Donation of Constantine

It became with some additions south of Ancona and west of the Apennines the papal state.

The real donation of the Frankish king was shortly afterwards supported by the production of what purported to be a still older donation, the famous forged donation of Constantine.

Thus from the anointing of St. Denis of the second kingly line of the Franks arose in the first place the temporal dominion of the popes, held in the beginning as a temporal lordship over the overlordship of the king or emperor, then claimed by them as independent princes in absolute sovereignty, and next the pretension broadening out indefinitely from this precedent to interfere in the political and civil affairs of Christendom, to dispose of kingdoms, to set up and degrade kings.

End of section 11 Section 12 of The Beginning of the Middle Ages by Richard William Church This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Pamela Nagami Chapter 6 The Roman Empire in the East Part 1 While in the West civilized order was disturbed and broken up, to be reconstructed on a new basis, in the East it went on continuously from the days of Constantine till its temporary interruption by the Crusaders, 1203 to 1261, and its destruction by the Ottomans in 1453.

But at this time, this is when the Roman Catholic Church and everything was taking over.

You had the donation of Constantine, which has been proven a fake.

And for those that don't know, when Constantine was bringing, uh, his country into Christianity, instead of continuing the tradition of passing the kingship to his son, you know, and all this kind of stuff, supposedly on his deathbed wrote out this last will and testament giving all power to the church Saying that, uh, all authority needs to go to God, and they're the representatives of God, so therefore they have the power to enthrone kings and dethrone kings as God sees fit.

And then later, I think it was like in the 16th or 16th to 18th century, I can't remember, it was several hundred years later, a, a scholar looked into it and proved it to be a fake.

It's not frustrating at all.

In 1440, an Italian scholar called Lorenzo Valla took on the most powerful document in medieval Europe, the Donation of Constantine.

It claimed to be a decree from the 4th century in which Emperor Constantine handed the Pope authority over Rome and the Western Empire.

Popes had been leaning on it for centuries.

In return, Pippin guaranteed the pope protection against the Lombards.

Pippin also reinforced the Pope's authority by colluding with him over one of the greatest forgeries in history, the Donation of Constantine.

This was a fictitious document which stated that the Emperor Constantine had conferred on the Bishop of Rome, who was at that time called Sylvester, authority over all the bishops outside Byzantine territory.

With that and the backing of the Franks, the papacy became the established leader of the Western Church, culminating in Charlemagne's reign with his coronation as Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800.

Of even greater interest is the legend that Constantine was baptized by Sylvester, the bishop of Rome, and in gratitude for the promise of pardon, he bestowed upon the sea of Rome the daminosa hereditas of the temporal power.

There is no necessity to discuss at length the once famous and now simply notorious Donation of Constantine.

The legend is so grotesque that one wonders it ever imposed on the credulity even of the most ignorant, for it represented Constantine as being smitten with leprosy for having persecuted the church and for having driven the good Pope Sylvester into exile.

The emperor consulted the soothsayers, priests, and physicians in turn and was at last informed that his only chance of cure lay in bathing in the blood of little children.

He never contemplated bathing in infants' blood.

He did not receive the rite of baptism until he was on his deathbed and he did not hand over to the pope the fee simple and title deeds of Rome and Italy.

The donation of Constantine belongs to the museum of historical forgeries.

But if the repentance of Constantine did not take the form of stupendous endowments for the bishop of Rome, we may be tolerably sure that it did manifest itself in the increased zeal of the emperor for the building of churches and especially in his munificence to the Christians of Rome.

I was thinking of a really early example, which would be, if I'm remembering right, Lorenzo Valla showing that the-

Yes, the Donation of Constantine.

Yes.

Right

End of excerpt from Awful Disclosures of the Hotel du Nunnery of Montreal by Maria Monk Recording by Colleen McMahon

THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE PURPORTEDLY BY THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE in the name of the holy and indivisible trinity the father namely and the son and the holy spirit the emperor caesar flavius constantine in christ jesus the lord god our saviour one of that same holy trinity faithful merciful supreme beneficent alemannic gothic sarmatic germanic britannic hunnic pious fortunate victor and triumper always august to the most holy and blessed father of the fathers silvester bishop of the city of rome and pope and to all his successors the pontiffs who are about to sit upon the chair of st peter until the end of time and also to all the most reverend and of god beloved catholic bishops subjected by this our imperial decree throughout the whole world to this same holy roman church who have been established now and in all previous times grace peace charity rejoicing long-suffering mercy be with you all from god the father almighty and from jesus christ his son and from the holy ghost our most gracious serenity desires in clear discourse through the page of this our imperial decree to bring to the knowledge of all the people in the whole world what things our saviour and redeemer the lord jesus christ the son of the most high father has most wonderfully seen fit to bring about by the intervention of our father sylvester the highest pontiff and the universal pope first indeed putting forth with the utmost confession of our heart for the purpose of instructing the mind of all of you our creed which we have learned from the aforesaid most blessed father and our confessor sylvester the universal pontiff and then at length announcing the mercy of god which has been poured upon us

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May the divinity preserve you for many years, O most holy and blessed fathers.

Given at Rome on the third day before the calends of April, our master the august Flavius Constantine, for the fourth time, and Galigano, most illustrious men, being consuls.

End of the donation of Constantine, purportedly by the Emperor Constantine.

An historical and geographical description of Formosa by George Salmanazer the preface when i first arrived in england every one was curious to discourse me about my own country and forasmuch as my account of it was entirely new they thought it my duty to publish it and i readily complied with their advice both for my own ease and their satisfaction

End of excerpt from Awful Disclosures of the Hotel du Nunnery of Montreal by Maria Monk Recording by Colleen McMahon

The donation of Constantine, purportedly by the Emperor Constantine.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

May the divinity preserve you for many years, O most holy and blessed fathers.

Given at Rome on the third day before the calends of April, our master the august Flavius Constantine, for the fourth time, and Galigano, most illustrious men, being consuls.

End of the donation of Constantine, purportedly by the Emperor Constantine.

An historical and geographical description of Formosa by George Salmanazer the preface when i first arrived in england every one was curious to discourse me about my own country and forasmuch as my account of it was entirely new they thought it my duty to publish it and i readily complied with their advice both for my own ease and their satisfaction