Gilles de Rais - Question of Guilt

Question of Guilt

Although Gilles de Rais was convicted of murdering many children through his confessions and the detailed eyewitness accounts of his own confederates and victims' parents, doubts have persisted about the court's verdict. Counterarguments are based on the theory de Rais was himself a victim of an ecclesiastic plot or act of revenge by the Catholic Church or French state. Doubts on Gilles de Rais' guilt have long persisted because the Duke of Brittany, who was given the authority to prosecute, received all the titles to Gilles' former lands after his conviction. The Duke then divided the land among his own nobles. Writers such as French professor and secret societies specialist Jean-Pierre Bayard, in his book Plaidoyer pour Gilles de Rais, contend he was a victim of the Inquisition.

In the early 20th century, Anthropologist Margaret Murray and occultist Aleister Crowley are among those who questioned the involvement of the ecclesiastic and secular authorities in the case. Murray, who propagated the witch-cult hypothesis, speculated in her book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe that Gilles de Rais was really a witch and adherent of a fertility cult centered on the pagan goddess, Diana. However, many historians reject Murray's theory. Norman Cohn argues that her theory does not agree with what is known of Gilles' crimes and trial. Historians do not regard Gilles as a martyr to an antiquated religion; other scholars tend to view him as a Catholic who descended into crime and depravity.

In 1992, Freemason Jean-Yves Goëau-Brissonnière, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, organized a court consisting of former French ministers, parliament members and UNESCO experts to re-examine the source material and evidence available at the medieval trial. The hearing, which concluded Gilles de Rais was not guilty of the crimes, was turned into a documentary called Gilles de Rais ou la Gueule du loup, narrated by Gilbert Prouteau.