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Donation of Constantine

This article is about the forged imperial decree. For the painting inspired by the decree, see The Donation of Constantine (painting).
A 13th-century fresco of Sylvester I and Constantine the Great, showing the purported Donation (Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome)
A 9th-century copy of the Donation of Constantine as part of the False Decretals by Pseudo-Isidore. The heading in red reads "Epistola Constantini Imperator ad Silvestrum Papam," or "Letter of Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester."

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. Composed probably in the 9th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy.[1][2]

In many of the existing manuscripts, including the oldest, the document bears the title Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris.[3] The Donation of Constantine was included in the 9th-century Pseudo-Isidorean decretals. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440,[4] although the document's authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001.[1]

  1. ^ a b Vauchez, Andre (2001). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Routledge. p. 445. ISBN 978-1-57958-282-1.
  2. ^ Cushing, Kathleen G. (September 29, 2005). Reform and the papacy in the eleventh century: Spirituality and social change. Manchester University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0719058349.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference WikisourceCatholicEncyclopedia1913 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Whelton, M. (1998). Two Paths: Papal Monarchy – Collegial Tradition. Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press. p. 113.

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