The Donation of Constantine is forged

750

A forged imperial decree purporting to record Constantine the Great handing authority over Rome and the western empire to the papacy. Scholars generally place its composition in the eighth century, though one study argues for the ninth at Corbie Abbey; the eighth-century estimate is taken here as the earliest. Its authenticity was contested from 1001 onwards, and Lorenzo Valla demolished it in 1439-1440 by showing on philological grounds that its Latin could not be fourth-century.