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Lorenzo Valla and Renaissance Criticism Or How to write a Document-based question for the AP
Michael Miller Episcopal High School Social Studies Dept. Alexandria, VA.
Introduction Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4		Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Answers to Test Questions
Introduction Lorenzo Valla was best known for his work on the Donation of Constantine where he attacked the Papal doctrine directly. As the reading below argues, the Donation of Constantine is a document composed in the eighth century but purported to have been composed in the fourth, in which the Emperor Constantine, in gratitude to the Pope, bequeathed the Western Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester as its ruler. The document was printed in some versions of the Decretum or Canon Law of Gratian composed in the twelfth century. Valla proves on various grounds that the document, still defended by the papacy during his lifetime (and later), was a forgery. Later Valla actually worked for another Pope translating Thucydides and Herodotus from Greek to Latin.
“I have published many books, a great many, in almost every branch of learning.  Inasmuch as there are those who are shocked that in these I disagree with certain great writers already approved by long usage, and charge me with rashness and sacrilege, what must we suppose some of them will do now!...  For I am writing against not only the dead, but the living also, not this man or that, but a host, not merely private individuals, but the authorities.  And what authorities!  Even the supreme pontiff, armed not only with the temporal sword as are kings and princes, but with the spiritual also, so that even under the very shield, so to speak, of any prince, you cannot protect yourself from him; from being struck down by excommunication, anathema, curse....  What tribune, what governor, what king, even if he wanted to, could snatch me from the hands of the chief priest [the King of Naples actually protected Valla] if he should seize me?  But there is no reason why this awful...peril should trouble me and turn me from my purpose; for the supreme pontiff may not bind nor loose any one contrary to law and justice....  Nor is he to be esteemed a true orator who knows how to speak well, unless he also has the courage to speak....  It is not my aim to inveigh against any one and write [an invective] against him, but to root out error from men’s minds, to free them from vices and crimes by either admonition or reproof....  I know that for a long time now men’s ears are waiting to hear the offense with which I charge the Roman pontiffs.  It is, indeed, an enormous one....  For during some centuries now, either they have not known that the Donation of Constantine is spurious and forged, or else they themselves forged it, and their successors walking in the same way of deceit as their elders have defended as true what they knew to be false, dishonoring the majesty of the pontificate, dishonoring the memory of ancient pontiffs, dishonoring the Christian religion, confounding everything with murders, disasters, and crimes.... “Before I come to the refutation of the instrument of the Donation...I go further back.  And first, I shall show that Constantine and Sylvester were not such men that the former would choose to give, would have the legal right to give, or would have it in his power to give those lands to another, or that the latter would be willing to accept them or could legally have done so.  In the second place, [even] if this were not so...I shall show that in fact the latter did not receive nor the former give possession of what is said to have been granted, and that it always remained under the sway and empire of the Caesars.  In the third place, I shall show that nothing was given to Sylvester by Constantine, but to an earlier Pope...and that the grants were inconsiderable, for the mere subsistence of the Pope.  Fourth, that it is not true either that a copy of the Donation is found in the Decretum [of Gratian], or that it was taken from the History of Sylvester; for it is not found in it or in any history....  I shall add that even had Sylvester taken possession, nevertheless, he or some other pontiff having been dispossessed, possession could not be resumed after such a long interval under either divine or human law....            “I...address...kings and princes....  Is there any one of you who, had he been in Constantine’s place, would have thought that he must set about giving to another out of pure generosity the city of Rome...with Rome Italy...the three Gauls...the two Spains, the Germans, the Britons, the whole West, depriving himself of one of the two eyes of his empire?...  What ordinarily befalls you that is more looked forward to, more pleasing, more grateful, than for you to increase your empires and kingdoms, and to extend your authority as far and wide as possible?....  But if domination is usually sought with such great resolution, how much greater must be the resolution to preserve it!...  They say it was because he had become a Christian....  He was cured of leprosy.  He took on therefore a Christian spirit....  Nevertheless I cannot be persuaded that he wished to give away so much; for, so far as I see, no one, either pagan, in honor of the gods, or believer, in honor of the living God, has resigned his empire and given it to priests....  But if, having been such a man as he was, he had been transformed as it were into another man, there would certainly not have been lacking those who would warn him, most of all his sons, his relatives, and his friends.... [But even if Constantine had given it, Sylvester would not have accepted it.] “Proceeding to the next point; to make us believe in this ‘donation’ which your document recites, something ought still to be extant concerning Sylvester’s acceptance of it.  There is nothing concerning it extant.  But it is believable, you say, that he recognized this ‘donation.’  I believe so, too....  But why do you reverse the natural conjecture and then say it is believable?  For the fact that there is mention of the donation in the document of the deed is no reason for inferring that it was accepted; but on the contrary, the fact that there is no mention anywhere of an acceptance is reason for saying that there was no donation....  Let us suppose that you may be able to adduce even genuine documents for the assent of Sylvester, not tampered with, authentic: even so, were the grants actually made which are found in such documents Where is any taking possession, any delivery?...  Did Constantine ever lead Sylvester in state to the Capitol....  Did he afterward escort him through all Italy?  Did he go with him to the Gauls?...  O marvelous event!  The Roman Empire, acquired by so many labors, so much bloodshed, was so calmly, so quietly both won and lost by Christian priests that no bloodshed, no war, no uproar took place; and not less marvelous, it is not known at all by whom this was done, nor when, nor how, nor how long it lasted!....  But since you cannot prove anything, I...will show that Constantine, to the very last day of his life, and thereafter all the Caesars in turn, did have possession of the Roman Empire....  But it is high time...to give the adversaries’ cause, already struck down and mangled, the mortal blow and to cut its throat with a single stroke.  Almost every history worthy of the name speaks of Constantine as a Christian from boyhood, with his father Constantius, long before the pontificate of Sylvester; as, for instance, Eusebius, author of the Church History....      “Not only must I convict of dishonesty him who tried to play Gratian and added sections to the work of Gratian, but also must convict of ignorance those who think a copy of the deed of gift is contained in Gratian; for the well-informed have never thought so, nor is it found in any of the oldest copies of the Decretum.  And if Gratian had mentioned it anywhere, he would have done so, not where they put it, breaking the thread of the narrative, but where he treats of the agreement of Louis the Pious....  But I am foolish to inveigh against the audacity of this forger, instead of inveighing against the insanity of those who give him credence. ...  I will not speak here of the barbarisms in the forger’s language when he says ‘chief over the priests’ instead of chief of the priests.... when, having said ‘in the whole earth,’ he adds again ‘of the whole world,’ as though he wished to include something else, or the sky, which is part of the world, though a good part of the earth even was not under Rome.... [I pass over all this].  But what Christian could endure and not, rather, critically and severely reprove a Pope who endures it, and listens to it willingly and retells it....  How in the world...could one speak of Constantinople as one of the patriarchal sees, when it was not yet a patriarchate, nor a see, nor a Christian city, nor named Constantinople, nor founded, nor planned!  For the ‘privilege’ was granted, so it says, the third day after Constantine became a Christian; when as yet Byzantium, not Constantinople, occupied that site.... [By such analysis of the language, Valla argues that the phrases and words in the document are those from the 8th century not the 3rd century.] [From Lorenzo Valla’s On the Donation of Constantine, trans. Christopher B. Coleman (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993)] Criticism of sources and authorities became an important characteristic of the Renaissance and of “Western Civilization.  Much of our study of science, literature and history is based on these critical skills.  Indeed, the DBQ section of the AP exam in MEH asks you not only to analyze documents, but also to critique them, so lets give Valla’s methods a try. In each pair of documents below one is from the Renaissance and the other is not.  Some may be ancient and others modern. Use some of Valla’s reasoning to critique each document. Circle the document you feel is correct and tell below each section why you think it is correct and the other is from a different period?   back to top Section 1:  Which one of the following documents was written by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) of Florence in On the Dignity of Man.
Document A
He [God] therefore took man as a creature of indeterminate nature and, assigning him a place in the middle of the world, addressed him thus: “Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar to thyself have we given thee, Adam, to the end that according to thy longing and according to thy judgment thou mayest have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire.  The nature of all other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us [God].  Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand we have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature.  We have set thee at the world’s center and thou mayest from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world.  We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer.  Thou shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish.  Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.
Document B
But is there any one thus intended by nature to be a slave, and for whom such a condition is expedient and right, or rather is not all slavery a violation of nature? There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 2:  Which one of these statues is by the Renaissance painter and sculptor Michelangelo
Statue A		Statue B
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 3:  Which one of the following passages is  Moderata Fonte from the Worth of Women written in 1592  in Venice.  She died as the book was completed giving birth to her fourth child at age 37.
Document A
After all, when it comes down to it, women are the cause of all evils that befall men.  That’s what men like to claim, anyway, as they scornfully dismiss our every attempt to advise them and set them straight, accusing us of stubbornness and capriciousness and all those other vices they like to attribute to us.
Document B
Men weren't really the enemy -- they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 4:  Which one of the following passages is from Thomas More’s Utopia ,written in 1516.
Document A
Nowhere would you see more paintings, sculpture, statues than here in the monuments, on the squares, along the promenades, and in the public gardens; for, while elsewhere these works of art are hidden in the palaces of kings and rich men, while in London the museums, shut on Sundays, are never open to the People, who cannot leave their work to visit them during the week, here all the curios exist only for the People and are displayed only in the spots frequented by them. And since it is the Republic under whose auspices the painters and sculptors work, since the artists, fed, clad, lodged, and equipped by the Community, have no other motive but love of art and glory, and no other guide but the inspirations of genius, you can imagine the results.
Document B
Thus you see that there are no idle persons among them, nor pretences of excusing any from labor. There are no taverns, no alehouses nor stews among them; nor any other occasions of corrupting each other, of getting into corners, or forming themselves into parties: all men live in full view, so that all are obliged, both to perform their ordinary tasks, and to employ themselves well in their spare hours. And it is certain that a people thus ordered must live in great abundance of all things; and these being equally distributed among them, no man can want, or be obliged to beg.
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 5: Which one of the following documents is from Machiavelli’s writing, but not necessarily from the Prince.  Remember that Machiavelli also wrote Discourses on Livy on republics.
Document A
…for in truth there is no safe way to rule over [a republic] otherwise than by ruining them. And he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. And whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them.
Document B
The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property; and the end while they choose and authorize a legislative is that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the society, to limit the power and moderate the dominion of every part and member of the society. For since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society that the legislative should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure by entering into society, and for which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making: whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence.
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 6: Which one of the following passages is from the Renaissance Humanist Erasmus from his preface to his new translation of the New Testament from the Greek to Latin.
Document A
Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. ``Faith is not enough,'' they say, ``You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.''  They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, ``I believe.'' That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn't come from this faith,' either.
Document B
It [Christian doctrine] casts aside no age, no sex, no fortune or position in life.  The sun itself is not as common and accessible to all as is Christ’s teaching ….       Indeed, I disagree very much with those who are unwilling that the Holy Scripture be translated into the vulgar tongue, be read by the uneducated, as if Christ taught such intricate doctrines that they could scarcely be understood by a very few theologians, or as if the strength of the Christian religion consisted in men’s ignorance of it.
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top Section 7:  Which one of the quotes below is from Petrarch’s On his own Ignorance and that or of many others.
Document A
And now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent upon political affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of his inclination for consulting the god of Delphi how he should attain most glory, the Pythoness answered, by making his own genius and not the opinion of the people the guide of his life; and therefore at first he passed his time in Rome cautiously, and was very backward in pretending to public offices, so that he was at that time in little esteem, and had got the names, so readily given by low and ignorant people in Rome, of Greek and Scholar.
Document B
Especially  when eloquence is concerned, I confess, I admire Cicero as much or even more than all who ever wrote a line in any nation.  However, much as I admire him, I do not imitate him.  I rather try to do the contrary, since I do not want to be too much of an imitator of anybody and am afraid of becoming what I do not approve in others.  If to admire Cicero means to be a Ciceronian, I am a Ciceronian.  I admire him so much that I wonder at people who do not admire him.  This may appear a new confession of my ignorance, but this is how I feel, such is my amazement...."
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
back to top The correct answers:
Circle the one from the Renaissance and  tell why you chose it:
Section 1:  Document A is Pico della Mirandola                  Document B is from Aristotle’s (384-322 BC) Politics
back to top Section 2:  Statue A is Greek statue of Ares from the 5th century BC                  Statue B is the Michelanglo’s Pieta
back to top Section 3:  Document A is by Moderata Fonte                  Document B is from Betty Friedan (1921- ).
back to top Section 4:  Document A is from Eteinne Cabet, Journey to Icaria written in 1842                  Document B is from More’s Utopia
back to top Section 5:  Document A is from Machiavelli’s Prince                   Document B is from John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, 1690
back to top Section 6:  Document A is from Martin Luther written about 1520-25.                  Document B is Erasmus
back to top Section 7:  Document A is from Plutarch’s (45 - 125 AD) account of Cicero’s life                  Document B is from Petrarch
back to top