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Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy V. Wilson and Tracy

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Speaker 1: as you may or may not know, I bet you did.

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Speaker 1: In the eighth century, there was this document written that

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Speaker 1: was kind of important. I did not know this. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I knew there were important documents, but I didn't know

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Speaker 1: about this specific one. Yeah. So it ended up having

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Speaker 1: a lasting impact on the course of medieval Europe. Uh

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Speaker 1: and even a little beyond that. And this document, which

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Speaker 1: was called the Donation of Constantine, granted a large part

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Speaker 1: of the Roman Empire land and power to Pope Sylvester,

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Speaker 1: the first in his successors. But that document, and this

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Speaker 1: isn't really a spoiler, because this is normally how this

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Speaker 1: document is presented, was a fake. It's you'll usually see

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Speaker 1: it written up as like one of the greatest forgeries

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Speaker 1: of history. Uh So, today the Donation of Constantine is

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Speaker 1: recognized as a forgery, and that has been the case

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Speaker 1: for several hundred years. But for centuries it was actually

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Speaker 1: recognized as a binding document and was used to substantiate claims.

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Speaker 1: Uh And for starters. If you know your Roman Empire history,

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Speaker 1: that mentioned that we started off with of it being

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Speaker 1: written in the eighth century may have piqued your curiosity

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Speaker 1: and raised the flags because Constantine the Great ruled in

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Speaker 1: the early fourth century. Uh. So that's the quick intro

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Speaker 1: on the topic we were talking about today, which is

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Speaker 1: the Donation of Constantine. We're also going to talk about

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Speaker 1: how it came to be revealed as a forgery and

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Speaker 1: a little bit of the story on the man who

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Speaker 1: who did that. Uh, that research that proved it out

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Speaker 1: as false. So we don't know the exact date that

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Speaker 1: the paux Donation of Constantine was written. We generally think

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Speaker 1: it was composed sometime between seven hundred and fifty and

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Speaker 1: eight hundred. The document has written in two different parts.

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Speaker 1: There's the confessia and then the donatio, and the first

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Speaker 1: section details the relationship between the Emperor Constantine and Pope

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Speaker 1: Sylvestor the first, then the second lays out the specifics

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Speaker 1: of this donation. So for context, Constantine the Great was

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Speaker 1: the fifty seven emperor of the Roman Empire. He reigned

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Speaker 1: in various degrees as his power expanded, from the year

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Speaker 1: three hundred six to his death in three D thirty seven.

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Speaker 1: And I say that because if you look at some

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Speaker 1: of these older ones, you know he was ruling one

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Speaker 1: part and then his lands expanded and he was considered

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Speaker 1: ruler of other things as well. That's why it's worded

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Speaker 1: that way. Uh. And his move from Rome to Constantinople,

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Speaker 1: which we're going to discuss a little bit in this episode,

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Speaker 1: catalyzed the rise of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire.

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Speaker 1: Constantine is known for many, many things, and we're not

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Speaker 1: going through like his biography, but from a religious perspective

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Speaker 1: and what really relates to this episode. The key points

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Speaker 1: are that he legalized all religions in the Roman Empire.

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Speaker 1: Both religions and cults were free to be practiced however

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Speaker 1: anyone pleased. He put an end to Christian persecution, but

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Speaker 1: he didn't declare himself a Christian until fairly late in

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Speaker 1: his life. And Pope Sylvester, the first who he allegedly

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Speaker 1: in this document donated all of this land and power to,

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Speaker 1: was the thirty third Pope. We don't know as much

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Speaker 1: about him and his sort of life story, but he

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Speaker 1: served as pope from three to five, so kind of

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Speaker 1: right in the middle kind of with a parenthesis of

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Speaker 1: Constantine around it. In terms of timeline, according to the Confessio,

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Speaker 1: Sylvester the first taught Constantine about the Christian faith. Constantine

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Speaker 1: professed his own faith, he was baptized by Sylvester, and

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Speaker 1: then in doing so, Sylvester cured Constantine of leprosy. It's

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Speaker 1: a dynamic story. Um. The second section of the donation

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Speaker 1: after it it UH sets up this this great story

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Speaker 1: of how cons Sanine was so moved and cured by

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Speaker 1: Sylvester lays out the actual transfer of power and land,

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Speaker 1: and it names the pope as the successor to St. Peter. Uh. Basically,

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Speaker 1: the line of popes is considered to be, you know,

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Speaker 1: directly from St. Peter, and that's why he figured so

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Speaker 1: prominently in papal history. Constantine at this point was preparing

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Speaker 1: to move to the new capital that he had built, Constantinople,

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Speaker 1: and so he left Rome to the Pope, including control

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Speaker 1: of the Imperial Palace and the western regions of the Empire. Additionally,

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Speaker 1: he granted these seats of authority you will see these

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Speaker 1: sonimes referred to as seas of Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and

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Speaker 1: Jerusalem to the Pope, as well as authority over all

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Speaker 1: the churches of the Empire. And here is a little

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Speaker 1: excerpt from that. Uh. It says, quote, and we ordain

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Speaker 1: and decree that he shall have the supremacy as well

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Speaker 1: over the four chief seats Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem,

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Speaker 1: as also over all the churches of God in the

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Speaker 1: whole world. And he who for the time being shall

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Speaker 1: be pontiff of that Holy Roman Church shall be more

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Speaker 1: exalted than in chief over all the priests of the

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Speaker 1: whole world. Yeah, that's not any small potatoes. It's basically

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Speaker 1: like you are running the show. Uh. And in the text,

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Speaker 1: it's also inferred that the pope's power extends to secular matters,

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Speaker 1: including appointing people to positions of power in the territories

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Speaker 1: that he controls, including positions outside of the church as well.

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Speaker 1: So the pope was also and granted the honorary rights

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Speaker 1: that the emperor was entitled to, including wearing the imperial

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Speaker 1: crown and purple garments. Sylvester, the text claims, refused to

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Speaker 1: wear the crown out of humility and devotion to his

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Speaker 1: religious responsibilities. And that section goes quote, but he the

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Speaker 1: most Holy Pope did not at all allow that crown

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Speaker 1: of gold to be used over the clerical crown which

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Speaker 1: he wears to the glory of St. Peter. But we

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Speaker 1: placed upon his most Holy head with our own hands

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Speaker 1: a ti era of gleaming splendor, representing the glorious resurrection

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Speaker 1: of our Lord Constantine. The text explains felt that as

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Speaker 1: the home of St. Peter, Rome was vital to the church,

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Speaker 1: so he was compelled to move his secular government away

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Speaker 1: so that he didn't infringe on the realm of his religion.

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Speaker 1: This entire setup was obviously incredibly beneficial to the church,

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Speaker 1: gave the institution unprecedented power. And this is maybe my

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Speaker 1: favorite part because it comes up in almost any falsified

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Speaker 1: document that we have talked about on the show. In

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Speaker 1: that classic wrap up that we always see, the donation

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Speaker 1: swears to its own veracity and it condemns anyone who

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Speaker 1: would dare question it, as it was totally signed by

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Speaker 1: none other than the everor himself and it was put

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Speaker 1: on St. Peter's tomb. So there's absolutely valid comment, you guys.

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Speaker 1: So here's the quote from that portion. Quote if anyone moreover,

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Speaker 1: which we do not believe prove a scorner or despiser

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Speaker 1: in this matter, he shall be subject and bound over

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Speaker 1: to eternal damnation, and shall feel that the holy chiefs

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Speaker 1: of the Apostles of God, Peter and Paul, will be

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Speaker 1: opposed to him in the present and in the future

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Speaker 1: life and being burned and the nethermost hell. He shall

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Speaker 1: perish with the devil and all the impious. Yeah, just casual, like,

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Speaker 1: if you disagree with this document, your soul is doomed. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a little intense. So. The oldest known copy of

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Speaker 1: the Donation of Constantine is a ninth century edition that

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Speaker 1: was in the collection known as the False Decredles. And

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Speaker 1: this collection, which will also sometimes seem referred to as

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Speaker 1: the Decretals of Pseudo Isidore, is an assortment of religious

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Speaker 1: decrees and papers and letters of popes, but it included

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Speaker 1: a number of forged documents. It first appeared at the

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Speaker 1: Council of Suisson in eight fifty three, and it became

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Speaker 1: a recognized part of canon law for centuries. As such,

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Speaker 1: the Donation of Constantine was included alongside nearly one other

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Speaker 1: forge documents, which bolstered the position and power of bishops

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Speaker 1: in the face of potential threats to power. There's also

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Speaker 1: a possibility that the granting of land and power to

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Speaker 1: the Church had been part of an oral history and

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Speaker 1: that the creation of an actual written version of it

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Speaker 1: was done to sort of validate this existing idea. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of like, oh, there's this myth I heard,

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Speaker 1: it would be great for the church. I'm just going

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Speaker 1: to write this up um and that gave it, you know, somehow,

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Speaker 1: extra validity. And a previous episode from our Archives, which

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Speaker 1: is hosted by Candice and Jane, actually mentioned the donation

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Speaker 1: of Peppin and its connection to the coronation of Charlemagne

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Speaker 1: and that donation given by Peppin or you'll also see

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Speaker 1: it as Pippin the Third gave the Pope at that time,

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Speaker 1: Stephen the Second, rights to significant portions of central Italy,

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Speaker 1: and it laid the groundwork for the establishment of the

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Speaker 1: Papal States. In exchange, Pope Stephen the Second recognize the

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Speaker 1: Carolingians as the successors to the Mayravingian dynasty, which hadn't

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Speaker 1: been in power up to that point for almost three centuries.

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Speaker 1: And just for clarity, we're using this as sort of

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Speaker 1: a contextual thing, but the donation of Peppin is legitimate.

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Speaker 1: That is not a forgery. That's an actual thing that happened,

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Speaker 1: and just a moment we'll talk about some of the

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Speaker 1: other possibilities surrounded the creation of the donation of Constantine,

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Speaker 1: but we're gonna pause really quickly for a sponsor break

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Speaker 1: before we do that. So it's also possible that the

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Speaker 1: donation of Constantine was created at Pope Stephen the Second's

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Speaker 1: command as part of his negotiation efforts with Peppin, in

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Speaker 1: fact establishing a fake history in which the papacy had

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Speaker 1: already been given this power uh in an effort to

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Speaker 1: make Peppin's donation and seemed more like a restoration than

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Speaker 1: seeding a lot of land and power. It also might

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Speaker 1: have been created for Charlemagne's coronation as a way to

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Speaker 1: bolster the donation of Peppin and to ensure that the

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Speaker 1: papal power in Italy continued to be recognized. But surprisingly,

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Speaker 1: the donation of Constantine doesn't appear to have been invoked

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Speaker 1: as a means of validating the Church's power until some

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Speaker 1: time later in the eleventh century, and it's not as

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Speaker 1: though there had been no challenges or power struggles during

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Speaker 1: that time, so it's a little unclear why no one

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Speaker 1: pointed to the donation for quote unquote proof Roman Constantinople,

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Speaker 1: as seats of religious and secular power had been at

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Speaker 1: odds repeatedly in the intervening years, so it would have

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Speaker 1: been really, really handy to produce the donation of Constantine

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Speaker 1: to end some of those conflicts. But finally Pope Leo

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Speaker 1: the Ninth held it up to support the church's power

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Speaker 1: in ten fifty four, and from that point on it

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Speaker 1: became a commonly cited example of the churches given authority.

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Speaker 1: We should also note that it's possible that the document

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Speaker 1: was referenced sometime before that, but Leo the Ninth reference

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Speaker 1: to it is the first one that we definitely know about,

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Speaker 1: and at that point it became so commonly used as

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Speaker 1: an establishing document and was even sited in canon law,

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Speaker 1: and people just accepted it without question for several centuries.

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Speaker 1: There are also paintings depicting the donation. One was painted

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Speaker 1: in twelve forty six. It's part of a series of

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Speaker 1: frescoes and Rome's San Silvestro Chapel at Santi Quatro Cornaty Basilica.

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Speaker 1: Another was painted almost three hundred years later in fifty

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Speaker 1: four by the school of Rafael. The second piece is

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Speaker 1: part of the room of Constantine that was part of

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Speaker 1: the four rooms that make up the stands of Rafael.

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Speaker 1: These rooms are part of an apartment on the second

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Speaker 1: floor of the Pontifical Palace at the Vatican. All of

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Speaker 1: these pieces in the Rafael rooms were painted by Rafael

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Speaker 1: and his students between fifteen o eight and fifty four. Uh.

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Speaker 1: That timing is interesting, which we are about to illustrate,

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Speaker 1: because it was noted as a forgery before that was painted. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the man credited with revealing the donation of Constantine

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Speaker 1: to be a forgery was a literary critic, philosopher, and humanist,

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Speaker 1: Lorenzo Valla. And he was what you might call a

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Speaker 1: rabble rouser or a troublemaker. Uh. And he had a

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Speaker 1: really pretty interesting relationship with the papacy. So to give

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Speaker 1: some context to all of that, we're including a mini

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Speaker 1: biography of him here. Balla was a lawyer's son born

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Speaker 1: in fourteen o seven in Rome. His father worked on

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Speaker 1: a papal court. So while the family was originally from

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Speaker 1: Piacenza in northern Italy, Lorenzo grew up in Rome, where

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Speaker 1: he lived until he was in his early twenties. Valla

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Speaker 1: had hoped to also gain employment in the papal court

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Speaker 1: like his father, but despite his education in Latin, a

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Speaker 1: secretarial job in the church eluded him. So he traveled

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Speaker 1: throughout the country for several years, starting in fourteen thirty,

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Speaker 1: primarily in northern Italy, and Lorenzo worked as an educator,

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Speaker 1: teaching rhetoric, but he ended up really making a name

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Speaker 1: for himself as a writer. His first work on Pleasure

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Speaker 1: supported the then unpopular notion that a virtuous life could

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Speaker 1: be lived free from pain. He would revise this writing

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Speaker 1: three more times in the next decade and a half,

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Speaker 1: and this was followed up by writings advocating anti stoicism

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Speaker 1: and a harsh critique of the revered lawyer Bartolis, who

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Speaker 1: had practiced and taught in the early fourteenth century, and Bartolas,

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Speaker 1: in VALA's opinion, used Latin terribly. This is a theme

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Speaker 1: that comes up in VALA's work over and over. Uh

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Speaker 1: Vola's focio study had been rhetoric, as we mentioned, which

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Speaker 1: he taught in Latin, and he used this knowledge of

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Speaker 1: both to really break down Bartolis's work. That particular effort

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Speaker 1: didn't make Bala particularly popular among his colleague at the

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Speaker 1: University of Pavia, where he was teaching at the time.

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Speaker 1: The law faculty in particular was irate at his attack

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Speaker 1: on Bartolis. Valid didn't teach at Pavilla for much longer

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Speaker 1: after this criticism went public. Yeah, it's kind of funny

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Speaker 1: how that's referenced in a number of different biographies of him.

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Speaker 1: There's these scant specifics in terms of what went down,

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Speaker 1: but it's sort of like he decided it would be

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Speaker 1: best if he left that place. So presumably things were

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Speaker 1: a little, uh friction laden for a while. But this

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Speaker 1: is how after another bout of traveling, Lorenzo Vala found

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Speaker 1: work in the court of the King of Naples, Alfonso

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Speaker 1: of Aragon, and in fourteen forty, which is a pivotal year,

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Speaker 1: Alfonso was at war with Pope Eugenius the Fourth. That

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Speaker 1: same year, Vala once again put his knowledge as a

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Speaker 1: Latin scholar into his writing when he wrote his analysis

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Speaker 1: of the Donation of Constantine. This was titled quote Discourse

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Speaker 1: on the Forger of the Alleged Donation of Constantine. The

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Speaker 1: Latin that was used in the document, he concluded, was

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Speaker 1: just not indicative of a work written in the fourth century,

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Speaker 1: and one translation this criticism was translated as a quote,

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Speaker 1: the latinity of the grant is crude. In other words,

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Speaker 1: the transfer of power of this nature would have been

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Speaker 1: written more elegantly. I so love the phrase the latinity

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Speaker 1: of the grant is crude. It has a great scansion,

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Speaker 1: It's got a certain musicality. I just love it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Sources seem to vary in assessments as to whether Valla

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Speaker 1: was pursuing this analysis and reveal of the forgery as

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Speaker 1: a supportive move for King Alfonso in his conflict with

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Speaker 1: the pope, or whether it was merely an academic interest,

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Speaker 1: as evidenced by his writing about the Lawyer of Bartolis

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Speaker 1: and writings later on that we'll talk about he really

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Speaker 1: likes to pick apart people's Latin. Also, as a humanist

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Speaker 1: during the Renaissance, it would have been pretty natural for

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Speaker 1: Lorenzo Vallet to just turn a critical eye on the

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Speaker 1: Catholic Church and the sources of its power in general.

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Speaker 1: This is, after all, a sentiment that was growing in

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Speaker 1: Europe at the time and eventually led to the Protestant Reformation.

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Speaker 1: Bala is not gentle in his criticism. It's a parent

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Speaker 1: in his writing that he feels that he has identified

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Speaker 1: complicity on the part of the papacy. We're including a

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Speaker 1: longish excerpt here because we want to give listeners a

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Speaker 1: sense of exactly where this rhetoric is coming from. So

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Speaker 1: in his introduction he writes, quote, I know that for

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Speaker 1: a long time now men's ears are waiting to hear

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Speaker 1: the offense with which I charge the Roman pontiffs. It

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Speaker 1: is indeed an enormous one. Do either to supine ignorance,

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Speaker 1: or to gross avarice, which is the slave of idols,

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Speaker 1: or to pride of empire, of which cruelty is ever

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Speaker 1: the companion. For during some centuries now, either they have

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Speaker 1: not known that the donation of Constantine is spurious and forged,

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Speaker 1: or else they themselves forged it, and their successors, walking

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Speaker 1: in the same way of deceit as their elders, have

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Speaker 1: defended as true what they knew to be false, dishonoring

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Speaker 1: the majesty of the pontificate, dishonoring the memory of ancient pontiffs,

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Speaker 1: dishonoring the Christian religion, confounding everything with murders, disasters and crimes.

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Speaker 1: They say, the city of Rome is theirs. There's the

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Speaker 1: Kingdom of Sicily and of Naples, the whole of Italy,

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Speaker 1: the Galls, the Spains, the Germans, the Britons, indeed the

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Speaker 1: whole West. For all these are contained in the instrument

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Speaker 1: of the donation itself. So all these are your, supreme pontiff,

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Speaker 1: And is your purpose to recover them all, to despoil

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Speaker 1: all kings and princes of the West of their cities,

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Speaker 1: or compel them to pay you a yearly tribute? Is

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Speaker 1: that your plan? I, on the contrary, think it fairer

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Speaker 1: to let the princes despoil you of all the empire

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Speaker 1: you hold. For as I shall show that donation, whence

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Speaker 1: the supreme pontiffs will have their right derived, was unknown

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Speaker 1: equally to Sylvester and to Constantine. In just a moment,

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Speaker 1: we will dive into a few of the points that

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Speaker 1: Vala used in this argument against the donation of Constantine's validity.

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Speaker 1: But first we are going to have one more quick

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Speaker 1: sponsor break. In addition to the Latin usage errors, there

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Speaker 1: are other giveaways in the donation of Constantine identified by Vala.

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Speaker 1: One of the points that his text on the subject

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Speaker 1: makes is that the coinage in Rome continued quote to

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Speaker 1: be struck in Latin. For Constantine, coinage served as a

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Speaker 1: sort of record of leadership, and the coinage did not

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Speaker 1: change to be struck in Sylvester's name at the time

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Speaker 1: that this grant is alleged. Instead, it changed over to

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Speaker 1: that of Constantine's secular successor when he died, indicating that

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Speaker 1: the pope was never granted the rain and land the

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Speaker 1: donation claims. Additionally, Constantine's reign as emperor, as I mentioned

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Speaker 1: that earlier in the show, outlasted Sylvester the First as pope. Also,

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Speaker 1: there is no historical record of the transfer of power

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Speaker 1: that's described in the donation, the only source for this information,

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Speaker 1: and there's historical evidence of Constantine still serving as ruler

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Speaker 1: in the areas that were allegedly allegedly granted to the

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Speaker 1: papacy after the document is supposed to have been written.

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Speaker 1: Some of the language of the donation text is also

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Speaker 1: out of place historically. For example, the use of the

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Speaker 1: words sat traps to refer to Constantine's nobles uh. That

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Speaker 1: word wasn't used in Rome until the seven hundreds, so

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Speaker 1: it would not have been part of a record written

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Speaker 1: in the fourth century, as the donation claimed to be.

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Speaker 1: Another point of contention is that there's a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of very specific writing about stuff like what the bishop's

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Speaker 1: robes would look like, in contrast to just sweeping generalities

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Speaker 1: that were used to grant land and power. So there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of detail about the robes, but not

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Speaker 1: a lot of details about this gi gaantic donation of land.

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Speaker 1: This incongruity seems very strange for a document that's giving

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Speaker 1: away parts of an empire, Like they get really hung

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Speaker 1: up on like the fashion part. And before anyone writes us,

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Speaker 1: I know it's not all about fashion. It conveyed meaning,

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Speaker 1: but it just seems very funny that it is, like,

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Speaker 1: let me tell you about the clothes you're going to

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Speaker 1: get to wear. Also, yeah, you can have all that

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Speaker 1: land over there. That's cool. It's a little bit weird. Uh.

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Speaker 1: But while Lorenzo Vala and his breakdown of this this

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Speaker 1: document is generally credited with revealing the Donation of Constantine

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Speaker 1: is a forgery, he was not the only and was

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Speaker 1: not even the first person to question its authenticity. Otto

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Speaker 1: the Third, who became the Holy Roman Emperor at the

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Speaker 1: tail end of the tenth century declared the donation of

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Speaker 1: Constantine to be a forgery. He refused to acknowledge it,

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Speaker 1: but there doesn't seem to be any documentation that shows

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Speaker 1: exactly why he thought that. Yeah, it could just be

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Speaker 1: that he didn't want the church to have all of

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Speaker 1: that power and he wanted to move it back. I'm

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Speaker 1: not clear, but it is worth pointing out that that

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Speaker 1: was many hundreds of years before VALA's work, and then

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Speaker 1: just seven years before Vala wrote his his breakdown of it,

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Speaker 1: Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa called out the donation of Constantine

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Speaker 1: as apocrypha in fourteen thirty three, and then the Bishop

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Speaker 1: of Chichester, Reginald Peacock also raised a flag regarding the

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Speaker 1: donations in his writing The Repressor of over much, blaming

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Speaker 1: the clergy, and so he raised this criticism after VALA's analysis,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't know anything about it when he wrote it.

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Speaker 1: And then finally the forgery was acknowledged by the church

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Speaker 1: over the course of the late sixteenth and early seventeen centuries,

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Speaker 1: and ecclesiastical historian Cardinal Caesar Baronio published a twelve volume

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Speaker 1: series and in it Barronio admitted that the donation was

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Speaker 1: a fake. In the same writing, he attributes the creation

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Speaker 1: of the forgery to a Greek author, but there were

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Speaker 1: detractors to that assertion pretty much from the moment it

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Speaker 1: was made. Because the documents so obviously benefited the church.

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Speaker 1: It's possible that Pope Stephen the Second, who served as

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Speaker 1: Pope from seven fifty two to seven fifty seven, may

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Speaker 1: have known about its creation, that the Roman Church may

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Speaker 1: have had a hand in its writing. And it is

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Speaker 1: also even possible that the two parts of the text

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Speaker 1: of the donation were in fact written at different times.

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Speaker 1: So there are so many questions about not only its authenticity,

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Speaker 1: which is acknowledged as not there, but just about the

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Speaker 1: nature of of how it came to be and when

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Speaker 1: it came to be, in the possibility that it was

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Speaker 1: not on on one concise timeline, but in two pieces.

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Speaker 1: So Lorenzo Vala wrote a lot about the papacy and

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Speaker 1: its complacency in maintaining this forgery as a true document.

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Speaker 1: So what happened to him next might at first seem

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Speaker 1: a little contradictory. He went on to become a papal

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Speaker 1: secretary under Pope Nicholas the Fifth, but he got himself

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Speaker 1: in a lot of hot water before that ever happened. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so for starters. He continued to pick apart the writing

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Speaker 1: of many other respected and admired figures, including the philosophers

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Speaker 1: and Aristotle, and he also wrote of the ways in

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Speaker 1: which he found the work of Roman lawyer and politicians

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Speaker 1: Cicero's prose lacking, and those criticisms were not always well received,

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Speaker 1: as you can imagine when their beloved figures since some

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Speaker 1: random person comes along and yells about how they should

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Speaker 1: be discredited because their grammar is bad, not everyone is

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Speaker 1: really enthusiastic about hearing that. But he did write a

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Speaker 1: very popular Latin grammar textbook though that ended up being

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Speaker 1: used throughout Europe. But the really dicey part of his

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Speaker 1: story is not related to the donation of Constantine at all.

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Speaker 1: It's related to the Apostles Creed. He didn't believe that

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Speaker 1: that the twelve Apostles had written the Creed. For anybody unfamiliar,

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Speaker 1: this is uh. The origin story of the Apostles creed

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Speaker 1: is that the Holy Spirit guided the twelve Apostles to

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Speaker 1: create this creed, but of a sort of holy ensemble

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Speaker 1: writing and for his outspoken position on the subject, Vala

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Speaker 1: found himself under investigation by the Inquisition. He was found

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Speaker 1: to be guilty of eight different counts of heresy, which

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Speaker 1: included his criticisms of Aristotle. He probably would have been

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Speaker 1: put to death had King Alonso not used his powers

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Speaker 1: save him. Yeah, yeah, I like that criticizing Aristotle is

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Speaker 1: a heresy. It's just a fascinating thing. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: he was a rabble rouser. People did not always enjoy him.

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Speaker 1: But when Nicholas the Fifth came into power, he proved

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Speaker 1: himself as a pope to be sympathetic to humanists, and

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Speaker 1: Vala moved to Rome to work under him in fourteen

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Speaker 1: forty eight, and he actually remained in that position when

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Speaker 1: Pope Collectsus the third came into power in fourteen fifty five,

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Speaker 1: and Vala remained there until he died at the age

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Speaker 1: of fifty on August one, fourteen fifty seven, having proven

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Speaker 1: the donation of con Sanine to be a fraud seventeen

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Speaker 1: years earlier. Telsaf some listener mail to close out today's episode.

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Speaker 1: I do we're um. I know we're in January and

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Speaker 1: and headed into February here, but I have some holiday cards.

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Speaker 1: Uh that I'm trying to do a round up on

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Speaker 1: since we did not get all of them before we

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Speaker 1: left the office for the holidays, and also um just

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Speaker 1: because we get so many and I wanted to thank

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Speaker 1: people for them. The first one is thank you from

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Speaker 1: uh MS Brandy. She sent us a beautiful card of

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00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 1: her with her adorable uh dilute orange cat and it

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00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 1: says wishing you a yaweek Christmas, and they are both lovely.

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00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: She also has a fabulous cat sweater on in that one.

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00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: We also got a lovely card from our listener Rebecca,

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00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 1: thanking us for all of our hard work and wishing

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00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,880
Speaker 1: is merry Christmas. It is absolutely beautiful and there's lots

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00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: of holly and gold on the front of it, so

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00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 1: I love it. Uh. And then the other two little

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00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,640
Speaker 1: pieces as we do this round up, not holiday related,

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00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make sure to include some others. Uh.

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00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 1: This one is from our listener Peggy. It is a

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00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: beautiful postcard which I will describe in a moment. It

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00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 1: says thank you for the podcast. I have listened from

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00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: the beginning and still enjoy new episodes. I won't recommend

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00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: a topic you have a long list already instead, please

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00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 1: enjoy the seasons at Japan my current home. You would

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00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: love Disney see. And it's this beautiful lenticular postcard that

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00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 1: shows um this sort of forest image changing with the seasons,

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00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 1: and it's really quite beautiful and striking. Thank you, Peggy Um.

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00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: And then my last one got sent and it's a

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00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: photocopy piece of paper with a note on it. It

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00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 1: is not signed, but it is um a photocopy of

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00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 1: what looks like the title page of a book called

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00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: Women's Work the First twenty thousand Years Women, Cloth and

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00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,200
Speaker 1: Society in Early Times, and it says, dear history people,

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00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 1: this is a book I think you'll really enjoy, although

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00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: it may be more in Holly's interest. It talks about

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00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,160
Speaker 1: history through the aspects of making strings, read, spinning, weaving,

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00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: and dying. It explains in broad terms why people dressed

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00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 1: the way they did due to available materials, and explains

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00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: economic consequences, et cetera. Thank you for your work on

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00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: the podcast. And then it says sincerely, but it does

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00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: not have a signature, but I wanted to say one

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00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: thank you for the recommendation and to This is a

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00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,439
Speaker 1: really smart way to send a book recommendation because it

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00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: includes all of the pertinent information someone would need to

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00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: find said book. Uh yeah, photocopying a title page is perfect.

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00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you. I am going to look

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00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 1: that book up because it looks quite interesting. Uh. If

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00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us, you can do

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00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: so at History podcast at house to works dot com.

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00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: You can also find us at missed in history dot com,

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00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 1: and we are available across the spectrum of social media

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00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:46,960
Speaker 1: also as missed in History. If you do go to

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00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 1: our web page, you will find not only every show

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00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: that has ever existed long before we were the hosts,

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00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,919
Speaker 1: but also show notes for any of the episodes that

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00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: Tracy and I have worked on together. So we hope

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00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: you come and visit us at missed in History dot

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00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

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Speaker 1: Isn't houseba works dot com