ... For other uses, see Yahweh (disambiguation). ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about traditional Jewish Kabbalah. ... Category:Sephiroth      Sefirah redirects here. ...

Dan Brown may be confusing Shekinah with Asherah, a Semitic mother goddess. Some Biblical archaeologists have suggested that until the 6th century BC the Jewish people had household shrines, or at least figurines, of Asherah, which are strikingly common in the archaeological remains; many of these seem to make clear that Asherah was seen as Yahweh's (i.e. God's) wife ^[21]. However, the views of these people are not accepted by the majority in their respective field,^[22] and the worship of Asherah was opposed by biblical prophets and some kings of Judah. It has been suggested that Asherah pole be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Yahweh (disambiguation). ...

The book also suggests the term Jehovah is an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name of Eve, Havah. YHWH (sometimes rendered Yahweh) is an ancient name while Jehovah is a medieval coinage created by inserting the vowels of Adonai into Yahweh. Neither of these names for God has any connection to the name of Eve, initial letter chet (ח), not hay (ה). The four Hebrew letters that forms the Tetragrammaton (Yud, Hay, Vav, Hay) represent the tenses of the Hebrew word for to be – Quoting Exodus 3:14–15 (King James Version), "And God said unto Moses, "I am that I am [...]". Actually, the phrase in Hebrew is "eh-yeh asher eh-yeh", which in English translation would be "I will be who (or what or that) I will be" as well as "I am who (or what or that) I am." Therefore, The Verb emphasizes God's absolute being. The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Michelangelos Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel. ... The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician (1100 BC to 300 CE), Aramaic (10th Century BC to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts. ... This article is about a reading of the name of God in Hebrew scripture. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... At the bottom of the hands, the two letters on each hand combine to form יהוה (YHWH), the name of God. ... This article is about the second book in the Torah. ...

Non-Abrahamic mythology and religion

The book makes the assertion that the original Olympics were held "as a tribute to the magic of Venus" (Chapter 6), that is, Aphrodite. Although the origins of the Olympic festivals remain in obscurity, it has been well documented that they were religious festivals in honor of Zeus and Pelops, not Aphrodite. In fact, no women were allowed at these events. Ruins of the training grounds at Olympia The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games (Greek: ; Olympiakoi Agones) were a series of athletic competitions held between various city-states of Ancient Greece. ... Marble Venus of the Capitoline Venus type, Roman (British Museum) Venus was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love and beauty, the rough equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, Pelops (Greek Πέλοψ, from pelios: dark; and ops: face, eye) was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic Games, the most important expression of unity, not only for the Peloponnesus, land of Pelops, but for all Hellenes. ...

The book claims that the Egyptian gods Amun and Isis represent a divine couple. In Egyptian (and later, Greco-Roman) mythology, Isis was never the spouse of Amun, but of Osiris (god of the underworld). Amun's spouse was Mut. Dan Brown also misleadingly claims that Amun was the god of masculine fertility, which was in fact Min. Nevertheless, in a late phase of Amun worship, he was merged with Min as Amun-Min. Brown spells the name "Amon", which is a common variant form, though "Amun" is now normative. This is necessary to make the claim that the name forms part of an anagram of "Mona Lisa", however it also raises the question whether Brown intended to refer to the Hellenized version of the cult, in which the name is normally spelled "Ammon". Some of the confusion may come from Margaret Murray's debunked historical claims of secretive European worship of Ammon during the Middle Ages. Murray's theories were a major influence on Wicca. Amun (also spelled Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imen, Greek Ἄμμων Ammon, and Ἅμμων Hammon, Egyptian Yamanu) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt, before fading into obscurity. ... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... A head of Minerva found in the ruins of the Roman baths in Bath Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ... For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Underworld (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Mut (disambiguation). ... The Egyptian God Min This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Amun (also spelled Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imen, Greek Ἄμμων Ammon, and Ἅμμων Hammon, Egyptian Yamanu) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt, before fading into obscurity. ... This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... For other uses, see Wicca (disambiguation). ...

Mary Magdalene

Historians have also disputed the claim that Mary Magdalene was of the tribe of Benjamin. There is no mention of this in the Bible or in other ancient sources.^[23][24] The fact that Magdala was located in northern Israel, whereas the tribe of Benjamin resided in the south, weighs against it.^[9] Furthermore, Paul was a Benjamite but makes no mention of this supposed heritage.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Benjamin (disambiguation). ... Magdala (tower) was a small village in Galilee, which seems to have been the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, in the Christian New Testament. ... For the pre-history of the region, see Pre-history of the Southern Levant. ... Paul of Tarsus (b. ...

In chapter 58 it is suggested that the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene created a "potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne."^[25] This idea comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynastic relations within ancient Israel: While the first King of Israel and Judah, according to 1st Samuel, was indeed Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, both he and his son and heir, Jonathan, were killed at Mt. Gilboa by the Philistines (1st Samuel 31). After Saul, the kingship passed to David of the tribe of Judah, and the kingship of the southern kingdom of Judah remained within the house of David until the Babylonian Captivity. In the northern kingdom of Israel, a new dynasty was established by Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim after the death of David's son, Solomon (1 Kings 14). While the northern kingdom passed through several dynasties, never again did the tribe of Benjamin hold the kingship in either Israel or Judah. If either of the genealogies of Matthew 1 or Luke 3 is to be believed, Jesus would already have had a claim to the throne of Israel through his ties to the house of David (see Genealogy of Jesus); a marriage with one of the tribe of Benjamin would not have strengthened this claim, as the original Benjamite king, Saul, who, though he left direct heirs through his son Jonathan (1 Chronicles 9:40-44), did not found a monarchy with dynastic claims, nor would these claims pass down to Mary Magdalene, as such claims would pass through the firstborn son.^{[citation needed]} This is also at odds with traditional interpretations of a passage from the Gospel of John, where Jesus claims that his kingdom "is not of this world" - usually interpreted to mean a non-political one.^[9] Saul (שאול המלך) (or Shaul) (Hebrew: , Standard  Tiberian  ; asked for) is identified in the Books of Samuel, 1 Chronicles and the Quran as the first king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... This page is about the Biblical king David. ... Babylonian captivity also refers to the permanence of the Avignon Papacy. ... It has been suggested that Sulayman be merged into this article or section. ... Lukes genealogy of Jesus, from the Book of Kells transcribed by Celtic monks circa 800 The genealogy of Jesus through either one or both of his earthly parents (Mary and Joseph) is given by two passages from the Gospels, Matthew 1:2–16 and Luke 3:23–38. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... “Kingdom of Heaven” redirects here. ...

Characters in the book also claim that Mary Magdalene was labeled a prostitute by the Church.^[26] In a sermon, Pope Gregory I did make a connection between figures mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, chapters 7 and 8, one of whom is Mary Magdalene, described as a victim of demonic possession: "Mary who is called Magdalene, out of whom seven devils were gone forth" (Luke 8:2). Gregory equated her with Mary of Bethany and an unnamed female "sinner." Later, Mary was also equated with the "woman taken in adultery" in the Gospel of John, increasingly connecting Mary with sexual sins. While Catholic tradition in the past defended these integrations in contrast to other Christian traditions ^[27], these claims are now rejected by the majority of biblical scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.^[28][29] Also, Gregory I's teaching about Mary Magdalene, though popular throughout much of the Church's history, was never formally integrated into Catholic dogma; nor was he speaking infallibly at the time.^[9] Whatever weight is given to this tradition, however, there is no evidence that it was used to defame Mary, who was considered a saint to whose honor churches were built; moreover, she is respected as a witness to Christ's resurrection as written in the Gospels.^[9] The change from adultery into prostitution arises from Mary's role as patron saint of repentant sinful women^[30] but instead of being a insult reflects on the Christian message of forgiveness of sins. Saint Gregory I, or Gregory the Great (called the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy) (circa 540 - March 12, 604) was pope of the Catholic Church from September 3, 590 until his death. ... The Gospel of Luke (literally, according to Luke; Greek, Κατά Λουκαν, Kata Loukan) is a synoptic Gospel, and the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament. ... Demonic possession, in supernatural belief systems, is a form of spiritual possession whereby certain malevolent extra-dimensional entities, demons, gain control over a mortal persons body, which is then used for an evil or destructive purpose. ... Mary anoints Jesus in Bethany in this icon. ... The Pericope Adulteræ (Latin pronunciation ; English pronunciation ; Latin for the passage of the adulterous woman) is the name traditionally given to verses 7:53–8:11 of the Gospel of John, which describe the attempted stoning by Pharisees of an accused adulterous woman, and Jesus defense of her. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ... In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is the dogma that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error[1] when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals as being contained in divine revelation, or at... Saint Quentin is the patron saint of locksmiths and is also invoked against coughs and sneezes. ...

Mary Magdalene is revered as a saint in France; a cave in the Sainte-Baume mountains of Provence, where she is believed to have lived, is a popular pilgrimage site, and a famous church dedicated to her (known as l'Église de la Madeleine) is in the heart of Paris, near the Place de la Concorde and not very far from the Louvre. Surely Sophie Neveu, a Frenchwoman whose first reaction on hearing her name is "The prostitute?", would know about it. Église de la Madeleine, Paris Léglise de la Madeleine, or Léglise Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (or simply La Madeleine), is a church in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that was designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleons army. ...

Mary in Leonardo's The Last Supper

Virtually all art historians dispute that Leonardo's famous The Last Supper depicts Mary Magdalene beside Jesus.^[31] Since there are twelve disciples (including Judas), one would have to be missing for Mary to be present. The figure to the right of Christ, also wearing blue and red, is usually identified as John the Apostle, who was customarily depicted in the Renaissance period as a beardless, often "effeminate" youth with very long hair.^[32] Some speculators, before and after Brown, have entertained the idea that John was depicted in this way to hint that he was Mary Magdalene, but this is decidedly a minority view.^[33][34] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1988x1016, 367 KB) Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) - The Last Supper (1495-1498) File links The following pages link to this file: The Last Supper (Leonardo) ... The Last Supper (Italian: or LUltima Cena) is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess, Beatrice dEste. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      For other... John the Apostle (Hebrew: Johanan ;Greek Ιωάννης, see names of John) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. ...

Most other depictions of The Last Supper also present a very young John, as it was traditionally believed that he was identical with the Evangelist of the same name. He is usually seated next to Jesus because he was also identified to be the disciple whom Jesus loved. The "femininity" of the figure can be attributed to Leonardo's artistic training in a workshop of the Florentine School, which had a long tradition of often depicting young males as sweet, pretty, rather "effeminate" persons.^[35] Also, in rough sketches of the painting, the person next to Jesus is actually labeled as John.^[36] It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Names of John. ... The phrase disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John. ... The Florentine School refers to artists in, from or influenced by the style developed in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of the world. ...

Even so, the book points out the absence of the traditional chalice (the "Holy Grail") on the table in the painting as proof that Leonardo considered Mary Magdalene the "real" Grail. However, there is no established "tradition" of depicting a chalice in scenes of the Last Supper. Some paintings do depict a chalice. Others portray cups or wine-glasses. Leonardo depicts unadorned glasses filled with red wine. It could be argued that Leonardo eschewed traditional iconography for contemporary realism (compare with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for a similar treatment of the Grail). Chalice For other uses, see Chalice A chalice (from Latin calix, cup) is a goblet intended to hold drink. ... Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, Alison Doody, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies. ...

It has been claimed that the painting does appear to contain a conventional chalice—on a shelf above the head of the leftmost Apostle.^[37] This detail was made visible due to the restoration of the painting. However most art historians consider this to depict decorative panelling on a door.^[38]

The Vatican

In the story, it is repeatedly said that the Vatican was the center of power in the early Catholic Church, including reference to "the Vatican" suppressing Gnostic writings in the 4th century. Until the early Renaissance, the papal palace was in different locations, ranging from the cathedral of St. John Lateran, to Anagni, to Avignon. It was not until the 15th century that there was anything like official power in the vicinity of the Vatican Hill in Rome. In the 4th century, the Vatican was little more than a church and cemetery by the side of the road. Also, St. Peter's is referred to as a cathedral; it is technically a church. St Peter's is the second largest church in the world, and covers 5.7 acres; only the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro is larger. The Pope's Cathedral Church (as it is more correctly called) is St. John Lateran, some distance away from the Vatican. St. Peter's is actually a basilica – a church of pilgrimage, built to house relics, in this case, those of Saint Peter. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Late Baroque façade of the Basilica, completed, after a competition for the design, by Alessandro Galilei in 1735 St. ... Anagni, (Latin Anagnia) is an ancient town in Latium, Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome, famous for its connections with the papacy and for the picturesque monuments of its unspoiled historical center. ... City flag City coat of arms Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur Département Vaucluse (préfecture) Arrondissement Avignon Canton Chief town of 4 cantons Intercommunality Communauté dagglomération du Grand Avignon Mayor Marie-Josée Roig... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Tapestry featuring Vatican Hill (left), circa 1519 Vatican Hill (in Latin, Vaticanus Mons) is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... For other uses, see Cathedral (disambiguation). ... The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, also known as Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix de Yamoussoukro, is a Roman Catholic church in Yamoussoukro, the administrative capital of Côte dIvoire (Ivory Coast). ... The late Baroque façade of the Basilica of St. ... St. ... “St Peter” redirects here. ...

Early Christian history

Characters in the novel suggest that the date of Christmas, the titles "Son of God" and "Light of the World" (the latter applied to Jesus in John, but applied to Jesus' disciples in Matthew), the virgin birth, Jesus' burial in a stone tomb and resurrection three days later were all copied from the pre-Christian devotion to Mithras. It is true that those scholars who apply practices of textual criticism to the books of the Bible believe there was a great deal of give and take of symbols and rituals (in both directions; i.e. paganism was also influenced by Christianity), but the specifics are hard to discern and can be conjectural only. Mithras is said to have been born fully grown out of a stone cave. There is no tradition about him having a mother, or about him dying and being resurrected. is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally, according to Matthew; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον, Kata Maththaion or Kata Matthaion) is a synoptic gospel in the New Testament, one of four canonical gospels. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Look up Resurrection in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section contains too much jargon and may need simplification or further explanation. ...

It is stated that Christians observed the Sabbath on Saturday until Constantine I changed the day to Sunday to syncretize it with the pagan veneration of the Sun. In the book of Acts it is written that Jesus's followers "gathered to break bread" on a Sunday^[39], and Paul instructs the Corinthians to put aside money every Sunday^[40]. On the other hand many Christians did continue to observe the Jewish Sabbath for centuries. For other uses, see Sabbath. ... Head of Constantines colossal statue at Musei Capitolini Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[1] (February 27, 272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic[2] Christians) Saint Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on... Sol redirects here. ...

In the story, a character claims that the label "heretic" was used only after the Nicene Council, in order to persecute Gnostics. In fact, Irenaeus used the term "heresy" to label Gnostic teachings in the second century, long before the Church had any political power to persecute anyone. Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge... Irenaeus (Greek: Εἰρηναῖος), (b. ...

The Bible

Brown is inaccurate in asserting that Constantine collated the present biblical canon and ordered the burning of the non-canonical Gospels, while editing others to suit his purposes. The Emperor exiled Arius and burned his works for his view that Jesus was a created being, divine but less than God the Father, but Arius did not write any "Gospels." Furthermore, Arianism did not call for the acceptance of Gnosticism or its Gospels. However, the Church hierarchy did attack various Gnostic teachings over history. A biblical canon is a list of Biblical books which establishes the set of books which are considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular Jewish or Christian community. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Arius (AD/CE 256 - 336, poss. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      This article... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

The book's claim of the Gospels being systematically edited after the First Council of Nicaea is false, because of the impossible task of tracking down thousands of copies going around the Christian world (there was no "master registry" of Gospel manuscripts). There have been older pre-Nicene copies of the Gospel found to match post-Nicene ones.^[41] The attitude that Brown has towards pre-Nicean Christians is that "until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet … a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless." There are multiple passages in the New Testament that may be interpreted to mean that Jesus considered himself divine and was held to be thus by his followers.^[9] For example, the Gospel of John has the Apostle Thomas say "My Lord and my God" in Jesus's presence, and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8:6: "Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ." The official Church canon was not decreed by Constantine; indeed, debate about the inclusion of the Apocrypha or deuterocanonical books continued after his time. The Council of Nicaea did not debate the canonical books, but about the relationship between Jesus and God. Constantine had very limited say in the Council. The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first Ecumenical council[1] of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ... (Redirected from 1 Corinthians) See also: Second Epistle to the Corinthians and Third Epistle to the Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. ...

The book also claims that the Gnostic Gospels (e.g. the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene, and the recently rediscovered Judas) are far older, less corrupted, and more accurate than the four included in the Bible. With the possible exception of Thomas, the other Gospels date from the 2nd Century through the 4th Century, while the canonical four are thought by most scholars to date from the 1st Century or early 2nd Century.^[42] Gnostic Gospels also do not focus more on Jesus' humanity. The other Gospels we are aware of, for the most part, treat Jesus as more otherworldly and lack the humanizing detail of the Biblical accounts.^[9] The assertion of "more than eighty gospels" written, with only the familiar four chosen as canonical, greatly exaggerates the number of Gnostic Gospels written.^[9][8] There were indeed many Gnostic writings, but only a few claimed to be Gospels. Some of these so-called Gospels are only so called by some writers today. To these writers is also attributable the false identification of the writer of the Gnostic Gospel of Mary as Mary Magdalene. It is in fact not claimed within the work or by historical tradition that Mary Magdalene wrote that short work. The Gnostic Gospels are a class of writings about the life of Jesus which are associated with the early mystical trend of Gnostic Christianity. ... The Gospel of Thomas is a New Testament-era apocryphon completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. ... The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers until it was rediscovered by accident in the mid-20th century. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... The 1st century was that century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Gregorian calendar. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

The assertions that the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, contain lost or hidden Gospels is also false. The scrolls contain books of the Hebrew Scriptures, apocryphal and pseudepigraphic books, and manuals used by the Jewish Essene community at Qumran. All of the scrolls were written before the time of Christ; no Christian documents—orthodox, Gnostic, or otherwise—have ever been found at this site.^[9] The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. ... 11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum Hebrew Bible refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian canons. ... In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ... Pseudepigrapha (from the Greek words pseudos = lie and epigrapho = write) is a text or a number of texts whose claimed authorship or authenticity is incorrect. ... The Essenes (Issiim) were a Jewish religious sect of Zadokites that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. The name Essene, itself, is either a version of the Greek word for Holy, or various Aramaic dialect words for pious, and is probably not what the... Qumran (Hebrew:חירבת קומראן Khirbet Qumran) is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. ...

Opus Dei

The depiction of Opus Dei as a monastic order which is the Pope's "personal prelature" is inaccurate. In fact, there are no monks in Opus Dei, which has primarily lay membership and whose celibate lay members are called numeraries. Moreover, Opus Dei encourages its lay members to avoid practices that are perceived as fundamentalist to the outside world. The term personal prelature does not refer to a special relationship to the Pope; it means an institution in which the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a territory but over persons, wherever they be.^[9] For other uses, see Opus Dei (disambiguation). ... Numerary is a civil designation for persons who are incorporated in a fixed or permanent way to a society or group: regular member of the working staff; permanent staff or member; distinguished from a supernumerary. ... A prelate is a member of the clergy having a special canonical jurisdiction over a territory or a group of people; usually, a prelate is a bishop. ...

Silas, the murderous "Opus Dei monk", uses a cilice and flagellates himself. Some members of Opus Dei do practice voluntary mortification of the flesh, as has been a Christian tradition since at least St. Anthony in the 3rd century and has also been practised by Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, and slain archbishop Óscar Romero.^[43] Critics charge Brown of greatly sensationalizing the practice of such mortifications and exaggerating the extent of their practice. It is impossible to gain the kind of wounds Silas is described as having from a normal cilice. Paul Bettany as Silas. ... It has been suggested that hairshirt be merged into this article or section. ... Flagellants mortifying the flesh, at the time of the Black Death Mortification of the flesh literally means putting the flesh to death. The term is primarily used in religious and spiritual contexts. ... For the 13th century saint, see Saint Anthony of Padua. ... // Overview Events 212: Constitutio Antoniniana grants citizenship to all free Roman men 212-216: Baths of Caracalla 230-232: Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east 235-284: Crisis of the Third Century shakes Roman Empire 250-538: Kofun era, the first... Mother Teresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu IPA: ) (August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997) was a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. ... Pater Pio Saint Pater Pio (or Padre Pio) (May 25, 1887 - September 23, 1968) was an Italian priest who had stigmata for many years. ... Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980), commonly known as Monseñor Romero, was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. ...

The book depicts the society as misogynistic, a claim which its defenders say has no basis in reality, because half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei are held by women.^[43][44]

Defenders also say that the novel's allegations of dealings between John Paul II and the society concerning the Vatican Bank also have no basis in reality. Allegedly due to these dealings, Opus Dei's founder was declared a Saint just 20 years after his death. In real life, Josemaría Escrivá was canonized 27 years after his death; admittedly faster than some others—but this is attributed to streamlining of the whole process and John Paul II's decision to make Escriva's sanctity and message known.^[43] Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (Thursday, January 9, 1902 – Thursday, June 26, 1975) (also known as Jose María or Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás, born José María Mariano Escriba Albás) was a Spanish Catholic priest and founder of the Prelature of the Holy... Official papal image of John Paul II. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, né Karol Józef Wojtyła (born May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland), is the current Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. ...

In the novel, the head of Opus Dei travels alone and makes momentous decisions on his own. In real life, the head of Opus Dei is usually accompanied by two other priests called custodes or guardians. Decision-making in Opus Dei is "collegial": i.e., the head has only one vote.^[43]

A part of the book's acknowledgments page is dedicated to five sources within Opus Dei itself, three active members and two former members. The Opus Dei Information Office though has asserted that Dan Brown never interviewed any active member of Opus Dei.^[45] Also, the Opus Dei Awareness Network's website is brought up within the narrative. This may indicate their web pages have been used as research source for the novels.

Historical disputes

"The reality of Dan Brown's research is that it is superficial... Mr Brown knew very little about how the historical background was researched." Mr Justice Smith, April 2006 This article is about the author. ... Peter Smith is a British jurist serving on the High Court of Justice who has presided over several prominent cases. ...

Leonardo da Vinci

The contention that the "Mona Lisa" was painted by Leonardo as a self-portrait is disputed. Mona Lisa's historical identity is unknown, but the majority opinion is that the painting depicts Lisa del Giocondo, a family friend of Leonardo's. However, Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs, and Digby Quested of the Maudsley Hospital in London used "morphing" techniques to argue that the resemblance to Leonardo's alleged self-portrait is striking. As for the claim that the title "Mona Lisa" is a coded reference to the Egyptian gods Amon and Isis, this title was not applied to the painting until the nineteenth century. "Mona" is a contraction of "madonna" (meaning 'my lady' or 'madam'); "Lisa" is commonly identified with Lisa Gherardini. It is also known as "La Gioconda" in Italian (Gherardini's married surname). For other uses, see Mona Lisa (disambiguation). ... Lisa del Giocondo (June 15, 1479–July 15, 1542 or c. ... Lillian Schwartz, an American artist, is known for some of the first use of computers in computer developed art. ... 3 Frames from a morph from George W. Bush to Arnold Schwarzenegger showing the mid-point between the two extremes Morphing is a special effect in motion pictures and animations that changes (or morphs) one image into another through a seamless transition. ... Amon can refer to: Amun, Egyptian god, also known sometimes as Amon Amon, god of rage Amon (demon) Amon (Formula One team) Deicide (band), formerly called Amon Amon, one of the four Sinsitrals and main villains of Lufia Amon, mountain in Sindarin, an artificial language by J. R. R. Tolkien... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ...

The Last Supper was a commission and was the wall of a dining room in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.^[46] The notion of the Last Supper showing Mary Magdalene instead of John on the right of Jesus, and the connected claim of the absence of the chalice from the painting, are disputed for a few reasons, which have already been covered above. The Last Supper (Italian: or LUltima Cena) is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess, Beatrice dEste. ... This article is about the controversies regarding the novel. ...

There is no evidence for the contention that the first version of Leonardo's The Virgin of the Rocks was rejected by the church because of its heretical content. There is, however, evidence for a lengthy legal dispute over payments and expenses. The painting by Leonardo da Vinci The Virgin of the Rocks or The Madonna of the Rocks is a term used to describe one of two different paintings. ...

The book matter-of-factly states that Leonardo da Vinci was a "flamboyant homosexual." While there are clues about Leonardo's personal life that strongly suggest that he was homosexual, it is not conclusively known to be a fact, nor do scholars agree upon this. If Leonardo was homosexual, he must have been rather discreet and certainly not flamboyant.^[9] Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ...

The Knights Templar

Main article: Knights Templar

See also: Knights Templar legends

The claim that the Order of the Knights Templar was formed by the Priory of Sion is false. It is generally accepted that the Priory of Sion was a hoax which was started in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard. The Templars were founded in the early 12th century by Hugh of Payens, a French nobleman who was a veteran of the First Crusade. For other uses, see Knights Templar (disambiguation). ... Main article: Knights Templar The secrecy around the powerful medieval Order of the Knights Templar, and the speed with which they suddenly disappeared over the space of a few years, has led to many different Knights Templar legends. ... For other uses, see Knights Templar (disambiguation). ... Prieuré de Sion, usually rendered in English translation as Priory of Sion or even Priory of Zion, is an elusive protagonist in many works of both non-fiction and fiction. ... Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard (born March 18, 1920, died February 3, 2000) was the principal figure associated with the known history of the Priory of Sion, and is widely believed to have been the main creator of many of the claims about the Priorys supposed past history that later... Hugues de Payens (English: Hugh of Payens) (c. ... Combatants Christendom, Catholicism West European Christians, Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia Seljuks, Arabs and other Muslims The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II with the dual goals of destroying the peaceful Islamic civilizations and confirming the barbaric nature of European society. ...

The suggestion that all churches used by the Knights Templar were built round, and that roundness was considered an insult by the Church is false. Some churches used by the Templars were not round, and those that were round were so in tribute to the architecture already in place where the Templars had their headquarters in Jerusalem, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In fact, there are quite a number of round churches, including the famous Round Church in Cambridge and the Peterskirche in Vienna. The city of Rome itself boasts a good number of round churches, among them Sant'Andrea al Quirinale and San Bernardo alle Terme, Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, and Bramante's Tempietto, built on the site of the Apostle Peter's crucifixion at the church of San Pietro in Montorio. For other uses, see Knights Templar (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... The Dome of the Rock in the center of the Temple Mount, or Mount Moriah The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: , translit. ... The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called the Church of the Resurrection (Greek: Ναός της Αναστάσεως, Naos tis Anastaseos; Georgian: აგდგომის ტადზარი Agdgomis Tadzari; Armenian: Surp Harutyun) by Eastern Christians, is a Christian church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. ... This article is about the city in England. ... Peterskirche, as seen from Graben View of the altar Baroque pulpit The Peterskirche (English: ) in Vienna is a church with a long and eventful history. ... For other uses, see Vienna (disambiguation). ... SantAndrea al Quirinale (St. ... Facade of San Bernardo. ... Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 – March 11, 1514) was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St. ... Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 - March 11, 1514), Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St. ... 200pxTempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502: the High Renaissance began here. ...

The statement that the Templars' initial headquarters was "a stable under the ruins" is false. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave them quarters in a wing of the royal palace on the southeastern portion of the Temple Mount platform, in the Al Aqsa Mosque. Baldwin of Bourcq (died August 21, 1131) was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. ... The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is not to be confused with the Dome of the Rock The Al-Aqsa Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الاقصى, Masjid Al-Aqsa, literally farthest mosque) is part of the complex of religious buildings in Jerusalem...

One of the cryptex clues claims that the Knights Templar worshiped a pre-Christian fertility god (a "Horned God") named Baphomet. However, this is from a list of trumped-up charges that were generated during the Templars' trial by Inquisitors. Most of the 100-odd charges were complete fabrications generated by King Philip IV of France, in his effort to disband the Templars over a financial dispute in the early 1300s. The only Templars who "confessed" did so under torture, and then tended to recant once the torture ceased. The word Baphomet that appeared in Templar inquisition documents was probably a misspelling of the name "Mahomet", an Old French form of "Mohammed". The image of the "horned god" did not become associated with the name Baphomet until the 19th century, when the name began to be associated with Satanism. The Pashupati-like figure on the Gundestrup cauldron The Horned God is a modern syncretic term, invented to link together numerous male nature gods out of such widely-dispersed and historically unconnected mythologies as the Celtic Cernunnos, the Welsh Caerwiden, the English Herne the Hunter, the Hindu Pashupati, the Greek... Baphomet, by Eliphas Lévi. ... “Philip the Fair” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ... For other people named Muhammad, see Muhammad (disambiguation). ...

The allegation that the legend of Friday the 13th started with the arrest of the Templars in France on October 13, 1307 is false. Though it is true that the arrests occurred on a Friday that was the 13th, there is no credible evidence for the existence of a superstition about Friday the 13th existing before the early 1900s. For the series of slasher films, see Friday the 13th (series). ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The claim that Rosslyn Chapel was built by the Knights Templar is false. It was actually founded by Sir William St Clair, third Earl of Orkney and Lord of Rosslyn. Furthermore, its construction began in 1470, long after the Knights were suppressed. The Templar Order was dissolved in 1312, with the majority of its assets being transferred to another Order at the time, the Knights Hospitaller. Rosslyn Chapel. ... For other uses, see Knights Templar (disambiguation). ... William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, 3rd Earl of Orkney(until 1470), Baron of Roslin (1410-1484) was a Scottish nobleman and the builder of Rosslyn Chapel. ... Baron Vassiliev, a 19th-century Knight Commander The Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, Knights of Malta, Knights of Rhodes, and Chevaliers of Malta) was an organization that began as an Amalfitan hospital founded in Jerusalem in 1080...

The theory that Gothic architecture was designed by the Templars to record the secret of the sacred feminine is false. Historians note that Templars were not involved with European cathedrals of the time, which were generally commissioned by their own bishops. The Templars were actually very misogynistic, and their Rule forbid them from touching any women, even those in their own family. "The company of women is a dangerous thing, for by it the old devil has led many from the straight path to Paradise". ^[47] Interior of Cologne Cathedral Interior of San Zanipolo, Venice, photo Giovanni dallOrto. ... This is a list of cathedrals around the world, including both actual cathedrals (seats of bishops in episcopal denominations, such as Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Orthodoxy) and a few prominent churches from non-episcopal denominations that have the word cathedral in their names. ...

There are some who claim that the Templars were related to Freemasons, or who depict the Templars as builders, guild-founders and secret-bearers. However, this is demonstrably incorrect. The Templars were a warrior order, and did not themselves engage in building projects—except for castles—or found guilds for masons. The claim has been made that the Templars were largely illiterate men unlikely to know "sacred geometry," purportedly handed down from the pyramids' builders. Helen Nicholson points to membership information of the Templars and other documentary evidence that shows beyond all question that the purpose of the Templars was to defend the Holy Land, protect pilgrims visiting Jerusalem or other holy sites, defend Christendom against the Muslims, and to raise money for the paying and manning of castles in those war-torn regions in order to have bases from which to carry out sorties against the Saracens, to provide centres of authority and protection in regions where there was no central authority, and to provide a place of safety for Christians travelling far from home.^[48] American Square & Compasses Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization. ... A guild is an association of craftspeople in a particular trade. ... For other uses, see Castle (disambiguation). ... The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ... All Giza Pyramids Map of Giza pyramid complex. ... For the rugby club Saracens see Saracens (rugby club) The term Saracen comes from Greek sarakenoi. ...

The allegation that Pope Clement V burned the ashes of the Templars and threw them into the Tiber River in Rome is false. The last leaders of the Knights Templar were killed in France in 1314 by King Philip IV of France, being burned at the stake on a small island in the Seine. Pope Clement's administration was not even in Rome—he had moved the papacy to Avignon.^[9] Clement V, born Bertrand de Goth (also occasionally spelled Gouth and Got) (1264 – April 20, 1314), was Pope from 1305 to his death. ... Tiber River in Rome The River Tiber (Italian Tevere), the third longest river in Italy (disputed — see talk page) at 406 km (252 miles) after the Po and the Adige, flows through the Campagna and Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches... Events June 24 - Battle of Bannockburn. ... “Philip the Fair” redirects here. ... This article is about the river in France. ... City flag City coat of arms Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur Département Vaucluse (préfecture) Arrondissement Avignon Canton Chief town of 4 cantons Intercommunality Communauté dagglomération du Grand Avignon Mayor Marie-Josée Roig...

The claim that the Templars gained power because of something they excavated in Jerusalem is false. They gained power because they had the firm support of the leading churchman of the time, Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, who was also a nephew of one of the original nine knights. He wrote a powerful treatise called "In Praise of the New Knighthood", and spoke on their behalf at the Council of Troyes in 1129 (nine years after the Order's founding). It was at that council that the Order was officially recognized and confirmed. With the formal approval, the Order became a favored charity across Europe, and received large donations from families who were eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. The Templars were able to send money long distances, using negotiable instruments, without hauling or guarding large chests of gold. Bernard of Clairvaux, in a medieval illuminated manuscript. ... There have been a number of councils held at Troyes: 867 - proclaimed that no bishop could be disposed without reference to Holy See 1128 - convened by Pope Honorius II: recognized and confirmed the Order of the Knights Templar solved disputes involving the Bishop of Paris Categories: Stub ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Holy Land (Biblical). ... A negotiable instrument is a specialized type of contract which obligates a party to pay a certain sum of money on specified terms. ...

The Priory of Sion

Main article: The Priory of Sion in the Da Vinci Code

The portrayal of the Priory of Sion as an ancient organization connected to goddess-worship is incorrect: The actual "Priory of Sion" was founded in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, Andre Bonhomme and others, not in 1099 as claimed in the book, and it was named after a mountain in France, not the biblical Mount Zion. Les Dossiers Secrets was a forgery created by Philippe de Cherisey for Plantard. Plantard, under oath, eventually admitted that the whole thing was fabricated.^[49] There is evidence of a Templar-era monastic order by the name Abbey of Sion (not Priory), but there are no records of its continued existence beyond the 12th century, at which time the monks from the destroyed church belonging to the Abbey moved to Sicily. In 1617, those remaining monks became absorbed into the Jesuit Order. Some confusion may also be due to the use of the moniker to describe the Rosicrucian brotherhood, who may have been the focus of earlier ideas about a secretive, long-lasting secret society. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Prieuré de Sion, usually rendered in English translation as Priory of Sion or even Priory of Zion, is an elusive protagonist in many works of both non-fiction and fiction. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard (born March 18, 1920, died February 3, 2000) was the principal figure associated with the known history of the Priory of Sion, and is widely believed to have been the main creator of many of the claims about the Priorys supposed past history that later... 1099 also refers to a United States tax form used for, among other purposes, reporting payments made to independent Contractors. ... Mount Zion (Hebrew: ‎ transliteration: Har Tziyyon - Height) is the ancient name of a mountain in jerusalem southe of the old city. ... Philippe de Cherisey (1925 – 1985) was a French writer and radio humorist, he was also an actor who worked under the name of Amédée (with Jeux interdits,1952, being the most notable film that he appeared in). ... The Temple of the Rose Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618. ...

The Holy Grail and The Holy Blood

Main article: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

The legend of the Holy Grail alleged that a sacred relic (in many versions, either the cup used at the Last Supper, or the cup said to have been used by Joseph of Arimathea to collect blood of Christ - or both) existed, which would bring untold blessings to any pure knight who found it. The story appeared around the time of the Crusades and is featured in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In Old French, the Holy Grail was written as San Graal. However The Da Vinci Code, taking cues from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, interprets this as "Sang Real" and translated this as "royal blood". However the true French form of "royal blood" is le sang royal. In early Grail romances, graal in fact denotes a large dish for fish, itself a Christian religious symbol, but clearly removed from the traditional cup. The idea of a cup seems to have developed quickly during the late 12th and early 13th centuries, influenced both by apocryphal religious stories, such as that of Joseph of Arimathea, and pagan stories involving magic containers that, for example, produced endless food (itself a useful parallel to the Christian belief of the 'Bread of Life' produced at the Last Supper). The cup therefore presented a convenient fusion, like many of the stories we now associate with the Quest for the Holy Grail and King Arthur, of (albeit apocryphal) Christian teachings, and pagan traditions. ^[9] There is no evidence that the Knights Templar found any such thing under the Temple. Book cover of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail 2005 illustrated hardcover edition. ... For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... Joseph of Arimathea by Pietro Perugino. ... Sir Thomas Malory (c. ... The Last Sleep of Arthur by Edward Burne-Jones Le Morte dArthur (spelled Le Morte Darthur in the first printing and also in some modern editions, Middle French for la mort dArthur, the death of Arthur) is Sir Thomas Malorys compilation of some French and English Arthurian...

France

The Last Temptation of Christ

Teabing claims that the French government banned the film version of The Last Temptation of Christ. In fact, only the shooting of the film was banned. The film was shot entirely in Morocco, which is reasonable, because most of it takes place in the desert and in ancient Jerusalem, a desert city. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ...

Paris

Several claims about the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris are disputed. While there is a brass line running north-south through the church, it is not a part of the Paris Meridian, which passes about 100 metres east of it. The line is instead more of a gnomon or sundial/calendar, meant to mark the solstice and equinoxes. Further, there is no evidence that there was ever a temple of Isis on the site. This note has been on display in the church: The interior of the Church Saint-Sulpice () is a famous Parisian church on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the VIe arrondissement. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Meridian Room (or Cassini Room) at the Paris Observatory. ... The cantilever spar of this cable-stay bridge, the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, forms the gnomon of a large garden sundial The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. ... “Summer solstice” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Equinox (disambiguation). ... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ...

Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this [the line in the floor] is not a vestige of a pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in this place. It was never called a Rose-Line. It does not coincide with the meridian traced through the middle of the Paris Observatory which serves as a reference for maps where longitudes are measured in degrees East or West of Paris. Please also note that the letters P and S in the small round windows at both ends of the transept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church, and not an imaginary Priory of Sion.^[50] On the earth, a meridian is a north-south line between the North Pole and the South Pole. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The reference to Paris having been founded by the Merovingians (Chapter 55) is false; in fact, the city was settled by Gauls by the 3rd Century BC. The Romans, who knew it as Lutetia, captured it in 52 BC under Julius Caesar, and left substantial ruins in the city, including an amphitheater and public baths. The Merovingians did not rule in France until the 6th century AD, by which time Paris was at least 800 years old.^[9] For other uses, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ... Gallia (in English Gaul) is the Latin name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. ... The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... Lutetia (sometimes Lutetia Parisiorum or Lucotecia, in French Lutèce) was a town in pre-Roman and Roman Gaul. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC - 50s BC - 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC Years: 57 BC 56 BC 55 BC 54 BC 53 BC 52 BC 51 BC 50 BC 49... For other uses, see Julius Caesar (disambiguation). ... The Arènes de Lutèce are some of the only remaining ruins from the Gallo-Roman era in Paris (formerly known as Lutèce in French or Lutetia in Latin), along with the remains of the public baths at Cluny. ... The Musée de Cluny, officially known as Musée National du Moyen Âge, is a museum in Paris, France, which houses a variety of important artifacts dating to the Middle Ages. ... The 6th century is the period from 501 - 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

The book states that at the explicit demand of French President François Mitterrand, the Louvre Pyramid in Paris was constructed with 666 panes of glass. According to GlassWeb, the pyramid contains 603 diamond-shaped and 70 triangular panes of glass, totalling 673.   IPA: (October 26, 1916 – January 8, 1996) served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party (PS). ... The large glass pyramid of le musée du Louvre The Louvre Pyramid is a large metal and glass pyramid which serves as the main entrance to the Musée du Louvre and has become a landmark for the city of Paris. ...

The novel claims that the top of the Centre Pompidou can be seen from the Arc du Carrousel (chapter 3). This is incorrect. The Pompidou Centres famous external skeleton of service pipes. ... The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is a triumphal arch in Paris, France. ...

The book erroneously places Versailles to the north-west of Paris, when actually it is approximately 25 kilometres west-south-west of Paris city centre. This article is about the city of Versailles. ...

Jacques Saunière is sporadically described as "the curator of the Louvre." Actually the Louvre has eight departments, each with a chief curator (conservateur en chef) and several subordinate curators. They are all civil servants (fonctionnaires), so that they cannot work, as Saunière is described as doing, at the post-retirement age of seventy-six. This is a list of characters from Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code. ... This article is about the museum. ... A curator of a cultural heritage institution (e. ... The Roman civil service in action. ... Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. ...

Language

In Chapter 48, Langdon, who doesn't know French, asks Sophie Neveu if her grandfather had ever spoken to her of something called la clef de voûte, to which she replies "The key to the vault?" Langdon then tries to explain to her about the architectural meaning. But clef de voûte is very commonly used in French, both in the literal, architectural sense of keystone (and keystones are readily visible all over France in arched doorways and other arches, such as the Arc de Triomphe and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, both of which figure in the book) and in the figurative sense of the central point of a theory or system. Moreover, clef de voûte cannot possibly mean "key to the vault" since voûte is not the French term for a bank vault. In architecture, a keystone is the stone at the top of an arch. ... This article is about the monument in Paris. ... The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel ( ) is a triumphal arch in Paris, France. ...

Education

The banker André Vernet is described as a graduate of a prep school and the Sorbonne, probably in an attempt to indicate his elite education.

However, this is not how the French educational system actually works. It is twofold, composed mainly of Grandes Ecoles ("Great Schools") and universities. The grandes écoles (French for great schools) of France are higher education establishments outside of the mainstream framework of the public universities. ...

Elites stem out of the Grandes Ecoles, in which the studies last on average three years. Prior to those, French students have to take nationwide examinations: top-graded students can enter the best schools, others (in decreasing order of ranking to the examination) have to take what remains available. To be specifically prepared to those examinations, French students study in the classes préparatoires for on average two to three years. The term can roughly be translated as "prep school". One does not graduate from classes préparatoires: if one fails to enter a school (or a school one thinks is good enough for oneself), one doesn't get any degree. Graduation comes at the end of the Grande Ecole. The grandes écoles (French for great schools) of France are higher education establishments outside of the mainstream framework of the public universities. ... The grandes écoles (French for great schools) of France are higher education establishments outside of the mainstream framework of the public universities. ...

The Sorbonne, despite its historical fame, is in French terms "merely" a university (actually, three Paris universities share the name—Paris I, III and IV). Although universities can be very good in specific fields, "mainstream" education (business, engineering, etc.) is better in the grandes écoles. For the film released in 2004, see Grande École (film). ...

André Vernet's education, as described in the novel would mean that he failed the grandes écoles exams at the end of prep school and afterwards attended the Sorbonne. This is not considered an elite education. This may not even be possible. For the film released in 2004, see Grande École (film). ...

European geography

The book's storyline that the "Albino Monk" was arrested in France, imprisoned in Andorra, and escaped to Spain, demonstrates the lack of basic research that would be gleaned from a quick glance at a map or tourist guide. It is improbable that someone arrested along the French coast would be imprisoned in another country (in this case Andorra, which is a sovereign state and several hundred kilometers away, up in the Pyrenean mountains). Pic de Bugatetin the Néouvielle Natural Reserve Central Pyrenees For the mountains in Victoria, Australia, see Pyrenees (Victoria). ...

Later in the book, Silas escapes from the prison due to a strong earthquake (although Andorra is not a particularly seismically active region), takes a train and travels for 3 days until he reaches "a village" in which a missionary-bishop (Aringarosa) gives him refuge. The village turns out to be Oviedo, in which Silas lives for a few years and helps Aringarosa to build a new church. This is inaccurate, because the actual Oviedo is a relatively rich city of around 200,000 inhabitants, and one of the economic, industrial and cultural centers of Asturias, in northern Spain. It is impossible to arrive there by train from Andorra, as Andorra has no train line. Moreover, it is hard to believe that the bishop of Oviedo (actually an archbishop) lives in an unfinished church rather than the city's 16th century Archbishop's Palace. An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Anthem: Asturias, patria querida Capital Oviedo Official language(s) Spanish; Asturian has special status Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 10th  10,604 km²  2. ... In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ...

In chapter 93, a police officer telephones the Opus Dei Centre in London. "This is the London police," he says. This body of officers does not exist and is never referred to as such. Law and order in the capital is the business of the Metropolitan police and the City of London Police. (The latter has jurisdiction only in the relatively small City of London, the banking district of London.) For other uses, see Opus Dei (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Metropolitan Police redirects here. ... City Police Mounted Section officer The City of London Police is the Home Office police force responsible for the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temple. ... Motto: Domine dirige nos Latin: Lord, guide us Shown within Greater London Sovereign state Constituent country Region Greater London Status City and Ceremonial County Admin HQ Guildhall Government  - Leadership see text  - Mayor John Stuttard  - MP Mark Field  - London Assembly John Biggs Area  - City  1. ...

After the scene in the Temple Church, London, the heroes of the story take the tube from Temple Station to King's College London. In fact, King's is only one block farther from the Temple Church than Temple Station, and any tube journey would have carried them further away from the College. For other uses, see Kings College. ...

The Chapter House at Westminster Abbey is described as "overlooking" College Gardens. This appears to be true from a guide-book plan, but in fact the windows of the Chapter House are above head height and made of stained glass, which is translucent but not transparent. What one sees in a stained-glass window is the scene painted on it, not the city beyond it. The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ...

At the start of chapter 104, (Rosslyn Chapel), Brown states "The chapel's geographic coordinates fall precisely on the north-south meridian that runs through Glastonbury". This statement is incorrect: Rosslyn Chapel lies on longitude 3:07:13 west and Glastonbury Tor 2:42:05 west. Brown appears to have confused geographic north with magnetic north. Much significance has been placed on a statement that lodestones placed at each location will point at each other. Rosslyn Chapel currently lies within 1 degree of magnetic north of Glastonbury (the magnetic pole moves over time). However, with this level of accuracy, Rosslyn Chapel could lie anywhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which are 74 km (46 miles) apart, and the statement would still hold. Rosslyn Chapel. ... Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry spot on the Somerset Levels, 50km (31 miles) south of Bristol. ... Longitude is the east-west geographic coordinate measurement most commonly utilized in cartography and global navigation. ... Glastonbury Tor is a teardrop-shaped hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, with its only standing architectural feature the roofless St Michaels Tower of the former church. ... True north is a navigational term referring to the direction of the North Pole relative to the navigators position. ... This is about the geographic meaning of North Pole. ... Magnetite Lodestone or loadstone refers to either: Magnetite, a magnetic mineral form of iron(II), iron(III) oxide Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides. ... This is about the geographic meaning of North Pole. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Edinburgh (disambiguation). ...

Dan Brown writes that there is a flight above Portugal, approximately 500 miles away from Paris. This is barely possible: the northern edge of Portugal is approximately 500 mi from Paris. This article is about the capital of France. ...

Scientific disputes

Astronomy

Venus is depicted as visible in the east shortly after sunset (Chapter 105), which is an astronomical impossibility. This was corrected to "west" in some later editions, such as the 28th printing of the British paperback, ISBN 0-552-14951-9 and apparently current printings of the US hardback.^[51] (*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ...

Brown characterized the cycle of Venus as "trac[ing] a perfect pentacle across the ecliptic sky every four years", but Venus completes five cycles in eight years,^[52] a fact well-known to the ancient Greeks and Mayans. This was changed to "eight years" in some later editions, such as the British paperback and at least the April 2003 printing of the US hardback.^[53] A pentacle or pantacle is an amulet, generally made of parchment, paper or metal (although it can be of other materials), on which the symbol of a spirit being evoked is drawn. ... The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ... This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ...

Technology and engineering

The Beechcraft Baron 58 is referred to as a turboprop. In fact, this aircraft is powered by two 300 hp Continental piston engines. Beechcraft model 58 Baron Beechcraft Baron BE55 The Beechcraft Baron is a light-medium twin-engine piston aircraft originally developed by Beech Aircraft Corporation and currently manufactured by the Beechcraft Division of Raytheon Aircraft. ... A schematic diagram showing the operation of a turboprop engine. ... Continental may refer to: The adjective of continent, such as in continental Europe, continental breakfast, or continental climate, or Continental Glacier; The culture of the continental nation states of Europe, inasmuch as it contrasts with the culture of Anglo-Saxon England; The Lincoln Continental, a car made by Lincoln division...

A GPS tracking device cannot work inside a heavily walled building. A GPS antenna needs a clear view of at least a portion of the sky for satellite signal reception. The wavelength of the carrier wave (about 20 cm) would make the button-size receiver (antenna) impractical (very inefficient). The GPS receiver described in the book is, however, also a transmitter. If so, then the tracking could have been done using the transmitted signal alone, without the GPS circuitry. Traditionally, radio transmitters are located by triangulation between two receivers with directional antennas. One points each directional antenna in the direction with the strongest signal, then plots them on a map: where the two paths cross is where the transmitter is. This is easily done if the transmitter is not moving quickly; for a car or an airplane, GPS tracking would be better. Furthermore, the device could then easily contain a microphone, which would have been much more useful in the situation described, and—unlike the GPS device in the book—it is technically feasible. Triangulation can be used to find the distance from the shore to the ship. ...

A plane flying from New York to Rome would not fly over Portugal. Planes don't fly along straight lines on a Mercator map (which would intersect Portugal). Instead, planes fly (and ships sail) along great circles, which (over such long east-west distances) take them much further north.^[54] Furthermore, a cell phone would not work inside a plane at cruise altitude (typically above 35,000 ft at such a late stage of the flight). The Mercator projection of the world up to a latitude of 86° N and S The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection devised by Gerardus Mercator in 1569. ... A great circle is a circle on the surface of a sphere that has the same diameter as the sphere, dividing the sphere into two equal hemispheres. ...

When the taxi driver pulls over in the Bois de Boulogne, he is said to put the car "in park." Minutes later, when Langdon climbs into the front seat, he struggles with the clutch and stickshift. Manual transmission cars do not have a "park" gear. Automatic-transmission cars do not have a clutch. It is possible that Brown meant to say that the driver engaged the parking brake, which could have caused a similar problem for Langdon. The upper lake, with rowboats The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16ème arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. ...

Genealogy

The notion that any particular person living today could be descended from a small number of ancestors, such as Jesus and Mary, who lived millenia ago is statistically flawed. As Steve Olson, author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, explained in an article in Nature, from a statistical perspective, "[i]f anyone living today is descended from Jesus, so are most of us on the planet."^[55]

Miscellaneous

The allegation that "the Church burned at the stake five million women" as witches has been a problem for many critics because data does not exist to permit an estimate. Reports have ranged from between the extremely high figures of 9 million and extremely low figures of mere hundreds, both of which have been vigorously challenged. More considered estimates range between 40,000 and 60,000 (of which 20 percent were men). Witch trials were mostly carried out by secular courts, and not by the Catholic Church. Witch burnings were much more prevalent in later Protestant denominations. The witch hunts were not an organized policy of the Catholic Church against women; rather, they were the result of superstition, paranoia, and folk belief. Many clergymen spoke out against the witch craze. One of the most virulent witch-hunter books, the Malleus Maleficarum, was actually rejected by clerical scholars and allegedly listed by the Inquisition on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The German Jesuit Friedrich von Spee wrote the Cautio Criminalis, a book that condemned the witch trials and torture in general. ^[56] Burning of two sodomites at the stake (execution of individuals by fire. ... “Witch” redirects here. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. ... Cover of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library). ... This article is about the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church. ... Venetiis, M. D. LXIIII. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) is a list of publications which the Catholic Church censored for being a danger to itself and the faith of its members. ... Seal of the Society of Jesus. ... Friedrich von Spee (born at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine on February 25, 1591, died at Trier on August 7, 1635) was a German Jesuit and poet, most noted as an opponent of trials for witchcraft. ... Friedrich von Spee (born at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine on February 25, 1591, died at Trier on August 7, 1635) was a German Jesuit and poet, most noted as an opponent of trials for witchcraft. ...

The association of "left" with terms such as "sinister" and other negative overtones is older than Christianity. The pre-Christian Latin word for left was sinister, with negative implications, and the word for right was dexter (a root-word for the word dexterity, for example), with positive implications. The distinction also exists in other cultures, such as Hinduism (for instance, "left hand tantra"). While the claim that "left brain" colloquially means irrational, emotional mind is true, the theory from which this popular notion arose has long been discredited - the left hemisphere of the brain is associated with analysis and detailed thought and control of the right side of the body. In addition, its inclusion seems to suggest that the church was able to control the functioning of all human brains in order to propagate bias against women. The book's insinuation that liberal parties' delegation to the left wing of legislatures is derived from early Christian slander against the left is also false, as the term originates from the French Revolution, when liberal deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, while the more conservative nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789 and not at the beginning of Christianity. For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages[1]) is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... The human brain as viewed from above, showing the cerebral hemispheres. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms that refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially but not exclusively in the American sense of the word... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on...

Brown's hero, Robert Langdon, is a world-renowned professor of "religious symbology" at Harvard University. In real life, there is no such formal discipline as "religious symbology." It is more properly defined as an approach or model of study within the anthropology of religion or symbolic anthropology. Related to symbology is semiotics or semiology, which is a formal discipline and the field of such people as Ferdinand de Saussure and Umberto Eco. Also, Harvard does not offer a course in semiotics, religion-related or not. Information Gender Male Date of birth June 22, 1964 Exeter, New Hampshire, USA Title Professor Relatives Howard Langdon (great-grandfather) Portrayed by Tom Hanks Created by Dan Brown Robert Langdon (June 22, 1964 in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States) is a fictional professor of religious iconology and Symbology at Harvard... The word “symbology” appears in several English dictionaries. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... The anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures. ... Symbolic anthropology (or more broadly, symbolic and interpretive anthropology) is a diverse set of approaches within cultural anthropology that view culture as a symbolic system that arises primarily from human interpretations of the world. ... Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ... Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (pronounced ) (November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Geneva-born Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. ... Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ...

Albinos typically have very poor vision; in fact, many are legally blind. It is therefore highly unlikely that the albino Silas could ever become an expert marksman, or even that he could drive. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

It is stated that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in "the 1950s," when in fact the initial discovery was made in 1947, with additional documents being located up to 1956. The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. ...

In his lecture on the Divine Proportion, Langdon states that the proportion of male to female bees in a hive is always in this ratio. This is false, as the ratio can vary widely and is nonetheless usually greater than the Divine Proportion. Some other claims regarding the occurrence of this ratio in nature, such as the spirals in the shell of a Nautilus, are either false or dubious. The golden ratio is a number, approximately 1. ... The golden ratio is a number, approximately 1. ... Genera Allonautilus Nautilus Nautilus (from Greek ναυτίλος, sailor) is the common name of any marine creatures of the cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole family of the suborder Nautilina. ...

In the novel, Brown says the gnostic gospels found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, were "scrolls." They were actually codices- individual pages bound together as books. The town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt Nag Hammâdi (Arabic نجع حمادي; transliterated: Naj Hammādi) (26°03′N 32°15′E), is a town in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor with some 30,000 citizens. ... A codex (Latin for book; plural codices) is a handwritten book from late Antiquity or the Middle Ages. ...

Brown claims that the modern word "horny" is derived from the horns belonging to the god Amon, the supposed Egyptian god of fertility (see further up the page). This term is oftento the proverbial "horns of the cuckold," which is used in Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Ben Jonson. It is alternatively from the 19th century phrase "to have the horn", where the "horn" in question is a euphemism for the penis.^[57] Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 - December 21, 1375) was a Florentine author and poet, the greatest of Petrarchs disciples, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poems in the vernacular. ... Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902 Chanticleer the rooster from an outdoor production of Chanticleer and the Fox at Ashby_de_la_Zouch castle Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. ... For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ...

Brown claims that "minstrel" shares an etymological root with "minister" because minstrels were ministers of the Church of Mary Magdalene. The link is actually that the word used to apply to jesters, whose jobs were considered a court position, and therefore ministerial. There is no religious connection, and the job of jester/minstrel in this context was considered entertainment, and doesn't apply to the use of song to convey religious ideas as Brown suggests. The definition changed in the 16th century to include storytellers, but the word minstrel is three centuries older than that.^[58]

Since the name Isis was changed to L'Isa (meaning 'the Isis'), Amon should have read L'Amon since both names begin with a vowel.

In a sequence in chapter 61 Brown suggested that many Disney films were a means of spreading the "Grail story". Dan Brown claimed that Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid was Walt Disney's personal hint of knowing the Holy Grail/Sacred Feminine conspiracy; he cited Ariel's possession of a Da Vinci painting and her red hair. Walt Disney had been dead for several years before the Disney Studio even planned to make the Little Mermaid. Brown also claims that the word SEX appears in a scene in The Lion King: though whether the effect is real or deliberate is disputed.^[59] For the 1989 Disney animated film, see The Little Mermaid (1989 film). ... This article is about Disneys 1994 film. ...

The verse from Job 38:11 that is "only seven words" long actually has 17 words. The full verse reads: "And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?".

The text suggests that English was attractive to the Priory because it was uniquely "pure," not descended from the Latin associated with the Papacy. In fact, most European languages, including all Germanic and Slavic languages, are not derived from Latin. On the other hand, English has borrowed a lot of Latin-derived vocabulary. Furthermore, English was not a significant language in medieval times.  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...

The main character leaves the driving to the female protagonist in one scene, being unable to drive stick-shift. However, later on, he drives in a high-speed chase on a frozen Swiss highway. The vehicle he drives is a massive cargo truck.

Also, the contention that the stripes worn on the sleeves of modern military uniforms are a derivation of an ancient symbol for the phallus is quite parochial and has to be qualified. Most uniforms worn around the world wear stripes or more correctly; chevrons - pointing down rather than up. This is because the majority of armed forces owe their heritage to the British convention of wearing these non-commissioned badges of rank that way. This is particularly true of Commonwealth troops such as Indian, Australian, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, the British themselves and many others whom as whole would vastly exceed the number of American troops that wear the chevron pointing up. Commissioned officer badges of rank derived from the British system and worn on shoulder boards use 'pips' not the "demonic" stars described in the novel - another chiefly American convention.

Literary criticism

The novel has also attracted criticism in literary circles for its supposed lack of artistic or literary merit and its allegedly stereotyped portrayal of British and French characters.

Stephen Fry has referred to Brown's writings as "complete loose stool-water" and "arse gravy of the worst kind." In a live chat on 14 June 2006, he clarified, "I just loathe all those book[s] about the Holy Grail and Masons and Catholic conspiracies and all that botty-dribble. I mean, there's so much more that's interesting and exciting in art and in history. It plays to the worst and laziest in humanity, the desire to think the worst of the past and the desire to feel superior to it in some fatuous way."^[60] Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English comedian, writer, actor, novelist, filmmaker and television personality. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... “Freemasons” redirects here. ...

In his 2005 University of Maine Commencement Address, best-selling author Stephen King put Dan Brown's work and "Jokes for the John" on the same level, calling such literature the "intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese."^[61] The University of Maine, established in 1865, is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. ... Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror novels. ... Box on left, purchased in the USA. Box on right, purchased in Canada Kraft Dinner, also known as KD, Kraft Mac n Cheese, or Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, is a pasta dish of macaroni and cheese that is produced by the Kraft company. ...

The New York Times, while reviewing the movie based on the book, called the book "Dan Brown's best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence".^[62] The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

The New Yorker reviewer Anthony Lane refers to it as "unmitigated junk" and decries "the crumbling coarseness of the style."^[63] For other uses, see New Yorker. ... Anthony Lane (born 1962) has been a film reviewer on The New Yorker magazine since 1993. ...

Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others posted several entries critical of Dan Brown's writing, at Language Log, calling Brown one of the "worst prose stylists in the history of literature" and saying Brown's "writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad."^[64] Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum (born in 1945 in Irvine, Scotland) is a linguist specialising in the study of English. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ...

Roger Ebert described it as "potboiler written with little grace and style," although he did say it did "supply an intriguing plot."^[65] Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

Allegations of plagiarism

Two lawsuits have been brought alleging plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code.^[66] —both were unsuccessful. For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation). ...

On April 11, 2005, novelist Lewis Perdue sued Brown and his publisher Random House for plagiarizing his novels The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000), claiming "there are far too many parallels between my books and The Da Vinci Code for it to be an accident." ² On 4 August 2005, District Judge George B. Daniels granted a motion for summary judgment and dismissed the suit, ruling that "a reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God. Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas." He affirmed that The Da Vinci Code does not infringe upon copyrights held by Perdue (see^[67]). is the 101st day of the year (102nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lewis Perdue is the author of Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy. ... // Random House is a publishing house based in New York City. ... is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In February 2006, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two of the three authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, took the UK publisher of The Da Vinci Code to court for breach of copyright, alleging plagiarism.^[68] Some sources suggested the lawsuit was a publicity stunt^[69] intended to boost sales of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (a boost which did in fact occur). However, the projected court costs of over 1 million pounds outweigh or at least substantially reduce the financial benefit of the lawsuit.^[70] Author Michael Baigent Reuters Michael Baigent, born March 1948 in Christchurch, New Zealand, is an author and conspiracy theorist who co-wrote (with Richard Leigh) a number of books that question mainstream perceptions of history and many commonly-held versions of the life of Jesus. ... Richard Leigh (born 1989) is a novelist and short story writer born in New Jersey and currently living in England. ... Book cover of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail 2005 illustrated hardcover edition. ... Not to be confused with copywriting. ... For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation). ... The media itself often stage stunts for movies and television shows. ... Book cover of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail 2005 illustrated hardcover edition. ...

Dan Brown repeatedly said in his defence that history cannot be plagiarised and therefore the accusations of the two authors were false. Leigh stated, "It's not that Dan Brown has lifted certain ideas because a number of people have done that before. It's rather that he's lifted the whole architecture - the whole jigsaw puzzle - and hung it on to the peg of a fictional thriller".^[71] Dan Brown has admitted some of the ideas taken from Baigent and Leigh's work were indispensable to the book but stated that there were many other sources also behind it. However, he admitted that neither he nor his wife had read Baigent and Leigh's book when he produced his original "synopsis" of the novel.^[72] Many readers have noticed, however, that Sir Leigh Teabing's surname happens to be an anagram of "Baigent", and his first name happens to be "Leigh." Sir Leigh Teabing portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen in The Da Vinci Code. ...

On 7 April 2006, High Court judge Peter Smith rejected the copyright-infringement claim by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, and Dan Brown won the court case.^[73] However, in the published extracts of his judgement^[74] the judge criticised the non-appearance of Blythe Brown and the vagueness of Dan Brown's evidence saying "He has presented himself as being a deep and thorough researcher...evidence in this case demonstrates that as regards DVC [The Da Vinci Code] that is simply not correct with respect to historical lectures".^[75] April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Her Majestys High Court of Justice (usually known more simply as the High Court) is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales (which under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, is to be known as the... Peter Smith is a British jurist serving on the High Court of Justice who has presided over several prominent cases. ... From left to right: Blythe, father-in-law Richard, husband Dan, brother-in law Gregory, sister-in-law Valerie, mother-in-law Connie Blythe Newlon Brown (born c. ...

The judge, Peter Smith, also included a code in his judgment. Throughout the judgment, apparently random letters are italicised and these form the message. The letters in the first paragraphs spell smithy code and the rest appear as follows "jaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzv". This was subsequently decoded to read "Smithy Code Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought",^[76] referring to the British admiral whom Judge Smith admires. As with the book, this secret message made use of Fibonacci numbers for its encoding. This article refers to a cipher devised in 2006 by Mr Justice Peter Smith. ... John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (January 25, 1841 – July 10, 1920), commonly known as Jackie Fisher, was a British admiral known for his efforts at naval reform. ... The sixth HMS Dreadnought of the Royal Navy was a revolutionary battleship which entered service in 1906. ... A tiling with squares whose sides are successive Fibonacci numbers in length A Fibonacci spiral, created by drawing arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling shown above – see golden spiral. ...

In general copyright law does not protect ideas or facts; only the way they are worded or portrayed. A book can be paraphrased without violating a copyright, at the cost of losing felicities of wording, and still portray the same ideas or facts. A verbatim quote is allowed in a review, if sufficiently short and properly attributed. Successful copyright cases usually involve verbatim repetition of entire chapters of a published book, passed off as the supposed author's own work with no mention of the actual source. Normally, such cases are easy to prove.

Christian response

US Catholic bishops launched a website rebutting the key claims in the novel. The bishops are concerned about what they perceive as errors and serious mis-statements in The Da Vinci Code.

The Catholic personal prelature Opus Dei worked with American and British TV networks on independent documentaries about the organisation to be broadcast around the movie's release. Reporters were invited to tour the headquarters in the US, which is a residence for Opus Dei members and a centre for community activities. A prelate is a member of the clergy having a special canonical jurisdiction over a territory or a group of people; usually, a prelate is a bishop. ... For other uses, see Opus Dei (disambiguation). ...

Christian organizations also planned to meet moviegoers with protests and prayers outside theaters nationwide, termed "Rejecting The Da Vinci Code Protests" by the Catholic "American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)". After collecting more than 60,000 signatures in protest of the "blasphemous film", the Catholic organization set out for a one-thousand theater protest with tens of thousands of people around the country.

At a conference on April 28 2006 Archbishop Angelo Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican curial department, specifically called for a boycott of the film version of The Da Vinci Code; he said the movie is "full of calumnies, offenses, and historical and theological errors."^[77] The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) (Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei) is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. ... A congregation is a type of dicastery of the Roman Curia, the central administrative organism of the Catholic Church. ...

In contrast, some Catholic groups did not urge protests or boycotts but sought to use interest in this book and film as a means to educate Catholics and non-Catholics on what the Catholic Church teaches regarding Jesus Christ and the history of the Church.^{[78] [79]}

Also, many other Christians have looked to use the film as a tool for evangelism.^[80] For instance, in Australia, the Anglican Church set up a website called "Challenging Da Vinci",^[81] and sought to have trailers before the movie inviting patrons to visit the site. Numerous Anglican churches simultaneously held events discussing the claims of the book and film.

In India, home to 18 million Catholics (1.8% of the population), the Central Board of Film Certification gave the film an adult rating on condition that disclaimers saying it was a work of fiction were inserted at the beginning and end of the film.^[82]

In Pakistan the small Christian minority, which constitutes around 1% of the population, successfully lobbied against the release of the film. As such the film adaptation is officially banned in Pakistan.

In fact, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property ended up insipring well over two thousand theater protests against the film nationwide.

References

The Gospel of Mark (literally, according to Mark; Greek, Κατά Μαρκον, Kata Markon),(anonymous[1] but ascribed to Mark the Evangelist) is a Gospel of the New Testament. ... Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist. ... Neil Asher Silberman is an archaeologist who serves as director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation in Belgium. ... John L. Allen, Jr. ... John L. Allen, Jr. ... Vittorio Messori is an Italian journalist and writer. ... Zenit News Agency is an international news agency. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year (70th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

General references

• Amy Welborn, De-coding da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code (Our Sunday Visitor, 2004). ISBN 1-59276-101-1
• Richard Abanes, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code (Harvest House Publishers, 2004). ISBN 0-7369-1439-0
• Darrel Bock, Breaking The Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everybody's Asking (Nelson Books, 2004). ISBN 0-7852-6046-3
• Dan Burstein (ed), Secrets of the Code (CDS Books, 2004). ISBN 1-59315-022-9
• Bart D. Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 0-19-518140-9
• Nicky Gumbel, The Da Vinci Code: a response (Alpha International). ISBN 1-904074-81-2
• Hank Hanegraaff and Paul Maier, Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? (Tyndale House Publishers, 2004). ISBN 1-4143-0279-7
• Steve Kellmeyer, Fact and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (Bridegroom Press, 2004). ISBN 0-9718128-6-1
• Martin Lunn, Da Vinci Code Decoded (The Disinformation Company, 2004). ISBN 0-9729529-7-7
• Carl Olson, Sandra Miesel, The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius Press, 2004). ISBN 1-58617-034-1
• Essak, Shelley, The Florentine School and the Portrayal of Male Youth. Accessed at About.com
• Esaak, Shelley, Leonardo da Vinci - The Last Supper. Accessed at About.com

Amy Welborn is a Catholic author, columnist, and speaker. ... Richard Abanes (b. ... Bart D. Ehrman is a New Testament scholar and an expert on early Christianity. ... Nicholas (Nicky) Glyn Paul Gumbel (born April 28, 1955 in London) is an Ordained Anglican priest, Vicar and author. ... Paul L. Maier is the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. ... The Da Vinci Hoax is a non-fiction book written by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel for the express purpose of critiquing Dan Browns novel The Da Vinci Code. ...

External links

• Jesusdecoded.com - provided by the Catholic Communication Campaign, an activity of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
• Da Vinci Code Correlations with Gulliver's Travels - Items on Alexander Pope and Isaac Newton
• History vs The Da Vinci Code Analysis of the historical claims made in the novel compared to the evidence, from a non-religious perspective.
• The Da Vinci Code (Theopedia - has multimedia resources)
• The Key to The Da Vinci Code (Crombie Jardine Publishing, 2005)
• The Biblical Resource Database Links and Resources
• The Da Vinci Code, the Catholic Church and Opus Dei Official Opus Dei response - Compares assertions from the Da Vinci Code to the existing Opus Dei
• The Da Vinci Code A critique by a priest of the Opus Dei prelature in Sydney.
• The Da Vinci Codex Metaphor As Code
• Decoding Da Vinci An Article comparing history to the novel
• The Da Vinci Code - the book, the movie, the deception
• About-Jesus.org article refuting claims that paganism influenced Christianity
• Howstuffworks:How The Da Vinci Code Doesn't Work
• Why Is The Da Vinci Code So Popular?
• Debunking the "Da Vinci Code" Debunkers and the Jesus Myth (Article by Geoff Price)