The Renaissance scholar Lorenzo Valla proved it a forgery in 1440 by analyzing its language.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Lorenzo Valla, De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione (1440)
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Is the Donation of Constantine a Forgery?
Is the Donation of Constantine a Forgery?
The current answer
A grant Constantine never signed, written four centuries after his death, that the Catholic Encyclopedia itself calls a forgery.
What remains uncertain
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Claims & evidence
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The document is a period piece of the eighth century wearing a fourth-century mask.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Lorenzo Valla, De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione (1440)
From at least the eleventh century, popes and canon lawyers invoked the Donation to justify papal temporal power and territorial claims against emperors and kings.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Constitutum Constantini; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
The Donation of Constantine is a forgery composed centuries after Constantine.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Constitutum Constantini; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), bedrock
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