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