That also seems to offer the situation and environment which would most naturally call forth the document as we have it. This is well brought out by Ludo Moritz Hartmann in his Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter,[6] and by Erich Caspar in his Pippin und die römische Kirche.[7] The Papacy was then cutting loose from the Emperor at Constantinople and ignoring his representatives in Italy, as well as developing its own independent policy toward Italian territory, toward the Lombards, and toward the Franks. The aim of the forger seems to have been the characteristically medieval one of supplying documentary warrant for the existence of the situation which had developed through a long-drawn-out revolution, namely, the passage of imperial prerogatives and political control in Italy from the Emperor to the Papacy. Hence, along with general statements of papal primacy, and of gifts of property, detailed and explicit stress is laid upon the granting of imperial honors, the imperial palace, and imperial power to the Pope, and upon the right of the Roman clergy to the privileges of the highest ranks of Roman society. Legal confirmation was thus given for riding roughshod over the vestiges and memories of the imperial régime in Italy and for looking to the Papacy as the source of all honors and dignities. Furthermore we know that Paul I was extremely devoted to the memory of Sylvester, and so it may well have been under his influence that this document came into existence with its tribute to Sylvester’s personal character and historic significance. * * * * * I wish to give public expression of my thanks to Professor Deane P. Lockwood, of Columbia University, for his kindness in reading my translation of Valla’s treatise and the many suggestions and improvements he indicated; to Professor J. T. Shotwell, of Columbia University, who was largely responsible for the beginning of the whole undertaking; and to Mr. Alexander D. Fraser, of Allegheny College, for generous assistance in reading proof. FOOTNOTES [1] C. B. Coleman, Constantine the Great and Christianity, three phases: the historical, the legendary, and the spurious. Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. LX, no. 1. Columbia University Press, and Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1914. [2] F. M. Nichols, ed., Epistles of Erasmus. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1901. [3] Vita di Lorenzo Valla (Florence, 1891). [4] Syntagma tractatuum de imperiali iurisdictione, etc., Strassburg, 1609; first published under a similar title at Basle, 1566. [5] Neue Forschungen über die Konstantinische Schenkung, in Mittheilungen d. Instituts für österr. Geschichtsforschung, vol. X (1889), pp. 325 et seq., XI (1890), pp. 128 et seq. Reprinted in his Gesammelte Schriften in the Historische Studien of E. Eberling, vol. XLII. [6] II, ii (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 218-231. [7] Berlin, 1914, pp. 185-189. Transcriber’s Note