According to Besse, in 1652 he received scrap of parchment from a prebendary of Saint-Étienne de Toulouse.
He published it eight years later under the title "Charte de Niquinta" in a three-page appendix to his Histoire des ducs, marquis et comtes de Narbonne.
The poorly written "charter" purports to be extracts from three Latin documents copied by Peire Polhan and Peire Izarn in 1223 or 1233.
These record a Cathar council held at Saint-Félix-de-Caraman in 1167, a sermon given by a papa (or pope) named Niquinta (Nicetas) at this council and the demarcation of boundaries of new Cathar dioceses in Toulouse, Carcassonne and Agen.
Although many historians have lent great weight to the "Charte de Niquinta", others have labelled it a forgery, either of Besse himself or of Peire Polhan and Peire Izarn in the 13th century.