SOURCE: Pascoe, Louis B. “Gerson and the Donation of Constantine: Growth and Development within the Church.” Viator 5 (1974): 469-85.

In the essay that follows, Pascoe examines Gerson's views of the early Church, particularly regarding the enormous changes brought about the Donation of Constantine, a document long believed legitimate but ultimately proved a forgery, in which the Emperor granted great power and possessions to the Pope.

In the Middle Ages, few documents received the attention given to the Donation of Constantine.¹ Although lawyers and royal publicists frequently doubted its validity, its authenticity was generally accepted. Not until the time of Reginald Pecock (ca. 1393-1461), Nicholas of Cusa (ca. 1400-1464), and Lorenzo Valla (ca. 1406-1457) was the document exposed as a forgery.² The successful challenge of men such as Pecock, Cusa, and Valla, however, does not lessen the value of the document for the intellectual historian, for medieval man accepted the...