224 Donation of Constantine
Donation of Constantine(Constitutum constantini)
It was a document forged by the PAPACYin the eighth
century to bolster its claims to political and ecclesiastical
supremacy. It stated that after CONSTANTINEI was bap-
tized by Pope Sylvester I (r. 314–335), Constantine
moved his residence to CONSTANTINOPLE, leaving the
pope with full political and spiritual authority over the
church and over the western provinces of the empire.
The document may have been produced as a justification
of papal policy toward the FRANKS, including the papal
coronations of the Frankish ruler PÉPINIIITHESHORTin
751 and of CHARLEMAGNEin 800. There is no sure evi-
dence of its use before the midninth century. In the 11th
century, it figured in the dispute between Patriarch
Michael I Keroularios (r. 1043–58) and Cardinal HUM-
BERTof Silva Candida that resulted in the church SCHISM
of 1054. The RENAISSANCE humanist Lorenzo VALLA
proved that the document was a papal forgery.
See alsoGREGORIANREFORM.
Further reading:Lorenzo Valla, The Profession of the
Religious and the Principal Arguments from the Falsely-
Believed and Forged Donation of Constantine,trans. and ed.
Olga Zorzi Pugliese (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and
Renaissance Studies, 1985); Jean Gaudemet, “Donation of
Constantine” in EMA. 1.445; Thomas F. X. Noble, The
Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984).
Donatism Donatism was the fourth- and fifth-century
heretical idea that the moral character of the PRIEST
influenced the value of the sacrament he administered.
Donatists of North AFRICAargued that the sacraments
given by priests who had deserted and betrayed the faith
during the Great Persecution under DIOCLETIANin 303,
including sacraments given by priests who had been
ordained by such bishops or priests, were invalid. The
controversy began with the refusal of the Donatists in
311 to recognize a bishop of Carthage because he had
been ordained by a bishop accused of having surren-
dered liturgical items during the Great Persecution.
They consecrated a Numidian, Donatus (r. 313–347), in
his place.
The controversy faded but persisted even after Con-
stantine I and a commission headed by Pope Miltiades
(r. 311–14), rejected the Donatist claims, a decision
confirmed by a council at Arles in 314. Donatism grew
to be a separatist and a native African church that
rejected the foreign, state-imposed, and state-supported
church. Despite the opposition of AUGUSTINE, who
affirmed the principle that the validity of the sacraments
does not depend on the moral character of the priest
administering them, and despite every attempt to perse-
cute them, the Donatists seemed to have maintained
their church up to the ARABconquest of the seventh
century. They can be seen as keeping alive values from
the earlier church such as personal integrity, ideas of
community, and the value of poverty.
Further reading:Optatus, Saint, Bishop of Mileve,
Optatus, Against the Donatists, trans. and ed. Mark
Edwards (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997);
John Anthony Corcoran, Augustinus contra Donatistas
(Donaldson, Ind.: Graduate Theological Foundation,
1997); W. H. C. Frend, The Donatist Church: A Movement
of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1952).dowry SeeMARRIAGE.drama Unaware or suspicious of classical drama,
medieval drama originated in the monastic orders in the
ninth century, as a form of liturgical drama and part of
religious rite. It began as performances of the “Easter
story,” the death and Resurrection of Christ, immediately
after the MASS. It included the recitation or chanting of
psalms and hymns, as well as dialogues performed by
monks or PRIESTS. Gradually the repertoire included
events and feasts other than Easter. A fuller type of litur-
gical drama developed for Christmas, EPIPHANY, and col-
orful stories of the Nativity, such as the Adoration of the
Magi. Performed in LATINuntil the 13th century, these
liturgical dramas evolved into vernacular MYSTERYplays
by 1175. These plays became more elaborate, stressing
secular aspects, comical elements, and skillful mimicry.
They were performed by the LAITYin public squares out-
side the churches, still associated with religious feasts,
but not with Christmas and Easter.
From the 13th century on, these plays were generally
associated with the Corpus Christi procession, part of a
feast commemorating the Holy Eucharist. Officially insti-
tuted by Pope Urban IV (r. 1261–64) in 1264, the perfor-
mance gradually developed into a cycle of 30 to 40 plays,
covering the entire story of SALVATION. They included
scenes of the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, the Nativ-
ity, the Passion of Christ, the Resurrection, the
ANTICHRIST, and the LAST JUDGMENT. Corpus Christi
cycles differed slightly from country to country. Later,
nonbiblical subjects and stories were introduced to these
plays, such as the Invention of the Holy Crossand the leg-
ends and miracles of the saints. This new material paved
the way for the MORALITY PLAYSof the late Middle Ages.
Further reading:Richard Axton and John Stevens,
trans., Medieval French Plays (Oxford: B. Blackwell,
1971); Richard Axton, European Drama of the Early Mid-
dle Ages(London: Hutchinson, 1974); E. K. Chambers,
The Mediaeval Stage,2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1903); Joseph A. Dane, “Medieval Drama,” in European
Writers: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance,Vol. 1, Pru-
dentius to Medieval Drama,ed. William T. H. Jackson and
George Stade (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983),
451–474; William Tydeman, The Theatre in the Middle