Whew. Fast forward to the twentieth century, and Plantard's Merovingian pedigree has obvious implications.

Of course, Plantard's response to all this virtuoso theorizing was that enigmatic Mona Lisa smile of his. He wasn't about to walk on water, at least not at the behest of three future best-selling authors.

Curiously, in their follow-up book, The Messianic Legacy, Lincoln, Baigent, and Leigh sounded at times almost as if they were proselytizing. Advocating the concept of the lost "priest-king," they argued that a dose of spiritual leadership might not necessarily be a bad thing for rudderless Europe, especially since the historically bickering nations were attempting to unify as an Economic Community anyway. A "theocratic United States of Europe" might be just what the doctor ordered, Lincoln and his associates suggested.

Yet their sequel ended on a decidedly down note, for their subsequent research raised doubts about the true nature of the Priory.

In piercing the confounding veil surrounding Plantard and his mysterious organization, Lincoln and company opened a sordid vault of modern conspiracies. Key Priory documents purporting to trace the royal lineage back to J.C., Himself, were said to have been smuggled out of France by British intelligence agents, possibly at the behest of American spooks. Why were these venal forces sullying the uplifting vision of the Lost King? There were other troubling elements lurking in the background, including Italy's crypto-fascist P2 Masonic lodge, which during the 1980s seemed to have reserved seating at every major conspiracy event.