Donation of Constantine

Background

Known in Latin as the Donatio Constantini, the document states that Constantine I granted Pope Sylvester I and his successors authority to rule Rome and the western part of the empire, together with various privileges and properties. Several manuscripts, including the oldest, which dates from the ninth century, bear the title "Edict of the Lord Emperor Constantine" (Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris).

The document's author, date, and place of origin remain unknown. It is commonly dated to the eighth century, but some scholars argue for a Frankish origin on the grounds that the document first appears in collections of texts from the Frankish kingdom. The German medievalist Johannes Fried held that it was produced in the ninth century at the Abbey of Corbie in northern France. Whichever view is adopted, the document is regarded as having been fabricated to support the claim that the papacy had inherited imperial authority in the West.

Development

• Mid-ninth century: The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, a collection of forged canon-law documents, were compiled around 847–852. The Donation was included in this collection and thereby circulated widely.
• 1001: The chancery of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III is reported to have declared the document inauthentic.
• 1054: In a letter to Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, Pope Leo IX quoted the document at length. This is regarded as the first instance of a pope relying on it in an official document. Leo IX cited it to argue that the papacy possessed both earthly and heavenly power. The dispute formed part of the conflict that led to the East–West Schism.
• Eleventh and twelfth centuries: The document was frequently cited during the Investiture Controversy, in which popes and secular rulers contended over the right to appoint clergy. Portions of it were also included in medieval canon-law collections, including Gratian's Decretum.
• 1439–1440: Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa had earlier raised doubts about the document. Subsequently, the Italian Catholic priest and humanist Lorenzo Valla wrote the Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine, demonstrating that it was a forgery. Valla employed the methods of philology (the study of the language and text of ancient documents), arguing that the document's Latin style and administrative terminology belonged not to the fourth century but to a much later period.

Consequences and Influence

The Eastern Church understood Constantine to have moved the center of the empire to Constantinople, the "New Rome." Because the document conflicted with that understanding, it became a point of contention when Rome and Constantinople disputed ecclesiastical primacy (preeminent rank). In the Middle Ages, those who opposed the papacy generally did not question the document's authenticity; instead, they contested the legal interpretations drawn from it.

After Valla, the conclusion that the document was a forgery gradually gained acceptance. Catholic historians such as Caesar Baronius also acknowledged it as a forgery. At first, however, there were attempts to defend its content—particularly the emperor's grant of territory—on other grounds. These attempts were eventually abandoned as well. The Catholic Encyclopedia, published under Catholic auspices in 1913, likewise regards the document as spurious in both form and content.

Assessment

Scholars today agree without dissent that the document is a forgery. Sources differ on when its authenticity was first questioned: some hold that it was challenged repeatedly beginning in 1001, while others maintain that no one doubted it before the fifteenth century. For much of the Middle Ages, the document served as a basis for claims to the pope's temporal authority. Valla's exposure of the forgery is counted among the signal achievements of Renaissance historical criticism and is often cited as a model for the critical reading of documents in modern textual criticism.