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Donation of Constantine, the best-known and most important forgery of the Middle Ages, the document purporting to record the Roman emperor Constantine the Great’s bestowal of vast territory and spiritual and temporal power on Pope Sylvester I (reigned 314–335) and his successors.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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The Donation of Constantine (Latin: Donatio Constantini) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope.
Jul 1, 2019 · The Donation of Constantine (Donatio Constantini or the Donatio) is a medieval forgery dated to the 8th century purporting to be an original 4th-century document in which the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306-337) granted supreme temporal and spiritual power to the Church.
- Joshua J. Mark
- The Donation of Constantine is a medieval forgery claiming that Constantine the Great surrendered his power to the Church which then allowed him to...
- The Donation of Constantine was used to pressure the Frankish king Pepin the Short into surrendering the lands he had conquered from the Lombards t...
- The Donation of Constantine was revealed as a forgery by the priest and scholar Lorenzo Valla in c. 1439-1440.
- The Catholic Church publicly admitted the Donation of Constantine was a forgery in 1929 and returned the lands it had acquired from Pepin the Short...
Jan 26, 1996 · A famous forgery that claimed Constantine gave the papacy control of Italy and the West. It was used by popes to justify their power and authority until proven false by Lorenzo Valla in the Renaissance.
The Donation of Constantine is a purported imperial decree in which the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester I.
The document concludes with maledictions against all who dare to violate these donations and with the assurance that the emperor has signed them with his own hand and placed them on the tomb of St. Peter. This document is without doubt a forgery, fabricated somewhere between the years 750 and 850.
Jun 24, 2019 · Donation of Constantine: A medieval forgery created c. 751-756 CE by the Roman Catholic Church purporting to be a genuine 4th century CE document in which Constantine the Great surrendered his power to the Church and the Church then returned it to him as a gift; meaning the Church, not temporal leaders, held absolute power and could interfere ...
