Ha, ha, a medieval cleric complaining about the grifting nature of his fellow clerics.
Quote:A unearthed document, detailed in a new study, offers compelling and the oldest evidence that the Turin Shroud - long believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ - is “clerical fraud.”
The Shroud of Turin is one of the most treasured ancient artefacts, attracting countless tourists to the Italian city - despite the fact that the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin only publicly displays it on special occasions.
Vatican authorities have repeatedly gone back and forth on whether it should be considered as the true burial shroud of Jesus Christ [but the money made from it has always spoken that it's authentic].
The newly-discovered written document reveals that a highly respected French theologian, Nicole Oresme (1325-1382), described the cloth as a “clear” and “patent” fake - the result of deceptions by “clergy men” in the mid-12th century.
Oresme writes: “I do not need to believe anyone who claims ‘Someone performed such miracle for me’, because many clergy men thus deceive others, in order to elicit offerings for their churches.”
“This is clearly the case for a church in Champagne (the French region where the shroud was first uncovered), 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,” he wrote.
Oresme, who later became the Bishop of Lisieux, France, was an important religious figure in the Middle Ages.
“This now-controversial relic has been caught up in a polemic between supporters and detractors of its cult for centuries,” said Dr Sarzeaud. “What has been uncovered is a significant dismissal of the shroud... This case gives us an unusually detailed account of clerical fraud.”
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/08...ixion-shro
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
