April 26, 2020 (updated May 9, 2020)

Prof. emerit. Karlheinz Dietz.

Professor Emeritus Karlheinz Dietz has written numerous high-quality papers on the history of the Shroud of Turin. He is also one of the rare researchers to have seen the Shroud up close and out of its protective case for several days during the restoration of the Shroud in the summer of 2002. His papers may not be well-known to non-German readers as they are predominantly written in German. I present a shortened version of Karlheinz Dietz's paper on the hypothesis of the Templars (“The Templars did not own the Shroud of Turin”), which was translated into English and revised by Johannes Dietz and Dietmar Wuksch. I also made some editorial modifications approved by Karlheinz Dietz. The original, longer paper written in German, was published in 2017 (see the end of the shortened version for details).

The paper addresses various elements of the hypothesis, such as the existence of a high-ranking Templar named Geoffroy de Charnay, who was burned at the stake with the Grand Master Jacques de Molay in 1314. However, there is no evidence linking that Charnay and Geoffroy de Charny, lord of Lirey and Savoisy, the first recorded owner of the Shroud in France. The name “Charnay” and its variants such as “Charny”, and “Charni” were common in medieval times. Moreover, the granddaughter of Geoffroy de Charny, Marguerite de Charny, testified in court that the Shroud came from her grandfather, ruling out the possibility that the Shroud came from another member of the Charny family. This statement also excludes Geoffroy de Charny's wifes, Jeanne de Toucy and Jeanne de Vergy, as the possible origin of the Shroud in the Charny family.

Please use the following link to download a PDF version of the paper.