30. Dusting Off and Weaponizing the Donation of Constantine
The Donation of Constantine was stashed away and forgotten for hundreds of years after its initial forgery. Then, in the mid-eleventh century, Pope Leo IX dusted it off and cited it as evidence to assert his authority over secular rulers.
Surprisingly, the Donation was widely accepted as authentic, and almost nobody questioned the document’s legitimacy. For centuries thereafter, the Donation of Constantine carried significant weight whenever a Pope pulled it out to figuratively wave in the face of secular rulers.