View source for Donation of Constantine

{{short description|Forged Roman imperial decree}}
{{about|the forged imperial decree|the painting inspired by the decree|The Donation of Constantine (painting)}}
[[Image:Sylvester I and Constantine.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A 13th-century fresco of [[Sylvester I]] and [[Constantine the Great]], showing the purported Donation ([[Santi Quattro Coronati]], Rome)]]

[[File:The Donation of Constantine, page 318.jpg|thumb|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 Imperatoris ad Silvestrum Papam," or "Letter of Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester."]]

The '''Donation of Constantine''' ({{italics correction|{{langx|la|Donatio Constantini}}}}) is a [[Forgery|forged]] Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor [[Constantine the Great]] supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the [[Western Roman Empire|western part]] of the [[Roman Empire]] to the [[Pope]]. Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of [[Investiture Controversy|claims of political authority by the papacy]].<ref name=EMA>Vauchez, Andre (2001). [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmi0001unse_z7y7/page/444/mode/2up ''Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages'']. Routledge.  p. 445. {{ISBN|978-1-57958-282-1}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cushing |first=Kathleen G. |title=Reform and the papacy in the eleventh century: Spirituality and social change |date=September 29, 2005 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0719058349 |page=58}}</ref>

In many of the existing [[Manuscript#History|manuscripts]], including the oldest, the document bears the title ''Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris''.<ref name="WikisourceCatholicEncyclopedia1913" /> 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 [[Philology|philological]] arguments in 1439&ndash;1440,<ref>Whelton, M. (1998). ''Two Paths: Papal Monarchy – Collegial Tradition''. Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press. p. 113.</ref> although the document's authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001.<ref name="EMA" />

== Content ==
{{Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church|expanded = documents}}{{canon law}}An alleged decree from [[Roman emperor|Roman Emperor]] [[Constantine I]], dated March 30 and not explicitly stating its year, incorrectly references the co-consul of Constantine I in his fourth term (315) as [[Ovinius Gallicanus|Gallicanus]] (317).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Select_Historical_Documents_of_the_Middle_Ages/Book_III/The_Donation_of_Constantine|title=Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages|chapter=The Donation of Constantine }}</ref> Historical records confirm that these two never served as consuls together, indicating this as evidence of the document's forged nature. The forged imperial decree states that "Constantine" professes Christianity (''confessio'') and entitles to [[Pope Sylvester I]] several imperial insignia and privileges (''donatio''), as well as the [[Lateran Palace]]. Rome, the rest of Italy, and the western provinces of the empire are made over to the papacy.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |date=1991 |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 |editor1-first=Alexander P. |editor1-last=Kazhdan |last1=Hollingsworth |first1=Paul A |chapter=Donation of Constantine |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-1533 }}</ref>

The text recounts a narrative founded on the 5th-century ''[[Acts of Sylvester]]''. This tale describes the sainted Pope Sylvester's rescue of the Romans from the depredations of a local dragon and the pontiff's miraculous cure of the emperor's [[leprosy]] by the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|sacrament]] of [[baptism]].<ref name=":0"/> The story was rehearsed by the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]''; by the later 8th century the dragon-slayer Sylvester and his [[Apostolic succession|apostolic successors]] were rewarded in the Donation of Constantine with [[Temporal power of the Holy See|temporal powers]] never in fact exercised by the historical [[Bishops of Rome under Constantine the Great|Bishops of Rome under Constantine]].

In his gratitude, "Constantine" determined to bestow on the seat of Peter "power, and dignity of glory, vigor, and imperial honor," and "supremacy as well over the four principal sees: [[Alexandria]], [[Antioch]], [[Jerusalem]], and [[Constantinople]], as also over all the churches of God in the whole earth". For the upkeep of the church of Saint Peter and that of Saint Paul, he gave landed estates "in [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judea]], [[Greece]], [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]], [[Thrace]], [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]], [[Italy]] and the various islands". To Sylvester and his successors he also granted imperial insignia, the tiara, and "the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places and cities of Italy and the western regions".<ref>"The Donation of Constantine". ''[[Decretum Gratiani]]''. Part 1, Division 96, Chapters 13–14. Quoted in: Coleman, Christopher B. (1922). [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/vallapart1.html ''Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine'']. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Translation of: Valla, Lorenzo (1440). ''Declamatio de falso credita et ementita donatione Constantini''.) Hosted at the Hanover Historical Texts Project.</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203487976 |title=History of Western Philosophy |date=2004 |last1=Russell |first1=Bertrand |isbn=978-0-203-48797-6 |page=366 }}</ref>

The Donation sought reduction in the authority of Constantinople; if Constantine I had elevated Pope Sylvester I to imperial rank before the inauguration of Constantinople in 330, then Sylvester, Rome's Patriarch would have had a lead of fifteen years in the contest for primacy among the [[patriarchates]]. Implicitly, the papacy asserted its supremacy and prerogative to transfer the imperial seat; the papacy had consented to the [[translatio imperii]] to [[Byzantium]] by Constantine and it could wrest back the authority at will.<ref name=":0" />

== Origin ==
It has been suggested that an early draft of the Donation of Constantine was made shortly after the middle of the 8th century, in order to assist [[Pope Stephen II]] in his negotiations with [[Pepin the Short]], who then held the position of [[Mayor of the Palace]] (i.e., the manager of the household of the Frankish king).<ref>{{cite book|last=Duffy|first=Eamon|url=https://archive.org/details/00book1593273669|title=Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-300-11597-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/00book1593273669/page/89 89]|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=O'Malley|first=S. W. J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3Cs-1w5mucC&pg=PA59|title=A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present|publisher=Government Institutes|year=2009|isbn=978-1-580-51229-9|page=59}}</ref> In 754, Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps to anoint Pepin king, thereby enabling the [[Carolingian]] family to supplant the old [[Merovingian]] royal line. In return for Stephen's support, Pepin gave the pope the lands in Italy which the [[Lombards]] had taken from the [[Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schnürer|first=Gustav|entry-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14257a.htm|entry=States of the Church|encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|year=1912|location=New York |via=New Advent}}</ref> It is also possible it originated in the chancery of Stephen's immediate successor [[Pope Paul I|Paul I]].<ref name=":0" /> These lands would become the [[Papal States]] and would be the basis of the papacy's [[Temporal power (Papal)|temporal power]] for the next eleven centuries.

Another interpretation holds that the Donation was not an official forgery directed at Constantinople, but was instead a ploy in Roman ecclesiastical politics to bolster the status of the Lateran, which does have historical Constantinian connections, against the rising status of the [[Apostolic Palace|Vatican]], and it may have been composed by a Greek monk working in a Roman monastery.<ref name=":0" /> In one study, an attempt was made at dating the forgery to the 9th century, and placing its composition at [[Corbie Abbey]], in northern France.<ref name="Fried">Fried, Johannes (2007). ''"Donation of Constantine" and "Constitutum Constantini": The Misinterpretation of a Fiction and Its Original Meaning.'' Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. {{ISBN|978-3-11-018539-3}}.</ref>

German medievalist [[Johannes Fried]] draws a distinction between the Donation of Constantine and an earlier, also forged version, the ''Constitutum Constantini'', which was included in the collection of forged documents, the [[Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals|False Decretals]], compiled in the latter half of the 9th century. Fried argues the Donation is a later expansion of the much shorter ''Constitutum''.<ref name="Fried" /> Christopher B. Coleman understands the mention in the ''Constitutum'' of a donation of "the western regions" to refer to the regions of [[Lombardy]], [[Veneto]], and [[Istria]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coleman|first=Christopher Bush|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c4ERAAAAYAAJ&q=Constitutum+Constantini&pg=PA175|title=Constantine the Great and Christianity: Three Phases: the Historical, the Legendary, and the Spurious|date=1914|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-7905-4212-6 |language=en}}</ref>

== Medieval use and reception ==
What may perhaps be the earliest known allusion to the Donation is in a letter of 778, in which [[Pope Adrian I|Pope Hadrian I]] exhorts [[Charlemagne]] – whose father, [[Pepin the Short]], had made the [[Donation of Pepin]] granting the Popes sovereignty over the [[Papal States]] – to follow Constantine's example and endow the Roman Catholic church. [[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III's]] [[Chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] denied its authenticity.<ref name=":1" />

The first pope to directly invoke the decree was [[Pope Leo IX]], in a letter sent in 1054 to [[Michael I Cerularius]], [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]].<ref name="WikisourceCatholicEncyclopedia1913">[[s::Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Donation of Constantine|"Donation of Constantine"]]. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.</ref> He cited a large portion of the document, believing it genuine,<ref>Migne, Jacques-Paul (1891). ''[[Patrologia Latina]]''. Volume 143 (cxliii). Col. 744–769.</ref><ref>Mansi, Giovanni Domenico. ''Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Amplissima Collectio''. Volume 19 (xix). Col. 635–656.</ref> furthering the debate that would ultimately lead to the [[East–West Schism]]. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Donation was often cited in the [[Investiture Controversy|investiture conflicts]] between the papacy and the secular powers in the West.<ref name="WikisourceCatholicEncyclopedia1913"/>

The document's contents contradicted the Byzantines' notion that Constantine's ''translatio imperii'' transferred the seat of imperial authority from Rome to his foundation of Constantinople, named the "New Rome". Consequently, the Donation featured in the east–west dispute over ecclesiastical primacy between the [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] [[Episcopal see|sees]] of Rome and New Rome.<ref name=":0" /> [[Humbert of Silva Candida|Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida]] also issued a version of the document to support the papacy's claims against the eastern emperors' and patriarchs' primacy.<ref name=":0" />

By the 12th century the text existed in Greek translation, of which a 14th-century manuscript survives, and Byzantine writers were also using the Donation in their polemics; [[John Kinnamos]], writing in the reign of eastern emperor [[Manuel I Komnenos]], criticized western [[Hohenstaufen|Staufer]] emperors as usurpers and denied the popes had the right to bestow the imperial office.<ref name=":0" /> [[Theodore Balsamon]] justified Michael Cerularius's behaviour in 1054 using the Donation as a rationale for his dismissal of the papal legation and the mutual [[excommunication]]s that followed.<ref name=":0" />

In 1248, the Chapel of St Sylvester in the [[Santi Quattro Coronati|Basilica of the Santi Quattro Coronati]] was decorated with fresco showing the story of the Roman baptism and Donation of Constantine.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Curta|first=Florin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgF9DQAAQBAJ|title=Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History [3 volumes]|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2016|isbn=978-1-61069-566-4|editor-last=Curta|editor-first=Florin|volume=II|pages=407–409|language=en|chapter=Donation of Constantine|editor-last2=Holt|editor-first2=Andrew}}</ref>

In his ''[[The Divine Comedy|Divine Comedy]]'', written in the early 14th century, the poet [[Dante Alighieri]] wrote:<ref>Dante Alighieri. ''Inferno''. Canto 19, lines 115–117.</ref>

{{Poemquote|text=''Ahi, Costantin, di quanto mal fu matre,''
''non la tua conversion, ma quella dote''
''che da te prese il primo ricco patre!''

(Ah, Constantine, how much evil was born,
not from your conversion, but from that donation
that the first wealthy Pope received from you!)|char=|sign=Dante Alighieri|title=''Inferno''|source=canto 19, lines 115–117.}}

== Investigation ==
[[Image:Donationconstantine.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Workshop of [[Raphael]], ''[[The Donation of Constantine (painting)|The Donation of Constantine]]''. ''[[Raphael Rooms|Stanze di Raffaello]]'', [[Vatican City]]]]

During the [[Middle Ages]], the Donation was widely accepted as authentic, although [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Emperor Otto III|Otto III]] did possibly raise suspicions as to the document's authenticity due to its making a gift to the See of Rome.<ref name=":1">''[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]''. DD II 820. pp. 13–15.</ref> It was not until the mid-15th century, with the revival of Classical scholarship and textual criticism, that [[Renaissance humanism|humanists]], and eventually the papal bureaucracy, began to realize that the document could not possibly be genuine. [[Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa]] declared it to be a forgery<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Discovery of Time |first1=Stephen |last1=Toulmin |first2=June |last2=Goodfield |pages=[https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftime00toul/page/104 104–106] |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |edition=Phoenix |year=1982 |isbn=0-226-80842-4 |author-link=Stephen Toulmin |author-link2=June Goodfield |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftime00toul/page/104 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Nicholas of Cusa |editor=Paul E. Sigmund  |translator=Sigmund |title=The Catholic Concordance|series=Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1991|isbn=0-521-40207-7|chapter=The properly ordered power of the Western emperor does not depend on the Pope|pages=216–222}}</ref> and spoke of it as an [[apocryphal]] work.

[[Image:Lorenzo Valla aport011.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Lorenzo Valla]]
Later, the humanist and scholar [[Lorenzo Valla]] argued in his [[philology|philological]] study of the text that the language used in manuscript could not be dated to the 4th century.<ref name=Prosser>{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A80303684}} |last1=Prosser |first1=Peter E. |title=Church history's biggest hoax: Renaissance scholarship proved fatal for one of the medieval papacy's favorite claims |journal=Christian History |date=November 2001 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=35–37 }}</ref> The language of the text suggests that the manuscript can most likely be dated to the 8th century. Valla believed the forgery to be so obvious that he suspected that the Church knew the document to be inauthentic. Valla further argued that papal usurpation of temporal power had corrupted the church, caused the wars of Italy, and reinforced the "overbearing, barbarous, tyrannical priestly domination."<ref name=Prosser/>

Independently of both Cusa and Valla, [[Reginald Pecock]]e, Bishop of Chichester (1450–57), reached a similar conclusion. Among the indications that the Donation is a forgery are its language and the fact that, while certain imperial-era formulas are used in the text, some of the Latin in the document could not have been written in the 4th century; anachronistic terms such as "[[fief]]" were used. Also, the purported date of the document is inconsistent with the content of the document itself, as it refers both to the fourth consulate of Constantine (315) as well as the consulate of Gallicanus (317).

[[Pope Pius II]] wrote a tract in 1453, five years before becoming pope, to show that though the Donation was a forgery, the papacy owed its lands to [[Charlemagne]] and its powers of the [[Keys of Heaven|keys]] to [[Primacy of Peter|Peter]]; however, he did not publish it.<ref>Pope Pius II (1883). ''Opera inedita''. pp. 571–81. Cited in: {{harvnb|Lea|1895}}</ref>

Contemporary opponents of papal powers in Italy emphasized the primacy of civil law and civil jurisdiction, now firmly embodied once again in the Justinian ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]''. The Florentine chronicler [[Giovanni Cavalcanti (chronicler)|Giovanni Cavalcanti]] reported that, in the very year of Valla's treatise, [[Filippo Maria Visconti]], Duke of Milan, made diplomatic overtures toward [[Cosimo de' Medici]] in Florence, proposing an alliance against the pope. In reference to the Donation, Visconti wrote: "It so happens that even if Constantine consigned to Sylvester so many and such rich gifts – which is doubtful, because such a privilege can nowhere be found – he could only have granted them for his lifetime: the empire takes precedence over any lordship."{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

Later, scholars further demonstrated that other elements, such as Sylvester's curing of Constantine, are legends which originated at a later time. [[Wolfram Setz]], a recent editor of Valla's work, has affirmed that at the time of Valla's refutation, Constantine's alleged "donation" was no longer a matter of contemporary relevance in [[political theory]] and that it simply provided an opportunity for an exercise in legal rhetoric.<ref>[[Wolfram Setz|Setz, Wolfram]] (1976). ''Lorenzo Vallas Schrift gegen die Konstantinische Schenkung''. Weimar. (Translation of: Valla, Lorenzo (1440). ''De Falso Credita et Ementita Constantini Donatione Declamatio'').</ref>

The bulls of [[Nicholas V]] and his successors made no further mention of the Donation, even when partitioning the New World, though the doctrine of "omni-insular" papal fiefdoms, developed out of the Donation<nowiki/>'s vague references to islands since [[Pope Nicholas II|Pope Nicholas II's]] grant of Sicily to [[Robert Guiscard]], was deployed after 1492 in papal pronouncements on the overlapping claims of the Iberian kingdoms in the Americas and [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]], including ''[[Inter caetera]]'', a [[Papal bull|bull]] that resulted in the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] and the [[Treaty of Zaragoza]].<ref name=":2" />{{sfn|Wilson|2008|p=166ff}} Valla's treatise was taken up vehemently by writers of the [[Protestant Reformation]], such as [[Ulrich von Hutten]] and [[Martin Luther]], causing the treatise to be placed on the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' in the mid-16th century.

The Donation continued to be tacitly accepted as authentic until [[Caesar Baronius]] in his ''[[Annales Ecclesiastici]]'' (published 1588–1607) admitted that it was a forgery, after which it was almost universally accepted as such.<ref name="WikisourceCatholicEncyclopedia1913" /> Some continued to argue for its authenticity; nearly a century after ''Annales Ecclesiastici'', [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Christian Wolff]] still alluded to the Donation as undisputed fact.<ref>Wolff, Christian. "Append. ad [[Council of Chalcedon|Concilium Chalcedonensem]]". ''Opere''. ii:261. Cited in: {{harvnb|Lea|1895}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Catholicism|Italy|Vatican City}}
*[[Constantinianism]]
*[[Caesaropapism]]
*[[Donation of Sutri]]
*[[Donation of Pepin]]
*[[Investiture Controversy]]
*''[[Privilegium maius]]''
*''[[Translatio imperii]]''
*[[Vatican City]]
*[[List of late imperial Roman consuls]]
*[[Legacy of the Roman Empire]]
*''[[Inter caetera]]''
*[[Treaty of Tordesillas]] and [[Treaty of Zaragoza]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal |last1=Lea |first1=Henry Charles |title=The 'Donation of Constantine' |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1895 |volume=X |issue=37 |pages=86–87 |doi=10.1093/ehr/X.XXXVII.86 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004167889.i-534 |title=Savage Republic: ''De Indis'' of Hugo Grotius, Republicanism and Dutch Hegemony within the Early Modern World-System (C. 1600-1619) |date=2008 |last1=Wilson |first1=Eric |isbn=978-90-04-16788-9 }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Camporeale |first1=Salvatore I |title=Lorenzo Valla's Oratio on the Pseudo-Donation of Constantine: Dissent and Innovation in Early Renaissance Humanism |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |date=1996 |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |id={{Project MUSE|14889}} |doi=10.1353/jhi.1996.0002 |jstor=3653880 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Delph |first1=Ronald K |title=Valla Grammaticus, Agostino Steuco, and the Donation of Constantine |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |date=1996 |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=55–77 |id={{Project MUSE|14898}} |doi=10.1353/jhi.1996.0011 |jstor=3653882 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rojas Donat |first1=Luis |title=Para una historia del derecho canónico-político medieval: la donación de constantino |trans-title=For a history of medieval canon law: the Donation of Constantine |language=es |journal=Revista de estudios histórico-jurídicos |date=2004 |issue=26 |id={{ProQuest|211273448}} |doi=10.4067/S0716-54552004002600010 |doi-access=free |url=https://rehj.cl/index.php/rehj/article/view/402 }}
* Fried, Johannes, ''ed. Donation of Constantine and Constitutum Constantini: The Misinterpretation of a Fiction and Its Original Meaning'' (Walter de Gruyter, 2007)
* {{cite book |last=Kapsalis |first=Athanasius |chapter=The false-donation of Constantine |pages=91–107 |editor1-last=Bojović |editor1-first=Dragiša |title=Saint Emperor Constantine and Christianity: Book of Abstracts : International Conference Commemorating the 1700th Anniversary of the Edict of Milan, 31 May-2 June 2013 |date=2013 |publisher=Centre of Church Studies |isbn=978-86-84105-40-2 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Joseph M. |title=Reginald Pecock and Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine |journal=Studies in the Renaissance |date=1973 |volume=20 |pages=118–143 |doi=10.2307/2857015 |jstor=2857015 }}
* [[Joseph McCabe|McCabe, Joseph]] (1939). ''A History Of The Popes''. Watts & Co.
* {{Cite book|last=Nauta|first=Lodi|title=In Defense of Common Sense: Lorenzo Valla's Humanist Critique of Scholastic Philosophy|year=2009|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03269-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OQYAY_DjzYC}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Donation of Constantine | volume= 8 |last=Phillips|first=Walter Alison |author-link=Walter Alison Phillips| pages = 408&ndash;410 |short= 1}}
* {{Cite book|last=Valla|first=Lorenzo|author-link=Lorenzo Valla|title=On the Donation of Constantine|year=2008|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03089-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPhpKv1O65EC}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Zinkeisen |first1=F. |title=The Donation of Constantine as Applied by the Roman Church |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1894 |volume=9 |issue=36 |pages=625–632 |jstor=547562 }}

== External links ==
{{wikisource}}
*Text of the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/donation.html ''Constitutum Donatio Constantini''] (Latin) at [[The Latin Library]]
*Text of the [http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/DonatioConstantini/don_intr.html ''Constitutum Donatio Constantini''] (Latin) at the [[Bibliotheca Augustana]]
*Text of the [http://webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/Constitutiones/donatioc.htm ''Constitutum Constantini''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926214804/http://webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/Constitutiones/donatioc.htm |date=2007-09-26 }} (Latin) at The Roman Law Library
*Lorenzo Valla's [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/vallatc.html ''Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine'']
{{Authority control}}
{{Investiture Controversy}}

[[Category:Investiture Controversy]]
[[Category:8th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:Medieval Christian controversies]]
[[Category:Constantine the Great and Christianity]]
[[Category:Canon law history]]
[[Category:Document forgeries]]
[[Category:History of the papacy]]
[[Category:Papal States]]
[[Category:Scientific skepticism]]
[[Category:Political forgery]]
[[Category:Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor]]