the journal of literature and the arts at saint david ’ s school
to the radical thought of the Protestant Reformation . The Donation of Constantine was a document that was widely believed to record the Roman emperor Constantine ’ s benefaction of a considerable amount of territory , as well as spiritual and temporal power , to Pope Sylvester I in the fourth century . This was accepted as an official foundational Church document that greatly influenced the political and religious state of medieval Europe until 1440 , when Valla clearly proved that it was a forgery compiled in around the eighth century (“ Donation of Constantine ”). Valla discovered that the Donation was forged after carefully inspecting the Latin of the document . He found it was too poor to have been written in its supposed time period when compared to the higher quality Latin of actual fourth century Roman texts ( Mark ). While other scholars had failed to back up claims about the document ’ s forgery , Valla succeeded through both examining the writing and studying the context of its time . His methods and use of scrutiny in his work set the standard for future textual analysis . Valla also concluded that parts of the document had been plagiarized from a text on the life of Pope Sylvester written in the 5th century ( Mark ). Valla ’ s extensive research of documents around the time of the Donation to prove inconsistencies highlighted his distinct method . Few people at the time had thought to use this system of researching past events to reach conclusions , explaining why later reformers admired and took inspiration from Valla ’ s work . Although Valla ’ s findings had little immediate political or religious effect on the Church , his use of critical philology in undermining a primary foundational church document appealed to later reformers and scholars .
Valla ’ s work on the Donation later majorly influenced reformers by serving as an example of how to independently analyze church documents , allowing his school of thought to spread beyond the borders of Italy . A main
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