I recently purchased the Kindle edition of this book for 99p. It is a story about ABBÉ SAUNIÈRE.
Said to be written by one Alphonse de Haut-Brun du Bois it was translated by F. Dunnac in 2015. I have never heard of this book before but according to the author Abbe Lucien Frontenac, who was supposedly the ecclesiastical lawyer of Sauniere, and Sauniere's true confidante, was able to persuade Sauniere to tell him about the mysterious origins of his money.
Abbe Lucien Frontenac later ended up being imprisoned during World War II.
As Alphonse de Haut-Brun du Bois was the parish priest of the prison that Frontenac was incarcerated in, and just before the impending death of Frontenac, Frontenac told him the story of Sauniere as he knew it. Below is a quick synopsis of that 'story';
• Sauniere got his money to renovate the church at RLC through Antoine GELIS.
• Both of them were allies together in the 'Legitimist Party'. GELIS was the treasurer of this Party of the old Languedoc Province. [The Legitimists were/are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose king was a member of the junior Orléans line of the Bourbon dynasty. Following the movement of Ultra-royalists during the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, legitimists came to form one of the three main right-wing factions in France, which was principally characterized by its counter-revolutionary views (they rejected the 1789 French Revolution, the Republic and everything that went with it; thus, they progressively became a far-right movement). The other two right-wing factions are, according to historian René Rémond, the Orléanists and the Bonapartists. Legitimists hold that the king of France must be chosen according to the traditional rules of succession based in the Salic law. When the direct line of Charles X became extinct in 1883 with the death of his grandson Henri, Count of Chambord, the most senior heir to the throne under these traditional rules was Juan, Count of Montizón, a descendent of Louis XIV via his grandson Philip V of Spain].
• GELIS gave money to Sauniere to do up the church at Rennes-le-Chateau at low interest rates. According to this book, Sauniere and GELIS collaborated on the 'Work of God' in restoring the Catholic monarch to the throne of France.
• After Chambord died GELIS gave his allegiance to the Spanish Bourbons. Sauniere did not agree with this at all, and GELIS would 'have none of that Orleanist nonsense'.
• GELIS and Sauniere and their friendship began to splinter. As they began to differ in their views, GELIS increased the interest rates on the loans he had given to Sauniere.
• Sauniere began to advertise for masses to pay GELIS back. He borrowed money from banks in Carcassonne, Narbonne, Perpipgnan to help pay off GELIS but GELIS just kept increasing the interest rate.
• Sauniere referred to Mary Magdalene, patron saint of his village church coming to his part of France. He said she had come to this part of France and was buried in a cave. Sauniere said his 'estate' was a fitting tribute to our 'ancestor' [in the spiritual sense].
• GELIS threatened to ruin Sauniere financially and publicly. Sauniere was forced to help GELIS in a Legitimist plan. This plan was a coup against the Republic. It was 1897. GELIS had found out that Felix FAURE was coming to Couiza and a plan was hatched to assassinate him.
• Three Spanish soldiers, marksmen, had been sent to the area to carry out the execution. Sauniere's part was to allow the soldiers after the assassination to come to hide in the grounds of RLC. The assassintation was to take place on All Saints Day, 31st October.
• The Spanish soldiers visited GELIS on that day - he was to give them their final instructions and pay them in gold for their services.
• Sauniere was apparently distressed and agitated by the possibility of being involved in a murder. Marie Denarnaud, who saw Sauniere very agitated, said that she would organise the hospitality of the soldiers.
• Sauniere later found out that GELIS had been murdered. Money was not touched in Gelis's presbytery but papers had been stolen. A cigarette paper left behind had the words 'viva angelina' scribbled on it - which meant 'Long live the messenger of the Gods'. Sauniere never heard anything about the coup, or what happened to the soldiers and the information that could have ruined Sauniere never materialised.
Afterward: On the 31st March 1956 - three soldiers bodies, with aspects of their uniform still intact, were found buried on the domaine of Sauniere!!