Imagine yourself illegally finding a position of power and prestige. In a position that leads you to be surrounded by a lot of pissed off enemies, but at the same time gives you many advantages, in terms of money and a good life.
The least you can do to stop the creaking throne, is to build “support patches” that cover your back and that, justify you in front of the world.
This is precisely what Pope Leo IX must have done, in 1053, when he “accidentally” found the so-called “donation of Constantine”, a document that would justify the temporal power of the Pope. In this document we read:
In consideration of the fact that our imperial power is earthly, we decree that our most holy Roman Church must be venerated and honored and that the Holy Bishopric of St Peter is to be gloriously exalted over our earthly empire and throne. The bishop of Rome must reign over the four principal sees, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem, and over all the churches of God in the world … Finally we give Sylvester, the universal Pope, our palace and all the provinces, palaces and districts of the city of Rome and Italy and the western regions.
Leo IX was lucky: many believed in that document, in his time and afterwards. Many, but not all. Dante Alighieri, for example, in his De Monarchia, did not consider the donation to be false, but he denied its legal value, considering it an “invalid act”. According to him, in fact, Constantine would not have had the right to donate territories belonging to the Empire to third parties, and the Pope should not have included them among his possessions, because this action would have gone against the New Testament precepts regarding the obligation of poverty for the church.
To reinforce its credibility, Pope Innocent IV, in 1246, at the time fighting with the emperor Frederick II, had a real “storyboard” (ie a series of images that could easily be transformed into a film) painted on the walls of the Oratory of San Silvestro.
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