29. Exposing the Hoax
It took the Renaissance and the spread of secular humanism to finally challenge the authenticity of the Donation of Constantine. With the revival of classical scholarship and textual criticism, scholars took a fresh look at the document. It quickly became clear that the text could not have dated to the days of Constantine the Great and Pope Sylvester I. One hint was the use of words and terms that did not exist in the fourth century when the document was supposedly written, but that only came into use hundreds of years later.
Additionally, the document contained dating errors that a person writing at the time could not possibly have made. The Popes did not officially renounce the document, but from the mid-fifteenth century onwards, they stopped bringing up and referring to the Donation of Constantine in their Papal Bulls and pronouncements.
