Forgeries, Fakes, and Phantom Time

According to some, written history began in the 14th century. It may seem ridiculous, but the Phantom Time conspiracy theory has serious implications.

St Augustine receiving Divine Truth, by Philippe de Champaigne, c.1645. LACMA. Public Domain.

Except for aliens, there are more conspiracy theories about history than anything else. There are people who believe that Shakespeare’s plays were really by the Earl of Oxford, that JFK was assassinated by the Illuminati, that the Merovingians were descended from Christ. But none of these come close to the weirdness that Jean Hardouin dreamed up. A 17th-century French priest, Hardouin convinced himself that almost every book written before AD c.1300 – including by the Gospels, the Church Fathers, and almost all Greek and Latin literature – was a forgery.

Down the rabbit hole

Hardouin did not start out as a conspiracy theorist. Born in 1646 in a little town not far from Brittany’s Atlantic coast, he had shown early promise as a classical scholar. After joining the Jesuits and completing his studies, he published groundbreaking editions of Themistius’ speeches and Pliny’s Natural History. He pioneered the ‘scientific’ study of numismatics. He was even commissioned to write a history of the Church councils for Louis XIV.

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