Did Jesus marry and father a child? That is just one of the questions raised in this startling and provocative book, originally published in 1982 and inspiring such works as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Are Christ's descendents alive today, the authors wonder, and is it even possible he did not die on the cross? Unearthing and examining arcane documents, the book looks into such contentions as the likelihood that Jesus's descendents are in the French Merovingian dynasty, protected by a secret society known as the Priory of Sionof which Leonardo da Vinci, Victor Hugo, and Jean Cocteau have been Grand Mastersand that the Knights Templar were their military arm.