The medieval world had its own 'deepfakes'—church officials cited a fake imperial decree for centuries
With deepfakes on the rise, forgery and deception are often viewed as distinctly modern problems—a new era of misinformation made possible by artificial intelligence. One of the first alarming cases occurred at the start of the war in Ukraine, when a doctored video appeared to show President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling his soldiers to lay down their weapons.
The medieval era witnessed the widespread circulation of what can be considered a form of "deepfakes" – specifically a forged imperial decree known as the "Donation of Constantine." This fabricated document claimed that Emperor Constantine I had bestowed upon Pope Sylvester I authority over Rome and the Western Roman Empire in the early 4th century.
The Donation was used throughout the Middle Ages to justify the expansion of papal control over the Italian peninsula and to leverage influence over kings and emperors. Despite its lack of historical basis, the Donation was cited by no fewer than ten popes, leading to significant consequences that persisted for centuries. Dante Alighieri even referenced the document in his 14th-century epic poem, the "Divine Comedy," condemning it as a catalyst for simony – the practice of selling ecclesiastical positions.
The speculation about the document's authenticity grew in the Renaissance, with the first public claim of its forgeries appearing in 1433 by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla further debunked the Donation in 1456, using anachronistic language, the absence of contemporary sources, and Constantine's inability to legally grant such authority as evidence of its fabrication.
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