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The Truth about Constantine: History, Hagiography and Confusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Diana M. Webb
Diana M. Webb*
Affiliation:
University of London King’s College
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Extract

In about 1380 the choir of the Franciscan church of Florence, Santa Croce, was decorated by Agnolo Gaddi with scenes illustrating the legend of the Holy Cross. The emperor Constantine does not appear in these frescoes, although it was understood that it was his conversion that had moved his mother Helena to undertake her archaeological expedition to the Holy Land to discover the whereabouts of the Cross. It is, nevertheless, his unseen presence that links Gaddi’s cycle to the frescoes of the life and miracles of Saint Silvester, painted by Maso di Banco in the nearby Bardi di Vernio chapel a generation earlier. Here the emperor, afflicted with leprosy, recoils from the advice of his pagan priests that he should bathe in the blood of innocent children and is advised by the apostles Peter and Paul in a dream that to obtain a remedy he must send for the persecuted pope Silvester. Silvester shows Constantine portraits of the apostles, thus authenticating his vision, and cleanses him of his leprosy by baptism. The remaining frescoes illustrate miracles of the saint, notably his quelling of a dragon that had been terrorising Rome and his resuscitation of two magicians who had been overcome by it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 17: Religion and Humanism , 1981 , pp. 85 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1981

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References

1 Salvini, R., L’Arte di Agnolo Gaddi (Florence 1936), pp 31–85 Google Scholar, pls 8-16; Cole, B., Agnolo Gaddi (Oxford 1977), pp 21-6Google Scholar, 79-81, pls 26-33.

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4 Matthiae, G., Pittura Romana del Medioevo, 2 vols (Rome 1965-6), 2, pp 146-52Google Scholar. Also discussed (pp 97-101) is the cycle at San Silvestro Tivoli, which has been dated to the late twelfth century and associated with the papal conflict with Frederick Barbarossa.

5 Vecchi, P. de, The Complete Paintings of Piero della Francesca (London 1970), pp 91-7Google Scholar, pls 19-52. Podro, M. I., Piero della Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross (Carlton lecture on Art delivered in the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1974), p 10 Google Scholar, suggests that Constantine may have been unpopular in Florence c. 1380 in the wake of the city’s war with the papacy (1375-8), and that he could be rehabilitated in Piero’s cycle when Valla had demonstrated that he was not to be blamed for founding the temporal power of the papacy. This would presume that Valla’s demonstration was immediately accepted as conclusive; but Podro also suggests more strictly artistic and liturgical reasons for Constantine’s appearance at Arezzo.

6 De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione, most recently ed W. Setz, MGH Quellen 10. Here the text and translation of Coleman, [C. B.], [The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine] (New Haven 1922)Google Scholar are cited throughout.

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10 ASB Maii 1, pp 445-8. The readings for the feast of the Invention were among those revised in the Breviary of 1568; under Clement VIII (1592-1605) the source of the revised reading was given as Rufinus. (Baumer, S., Histoire du Breviaire, 2 vols Paris 1905, 2 pp 178-82)Google Scholar.

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14 GCS 9 pt 2, pp 827-30.

15 PL 16, col 1462: ‘Cui licet baptismatis gratia in ultimis constitute) omnia peccata dimiserit, tamen quod primus imperatorum credidit et post se hereditatem fidei principibus dereliquit, magni meriti locum reperit’.

16 PL 27, col 499: ‘Constantinus extremo vitae suae tempore ab Eusebii Nicomediensi episcopo baptizatum in Arianum dogma declinat; a quo usque in praesens tempus ecclesiarum rapinae, et totius orbis est secuta discordia’.

17 CSEL 71, p 154.

18 Legenda, pp 306-7: ‘Certum est autem, quod sub Silvestro papa christianus effectus est, utrum autem baptismum distulit in dubium vertitur, unde de illa legenda sancti Silvestri quo ad plura sirmliter dubitatur. Haec igitur hystoria de inventione sanctae crucis, quae in ecclesiasticis hystoriis invenitur, cui edam consonant chronicae, videtur esse magis authentica quam illa, quae per ecclesias recitatur. Constat enim multa ibidem esse, quae non consonant ventati, nisi forte quis vellet dicere, ut seapius dictum est, quod non fuit Constantinus, sed Constantinus pater ejus; quod tamen multum authenticum non videtur, licet in quibusdam ultramarinis hystoriis sic legatur’. I have as yet been unable to identify exactly what the ultramarinae hysloriae referred to by Jacopo were. His Syrian Christian contemporary, Gregory Barhebreus (1226-1286) however attributes leprosy and baptism to Constantine’s father and the vision and victory to Constantine himself (The Chronography of Gregory abu’l Faraj, commonly known as Bar Hebreus, ed and trans Wallis-Budge, E., 2 vols (London 1932), 1 p 58 Google Scholar. [A.] Frothingham, [L’Omelia di Giacomo di Sarug sul battesimo di Costantino] discusses the Silvester legend in the east, where its character was less fixed than in the west (pp 18-23).

19 Duchesne p cvii. Ewig, [E.], [‘Das Bild Constantins der Grossen in den ersten Jahrhunderten des abendländischen Mittelalters’] HJch 75, 1956, pp 1–46 Google Scholar, is important.

20 MGH CM 1, p 643; Ewig, p 25.

21 MGH CM 2, p 466; Ewig, p 24.

22 PL 8, col 1390; Duchesne, p 211.

23 MGH SRM 2, p 66; Ewig, p 25.

24 MGH CM 3, p 295: ‘Constantinus fecit Romae, ubi baptizatus est, basilicam ... beati Iohannis baptistae’.

25 Ewig, p 37.

26 PL 107, cols 1193-5, 1200.

27 Discussions of the Silvester legend in the medieval west by Frothingham, pp 8-14; Döllinger, J. von, Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters (Munich 1863) pp 52-61Google Scholar; Coleman, C. B., Constantine the Great and Christianity, Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law 50 pt 1 (New York 1914) pp 164-72Google Scholar.

28 Mai, A., Novae patrum bibliothecae, 10 vols (Rome 1852-1905), 7 pt 3, p 39 Google Scholar.

29 Muratori 7, col 78.

30 PL 213, col 466.

31 Ibid col 467: ‘Aiunt quidam, ut in Tripartita Historia legitur, quod Constantinus ultimo suae aetatis anno baptizatus sit ab Eusebio Nicomediensi episcopo. Distulerat enim tanto tempore baptizari, desiderans hic in Jordane fluvio promereri. Alii, quod baptizatus a Silvestro, rebaptizatus ab isto Ariano, eo quod in dogma declinaverat Arianum. Quod si verum est, usus bono principio, malo concluditur fine. Sed abhorret a vero, ut catholica indubitanter credit Ecclesia’.

32 MGH SS 6, pp 111-12. For the authorship, Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur, 3 vols (Munich 1911-31), 3 pp 350-8Google Scholar.

33 Rufinus in his continuation of Eusebius simply reports ‘Interea dum haec apud Alexandriam frustra agitantur, venerabilis Augustus Constantinus in suburbana villa Nicomediae trigesimo et primo imperii anno diem functus est’ (PL 21, col 484). Eusebius himself is lengthy and fulsome on the death and baptism in his Vita Constantini (Latin text in PL 8, cols 87-9).

34 MGH SRG 45, pp 184-5.

35 Ibid p 188, where Otto reports the imperialist argument that had Constantine made the Donation, he would not have left the western part of the empire to one of his sons.

36 MGH SS 22, p 175.

37 Swarzenski, H., Monuments of Romanesque Art, 2 ed (London 1974), p 68 Google Scholar, figs 364-5; Lasko, P., Ars Sacra 800-1200 (Harmondsworth 1972), p 187 Google Scholar, pl 202.

38 Hugonis Floriacensis monachi benedictini Chronicon (Münster 1638), pp 92-7.

39 Speculum Historiale (Venice 1494) bk 13 caps 43-48, pp 164v-165.

40 Ibid, bk 13 cap 102, p 171 : ‘Extremo autem tempore vite sue ab Eusebio Nichornedie episcopo baptisatus est. In arrianum dogma declinavit, a quo inquit in praesens tempus ecclesiarum rapine & totius orbis discordia secuta est. At his verbi Hieronymi manifeste contradicit liber de actibus sancti Silvestrini. Si forte bis baptisatus, sic persuasus ab Eusebio Nichomediensi episcopo factionis Arrianc signifero & eidem Constantino valde familiari. Mirandum quoque est valde, quod inventionem sancte crucis Hieronymus in chronicis suis annotare vel noluit vel neglexerit, que tamen causa Celebris fuit. Ceterum cur Constantinus uxorem suam & filium iuxta Hieronymum interfecit, huiusmodi nunquam facinoris horrendi causam invenire potui. Sed hoc & alia Constantini facinora ceteri historiographi dissimulant ac silentio tegant’.

41 MGH SS 22, p 415.

42 Ibid pp 450-1.

43 Legenda, pp 70-9.

44 Ibid pp 72-3; Monbritius, p 513.

45 Ullman, B. L., ‘A Project for a new edition of Vincent of Beauvais’, Speculum 8, 1933, pp 322-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Miglio, [M.], [‘L’umanista Pietro Edo e la polemica sulla Donazione di Costantino’] BIS1MEAM 79, 1968, p 222 Google Scholar.

47 Ibid p 221; Coleman pp 78-9.

48 For the debate on the Donation in general, Miglio pp 167-8 and the references there given. For Valla and his critics, Miglio passim; also Antonazzi, [G.], [‘Lorenzo Valla e la Donazione di Costantino nel secolo XV con un testo inedito di Antonio Cortesi’] RSCI 4, 1950, pp 186-234Google Scholar.

49 Coleman, pp 36-31.

50 Ibid pp 70-3.

51 Ibid p 143.

52 De concordantia catholica, ed Kallen, G., 4 pts (Hamburg 1964-8)Google Scholar {Opera Omnia 14) bk 3 cap 2, pp 328-37.

53 The Represser of over much blaming of the Clergy pt 3 caps 12-13, RS 19 pt 2, pp 350-66.

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55 Coleman, p 141.

56 Ibid pp 151-3.

57 ASB Junii 7, pp 62-3.

58 Miglio, pp 197, 215.

59 Hieronymi Aliotti Epistolae et Opuscula, ed Scarmalio, G., 2 vols (Arezzo 1769), 1 pp 534-5Google Scholar. Castiglione’s Martyrium Antonianum and the correspondence associated with it were published by Orsi, G. A. with his Dissertatie Apologetica (Rome 1728)Google Scholar, with separate title-page and pagination.

60 Orsi, pp 25-6: ‘Multa enim sunt que a doctoribus improbantur, ut est id quod in vita beati Silvestri de baptismo Constantini legitur, quem non a Silvestro papa ut ibi narratir sed in fine vite a quodam Eusebio Amano episcopo baptizatum fuisse Hieronymus refert. Unumquodque dicendi genus suis legibus continetur: poemata & enchomia amplitudinem orationis, civiles cause locos verisimiles & probabilia queque, historia ventate potissimum et ordinem rei geste postulare videtur; omnia elegantiam lingue & facundiam non aspernantur’.

61 Liber de Vita Christi ac omnium Pontificum, Muratori 3 pt 1, pp 57-8Google ScholarPubMed; Antonazzi, p 222.

62 Ibid pp 219-21; Miglio, p 176.

63 ASB Maii 1, p 448 : ‘E contea creditur Constantinus a S. Silvestro Papa baptizatus circa annum 315’.