Forbidden History - Brotherhood of the Blood: Secret Societies

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Sworn to protect and preserve the Holy Blood of Christ, the Brotherhood of the Blood are a dark and mysterious sect. In this episode of the Forbidden History podcast, we go on a quest to shed light on a group shrouded in secrecy through the ages, revealing the extreme methods the Brotherhood used. Cast List: Ross Andrews: Author & Historian Richard Felix: A historian and lecturer specialising in local and paranormal history Andrew Gough: Writer, presenter and editor of The Heretic Magazine  Heather Osborn: Author & Historian Lynn Picknett: Historian and researcher specialising in exposing historical conspiracies. She is also the co-author of several notable works Jacques Delconcle: Brotherhood Member Andre Douzet: Historical Researcher Javier Fernandez: Brotherhood Member Van Ulyen Van Nyevelt: Brotherhood Member Eric Meyers: Narrator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. This program is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It contains mature adult themes. Listener discretion is advised. The Brotherhood of the Blood are a dark and mysterious group who parade through the streets of Europe, wearing robes and full face masks. Their roots can be traced back to the time of the feared inquisition, and their history is intimately connected to the major events and religious upheaval.

over the last 500 years or more. They are said to possess a great heretical secret, perhaps connected to the real story at the heart of the Da Vinci Code. I think the Brotherhood have a very strong belief in the Jesus story, which goes back to the origins of Christianity, but it's very different from accepted church dogma today. I think the greatest secret of the Brotherhood is that they claim to have hard evidence and proof

that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross and that he went on to live and they even claim that they possibly have his body as well. If Christ was not crucified, not only would the Bible have to be rewritten, but there'd be such an uproar, the church would be brought to his knees. If the Brotherhood actually produced a mummified body of Jesus, the impact would be huge to say that Jesus Christ didn't ascend to heaven, that he's actually a human, man and we have an actual body, the impact would just be monumental, probably the biggest event in history. I believe it's entirely probable that LaSange believes they know where the tomb of Christ is. I think they're just protecting it.

The Brotherhood of the Blood, also known as the Sange, was founded back in the 15th century as a Catholic secret society, and its members and activities have always been shrouded in absolute secrecy. and for many centuries it was condemned by the church as heretical because of its belief that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross. It became known for its distinctive dress of robes and large hoods, which fully covered the face and head. Every Easter, the Brotherhood would march through the streets of southern France and Spain with a mix of members condemned prisoners and executioners. Today there are dozens of brotherhoods across the region. They are even rumored to possess a great holy relic, possibly the embalmed body of Jesus Christ,

but this has been strongly denied by the order. The darkest of the dark of these cults of the dead, these brotherhoods of the blood, are based in the south of France, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. LaSange, meaning the world, The blood was founded in 1416 in the south of France by Vincent Ferrier, who had a great sickness and almost died. And then Christ appeared to him in an apparition.

And he founded LaSange as a result of that. Today there are various brotherhoods of the blood, basically flagellant orders, sometimes unofficial arms of the Catholic Church. They all really began in the Middle Ages with a mass, a sort of craze for flagellation, which in itself started as a reaction to terrible events over which they had no control, such as famine and the Black Death Plague. They thought that God was punishing them for their sins. They thought if they showed enough penitence to God, they could prevent worse happening or more happening.

And the idea was we must do something and show that we are suffering. We are taking the guilt upon ourselves. And anybody who doesn't do this is of the devil. These brotherhoods of blood, if you will, they originate in the Catholic Church. These are people who are originally perhaps monks. They worship the cross. But at some point in time, obviously after the crucifixion, they're worshipping the cross. Christ was crucified on.

And the blood that emanated from the cross as he died becomes a very, very sacred and symbolic element of their order. And that is what really dominates the ritual and they adopt the name, the blood, LaSange. The Brotherhood are often seen in parades whipping themselves. This is said to be in tribute to Jesus, who was whipped and beaten on his way for to the cross. Controversially, it said that they believed that Jesus did not die on the cross but somehow survived, perhaps replaced with another.

This belief has been seen as extreme heresy by the church for centuries now. If Jesus didn't die on the cross but was substituted at the last moment and however was whipped or made to partake in self-flagellation, then the This memory is what's being preserved by LaSange and other similar orders. It's their secret insight into what really happened, and this is their way of paying homage to it. One of the most important Brotherhood parades every year takes place during Holy Week in La Rioja in Spain,

where penitents in the role of Jesus whip themselves as they walk through the town. No one in the Brotherhood will go and say I am a flageant because it's forbidden. This is a necessary and obligatory tradition. We cannot talk about the penitence or about the people who perform it. This is the rule. No penitence is allowed to tell you who they are.

It has to be a secret. They have to remain anonymous. This is why the face is covered. You would think with a repeated whipping, your shoulder that you'd be in pain. But no, it's a perverted sort of pleasure due to the fact that you are totally believing that this is absolving you from all of your sins. So you're thrilled because this means you're not going to hell. This means your soul will be saved. They saw the flagellation as being partly, at least, a reflection of Jesus' passion,

his suffering, being flogged and then crucified, and they could in some way participate in that, or at least begin to understand it. One of the origins of hoods is protected the identity of the person who has chosen to be whipped, because that is the fastest way to absolve their sins, to suffer like their Savior did on the cross.

They could be your banker, they could be your estate agent, and there's no reason for everyone to know who that is. It's a very, very personal form of suffering. There's several different types of flagellation, and they're all pretty disgusting, to be honest. You have these whips. The whips are either made of leather or rope with knots. They'll be whipping themselves over their shoulder, and they'll have a little bit of their shirt, their regalia, cut open in the back.

As that spot continues to get really sore, the person behind them will go up with this, this wax. this wax ball that's full of pieces of like broken glass. At some point, they'll actually put this on the person's back to release the pressure so the blood is released. Then they continue. The whipping and bloodletting is very interesting because really it's all about a very human Jesus who was whipped, bled, suffered from pain, and it's not really about this divine son of man.

If Jesus were to come back, the last thing he'd want to be reminded of is himself on the cross. You know, what's with all these crosses and me suffering? Why can't there be nice pictures of me preaching to people and them liking it? I mean that, yes, there are some of those, but mostly it's this gory, horrendous torture scene wherever you look. Like the Freemasons, the Brotherhood are full of secret ceremonies. After the parade, the whipped and bleeding men are brought to the room of healing within the church, where their wounds are seen to, and they are rubbed with rosemary water. Mary water. Sadly, this whole notion of whipping yourself comes from the concept of original

sin that you were born a sinner and you're going to stay a sinner and you're going to die and go to hell unless you improve yourself by sacrificing, by inflicting pain just like your Savior Jesus Christ did on the cross because he died for your sins and now you're going to help wash away your own sins by inflicting as much pain as possible on yourself. André Douzé is a French author and historian who has spent most of his life investigating the history of the Brotherhood and believes that it's possible that they do have a tomb of very great importance in a remote part of southern France. This research is now finished, is wrapped up and I have the certitude, the guarantee that these discoveries we have made are incredible. I was there, I stood right in front of the tomb of the man who was called Jesus. I'm absolutely certain because of all the difficulties I encountered in my research that my results, these discoveries,

will completely shake up and have already upset certain establishments, like the governments, religions, archaeology, and in more discrete environments like secret societies. This is a major revelation that will shatter many things if it's made public. Duze claims that as a result of his investigations, he has been threatened by the Brotherhood, who he refers to as the Sange, on many occasions, and believes that his life is in danger as a result. People have warned me several times and told me to be careful and not to go too far away. far with these people who came to see me in the name of the Sonsche. We do not know really who they are, or what they want, or what to expect. They also told me that they can, under certain circumstances,

be violent to protect their mission. So if they have a profound mission, a divine mission, what is the life of a man in this case? It is nothing. Duzet claims that his research has led him to the site of a large rock tube out in an area called Perilos, near the town of Perpignan in southern France. He believes that after escaping from Jerusalem and coming to France, Jesus Christ was buried there, along with his uncle, Joseph of Aramithea. He claims that this is the great secret of the brotherhood of the blood. Imagine how heretical it would be if you had proof of the body of Christ that blows the whole church dogma out of the water about resurrection and crucifixion. All that was rubbish. Imagine the offers you would receive to give that information up.

The millions of dollars, LaSange, would have been offered for the location of these tombs. They're not giving it up. that's ancient, it's at least 700 years old, and its charter, part of its charter, is to protect the identity and location of this tomb. Lots of people have claimed to have found the remains of a tomb or the body of Jesus. Most recently, even James Cameron, the Hollywood director.

However, quite frankly, I don't think it's there. The repercussions of this information coming out, the fact that Christ is a very important is buried in France, there's his body, there's his tomb. That blows everything to do with Catholicism. The foundation of it is blown out of the water. Christ did not die on the cross. He wasn't resurrected.

All of that was a lie. It would crush the Catholic Church. So imagine the lengths that they would go to make sure that this never comes out. So whatever it is, Lassange knows, there's no doubt the Vatican knows as well. So even though the Vatican has distanced themselves from LaSange, you can bet there's probably a vested interest in making sure that they continue to do the job they've been doing for many hundreds of years now. Dusei believes that he's found the tomb of Jesus Christ, but it's a crack and a rock face.

So prove it to us, show us, excavate, dig it up, show us a body, but otherwise there's no real proof. Duzet says that he found the location of the tomb after he acquired a model of the Perilos landscape. He says that this model, on which the words, Tomb of Christ, can clearly be seen, had been an important and presumably secret artifact within the Brotherhood of the Blood for many decades. It appears that the names of a number of specific locations in and around Jerusalem were then transposed to this area in southern France. Truth is, it's entirely probable that if Christ did not die on the cross, that he would end up in this exact area.

It's a port town near Narbon, the largest Jewish community outside of Jerusalem at the time. So it makes perfect sense that Jesus Christ would in fact be here if he wasn't crucified. This model doesn't prove anything. Who made it? We don't know. We don't know its origins. We have no proof about where it came from, so really his whole theory about this model is unrealistic. Despite not revealing where exactly the tomb is or its contents,

André Douzé stands by his research and conclusions. He says that Jesus Christ is buried out there in the wild landscape of Perilos near Narbonne, and that the Brotherhood of the Blood know exactly where it is. His critics accuse him of wishful thinking, even for fabricating the whole story and a total lack of evidence. Duzé counters that the time to reveal what he's found is very nearly upon us and that the world will be astonished at his discovery. For me, the final results of my research are something that is going to completely upset our consciousness

and religious people may become disillusioned. We have made a major discovery. It's unique and it's been verified by something. several persons. We have succeeded, we are here, we could now reveal it, but I lack the finances to go any further. From what could be the secret tomb of Jesus Christ out in the wilderness of southern France to the greatest gathering of the Brotherhood of the Blood in Zamora in Spain, and the lengths that the Inquisition have gone to over the last 500 years or more, to try and keep this heresy as they see it covered up.

Coming up next. I think it's possible that a man from 2,000 years ago could definitely have been embalmed. Look at the examples that we have today of Egyptian mummies and museums, of pharaohs and important figures. However, we have to question, was Jesus an important enough figure at the time to have been embalmed? If the Brotherhood actually produced a mummified body of Jesus, the impact would be huge. To say that Jesus Christ didn't ascend to heaven, that he's actually a human man and we have

an actual body, the impact would just be monumental, probably the biggest event in history. Every year the Brotherhood meet in Zamora in Spain to celebrate Holy Week at Easter. Unlike most religious parades that take place during the day, during Holy Week, the Brotherhood always continue into the night using flaming torches. Some people claim this represents the removal of Jesus Christ from the cross once darkness fell, and then his escape from the scene. What you've got with the procession is the order leaving the church they have affinity with, dressed in their regalia, with somber music, with droning drum beats.

It's typically nighttime, so it's pitch dark. Let me tell you, this is no Easter parade. This is very, very dark indeed. The Brotherhood are presenting images and symbolism that can only be seen if you know what you're looking for. Every part of the processions that you see is quite literally a cover-up. The people there, they've literally covered their face, they've covered their body, they've covered their hands. Any part of their body that could give them away has been covered. So the person themselves, they are a secret.

It's very dark, spooky and mysterious with the cloaks and the masks. And if we think back to the early origins of the church, just look at the Inquisition. It was a very dark, brutal time, and this is what we're seeing. The Inquisition is key to the history of the Brotherhood. When it was raging through Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, its members were condemned as heretics for their belief in Jesus surviving the crucifixion. Essentially, the Inquisition believed the Brotherhood were heretics for a whole bunch of reasons, but none greater than the Brotherhood's insistence that Jesus Christ did not die in the cross.

So consequently, the Inquisition really had no choice but to resort to extreme torture to get a confession, to get any bit of insight into what these heretics supposedly really believed. The sentence was that you be taken to the deepest dungeon, a room where no light can enter, where you will be laid naked on the floor with a cloth around the your loins and weights of iron as heavy as you can bear and be placed upon your body until you either confess or you die what the Inquisition did to the so-called heretics of the Brotherhood that would make Quentin Tarantino turn away in horror dismay and disgust the truly shocking thing is that the Inquisition actually

believed that their torture techniques purified sinners irrespective of whether they lived or died. The types of devices that were used in torture were nothing if not creative. We're talking pincers, weights, spiked chairs. I mean, their fascination inflicting pain knew no bounds. Of all the despicable forms of torture that the Inquisition used on the Brotherhood, none was as painful. None was as nasty as the rack. You were spread-eagled on board, your hands tightly bound, and the same thing applied to your legs.

And the executioner or torturers started to wind the ropes until it started to stretch your body. The first thing that happens, their joints make a huge noise as the arms and legs are popped out of their sockets. The victim dies rapidly, but not before undoubtedly confessing whatever it is that they had concealed. But in Bruges, a vial of Christ's blood is paraded on holy days. Is this proof that he was a flesh and blood man after all? You look at Bruges today where you have a basilica of the holy blood.

Joseph Arimathea, the uncle of Jesus Christ, collected the blood as it dripped on the cross, allegedly. And then in the second crusade, this was brought to Bruges. The head of the Brotherhood group in Bruges agreed to explain more about the relic that they protect. My task in the Brotherhood of the Holy Blood is Treasurer. We have 31 members, and within these 31 members there is an elected bureau of four people. So we are the owners of the Holy Blood.

this precious relic with drops of the blood of Christ, which, according to tradition, comes from when the body of Christ was washed with water, and a little bit of that blood came here over time. So a relic from that time, from that place, is really powerful. It is a talisman of sorts. You can go there almost any day of the week and pay homage.

You can go into Paris today, and any number of cathedral are going to have the body and bones of very, very famous saints that were sites of pilgrimages in the past. It gives people faith that all these stories are real. Look at the bones, look at the cross, look at the blood. It really happened. Is this the blood of Jesus Christ?

I don't think so. Scientifically, we know that 2,000-year-old blood would have dried long ago. So, scientifically, it's proven that this is not the blood of Jesus. However, they believe that it is. Some argue that it doesn't matter whether the relics are real or not. They're kind of a focus for piety. Focus for faith.

After all, faith, you don't need proof for faith. That's the whole point. If it helps you become a better person and move you on, weird though it might seem to an outsider, why not? But it does seem to be all of a peace with this attitude that torture, blood, death martyrdom, It's relics. It's all part of something rather dark.

The Brotherhood of the Blood rarely take part in interviews. But the leader of one of the groups in Perpignan in France agreed to a short one. A lot of people think that the Sange and other brotherhoods are very morbid with a fixation on torture and blood. For Christians it's not a problem at all. The blood is the blood of Jesus. Jesus made a pact with humanity to save us.

And this was in the resurrection. In order to die, you need to suffer and you need pain. This is part of our religion and we accept this. At the start of the Sange, one of the main tasks in the Middle Ages was to help people who were going to be executed. Back then, when they were going to be executed, they were just abandoned. So the Brotherhood tried to protect them from the crowds during the execution, give them dignity, give them some type of religious belief before they died.

they died. But at some point, this morphed into a cult that would look after the well-being of the individual's soul by performing rituals on their body when they're dead. And in the 5th century 422, St. Augustine is quoted as saying, in the pagan tradition, paying a fee for the individual's safe passage of their soul into the underworld. world is a standard and just and right discipline to do. The processions of the Sange were organized into a very strict hierarchy. They were divided into five different sections depending on professions. There was a religious section. There were nobles who were carrying Jesus on the cross.

There was the corporation, the trade workers, lawyers and judges. They were the gardeners. This was the hierarchy that the son was organized around. When they put on their outfits with the pointy hats and the long flowing robes, they're very intimidating. You know, they look dark and, you know, sinister is really the only word. But it's totally at odds with the idea of penitence and self-mortification. Because to mortify yourself or

or to flagellate yourself. The idea is surely that you are humbling yourself. Whereas when you put on all this stuff, you are, for a start, you're about nine foot tall, you know. So that's not exactly unnoticeable. I think it is easy to see why people think that the Brotherhood are the guardians of some deep dark secret. I mean, we live in the era of the Da Vinci Code

and conspiracy theories. So of course, they look quite intimidating with the robes and the drumming and processing. It's all quite dark and spooky. However, I think this is something that historically just dates back a few hundred years, and it's nothing more than that. Most of the modern Brotherhood pretty much don't know what it is that they're representing. To the extent that they'll gladly go out and say, oh, yeah, I'm in this Brotherhood, I'm in that Brotherhood. You've got different groups with different colored hats and different colored robes, whereas the Old Brotherhood very much wanted to keep their secret to themselves.

You could be initiated into their Gnostic knowledge, but they didn't want that. being broadcast to the world. So today's marches and processioners, they'll walk along and you'll know who they are, quite probably. You'll say, oh, that's my dad at the front. But back then, everybody wanted to keep it a secret. As with any secret society, there's myths and legends about what they get up to.

And in LaSange, one of those legends is a mask. This mask is made out of human skin, but whose skin and what it's supposed to represent? We're not entirely sure, but it gives you an idea of a flavor of the sorts of, well, kind of dark and sinister sounding things that they look after. This Catholic obsession with relics was an absolute industry, and people paid churches to queue up and see these things. But it was also part of an obsession

with, you know, when you think about it, bits of saints' bodies or sometimes whole saints' bodies, the so-called incorruptible dead. And you can still go into some churches and see these semi-embalmed bodies of monks and nuns and people lying there. And it's so unhealthy. I mean, you know, it just seems to be just so weird.

But perhaps the Brotherhood of the Blood are best known for allegedly protecting what could be the greatest holy relic of all time. the embalmed body of Jesus Christ. But this has never been proven. Why do the Sonsch keep looking for the holy relic when it could put an end to their religion? It won't put an end to their religion,

it will just show their religion in a different light. It may be a different way of looking at religion. Look at how the Vassica, over a period of centuries, outlawed the Sange. The Sonsch always used their political and by financial power to reinstate themselves. So why would the Vatican want to stop the Sonsh on Holy Week dressing up in robes and basically professing their faith permanently? They knew that this society under the hood was hiding something very deep and very profound. They knew there was something that would be threatening to them.

If it is true that Jesus did not die on the cross, and if that information were to come out, it does be the end of days for the Catholic Church. That's it. Game over. I think the Brotherhood, if they had a body, it probably doesn't exist anymore. It's an embarrassment. Nobody wants it.

Now if the body still does exist, and they came forth and said, here it is everybody on national television to prove, there it is, let's do a DNA test on it now. There's enough doubt built into the official story that even if you had DNA evidence of a 2,000-year-old corpse, that the church could turn around and say, well, we can't be sure about anything. We can't be sure that your 2,000-year-old man is even who you claim he is, or he came from this area of the world anyway.

The Brotherhood of the Blood are supposed to have some kind of great relic, perhaps even the embalmed body of Jesus. What we do know about them is they process in these dark clothes. They look very mysterious, somewhat freaky, but I don't think that they actually have some kind of great secret. And if they do have the body of Jesus, why don't they reveal it? Why don't they show it to us? Today's Brotherhood doesn't truly represent what I think the original Brotherhood believed in.

And today it's more of an affirmation of a Catholic faith, particularly in the Spanish areas and Southern France, that it's very much reaffirming what they already believe. Now, there could well be a smaller group within that Brotherhood who are happy for people to believe that because it keeps the Brotherhood myth going. and in reality it allows them to exist and to carry on broadcasting to the world what they believe, but no one is going to see it unless they have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

We can't stop people from writing or thinking whatever they want to think about us, but we've got nothing to hide. Almost any abbey in England claim to have either a piece of the true cross or a vial of the blood of Christ. It's relics like that from the time of Christ. that define these orders. It's their reason for living to carry the tradition of preserving it and protecting it for future generations.

So do the Brotherhood of the Blood, as they are known, really possess a holy relic of unimaginable importance? Or are they, as they say, just a historic religious society that dates back several centuries? As ever, the historians and the conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theorists have vastly different opinions on the subject. However, the covering of their faces, their history of being heretics, and a growing public interest in how the real Jesus Christ might have been very different from the one in the Bible, all increased the attention on just what the Brotherhood might be hiding.