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The Medieval Papacy by Brett Edward Whalen (review)

At the beginning of this concise volume, Brett Edward Whalen recounts the myth of the Donation of Constantine: that the emperor Constantine was cured of leprosy by Pope Sylvester, upon whom he then bestowed imperial power and the rule of the western provinces of the Empire. This myth was fabricated in the later eighth century, in all likelihood, by clerics intent to defend papal independence and authority in Italy from the growth of Frankish power. In the following centuries, popes and their advocates made great use of the Donation to assert papal authority and to justify interventions in secular politics, including the control over the lands that became the Papal State. This strategy was paired with the use of St. Peter’s legacy, which similarly served papal efforts to gain control over the institutional Church. As Whalen writes,