Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/151

60 removing the imperial capital to Constantinople. As his legacy to Sylvester he left

The papal theocracy based its whole legal justification on the imposing Petrine theory combined with the forged Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, of which the is just one document. All men of the Middle Ages believed in this donation, and so did Peter Chelc̄icky̍. R.G.D. Laffan,, London: 1930, vol.I, pp.4–5. The legend of the Donation was pictorialized about A.D.1250 in ten murals of the oratory of St.Sylvester near the Church of Santi Quattro, Incoronati on Monte Celio, Rome. (Cf., Rome, 1889, p.162).

The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals consist of two parts; the first part contains about 60 epistles of popes, beginning with St.Clement (cca.A.D.95) and ending with Melchiades (314) (., I, chap.XV, p.89*), and for the most part professedly addressed to all the bishops of the Church Universal. The epistles ascribed to Clement are ancient forgeries, and the remainder of the decretals are false documents issuing from the school of Boniface in Metz, and were first published by one Isidore Mercator, cca.A.D.850, being at once accepted in Rome and made part of the body of the pontifical law. (Littledale,, London: 1889, p.347). .