The treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of ConstantineValla, Lorenzo
History
The treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine
Valla, Lorenzo
Church and state -- Holy Roman Empire; Constitutum Constantini; Popes -- Temporal power -- Early works to 1800
[421] I have made two English paragraphs of the rather long Latin one.
[Ed.]
[422] Acts xx, 35.
[423] Matt. x, 8.
[424] I Cor. ix, 15.
[425] Rom. xi, 13.
[426] Quoted, freely, from Matt. vi, 19 and Luke x, 4.
[427] Quoted, freely, from Matt. xix, 24; Mk. x, 25; Luke xviii, 25.
[428] I Tim. vi, 7-11.
[429] Acts vi, 2.
[430] II Tim. ii, 4.
[431] Jer. xlviii, 10, quoted freely.
[432] Free quotations from John xxi, 15-17.
[433] John xviii, 36.
[434] Matt. iv, 17.
[435] Matt. xx, 25-28.
[436] I Cor. vi, 2-5, distorted in punctuation and meaning. Paul argues
that cases should be settled inside the church, and that even the
humblest Christians are competent to act as judges; Valla quotes him to
show that church leaders are not to be judges.
[437] Quotations are from Matt. xvii, 25-26.
[438] Mk. xi, 17.
[439] John xii, 47.
[440] Matt. xxvi, 52.
[441] Matt. xvi, 19.
[442] Matt. xvi. 18.
[443] Matt. iv, 8-9, free quotation.
[444] Matt. xi, 28-30, with the phrases transposed.
[445] Matt. xxii, 21.
[446] Eutropius, Breviarum ab urbe condita, X, xvi, 1.
[447] _Ibid._, X, xvii, 1 and 2.
[448] The antipope elected by the Council of Basle in 1439. This
reference is one of the clues to the date of Valla’s treatise.
[449] Valla’s statement about Eusebius’ Church History is slightly
overdrawn. Some passages, while not definitely saying that Constantine
was a Christian from boyhood, would naturally be construed as implying
this, especially when taken in connection with the chapter headings
in use long before Valla’s time; e.g., ix, 9, §§ 1-12. In his Life of
Constantine, i, 27-32, however, Eusebius tells the story of the Emperor’s
conversion in the campaign against Maxentius in 312 by the heavenly
apparition, thus implying that he was not previously a Christian. Valla
does not seem to have known of this latter work. Nor is he aware of the
passage in Jerome, Chron. ad. ann., 2353, that Constantine was baptized
near the end of his life by Eusebius of Nicomedia.
[450] This is an extract from a spurious letter purporting to be from
Melchiades, or Miltiades; as palpable a forgery as the Donation of
Constantine itself. The whole letter is given in Migne, P. L., viii,
column 566.
For the question when Constantine became a Christian, and of his
relations with the Popes and the church, cf. Coleman, Constantine the
Great and Christianity, with references to sources and literature.
[451] A number of chapters in Gratian’s Decretum added after Gratian have
this word at their head, the one containing the Donation of Constantine
among them. Cf. Friedberg’s edition of the Decretum Gratiani, Prima pars,
dist. xcvi, c. xiii, in his Corpus Iuris Canonici, Leipsic, 1879-1881.
[452] Decretum Gratiani, Prima pars, dist. xcvi, c. xiii; in Friedberg,
Corpus Iuris Canonici, vol. II, p. 342.
[453] _Ibid._, Pars prima, dist. xv, c. iii, Palea 19; in Friedberg, vol.
II.
[454] Cf. Voragine, Golden Legend, trans. by Wm. Caxton, rev. by Ellis
(London, 1900).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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