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Hoax Archive: Categories

The Hoax Archive
A collection of the most notorious deceptions throughout history

Phony 9/11 Deaths (The months following Sept. 11, 2001)

Medieval Church Forgeries

Taken as a whole, medieval monks and clerics were probably the most prolific forgers of all time.

The Donation of Constantine (circa 750 ad)
A forgery legitimated the Catholic Church's acquisition of vast territories in western Europe.
Count d’Armagnac’s Forged Papal Bull (circa 1455)
This French Count convinced a church official to forge a papal bull allowing him to marry his sister.
The History of Crowland (1413)
The monks of Crowland wrote a history of their abbey that was essentially a long string of lies.
Jean Hardouin’s Theory of Universal Forgery (circa 1693)
Hardouin was convinced that almost all classical texts had been forged by a group of thirteenth-century monks.

Donation of Constantine

Pope Joan (853-855 ad)

One of the most scandalous rumors of the Middle Ages was that there was once a female pope who gave birth en route to the Lateran.

Pope Joan

The Medieval Relic Trade

Throughout the Middle Ages, Europe hosted a thriving trade in holy relics. Many of the relics, if not almost all of them, were fake.

The Holy Foreskin (First appeared circa 800 ad)
Of all the relics that circulated throughout medieval Europe, the Holy Foreskin was the most sought after, since it was an actual body part of Christ. But there were many Holy Foreskins to choose between.
The Shroud of Turin (circa 1355)
If the Shroud of Turin isn't a divine miracle, then it's very likely to be the work of a medieval forger.

Shroud of Turin

Medieval Travel Lies

Medieval knowledge of world geography was a strange mixture of fact and fantasy.

The Letter of Prester John (circa 1165)
In the mid-twelfth century, at a time when European rulers felt threatened by the growing power of Muslim nations on their borders, a letter suddenly appeared from Prester John, who described himself as a Christian king of great wealth and power living in the far east.
The Travels of Marco Polo (circa 1298)
Marco Polo is famous for his travels to China, but some modern scholars have questioned whether he ever actually went there.
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (circa 1371)
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville was a fourteenth-century book that documented the travels of an English knight through Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Persia, and Turkey. The tales of this knight, though supposedly true, were bizarre by any measure.
The Lost Island of Hi-Brazil (Late medieval period)
A number of maps from the late-medieval period show an island called Hi-Brazil in the Atlantic. However, no one has ever been able to find this island.

Mandeville's Travels

Medieval Prophecy

In medieval culture, prophecy was considered to be a legitimate science. But some prophecies were more far-fetched than others.

Medieval End of the World Hoaxes
The Toledo Letter (1184)
The Prophecies of Nostradamus (1555)
Mother Shipton (Supposedly lived 1488-1561)

Nostradamus

Mother Shipton

Renaissance Forgeries

Men of the renaissance prided themselves on their collections of books and classical artifacts. This helped to create a lucrative market for fake books and fake artifacts.

Michelangelo's Cupid

Science Hoaxes Before 1700

The Boy with the Golden Tooth (1593)
Medical doctors argued over how a Silesian boy managed to grow a golden tooth.
A Case of Pregnancy without Intercourse (1637)
A pamphlet published in Paris described an unusual medical case in which a woman claimed she became pregnant after dreaming of her husband, who had been away for four years.
Lusus Naturae
Medieval naturalists believed that Nature was an active, sentient force that enjoyed playing jokes (or hoaxes) on man.

Lusus Naturae

Martin Guerre (1556-1560)

Medieval Pranks

Athanasius Kircher, Victim of Pranks (1602-1680)
The Cerne Abbas Giant (circa mid-1640s)

Athanasius Kircher

The Ghostly Drummer of Tedworth (Early 1660s)

Drummer of Tedworth

The Native of Formosa (1702-1706)

In the early eighteenth-century a white-skinned, blond-haired man showed up in northern Europe claiming to be from the island of Formosa (Taiwan). Luckily for him, no one in Europe knew what a Taiwanese person should look like.