Donation of Constantine: Circle 8, Inferno 19   It was believed in the late Middle Ages that Constantine, the first Christian emperor (288-337 C.E.), transferred political control of Italy (and other parts of the West) to the church when he moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium--hence "Constantinople"--in the East. Legend held that Constantine gave this gift to Pope Sylvester I, whose baptism of the emperor had cured him of leprosy. Dante, who thought the world better served with political power in the hands of the emperor, bitterly blamed this event for the dire consequences of a wealthy papacy (Inf. 19.115-7). The document that authorized this transfer of power--popularly called the "Donation of Constantine"--was proved by Lorenzo Valla in the fifteenth century to be a fake, probably written in the papal court or in France several centuries after Constantine's death.