Donation of Constantine

E121050

The Donation of Constantine is a famous forged medieval document that purported to grant the pope vast temporal authority over the Western Roman Empire, later exposed as inauthentic by Renaissance humanists.

All labels observed (4)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (51)

Predicate Object
instanceOf forgery
medieval Latin document
papal document forgery
assertsDoctrine primacy of the bishop of Rome
supremacy of the Roman Church
authenticity spurious
citedIn canon law collections
claimsToGrant imperial regalia to the pope
privileges to the Roman Church
sovereignty over Italy
sovereignty over Rome
sovereignty over the Western Roman Empire
temporal power to the pope
criticizedBy Nicholas of Cusa
Reginald Pecock
dateOfComposition 8th century
exposedAsForgeryBy Lorenzo Valla
exposedAsForgeryIn 15th century
c. 1440
exposedAsForgeryWork De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio
featuresCharacter Constantinus Magnus
surface form: Constantine the Great

Pope Sylvester I
genre imperial charter
hasAuthor unknown
historicalImpact became a central text in debates over church and state
contributed to the theory of papal monarchy
strengthened medieval papal claims to territory
influenced medieval political theory
papal-imperial conflicts
Investiture Controversy
surface form: the Investiture Controversy
language Latin
legalForm donation charter
mainSubject authority of the pope over the Western Roman Empire
papal temporal power
narrativeEvent Constantine’s baptism by Pope Sylvester I
Constantine’s cure from leprosy
placeOfOrigin Papal chancery (probable)
Western Europe
preservedIn medieval manuscript collections
purportedAuthor Constantinus Magnus
surface form: Constantine the Great
purpose to justify papal temporal authority
to support papal claims over secular rulers
relatedTo Christianization of the Roman Empire
surface form: Constantinian shift

Papal States
Papal supremacy
status forgery
usedBy medieval canon lawyers
papacy
pro-papal polemicists
usedIn Gratian’s Decretum
Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (7)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Lorenzo Valla criticized Donation of Constantine
imperial coronation of Charlemagne in 800 relatedTo Donation of Constantine
this entity surface form: Donation of Constantine (document)
De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio claimsAboutDonationOfConstantine Donation of Constantine
this entity surface form: the Donation of Constantine is a forgery
Pope Sylvester I traditionallyAssociatedWith Donation of Constantine
this entity surface form: Donation of Constantine (legend)