Pious fraud

This article is about a phrase. For the Estonian musical group, see Pia Fraus.

Pious fraud (Latin: pia fraus) is used to describe fraud in religion or medicine. A pious fraud can be counterfeiting a miracle or falsely attributing a sacred text to a biblical figure and promoting holy relics, due to the belief that the "end justifies the means", in this case the end goal of increasing faith by whatever means available.

Use of the phrase

The Oxford English Dictionary reports the phrase is first known to have been used in English in 1678. Edward Gibbon was particularly fond of the phrase, using it often in his monumental and controversial work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in which he criticized the likelihood of some of the martyrs and miracles of the early Christian church.

William W. Howells wrote that shamans know that their tricks are impostures, but that all who studied them agree that they really believe in their power to deal with spirits. According to Howells, their main purpose is an honest one and they believe that this justifies the means of hoodwinking their followers in minor technical matters.[1]

In religious contexts

The 14th century Catholic bishop Nicole Oresme, called attention to the Shroud of Turin as a major case of fake venerated objects being used by clergymen to "elicit offerings for their churches".[2]

Martin Luther a protestant reformer had complained that: "What lies there are about relics! One claims to have a feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel, and the bishop of Mainz has a flame from Moses’ burning bush. And how does it happen that eighteen apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only twelve?"[3]

In Isaac Newton's 1690 dissertation, An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, he blames the "Roman Church" for many abuses in the world, accusing it of "pious frauds".[4]

Joseph Mazzini Wheeler, accused the writings of early Church fathers like Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and Eusebius of being mired in "pious frauds" and superstitions.[5] Jacob Burckhardt strongly characterized Eusebius of Caesarea in particular as "a liar", and the "first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity."[6] Eusebius has also been charged by bible scholar Kenneth Olson as intentionally fabricating and manipulating history to serve religious ends.[7]

Frank Hill Perrycoste, in his 1913 book On the Influence of Religion Upon Truthfulness, within chapters The Influence of Religion in Pious Frauds and In Promoting Pious Frauds. He claimed Jews, Christians and Muslims have a long history, and "gigantic scale" of engaging in pious fraud. Perrycoste gave examples of "fraudulent" material, such as the Book of Enoch, which later fathers such as Tertullian had full confidence. Others included Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, correspondences between Christ and Abgarus of Edessa, the Acts of Pilate which Justin Martyr appealed to, and legends about Paul and Thecla.[8]

Thomas Jefferson

See also: Religious views of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend and doctor in 1807:[9]

One of the most successful physicians I have ever known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of coloured water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put together. It was certainly a pious fraud.

— Placebo Effects and Science Journalism at the Mind/Body Boundary. Steve Silberman, The Journal of Mind-Body Regulation, 2011

See also

References

  1. ^ William Howells, 1962. The Heathens: Primitive Man and his Religions New York City: National Museum of American History [1] in Robert S. Ellwood Civilized Shamans: Sacred Biography and Founders of New Religious Movements, in New Religions in a Postmodern World edited by Mikael Rothstein and Reender Kranenborg (Studies in New Religions Aarhus University Press) 2003 ISBN 87-7288-748-6
  2. ^ "Was Jesus's body wrapped in the Shroud of Turin? Newly discovered medieval document suggests not". Archived from the original on 2026-02-19. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  3. ^ "Relics and Reliquaries". The Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 2026-03-22.
  4. ^ An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. p. 2.
  5. ^ Wheeler, Joseph Mazzini (1882). Frauds and Follies of the Early Christian Fathers: With a Review of the Worth of Their Testimony to the Four Gospels. Freethought Publishing Company.
  6. ^ Hadas, Jacob Burckhardt, Moses. The Age of Constantine the Great. Taylor & Francis. pp. 308–309.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Olson, K. A. (1999). "Eusebius and the "Testimonium Flavianum"". The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. 61 (2): 305–322. ISSN 0008-7912.
  8. ^ Perrycoste, Frank Hill (1913). On the Influence of Religion Upon Truthfulness: Being Two Chapters from an Historical Enquiry Into the Influence of Religion Upon Moral Civilisation. Watts. pp. 249–285.
  9. ^ "Thomas Jefferson to Caspar Wistar, June 21, 1807" (PDF). memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
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