A leading historian who is an expert on the cult surrounding putative shrouds of Christ between the 14th and 16th centuries has uncovered an explosive document penned by a medieval French monk debunking the Shroud of Turin as a “‘patent’ example of clerical fraud.”

The bombshell treatise, published by historian Nicolas Sarzeaud on August 28 in the Journal of Medieval History, is the earliest known document to expose the Shroud as fake.

Bishop Nicole Oresme’s treatise titled Problemata (c.1370-82) — unpublished until Sarzeaud’s discovery –examines a series of 44 problems on mirabilia (miracles) and discusses the Shroud as an example of how to distinguish between true and false extraordinary manifestations.

“I do not need to believe anyone who claims: ‘Someone performed such a miracle for me,’ because many clergymen thus deceive others, in order to elicit offerings for their churches,” writes Oresme, a noted theologian who became the bishop of Lisieux in 1377.

Oresme observes that “this is clearly the case for a church in Champagne, where it was said that there was the Shroud of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the almost infinite number of those who have forged such things, and others.”

Contemporary Sources Corroborate Bishop’s Verdict

Sarzeaud uses other 14th-century sources to corroborate Oresme’s claim that the Shroud is fake, including a letter from Pope Clement VII forbidding the Shroud from being displayed as a relic, as well as a ban by the bishop of Troyes, Pierre d’Arcis, on the display of the cloth.

Not long after it appeared in Champagne in the mid-fourteenth century, several said the Shroud was a fake, Sarzeaud observes. The local diocese fiercely contested its authenticity, and Bishop d’Arcis forbade his priests from displaying or even mentioning it.

When a local lord, Geoffroy II de Charny, appealed to Clement VII, seeking permission to exhibit the Shroud as a devotional artifact rather than a relic, the pope allowed its display under strict conditions laid out in a letter dated July 28, 1389.

In early 1390, the pope ordered Catholics to be informed that the Shroud was a “figure or representation” of Christ’s gravecloth and not the original, and forbade the canons from using the usual “solemnities customary when showing a relic.”

D’Arcis, nevertheless, wrote a lengthy memorandum to Clement appealing to him to reverse his decision. His predecessor, Bishop Henri de Poitiers, had investigated and exposed the Shroud as a forgery. “The cloth had been crafted artificially, and certain individuals had been paid to fake miracles,” Sarzeaud writes.

In his memorandum, D’Arcis reports that the Charny family had hidden the Shroud around 1355-56 and kept it concealed for approximately 34 years. In 1389, the “Lirey party” attempted to get permission for the Shroud’s display by deceptively calling it a “figure or representation of the Shroud” to “gain authorisation for devotion while leading worshippers to believe it was a relic.”

Pope Julius II Authorizes Veneration of Shroud

In his peer-reviewed article, Sarzeaud explains that the Shroud’s status changed only after it was sold in a secret transaction to the Dukes of Savoy in 1453. It began to be officially venerated as a relic only after the notoriously corrupt and sexually profligate Pope Julius II authorized its veneration in 1506. The Savoyard dukes transferred it to Turin in 1578.

While the Shroud’s authenticity has been hotly debated for centuries, this is the second academic article in a brief period to conclude that it is a fake.

In an article published in the journal Archaeometry on July 28, Cicero Moraes, a specialist in historical facial reconstruction, concluded that Jesus’s image on the Shroud is a low-relief artistic representation and not the direct imprint of a real human body.

Using computer parametric modeling of a human body, fabric dynamics simulation, and contact area mapping, Moraes found that the Shroud may have been created during the medieval period, aligning with funerary art practices and artistic techniques of the time.

Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud that took palce in 1988 and 1989 suggested that the cloth dates to the 14th century. While it remains a subject of religious veneration and scientific debate, the Catholic Church maintains a position of neutrality on its authenticity while acknowledging its spiritual significance.

Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.

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