Criticism of The Da Vinci Code

This article is about the controversy. For other uses, see The Da Vinci Code (disambiguation).

File:Davinci code.jpg

The Da Vinci Code book cover (UK edition)

The Da Vinci Code, a popular and controversial suspense novel by Dan Brown, has been generating criticism since it was first published in 2003. Apart from criticism of Dan Brown in general, many of the complaints center on the book's speculations and alleged misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Roman Catholic Church, with additional criticisms being generated by the book's descriptions of European art, history, and architecture.

It currently remains difficult to assess how much of the controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code was intended by the author, resulted from poorly executed research, or was merely a product of artistic license.

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 on his website title 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.

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, and that a layman might be confused and believe that the facts asserted as "true" for the purposes of the story are actually true. 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 – that there is no secret chamber under the floor in a particular chapel, that a particular building was not built by a secret society, and so forth.

These claims of the book, combined with the presentation of religious opinions that oppose or offend some within the communities discussed, has caused a great deal of debate and partisan material to erupt. Sometimes the book has been recognised even as a form of reference; for example, a front page article in The Independent on May 10, 2006 refers specifically to the book in a feature about a senior British Government Minister - "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."

Religious disputes

File:Davinciprotests.JPG

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.

On Easter Sunday, 2006, 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 facts & fiction of the book and movie.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene

In the story, the "Holy Grail" is not a chalice, but rather a bloodline sprung from the marital union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This idea is not original to Brown; it was previously hypothesised by others, including Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in their nonfiction 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The claim has been characterized by many textual and historical scholars as unevidenced and unlikely (Burstein, 2004). The Church Fathers were unanimous in their belief that Jesus was celibate.

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. By all accounts, Jesus was not a rabbi, but an informal teacher; the Gospel of Mark refers to him as "the carpenter."

Also, 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 "the mother of James and Joses", Mary "the wife of Clopas", and Mary "the sister of Lazarus". However, Mary Magdalene stands out from 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". If they were married, Mary Magdalene should have been called, by all logic, Mary "the wife of Jesus" (Bock, 2004).

The development of the term "bride of Christ" for the Church, appearing in the Pauline Epistles — the earliest of the New Testament books — has been used to point against the existence of a typical marriage.

Also, Jesus' teaching that "those people who can remain celibate, for the kingdom of heaven's sake (Matt. 19:12) should do so" has been used in the same fashion, on the logic that he would not have set a standard he himself could not meet (though among the Twelve at least Peter was already married; but the key word here is "himself").

Jesus in Church teaching

According to the story, prior to AD 325, Christ was considered no more than a "mortal prophet" by his followers, and it was only as a consequence of Emperor Constantine's politicking and a close vote at the First Council of Nicaea that Christianity came to view him as divine. This has been debated by various authors with extensive reference to the Bible and the Church Fathers, sources that pre-date the First Council of Nicaea (see also The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325–1870 (1964) by Philip Hughes). According to these sources, at the Council, the central question was whether Christ and God were homoousios, "of one substance", and thus one — or whether instead Christ 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 was 316 to 2.

The "sacred feminine"

Characters in the book claim that the sacred feminine has been suppressed by Christianity. The sacred feminine refers to the representation of the mystical power of the earth or mother Goddess and is often linked to symbols of fertility and reproduction. This is particularly true of the two primary goddesses which Brown discusses, Venus and Isis.

Christians point out that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches do give special veneration to the Virgin Mary, who bore Jesus in her womb and gave birth to him, but it is alleged 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" (p. 176, 1988, first edition). 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.

It is a matter of controversy whether various historical religions really held this view of the sacred feminine. For example, as found in Symposium and other Greek works, in ancient Greece women were believed to play no role in human reproduction whatsoever; it was the men that 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 are able to reproduce life by themselves. Dan Brown may have been influenced by Neopaganism, which has a high regard for sexuality but may distort the perception of women in early religions.

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 any other ancient sources. The fact that Magdala was located in northern Israel, whereas the tribe of Benjamin resided in the south, weighs against it. Furthermore, Paul was a Benjamite but makes no mention of this supposed heritage.

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." 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 Phillistines (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 the geneology of Matthew 1 is to be believed, Jesus would already have had a claim to the throne of Israel through his ties to the house of David; 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 authority within Jewish household would pass through the firstborn son.

Characters in the book also claim that Mary Magdalene was labeled a prostitute by the Church. 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. These claims are now rejected by biblical scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

It is true that Catholic tradition has tended to defend these integrations in contrast to other Christian traditions, but there is no evidence that Catholic officials introduced this identification to defame Mary, who is considered a saint- moreover, one personally defended by Jesus, who saved her from probable death by stoning. However the "promotion" from adultery into prostitution arises from Mary's role as patron saint of repentant sinful women. The euphemistic term "magdalen" has been used to refer to repentant prostitutes because of this (see Magdalen Asylum), becoming attached to Mary herself.

In any case, Mary Magdalene is revered as a saint in France and other Catholic countries; 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 (whose first reaction on hearing her name is "The prostitute?") would know about it.

Mary in Leonardo's Last Supper

The contention that Mary Magdalene is depicted sitting next to Jesus in Leonardo's famous "Last Supper" is disputed by virtually all art historians. 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 St. John, who was customarily depicted in the Renaissance period as a beardless, often effeminate-looking youth. 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 a decidedly minority view.

Most other depictions of The Last Supper also present a very young St. 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. The Florentine School had a long tradition of often depicting young males as sweet, pretty, rather effeminate persons. Also, in rough sketches of the painting, the person next to Jesus is actually labeled "John".

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).

It has been claimed that the painting does appear to contain a conventional chalice — on a shelf above the head of the leftmost Apostle. 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.

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.

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. Critics charge Brown of greatly sensationalizing the practice of such mortifications and exaggerating the extent of their practice.

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.

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 most others — but this is attributed to streamlining of the whole process.

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 only has one vote.

A part of the book's acknowledgements 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. Also, the Opus Dei Awareness Network's website is brought up within the narrative. This may indicate their webpages have been used as research source for the novel.

Early Israelites

While a character in the book claims that the early Israelites worshipped the goddess Shekinah as the equal to Yahweh, in fact, the term Shekinah (derived from Hebrew for "dwelling") does not appear in early Judaism at all, but was used in later Talmudic Judaism to refer to the "dwelling", or presence of God among his people. The term is used to describe a spiritual radiance. Dan Brown is probably confusing Shekinah with Asherah.

It is also suggested that 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). It is generally believed that 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 (KJV), "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 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.

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, but the specifics are hard to discern and can be conjectural only.

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. Sunday is mentioned as the Christian day of worship in several of the 1st Century Epistles of Paul, though Paul never specifically stated that Sabbath observation had ended with the adoption of Sunday worship.

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.

The Bible

Constantine is asserted to have collated the present biblical canon and ordered the seizure and burning of the non-canonical Gospels and the editing of others to suit his purposes; this is inaccurate.

The Emperor did have Arius exiled for his views that Jesus was a created being, divine but less than God the Father, and Arian writings were burned, but this did not include any Gospels. Furthermore, Arianism did not call for the acceptance of Gnosticism or its Gospels.

The book's claim of the Gospels being edited after the Nicine Council is demonstrably false since it would be impossible to track down the thousands of copies going around the Christian world (there was no "master registry" of Gospel manuscripts), and older pre-Nicene copies of the Gospels have been found which all match post-Nicene ones.

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 about the canonical books but about the relationship between Jesus and God.

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 and less corrupted and thus 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 - in other words, having been written by eyewitnesses or within the lifetime of the generation that knew Jesus firsthand. The Gnostic Gospels thus clearly sprang forth from the Gospels both then and now regarded as Canon, albeit in the Gnostic traditions which sought to authenticate themselves by basing their own Gospels upon the legitimate Gospels accepted by Christians in the first century. The Gnostic writings do not hark back to an earlier, more authentic form of Christianity, but represent a branch that distorted the widely accepted first-century beliefs, taking in influence from other beliefs as well as Christianity. It is also an error to assert that these Gospels 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. The assertion of "more than eighty gospels" written, with only the familiar four chosen as canonical, greatly exaggerates the number of Gnostic Gospels written. 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 assertions that the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, contain lost or hidden Gospels is also false. The scrolls contain books of the Old Testament, 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.

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.

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.

Historical disputes

'The reality of his (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

Leonardo da Vinci

The title The Da Vinci Code is not especially precise: Leonardo da Vinci is nearly always referred to by scholars and to those outside the United States as "Leonardo." The "da Vinci" part of his name is not his surname; it means "from Vinci" and refers to the town from which Leonardo's father came, and has generally not been used by itself to refer to him. However, naming conventions for artists are often inconsistent (Michelangelo Buonarroti is known as "Michelangelo", while Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is known as "Caravaggio", after his home town; of course, this may simply be a convenient way to distinguish the two Michelangelos). The name "da Vinci" may have been used because it is more specific than "Leonardo", a relatively common name.

There is little in Leonardo da Vinci's biography that suggests any involvement with secret societies. Also, while that Leonardo painted very little, he considered his inventions and his intelligence far more important than his art. His drawings were often part of scientific study and were not intended as solely artistic endeavours.

The contention that the "Mona Lisa" was painted by Leonardo as a self-portrait and that its title is a coded reference to the names of the Egyptian gods Amon and Isis: Mona Lisa's historical identity is unknown, but the majority opinion is that the painting depicts Lisa Gherardini, a family friend of Leonardo's. However, some researchers have concluded, using "morphing" techniques, that the resemblance to Leonardo's alleged self-portrait is striking (Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs, and Digby Quested of the Maudsley Hospital in London). At any rate, the title "Mona Lisa" was not chosen by Leonardo, and was not applied to the painting until the 19th century. "Mona" is a contraction of "madonna" (meaning 'lady' or 'madam'); "Lisa" is from an identification with Lisa Gherardini. It is also more commonly known as "La Gioconda" in Italian (Gherardini's married surname, the feminine form of "Giocondo"). The painting was kept by Leonardo and was with him when he died, which can be construed as a hint that the image had some special significance. It is, however, perfectly possible that the Mona Lisa was just another painting and Leonardo kept it for perfectly mundane reasons (eg. a dispute over payment).

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. 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.

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 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.

The Knights Templar

The claim that the Order of the Knights Templar was formed by the Priory of Sion is entirely false. The Priory of Sion has been proven to be a hoax which was started in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, André Bonhomme, Jean Delaval, and Armand Defago. The Templars were founded in the early 12th century by Hughes de Payens, a French nobleman who was a veteran of the First Crusade.

The suggestion that all churches used by the Knights Templar were built round, and that roundness was considered an insult by the Church: 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 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. In the Vatican itself, there are Bramante's Tempietto, built for Pope Julius II on the site of St. Peter's crucifixion and Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri.

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. The specific building was what is today known as the Al Aqsa Mosque.

One of the cryptex clues claims that the Knights Templar worshipped 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 there is no evidence for any deity or religious figure known as "Baphomet." Those Templars who confessed under torture to the accusations of heresy and corruption recanted immediately the torture ceased, and declared again that they were Christian, worshipping Jesus as the Son of God, and that they did not worship any other god, as Helen Nicholson (noted Templar scholar) points out. In every country other than France, the arrested Templars were steadfast in declaring their Christianity and their innocence of the charges. The Templar Rules, all letters written by Templars, report of them, other documentary evidence and contemporaneous information all assert that this is indeed the case. The Templars were in fact innocent of the charges, and Philip le Bel is known to have instigated his campaign against the Templars mostly because of greed for their castles and because he did not wish to repay the huge loan he owed them. It should also be added that the Templars were judged not guilty, but their Order had, as a result of the arrests and the charges of calumny, received such "bad press" that the Pope acknowledged the Order had to be dissolved. Their goods and responsibilities were mostly passed to the Order of the Hospital, a decision that drew howls of protest from Philip IV and the Council of Vienne, who wanted the wealth themselves.

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 that happened 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.

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 notion that the Templars retreated to Scotland to continue their Order is contradicted by the facts. The Order was dissolved in 1312 - it did not continue in secret. There were at no time any significant Templars or Templar facilities in Scotland, and this did not change after the arrests and dissolution of the Order.

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 did not hold to a belief in the "sacred feminine".

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, and many point to abundant evidence that Templars did not themselves engage in building projects 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. They also, because of their powerful presence in these lands, became bankers for Christians - that is, money deposited to the Templars in London, for instance, would result in a note-of-hand that entitled the bearer to withdraw his funds anywhere that there were Templars. This was a later development, however, and it must be remembered that "most of the Brothers of the Order of the Temple either came from the lower ranks of knights or were not of knightly descent at all; many were craftsmen, or people who performed ordinary agricultural tasks such as herding sheep and cattle" (Nicholson, Helen. The Knights Templar: A New History. Sutton Publishing Limited, Gloucestershire, p.2). Supporters of the "sacred geometry" theory claim that the Templars themselves undertook a number of impressive building projects, including fortresses, castles, and churches, although most of these tended to be functional buildings with relatively little decoration. There is, however, no reason to claim that the Templars were thus Masonic any more than it could be claimed Catholicism was Masonic on account of the many cathedrals and churches built by the Catholic Church - or indeed, any order or society or group that has many buildings or structures built.

The allegation that Pope Clement V burned the ashes of the Templars and threw them into the Tiber River in Rome is false. When the last leaders of the Knights Templar were killed in France in 1314 by King Philip IV of France, neither they nor the pope were anywhere near Rome. The truth is that the ashes of Geoffrey de Charney and the last Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, were ground up and thrown into the Seine, so as not to leave behind any relics. Relic veneration was a big business in the mediæval period.

The claim that the Templars gained power because of something they excavated in Jerusalem is false. They gained power for several reasons - one of those reasons is that one of the most powerful churchmen of the time, Bernard de Clairvaux (later declared a Saint), who was also a nephew of one of the original nine knights, supported them. He wrote a powerful letter called "In Praise of the New Knighthood", and spoke on their behalf at the Council of Troyes in 1128 (nine years after the Order's founding). It was at that council that the Order was officially recognized and confirmed, which is what triggered the support and donations that started pouring in from around Europe. There are several early sources concerning the beginning of the Order. According to William of Tyre, the Templars were a group of noble knights who wished to serve Christ by being warriors or knights for God, and they gained the approval of the Patriarch (Warmund of Picquigny) and were given a palace by King Baldwin II in which to be housed.

The Priory of Sion

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

Critics claim 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. 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.

The Holy Grail and The Holy Blood

The legend of The Holy Grail alleged that a sacred relic (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) existed, which would bring untold blessings to any pure knight who found it. The story appeared around the time of the Crusades (for rather obvious reasons), disappeared, and then resurfaced in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In old French, The Holy Grail would be translated a 'San Graal'. However the Da Vinci code has twisted this into 'Sang Real' which would mean 'Royal Blood'. There is also no evidence that the Knights Templar found any such thing under The Temple.

France

King Dagobert

When asked if she has ever heard about the Frankish king Dagobert, Sophie Neveu replies she vaguely remembers that she heard this name in a history lesson.
Her answer is quite surprising, because the "good king Dagobert" is featured in a well-known children's song which probably dates back to the 18th century ("Le bon roi Dagobert/Qui a mis sa culotte à l'envers"). The song refers to Dagobert I, one of many Dagoberts. It is true, however, that Merovingian history is generally not well known, even to educated historians. Also, the Dagobert that tenants of the Jesus bloodline hypothesis are most interested in is Dagobert II, whose assassination they say marks the start of the secret Merovingian line, since his murder was apparently arranged by the mayor of the palace Ebroin, ancestor to the Pippinid line of Charlemagne.

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.

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: "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." (Source: UK Channel 4 programme Tony Robinson's The Real Da Vinci Code, first broadcast 3 Feb 2005)

Sophie and Langdon escape from the Louvre and drive to the U.S. Embassy. They cross Place de la Concorde and turn to Champs-Elysées up to the Embassy. Actually, the U.S. Embassy is located adjacent to the Place de la Concorde.

Sophie and Langdon go to the Saint Lazare station to make the police believe they went to Lille. The trains for Lille do not leave from the Gare Saint-Lazare but from the (nearby) Gare du Nord.

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.

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.

The novel claims that the top of the Centre Pompidou can be seen from the Arc du Carrousel (chapter 3). This is incorrect.

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.

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.

Language

In Chapter 48 Langdon, who admittedly (and, for a supposed Harvard humanities professor specializing in the Middle Ages, strangely) 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.

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. It is not clear what Dan Brown means by prep school, an American concept with no French equivalent, but 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) and not one of the grandes écoles in which the French elites are educated.

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 different jurisdiction and several hundred kilometers away up in the Pyrenean mountains).

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. Moreover, it is hard to believe that the bishop of Oviedo (actually an archbishop) lives in an unfinished church rather than the 16th century Archbishop's Palace of the city. "Aringarosa", finally, is not a Spanish surname.

Escaping from Temple Church, Langdon and Neveu want to go to King's College and go to Temple tube station where they have to wait for a train for another station. Temple is the nearest tube station to King's College.

In chapter 81, Langdon, Neveu and Teabing land at Biggin Hill airport. They are taken away in a limousine which is later said to be "racing toward Kent". Strange, as Biggin Hill is in Kent, a county in the south-east of England.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

Technology and engineering

• Sophie Neveu claims her SmartCar will travel 100 kilometres per litre of fuel (equivalent to 282 miles per Imperial gallon), although the fuel consumption figures in France are given in terms of litres per 100 kilometers, i.e. the fuel needed to go a specified distance rather than the distance per unit of fuel, and Sophie would have used that or, allowing for Langdon's nationality, miles per US or Imperial gallon. In fact, the fuel economy of the most frugal Smart ForTwo is only slightly higher than most four-seater superminis at around 50-60mpg. Also, at the time the book was published, the SmartCar was equipped with a six speed sequential gearbox, not a manual transmission as described in the novel.

• The Beechcraft Baron 58 is referred to as a turboprop. In fact, this aircraft is powered by two 300 hp Continental piston engines.

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 banned by the Inquisition. The German Jesuit Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld wrote the Cautio Criminalis, a book that condemned the witch trials and torture in general.

• 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 . Finally, the terms "left-wing" and "right-wing" in politics originated from Frankfurt Parliament during the Revolutions of 1848.

• Brown's hero, Robert Langdon, is a world-renowned professor of "symbology" at Harvard University. In real life, there is no such field as "symbology"; the closest thing to it is semiotics or semiology, the field of such people as Ferdinand de Saussure and Umberto Eco. Also, Harvard does not offer a course in semiotics.

• 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 at night.

• It is stated that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in "the 1950's", when in fact the initial discovery was made in 1947, with additional documents being located up to 1956.

• 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.

• In the novel, the Gospel of Philip refers to Mary Magdalene as Jesus' "companion", and that Aramaic scholars know this means "wife". However, Professor James Robinson, an authority on the gnostic gospels, has pointed out, "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".

• 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.

• In the novel, Brown states that the English "sinister" comes from the Italian sinistra, "left". However, he is wrong in assuming that this is why radical political thought is commonly called "left wing". The political distinction between "left" and "right" arose from the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly during the Revolution. Those for the Revolution sat on the left, and those against, on the right.

• 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). It is actually from the 19th century phrase "to have the horn", where the "horn" in question is a euphemism for the penis.

• 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.

• 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.

• According to the Bible, God rested on the seventh day. In many languages, the word for the seventh day of the week is some form of Sabbath, meaning rest. When Jesus taught his disciples to gather in his name, they were not trying to place their day of worship over the Pagan Sun worship day. Early Jewish Christians continued to meet at the temple on Saturdays, then meet and practice the new Christianity the day after, hence the reference to 'the Lord's Day'.

• It is surprising that Brown did not note the relationship between Earth and Venus. The ratio of Venus' year to Earth's year is approximately 1.618.

• The quote 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?".

English language chauvinism

Writing about the English language, Brown appears to display ignorance about linguistics, European history, and religious history while at the same time promoting chauvinism. On page 403, Langdon and Teabing explain why English is a superior language. "The Priory, like many European secret societies at odds with the Church, had considered English the only European pure language for centuries. Unlike French, Spanish and Italian, which were rooted in Latin - the tongue of the Vatican - English was linguistically removed from Rome's propaganda machine, and therefore became a sacred, secret tongue for those brotherhoods educated enough to use it."

The passage seems to suggest that English, alone among European languages, is removed from Latin origins. In fact, most European languages, including all Germanic and Slavic languages, did not directly descend from Latin. Also, because English is an Indo-European language, it is distantly related to Latin; there exist several other European languages, including Hungarian, Finnish, and Basque that are not. The fact that English derives substantial portions of its vocabulary from French and Latin means that English is closer to Latin than the majority of European languages, a fact of which Brown seems to be unaware. Besides, at the period in history discussed, English had not yet became a major language and was one of many regional European languages that would not have been comparable to French, Italian or Latin.

When the Vatican and the Latin language were challenged, it was through the vernacular of German, in the writings of Martin Luther. German, not English, was the first significant language of opposition to the Vatican, culminating in the reformation. Later, German nationalists of the Romantic period did also argue that German was a "pure language", which, unlike English, was uncorrupted by Latin. This fact is ignored by Brown in the book.

By ignoring linguistics, history and religious history and describing English as "the only European pure language" and "a sacred, secret tongue for those brotherhoods educated enough to use it.", Brown appears to engage in English chauvinism.

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.

• The acclaimed author Salman Rushdie called it "a book so bad it makes bad books look good," and stated that "Even Dan Brown must live. Preferably not write, but live."

• 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."

• 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."

• 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".

• The New Yorker reviewer Anthony Lane refers to it as "unmitigated junk" and decries "the crumbling coarseness of the style."

• Linguist Geoffrey Pullum and others have been posting several entries critical of Dan Brown's writing, at Language Log.

• The comedian Stewart Lee used his dislike of "The Da Vinci Code" and Dan Brown's work in general to drive part of his 2005 show, "90s Comedian". Presenting disbelief at the writer's popularity & telling his audience that "this is not literature, and you must understand that". He faceciously describes an imagined anti-Dan Brown poster campaign involving a picture of a toilet, with some shit in it, and a copy of "The Da Vinci Code". A speech bubble emanating from one of the pieces of shit would say "Oh no, there goes the neighbourhood". Invariably, his audiences applaud this sentiment.

Allegations of plagiarism

Two lawsuits have been brought alleging plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code. —both were unsuccessful.

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." Template:Fn 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 ).

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. Some sources suggested the lawsuit was a publicity stunt 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.

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". 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. 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."

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. However, in the published extracts of his judgement 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 The Da Vinci Code that is simply not correct with respect to historical lectures".

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" , referring to the British admiral whom Judge Smith admires. As with the book, this secret message made use of Fibonacci numbers for its encoding.

Christian response

US Catholic bishops launched a website rebuting 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.

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."

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.

Also, many other Christians have looked to use the film as a tool for evangelism. For instance, in Australia, the Anglican Church set up a website called "Challenging Da Vinci", 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 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.

Notes

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

• 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

External links

• 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)
• Debunking the "Da Vinci Code" Debunkers and the Jesus Myth (Article by Geoff Price)
• 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 Metaphore As Code