The most striking feature of hoaxes perpetrated during the pre-modern period is that they often went unchallenged for centuries. Only at the dawn of the modern era were many of them finally debunked. People happily accepted what we would regard to be outrageous falsehoods, even when contradictory evidence was readily available. For instance, when travelers returned with tales of unicorns, cyclops, and other fantastic creatures they had seen in eastern lands, no one challenged the veracity of these claims.

One explanation for this attitude is that people in the medieval world were not inclined to challenge deceptions, as long as those deceptions supported the status quo. So if the Chu...

The most striking feature of hoaxes perpetrated during the pre-modern period is that they often went unchallenged for centuries. Only at the dawn of the modern era were many of them finally debunked. People happily accepted what we would regard to be outrageous falsehoods, even when contradictory evidence was readily available. For instance, when travelers returned with tales of unicorns, cyclops, and other fantastic creatures they had seen in eastern lands, no one challenged the veracity of these claims.

One explanation for this attitude is that people in the medieval world were not inclined to challenge deceptions, as long as those deceptions supported the status quo. So if the Church claimed it had a document giving it ownership of vast lands throughout Europe, no one challenged the authenticity of that document, because to do so would be to challenge the authority of the Church itself. (See Forgeries of the Medieval Church.) Likewise, if your local church claimed it had the brain of St. Peter in a box, why question that claim if doing so would only damage the church?