Donation of Constantine

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An icon of Sylvester and Constantine, purporting to show the Donation

The Donation of Constantine (Latin, Constitutum Donatio Constantini or Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris) is a forged Roman imperial edict devised probably between 750 and 850. Its precise purpose is not entirely certain, but it was clearly a defense of papal interests, perhaps against the claims of either the Byzantine Empire, or the Frankish king Charlemagne, who had assumed the former imperial dignity in the West and with it the title "Emperor of the Romans". The earliest date is the most probable, and it is often said that the document could have been written during the papacy of Stephen II, around 752.

Purportedly issued by the fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine I, the Donation grants Pope Sylvester I and his successors, as inheritors of St Peter, the dominion over the city of Rome, Italy, and the entire Western Roman Empire, while Constantine would retain imperial authority in the Eastern Roman Empire from his new imperial capital of Constantinople. The text claims that the Donation was Constantine's reward to Sylvester for instructing him in the Christian faith, baptizing him and miraculously curing him of leprosy.

This document was used by medieval popes to bolster their claims for territorial and secular power in Italy. It was widely accepted, though the Emperor Otto III denounced the document as a forgery. The poet Dante Alighieri lamented it as the root of papal worldliness in his Divine Comedy. However, by the mid 15th-century, with the revival of Classical scholarship and textual critique, the Church had begun to realize that the document could not possibly be genuine. The Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla proved in 1440 that the Donation must be a fake by analyzing its language, and showing 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. Also, the date given in the document does not add up, as it refers both to the fourth consulate of Constantine (315) as well as the consulate of Gallicanus (317). More recent scholars have further demonstrated that other elements, such as Sylvester's curing of Constantine, are later legends.