| Of historic and unprecedented crime of deliberate forgery as a crime against humanity: (774 CE) That Pope Adrian I did knowingly, deliberately and personally commission the Abbey of St. Denis to create a forgery known as Constitutum Donatio Constantini or Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris (“Donation of Constantine”) allegedly issued by the fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine I, granting Pope Sylvester I and his successors, as inheritors of St Peter, the dominion over the city of Rome, Italy, and the entire Western Roman Empire, while Constantine would retain imperial authority in the Eastern Roman Empire from his new imperial capital of Constantinople.
The text claimed that the Donation was Constantine's reward to Sylvester for instructing him in the Christian faith, baptizing him and miraculously curing him of leprosy.
The forged text as points is as follows:
1. Constantine desires to promote the Chair of Peter over the Empire and its seat on earth by bestowing on it imperial power and honor.
2. The Chair of Peter shall have supreme authority over all churches in the world.
3. It shall be judge in all that concerns the service of God and the Christian faith.
4. Instead of the diadem which the Emperor wished to place on the pope's head, but which the pope refused, Constantine had given to him and to this successors the phrygium - that is, the tirara and the lorum which adorned the emperor's neck, as well as the other gorgeous robes and insignia of the imperial dignity.
5. The Roman clergy shall enjoy the high privileges of the Imperial Senate, being eligible to the dignity of patrician and having the right to wear decorations worn by the nobles under the Empire.
6. The offices of cubicularii (chief household slave), ostiarii (doorkeepers), and excubitae shall belong to the Roman Church
7. The Roman clergy shall ride on horses decked with white coverlets, and, like the Senate, wear white sandals.
8. If a member of the Senate shall wish to take orders, and the pope consents, no one shall hinder him.
9. Constantine gives up the remaining sovereignty over Rome, the provinces, cities and towns of the whole of Italy or of the Western Regions, to Pope Silvester and his successors.
Furthermore, that this forged document was given to Charlemagne following the donation of his lands in 774 at his father;s will upon the deceit of the forged document from St. Peter with the deliberate intent to secure the surety of these lands and any others obtained by Charlemagne. That this document was then presented in 774 to Charlemagne by Pope Adrian I claiming its authenticity. |
